Rejoice because thorn bushes have roses...

Good afternoon,

Today I headed out for recess with the students and found that the sun was shining so bright, we certainly could have used some shades! It was a beautiful, cold day on the playground. Many kids around the world would think those two attributes to describe recess time are mutually exclusive, but not in South Dakota!

Thank you for those who have tried out the online referral system. Please let me know if there are any concerns with how it works. So far, it has proven handy. A referral incident occurred in this building while I was in a meeting with Kindergarten teachers today. The teacher filled out the referral online and when I walked into the office and the parent was calling about the incident, I was able to pull up the referral notes quickly. It was very helpful. Thank you!

As from the announcements this morning, starting Monday, January 25^th we will have an additional para in the lunchroom from 7:45 am to 8:00 am. There are two people on morning duty from 7:30- 8:00 am. One will stay in the Auditorium. Students need to be out of the lunchroom by the time the high school bell rights (8:15 am), but can go outside form 8:00- 8:10 with the rest of the students. We will reevaluate this in the spring when we start going outside again from 7:30- 8:00 am.

Finally, I want to share with you my “Momentum” quote for the day (from my Chrome Extension):

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"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

This quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, but it could certainly be attributed to many with variations in topic. For example, my husband tells a story of when Leah was first in preschool.  He was getting her into her car seat to drop her off at preschool one morning and she asked him, “Dad, why do you have to go to work and Mom gets to go to school like me?” It’s all about perspective… and you never know just how close those little ones are watching and what they are learning from you! In the case of our classrooms, that’s the learning outside of the planned lesson that makes school… school, instead of just work. It’s that “light bulb moment” in students that I sometimes find hard to explain to somebody that is not in education.

Have a great weekend! Thank you for all you do!