What students learn in school...

Just FYI, Stansbury Park Elementary School is pretty much the best school EVER to work at and to send your kids to!! No need to go bragging about how they rank in the district as far as test scores, overall school grades, and all that jazz.....we just let the media do that for us.  But what I will brag about is that it is a place where kids come first. And FYI, kids coming first is a heckofalota work behind the scenes for teachers, staff, parents, and administrators....especially when big transitions are happening, like this year. One amazing administrator passed the torch to another amazing administrator this year. One incredible PTA president passed the torch to another incredible PTA president this year. Life situations took some of our beloved teachers down new roads. And life situations led new beloved teachers down the road to our school. Some dedicated parent volunteers graduated from the halls of SPES, and a whole new batch joined the ranks! Some students moved out, but multiple times as many moved in. Our classrooms are bursting at the seems with students. There is no immediate solution to the overcrowding. So parents, staff, teachers, and administrators will keep right on doing what they are already doing....keeping the kids first. And we happen to have this amazing woman who works in the office at our school who is like the queen of vinyl!! And this year these signs keep popping up all over the school, reminding us what it's all about.......I am loving these messages around the school!! Thank you Michelle T. and who ever is responsible for these awesome visual reminders around the school!!

Response to an article about the influence of a teacher, that was posted on Facebook: This article is a good reminder of what really matters, in the classroom. Yes, they need the skills to succeed academically, but if they don't have the self-worth on the inside, or a safety net around them in their home life, they cannot learn to their full capacity. As teachers, we have to fill those voids.....who else will? I have had these students in every place I have taught. In a tiny, rural Idaho town....one student in my PM kinder class always showed up at least an hour or two early every day...on his bike, in the same clothes he wore the day before, and the day before that. I can't even write what his drugged up mother made him live with. In a gigantic school district in California, I had an angry little boy whose father died that year of alcohol-induced liver failure, and the boy often stayed in a hotel with his "working" mother. And at another school in that district one student was sad because her brother was in prison "because his beanie was the wrong color." And all my local facebook friends....do not think that because we live in Mayberry, that there are not children right among us living in disturbing situations. Teachers often are a little more informed about home life situations....but obviously not at liberty to talk specifics about any of them. It takes a village....we all need to open our eyes and hearts and be the village for these kids. I still remember one awesome mom, bringing a coat and backpack to a student in one of my own children's classes...she just did it because it obviously needed to be done. Enjoy this awesome article. And read the link to the first article where the student was searching for this teacher......so amazing what this teacher did for this fourth grade student. Thanks for posting this Alison!!