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Friday, October 17, 2014

Long time, no blog!

The month of October has FLOWN by! Since I last blogged, we set up the STEAM studio, had our first Superhero of the Month and Terrific Kids celebrations and our second Supergirls Reading Society Meeting! On the testing front, we are finishing up K4/K5 Circle testing and about to begin second grade testing! Upcoming events include Red Ribbon Week, Career Day, and our Olweus program kick-off! It makes me a little tired just thinking about this month, but it has been well worth it!

In the meantime...have I mentioned how much I love our new Superhero theme? This year, I changed my character education program from "Eagle Excellence" to "Good Character is Our Superpower" and it has taken off! Students can earn superhero tickets for showing good character around the school, which are turned into me in exchange for a brag tag and prize. The Proud Board is almost completely full and students are so excited to see their superhero tickets displayed! I have morning duty in the main hallway and every morning, students stop to see who is new on the board and what each student has done to earn recognition. I think this visual reminder has promoted student conversation: since the start of the program, I have overheard ideas/suggestion about how to behave at school, positive peer examples to follow, and praise for the students recognized. In addition, I feel it has helped to instill confidence and a sense of pride in students who have received recognition. Win Win! 

Speaking of recognition... at the end of September, each teacher chose one student in their classroom who displayed Friendship, our character word of the month. We had our first lunch celebration last Friday and had a great time! I'm already looking forward to October's celebration, as we will be celebrating the ability to make good choices! :) In addition to expanding character traits and vocabulary through traditional character education teachings, I am a BIG proponent of teaching basic life skills!



We also celebrated our Terrific Kids this past Wednesday. Teachers selected two students from their classrooms who exemplify the Kiwanis Terrific Kid qualities: "Terrific" is an acronym for Thoughtful, Enthusiastic, Respectful, Responsible, Inclusive, Friendly, Inquisitive, and Capable.  
Sponsored by the Spartanburg Kiwanis Club, each student was awarded with a certificate, pencil, bumper sticker, and coupon for a free kid's meal at Zaxbys as part of our program. We celebrated with parents in our school cafeteria, where each child was recognized was recognized on the stage while our assistant principal read aloud the child's nomination, written by classroom teachers. We are very proud of all our students whom we have had the privilege to recognize this month!

Next up: STEAM, Olweus, Red Ribbon, and Career Day!