Week 31

April 9-13 Growing Up Classes during PE

April 10 Honor Choir concert @ Westwood Church at 6:30

April 11 Honor Choir Cardinal game

April 11 Grade Level Meetings

April 12 Spring Pictures

April 12 Faculty Meeting 3:00
April 13 JH Band Recruitment - busses will leave at 9:30 - 6th grade only

April 16 4th grade Honor Choir sings at VA and Ice cream party 2:30-4:30

April 16 &17 6th grade register for Jr. High

April 18 Grade level meetings

April 18 Grade window closes for mid-terms

April 19  School Board Meeting

April 20 Mid-terms go home

April 23  Chamber Banquet - Teacher of the Year

April 25 Grade level meetings

April 27 MAP Kick of Assembly - times will be announced for each grade level

April 27 6th grade dance 5:30-7:00

April 30-May 11 MAP testing starts

May 1 & 2 American Fidelity will be hear for you to sign off on insurance

May 3 Pie tossing for St Jude 1:10

May 4 No School

May 8 Honors Reception at Westwood at 6:00

May 10  Design an Ad awards

May 10 Faculty Meeting 3:00

May 14 Club Day 1:15 - 2:15

May 14 4th grade MAP reward party - TBA

May 15 5th and 6th grade MAP reward party - TBA

May 16  All books have to be turned into the library.

May 16   Safety Patrol Field Trip

May 16 4th grade Field Day (Dr. Owings will be sending out details of the day in an email)

May 17 5th grade Field Day (Dr. Owings will be sending out details of the day in an email)

May 17   School Board Meeting

May 17-25 Library will be closed to take inventory

May 18 6th grade Field Day (Dr. Owings will be sending out details of the day in an email)

May 18 Open grade window after school

May 21 Wings at Skate City 5th and 6th 8:00-10:30  4th 11:30-2:00

May 21 7 Up Splash at Elks 6:00-8:00

May 22 Grade level awards - 4A 8:00, 6A 9:30 and 5A 12:20 in Kay Porter

May 23 Grade level awards - 4B 8:00, 6B 9:30 and 5B 12:20 in Kay Porter

May 24 Talent in the Park - 6th 8:00  5th 9:45   4th  1:00

May 25 Yearbook signing -  4th 8:00-8:20  5th 8:40-9:00   6th 9:40-10:00 in the gym

So, things have been pretty hectic lately and I realized I haven't written a blog post in about 10 weeks. Hopefully, I will be back on track to keep you all informed about what is going on in our school and what kinds of crazy thoughts are running around my brain.

I have been heavily involved in interviewing teachers for our open positions. Congratulations to Kara Blansett, Julia Dragon, Tatem Eudaley, Karissa Little, Rikki Johnson, Stephanie Link, and Michelle Shepard on joining our team. 

Of course there will be some rearranging of current staff. I have most people settled for next year with a few things up in the air still. Here is what I have so far (keep in mind that things could still change between now and next year). 

4th grade

Most of you know that Candace Hecker is moving to 4th grade special ed to take Pam Hamilton's place. Kathy Pattillo is leaving us to move to the Junior High and Kelly Lawson is moving down the hall to partner up with Treena Murray. Carlie Dillinger is moving up to 5th grade ELA. Taylor Miller is leaving us to teach in Kennett and Amanda Robinson is moving to 5th grade to teach math. 

5th grade

We are losing Nicki Villasana and Shannon Sparks this year, but we are gaining Rikki Johnson, Tatem Eudaley, Kara Blansett, Carlie Dillinger, and Amanda Robinson. Another addition is Morgan Barks who will be moving from 6th grade down to 5th grade ELA. It sounds like we are adding a lot more than we are losing, but we are moving the two extra positions from 4th grade to 5th grade to try and maintain lower class sizes. Shelly Ridens is moving to fill Candace Hecker's spot in intervention and Kim Walter is moving up to teach 6th grade math.

Carlie Dillinger is pairing up with Jessica Norden. Amanda Robinson and Morgan Barks will be a team. Rikki Johnson is going to be working with Phil Murray. And Tatem Eudaley and Kara Blansett will be our extra pod. The extra pod will require some moving of classrooms and an adjustment of the schedule, but those things haven't been worked out yet.

6th grade

As it stands, Karissa Little is going to be working with Mariah Boeving and Julia Dragon will be partnered up with Shaylan Sandlin replacing Cindy Tanner who is moving to intervention. Peggy is retiring. Kim Walter is moving from 5th grade math and will be partners with Holly Owings due to Melanie Schalk taking the STEM position.

Specials

We are still on the hunt for a PE teacher to work with Amanda Lance. We have, however, hired Stephanie Link to work in art with Deana Ward. Hopefully she will stay a while since anyone working close to Cody Young wants to quit or leave the profession. We will pray for Melanie Schalk as she accepts that challenge. We also hired Michelle Shepard to replace Heather Pryor as she moves north to Livingston county.

Most of you know we hired Shanna Moore to take on ISS full time next year and Jay Dowd will be moving in to the Trust room.

Disclaimer - I can't state enough that this is subject to change and is not set in stone. I will keep you posted on room assignments or changes to the above as they happen.

Don't forget to join our learning community. It's easy and is a great place to share articles and information on the latest educational trends. You can even "like" stuff by clicking the +1 button.

Most of you are wrapping up your book studies. Here are a few resources for some of the books you have been reading. If you are reading Ditch that Textbook by Matt Miller, he has a great website. It's a blog and a place to find articles. If you are reading the John Spencer book, Empower, he also has a great site with a blog and a library of youtube videos that are awesome. The Zen Teacher has a site with a blog. If you are reading something by Todd Whitaker, I suggest you follow him on twitter. He has a site, but it isn't as good as some of the others. Dave Burgess is good to follow on twitter and has a site that isn't bad, and he and Dr. Whitaker are both good to tweet you back if you have a question or comment.

This is a video from John Spencer.