Reflections since Weds

Since Weds, Feb 14th I have observed a plethora of responses to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. My emotions have run a literal marathon. While many of our youth and educators are finally speaking up and having their voices heard I cannot sit back and not listen to some of the ridiculous things I've heard and seen.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the answer to this situation is NOT to arm all the teachers! 

Putting metal detectors in all schools is not the answer.

Planning walkouts for months away is not the answer; especially on state testing days. They message will be lost there.

Blaming the lack of mental health care is not the answer. 

Pointing fingers and blaming is not the answer.

Sending thoughts and prayers is not the answer.

But more than anything sitting around and not doing anything is also not the answer.

Standing up, speaking out and voting is the answer. Empowering teachers to get to the polls and to have their voice heard by lawmakers IS part of the answer.

Teaching students how to manage their emotions and how to cope with stress IS part of the answer.

Right now too many people are focused on finding the ONE right answer, but there's a problem with that approach.

There is no ONE right answer.

Our country is in need of a new approach to many of the issues we face. We need a new approach to gun regulations and purchases. We need to all incorporate a new approach to teach the WHOLE child and that requires additional training of everyone on a school campus. We need to connect with lawmakers and ensure they really hear from us.

I hope that everyone is doing well and staying strong after the difficult past few days. I also hope everyone is ready to go out and be heard while educating the whole student.

Working on an Alg I STAAR EOC review booklet and I'm running out of ideas.

Since starting at my current school I've created an Algebra I STAAR EOC review booklet for our intervention teachers to use during the intervention periods we have.  I've worked tirelessly on this booklet, adjusting it after the tests are released and adjusting things from what I see the students are able to do.

I'm now starting to run out of ideas of how to change it up for the kids that have been in the intervention multiple times.  

I try to mix in activities with sample released questions or similar questions

As well as some more fun activities that involve coloring or working with a partner.

And this time I've added some pages that have the students practice "chunking" the test.  

But now I'm in search of some more interesting skills activities to have the students work on this spring.  If you have anything on any of the following topics I would be forever grateful!

• Polynomial Operations
• Solving for y
• Exponent rules
• Factoring
• Connecting parts of linear equations
• Linear inequalities
• Writing Linear Equations
• Domain and Range of Functions
• Writing equations from word problems
• Graphing and solving quadratics
• Exponential Functions

Thanks and I hope everyone has a great week!

Those goals from the beginning of the year, yeah....

As I've been checking on the #MTBoS tag today (which I try to remember to do throughout the day on the 11th of each month), I realized that I've been bombing on some of my goals for the year.  :(

The things I've been great at keeping up with were sticking to my walkthrough schedules, getting more involved in educational policy, and I've done some impromptu co-teaching.  So that's 3 of my 6 goals that I'm keeping up with.

While I did organize my twitter deck on my surface I haven't used it as much but I've been a lot better about not going down rabbit holes when I'm checking out my feed.

One of my goals was to actually plan for, participate in and learn something from a Twitter Chat. So I have all these alerts on my calendar that go off each week or so reminding me of twitter chats going on but I keep ending up having different things going on or crazy cats and I haven't been able to participate in as many as I was hoping.  I think I've done 2 since my first one.  Maybe...  That's an improvement though, right?

The goal that I've totally bombed on is the keeping up with blogging.  :(  While I've been more active on twitter this year I'm still working on making it more consistent and not flooding my feed with too many pics of my foster cats.  Speaking of...  I have two precious brothers that still need their forever homes!  

Fingers crossed I can find these guys a home and get back on track with my goals for the year!

Craziest 1st week ever!

So let me start with that I live in Austin and we definitely did not get the worst of the weather this last week like many of Houston and Coastal friends and family.  My heart goes out to them in this crazy time and I will be contributing to their recovery efforts anyway possible.

Our first day of school was Monday and due to the copious amount of rain that came down in our area this weekend we ended up having a delayed start for the first day.  Talk about a different way to start the school year!  My first year teaching was when Katrina hit and I remember the school I worked at closing for a day while we opened our campus to evacuees. 

From NCA Cheer Camp Aug 2017 at Hendrickson HS

Thankfully before all the crazy weather started I was able to get an assistant cheer coach so I don't think I'll be pulled in as many directions as I was thinking I would.  She came to our first practice on Tuesday and was able to help cover the first Volleyball game so I was able to see my husband and kittens before the sun went down!  I'm looking forward to splitting the duties with her so I'll be able to get more planning done for when I work with my math teachers and I won't be totally sucked into all thing cheer.

I'm looking forward to using Google Classroom this year to help my teachers with some Professional Development and learning.  I just hope that I can figure out a way to really streamline the process and routines for my teachers so it's not another burden on their plates.  If you have any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them!


I hope everyone else is having a great beginning of the school year and staying safe and dry!

Gotta Stay Active and Involved this year!

I saw Julie's post about two days ago and I realized that I really need to get into blogging and get a smoother system working for my Twitter so I can follow all my interests better and not be so ADD.  I figured I would jump on into #SundayFunday and #PushSend even if my blog seems short and not like something others would be interested in.  But of course today something interesting happened that was one of my goals to start doing more of.

I'm going to list my goals in order of most attainable to year long goals.  But the theme is... Stay Involved and Organized!

Goal 1 - Organize my twitter deck so I don't get so distracted by other things -- like this cute cat -- when I'm scrolling through who I follow.  I'm a little ADD when it comes to animals!

Goal 2 - Actually plan for, participate in and learn something from a Twitter Chat.  Which happened TONIGHT!  But it wasn't a planned one, so I need to continue doing this and actually plan on doing it advance.

Goal 3 - Be more involved in Educational Policy, stay up to date with what is happening and possibly testify in front of the state to let them know what teachers really do want and need.  

Part of this goal actually got to happen TODAY!  Only downside of having a friend that works on policy education means you might get a text or call with a less than 24 hour notice that says "Wanna come testify on a teach pay bill tomorrow??😄😄" Well, just under 24 hours later I was standing in front of the Texas House of Representatives Public Education Committee with my hands shaking, 3 pieces of paper with lots of things crossed out, a shaky voice and saying "So I had all this planned stuff to talk to you about but I'm just going to give you the important information..."  

It went surprisingly well!  They actually listened and didn't stare at their phones the whole time, and even really asked me some questions that I was able to answer and I think I helped Rep Bernal see the complexity of why teachers move from district to district.  And now I think they'll call me more to testify!

Goal 4 - Actually stick to my schedule on walkthroughs!  I get pulled way too often for various meetings, preparing for EOC testing, and to create different things.  I have a tendency to make a plan one week and then go off script when the time comes.  I did get some tips while at CAMT to help plan my time and with my goals for the year, so hopefully that will help me stick to my plans.

Goal 5 - Coteach with teachers on a regular basis.

Goal 6 - Keep up with blogging and stay active in the math teacher and IC/TOSA twitterverse.

I think that's all of them.  Fingers crossed I'll do better this year than I've done before!

Helping students while I'm a "sub"

So today was interesting and exhausting!  One of my teachers was home sick with laryngitis for the 2nd day and  one was surprisingly out today.  I had told the one with laryngitis that I would be stopping by their room throughout the day to check in on their kids and I ended up having to step into the other teacher's classroom for a few periods to cover since we didn't have enough subs.

Actually 6 of the 21 math teachers on my campus were out today and only 2 had subs that picked up and showed up for the jobs.  But that's a whole different story.

What was so interesting to me today was as I bounced back and forth between two classrooms for the last half of the day I was able to help students understand the big idea behind what they were doing in their respective math classes in 1 or 2 examples and then they were able to go off and run with the crazy algebra skills tied to it.  

In one Algebra 2 class I was able to help some students understand how to find the least common denominator by giving them some examples from years ago when they were adding fractions by hand.  The sweeties asked if I could come into the classroom more and I had to remind them that today was their second day working on the material so it was going to make more sense now but it reminded me how on the fly some of my examples from previous classes were when I finally had break throughs with my own students.

It kinda makes me wish I had a class for a grading period or just a tutorial group of kids to work with so I can make sure and spend more time with many of them on areas that they are struggling with.  

I wish I could be an IC and a teacher at the same time sometimes!

Or I could just wait for summer school and remember that I'm going to get a handful from many students when we start working with the students that need to retake the EOC test.

I hope everyone else had a great day and was able to have some insights with their students as well!

That wonderful feeling...

You know that wonderful feeling when you complete a large review book that you're putting together for your students.

Yeah, I had that feeling today.

Took me two weeks to get the book put together based on Texas' EOC reporting categories and today I finally finished making the answer key.

Oh, and that other wonderful feeling when  a student you no longer have realizes it's time to grow up and focus in passing his classes are tests?

Yeah, I had that feeling today too. Put together a bunch of resources, videos and his STAAR test history so he can knock out that sucker out of the park this year. (fingers crossed)

Just wanted to share about my good feels today. What good feels did you have?

It's been a long day and a longer week

Why is it that the shorter weeks always are so exhausting?! 

The holidays were great! While it was a challenge to celebrate the holidays with all my family and not have my mom around we all eventually made it through. It might have helped that we took in two feral kittens that showed up on a neighbor's back porch. 

The two weeks back at school flew by as I prepared and was planning out my plan for individual coaching with the teachers while also nursing my injured Achilles. (It amazes me how much that one ligament is actually used in daily walking! 

And then this week started. 

It's only day 2 of a 4 day week and I feel like I've either been in meetings, in PLCs, or getting yelled at. (PS I really don't like it when I start my day with rain starting to pour on my way into work and shortly afterwards I'm yelled at by one of my teachers.) 

It's one of those weeks where I feel like I'm trying to do everything for everyone; teachers, students, assistant principals, head principals, district people; and all I want to do is get back into the classroom with the kids. Even during the really tough classes and the really tough years at least one student a day would thank me and be excited about math or recognize that I needed a "we really appreciate it when you try to teach us, even though some of us are a-holes about it." And yes, that's a literal quote from a student my last year in the classroom. 

I know I'm doing everything I can and what I'm doing for my teachers and the resources and strategies I'm creating for the kids is super helpful and great, but man, this job just sucks it out of you sometimes. Especially when a teacher claims that the less you interact with students the less you focus on the struggling, challenging ones. 

I would love for this teacher to switch places with me for just one day to experience the reality of how I'm constantly digging through the data, analyzing students trends and trying to do to best for everyone all the time. Plus, I would love to teach some of the units they're in right now. 

OK, vent over and now it's back to the grind! 

My final political post

After hearing from coworkers, friends and family I decided to make this my last post on Facebook this morning and I wanted to share it here as well.

This is going to be my last post on politics but I URGE you to read this.

I know many people that voted for Trump and many that voted for Clinton and what I have to say rings true for all.
I woke up Weds morning and said to Brian that I'm glad neither of my parents lived to see this day but now I'm glad neither of my parents lived to see how my friends, dear friends, family and the nation are tearing each other apart.

I've heard both sides and I listened very carefully to everyone and the time has come to stop blaming, to stop pointing fingers and to move forward!
Everyone's reactions, while each person feels justified, is tearing the country up more than anything else and no one is feeling safe; women, Hispanics, Muslims, or Trump supporters. It just all needs to stop and people need to focus on moving forward and NOT calling each other names. First and foremost we are all human beings that deserve the love and respect of each other. We can't read each other's minds, we don't know why people voted for who they did but that is done and in the past. Going back and dwelling on what has happened is only going to hurt you and your relationships with others.
I haven't been to church in forever but we all know it's more important to be the bigger person and look ahead instead of looking back and focusing on the negative. It's just going to tear you up on the inside and if you do that and that is not what we want to show our children and the youth of this nation. We want to show our future leaders how to deal with something you don't like but move on in and focus on making things BETTER not on name calling and making others feel worse about themselves. Continuing such behavior is only going to get all of us in a whole bunch of trouble.
I wore my safety pin yesterday but this morning it makes me sad that someone would have to look for a small sign to know that they will be safe and watched out for in their environment. Our country was founded on the idea that ALL people are created equal and that ALL people have the fundamental rights of liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to assemble. Let people speak, let people assemble peacefully, but remember to do as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said and always march ahead.
As you move forward in the coming minutes, hours and days think of the love that Dr. King preached, of the courage that Nelson Mandela spoke of and the strength Mahatma Gandhi taught.
My thoughts, prayers and hopes are with all of my friends, loved ones, current and former students in this time of unrest in our country. I pray that soon we can all join together and be thankful for our rights and our ability to move forward in this time.

Oh, and from now on whenever I see a political post in my feed I'm going to post a funny animal or yoga pic. That's what y'all get!

My thoughts from last night's election

So I went to the AVID Math pathway in Dallas last week and either caught a cold there or my allergies went on high alert with the change in weather that blew in this weekend.  As a result I had some very interesting thoughts while watching the first few hours of the election results come in before passing out.

So this is how my Tuesday started:

Election day should NOT keep a rediclinic from opening on time!  Thank goodness it didn't and the doc gave me an awesome nasal spray!

After an some interesting Instructional Coaching training and collaboration with other ICs around my district that afternoon I went home, plopped on the couch and started watching what was rolling in on the news.

I may have started with this image and wanted to start making additional graphics from this:

Once my husband got home I let him take over the TV and we watched some stuff together before I had to turn in.  Then around 9:30 I posted this on facebook.

Woke up again coughing around 4 am, looked at the news and this was all I could say: 

*NOTE: My biggest concern is having a president that has no experience in a government office and has used very harsh rhetoric and scare tactics to get people on his side.  This is not meant to be a political post so please don't take offense if you are a Trump supporter.

And my last post this morning in an effort to bring a smile to my friends faces for those that are down in the dumps after last night:

Thank goodness my husband's a good sport and didn't mind me laughing at him too much at 4 am.  

On a more math related note:
Did anyone use any of the math or stats in their class today?  I'm missing having a class today since I would have totally rearranged a few lessons to make them more applicable for the students with the recent results!

Math Mania - AKA Fun way to use a worksheet when you're low on copies

Running low on copies???


Kids getting bored in your class??


Tired of trying to force your students to collaborate?


Taking stuff home to grade and falling asleep before it gets out of your bag?


Then try a Math Mania!!!

I've got to give credit to the teachers I worked with my first year that told me about this (Ami Harman and Lindsey Heinzman at Henry Middle School in Leander).  If it wasn't for this I would have been in big trouble multiple times over!

The basic idea is that you can take any worksheet -- basic computation, word problems, applications, etc -- and easily turn it into a game and engaging activity.

Here are the basic rules I posted while the students were working:

Word Doc can be found here

Students will be working in groups of 2-4 (3 was my personal max, but you can download and edit the doc as you want).  The worksheet only needs to be copied for the maximum number of groups you would have in a class (hence the saving on the copies).

Once you copy the worksheet I usually cut it up so that only 1 problem was on each sheet but for this example I'm going to have 3 problems on each sheet.  

Pass out the scoresheets so that each group gets 1 and make sure everyone has their own piece of paper.

Then each group gets one problem or set of problems at a time.  As the group works together and finishes they send 1 person up to have their problem(s) checked.  I always told the students to make sure and have everyone's work showing for the problems when they got to me, to have their score sheet and to have their question.I learned the hard way that my students would get a little too competitive and would start crowding around me so I taped a line on my floor like the picture below and would have the students line up behind the tape so I still had breathing room.

If someone came up without the question or without the score sheet I would make them go back and get all their materials before I would start checking their answers.

I also made sure to have my answers on the back of the envelopes lightly in pencil so that I didn't have to constantly check my answer doc while the kids came up.

When checking the work if ALL the students in the group got the answer correct then I would circle the 10 for the number, like Kendra and Rachel did.  If they got it wrong, like Patrick and Nicole did here, I would mark out the 10 and tell them to double check their work.  

NOTE: I would not give many hints or review material with the students at that time because I wanted them to work through why they got it wrong AND because if I started doing that then the line would get really backed up and the kids would have too much down time.  If a group continued to get a wrong answer on 1 question multiple times then I would help the students or I would have another student or another group help them out with what they goofed on.

After they get all the questions on the sheet of paper right I would take the slip from the question they had just answered and then give students the next question and have them keep working through this process.  

As an added bonus when kids would get a question right I would let them ring the bell on my desk.  For some reason that really helped motivate them to keep working and stay accurate while trying to work quickly.

When the group was done I would have them staple all their work together with their score card on the top and put it in the basket they turned in all their materials to.  The work was easily graded and put into the gradebook saving me tons of time and copies!

Please let me know if you have any questions on any of this or need any clarification or have any tips for any other teachers that may try this for the first time!

Keep up the awesome work everyone!!!

My First HyperDoc!

So I just learned about HyperDocs for the first time last week and I wish I had heard of them and used them when I was still in the classroom!  I just created my first one and it's rough, I mean rough.  I did it quickly while creating a tech summary sheet for my teachers (they've been bombarded with PL on new technology - see previous post) so it's not the fanciest or best.  

When I first heard of hyperdocs my first thought was it would be a great way to start units and remind students of what they know from previous years.  I started with this one on quadratics but I'm looking forward to making more as both me and my teachers become more comfortable with them and I can't wait to see the students interacting with them more.

Have you created a hyperdoc?  What's gone well or what have you needed to tweak during the process?  Any feedback would be awesome!

Diving into Technology - The Adventures of Fall 2016

So this year our district gave each high school 4 laptop carts for each core content area and LOTE.  While the addition of the technology is wonderful and I'm not going to be the first to turn it down, the PL that the teachers have received has been fast and furious.  

Some of my teachers forget what the different resources are that they've received training on so far so I made this little cheat sheet full of links and screenshots to help my teachers out.  I figured others might like it too.  

CHS Fall Tech PD Resource Snapshot


Let me know if you see something that should be added to any of the quick summaries or have any additional tips or tricks for any of the resources.

I hope everyone has a great day!!!

#MTBoSBlaugust Day 25: I totally math geeked out last night

So my neighborhood has a Google Group where everyone is able to post if they are having a garage sale, dates and times of bird walks and nature hikes, about the issues with mailboxes (don't get me started on that subject) and the crazy traffic that has come up at an intersection near where 3 schools are located.  This gave me some inspiration for either a WCYDWT or 3 Act problem for the kids.  I still need to hash out all the details once I learn all the space requirements.

Here's the background:
Last year there was just 2 schools near this intersection and now there are 3 all starting at the same time.  

The stars are where the schools are located

There's lots of congestion and people have also noticed people blowing through the stop sign near the intersection.  Then I saw this in the email thread:

And I started wondering, why isn't there enough room?  How much room is required for a roundabout or traffic circle?  Could that be applied to properties of circles and area in geometry or would that be better attacked in Algebra 2 and try to maximize the restrictions?

I found this when I started researching the construction requirements for a roundabout:

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/innovative/roundabouts/fhwasa10006/

I'm still researching a lot about it and how much more space is required compared to traditional intersections but when I get a problem or project or something worked out I'll update this post with it for anyone else that is interested in using it.

Gotta love the random inspiration I get!

#MTBoSBlaugust Day 23: We all survived!

We all survived our first day of the new school year!

I even managed to get a run in this morning. It proved to be detrimental since I had to help the administrators pick up paper attendance all around the school (which covers a quarter of a mile) 3 times today!

I'm just glad that all my teachers finished the day with everything that's happened at the school to start off the year. All of the technology may not have been functioning completely and many of the rooms weren't totally decorated but what's happening in the classroom with the kids is what's more important than anything else!

#MTBOSBlaugust Day 22 Part 2: Need ideas for notebooks for PreCalculus classes

Woohoo!!!  2 posts in 1 day!!!  I'm on a roll!

I'm in need of some tips or tricks for one of my teachers.

This year we were able to buy composition books for all of our students.  Literally, all of our students.  This is the wall to my office after 24 boxes were taken.  We still need to get a lot more out to teachers this week.

We bought the notebooks with the idea that they will follow the students from year to year so they can build on them with their additional knowledge from each course.  The kicker is that we don't have inspiration for all of the upper level courses and how to use the notebooks there.

One of my PreCalc teachers wants to use the notebook as a study tool the kids can go back and use at the end of a unit but she doesn't want to make it something she's going to have to stop at the end of the unit for kids to create or always double check that the students have created the correct notes or guide to use.

My idea was to have the kids create a mind map; something like this:

From ZIMBARDO Patrick (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/505318020661031043/)

But she's worried the kids won't have enough space to make it as the unit is being taught and they won't have enough space to make it detailed enough.

I'm curious what other people have used before and if you have any quick pics that you could share that would be awesome!  

Thanks so much #MTBoS!!!!

#MTBoSBlaugust Day 22: What I really do as an Instructional Coach

I recently got a comment on one of my posts from an old coworker who said she was looking forward to hearing more about my position as an Instructional Coach and I decided that would be a great thing to blog about.

My official title is the Math NIET Master Coach but it really just means Instructional Coach since the campus stopped using the TAP program right before I was hired.  Officially my job description is as follows:

 

In case you looked at those images and said "yeah, I'm not reading all of that" here's my "I'm a math teacher and I like to be concise" explaination:

• I lead regular Professional Development for the math teachers by PLC and department on strategies and district initiatives.
• I am present for all PLCs in my department to help facilitate the conversations on instruction and data.
• I also participate in the PLCs by creating lessons, assignments, etc that the team needs help with.
• I analyze all the tests/assessments to ensure they are aligned to the TEKS/standards and at the appropriate level.  I also keep an eye out for any typos, misaligned columns, etc.
• I do walk-throughs in classrooms to observe the teaching and learning going on.  This is often when I get inspiration for PD that I'm going to develop or when I determine what other teachers may need to present on some of the strategies they use in their classroom.
• I co-teach in different classrooms and help facilitate small group learning.
• I help create the Department Improvement Plan that is incorporated into the Campus Improvement Plan.
• I observe teachers using the T-TESS rubric and evaluate them for the year.

Now that last one is not exactly what I had anticipated doing when I first got this job.  I always thought administrators did the observations and evaluations but with the new T-TESS rubric and the process you go through with the teachers it is much more of a coaching tool than a "gotcha during one observation" tool and I really enjoyed it last year.  I did not enjoy doing 3 observations in one day last year (I learned the hard way that's not how to do it!) but overall the teachers I worked with and I all enjoyed the process and learned about ourselves, our strengths and areas that need improvement from the process.

That's about it for this post!  I hope everyone is having a great Monday!

#MTBoSBlaugust Day 19: Just wanna brag on a team...

So I did not get a chance to work with my Geometry team while they were creating their first test (which I really would have liked to have done).  And I just got an email from the PLC lead with the test and when I scrolled down to the bottom I saw this:

No prompting needed, no having to bribe or convince them to try something new.  On their own they came up with the idea of giving a standards based test and breaking it up into parts for assessment!!!  I'm so thrilled I'm literally bouncing in my seat as I type this!  

Students always struggle with Geometry and I'm loving that they're wanting to go this route and try this out.  I can't wait for the students to really take ownership of their learning since their grade will really mean something to them and I can't wait to see the passing rate in Geometry skyrocket as a result!!!

Woohoo!!!


Just had to brag since they totally went that route on their own and that was a route I really wanted to slowly open the department to.

#MTBoSBlaugust day 16: My not ready school and office

So this summer our campus was getting work done on the roof, the HVAC was getting replaced and new technology (interactive whiteboards) were getting installed.

Here's some of the technology that
is still waiting to be installed right now.

At least some of the interactive whiteboards
were installed this summer.

So I haven't been able to blog lately because I've been troubleshooting some beginning of the school hiccups with some of my teachers.  What hiccups you say?  The kind of hiccups where you have no way to project something while water is running down your walls.  :D 

Well, there were problems with the work on the roof, and after the rain this weekend some of the rooms and offices now have water damage.

  

On the right is how some of the rooms are currently going under demolition and construction to repair the water damages.  On the left is all the administrators stuff that has been moved to the teachers lounge while their offices are repaired.

The technology isn't installed. Hopefully it will get done before school starts in a week.

And my office has been abandoned and I don't know if I will be finished before the kids come back. Actually I'm pretty sure that it won't be finished...

So that's how were starting the school year. I hope everyone else has a better start to the school year!!

#MTBoSBlaugust Day 11: The right way to start the school year!

Yesterday was a super long day and I started this but literally fell asleep when working on it. It was the first day back to school for everyone and it's always so much fun putting all the teachers from a campus in a room where the AC isn't working right.  At least it wasn't as warm as the rest of the building was!

It was great seeing all the teachers together and getting to know the new teachers even better.  I have to admit that I was late to the start of the meeting because I thought it started 30 minutes earlier, but I wasn't late for the rest of it!

After the campus meeting we got to have a nice LONG lunch, seriously it was an amazingly long and wonderful lunch.  They gave us 2.5 hours!  But it was followed by convocation with all the staff of the district at one location so everyone needed the extra time to get to the location and try to find an easy way out once we all were released.

I have to admit that this was the best start to a convocation that I've ever been to.  Instead of starting with the superintendent on the stage a student that had made it into a video the last two years was on the stage in a fancy suit and tie.  

Kenneth gave us a perfect start to the school year!

His opening line was perfect!  "What?  Who were you expecting?  The superintendent?!"

This kid had so much personality and pizzazz and he's just now starting 6th grade!

It was a great start to the school and I'm hoping we hear more from the students when we meet as a campus and district in the future. I hope everyone else had a great start to the school year!!!