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January 21, 2007
School Persona
I mentioned the other day how much I enjoy visiting schools. I’m always interested in what happens other places, what others are doing, and/or what’s working in schools. I had the opportunity to visit a school this week where things seem to be working well.
Birney Elementary in Fresno is a school about 840 kids from preschool to grade six. There are three languages spoken by families-English, Spanish, and Hmong. The school has had a bit of a struggle with test scores and turn-over of students, but the dedication on the part of the staff is truly evident.
Schools come in every shape and size. The smallest can be no smaller than seven students. The largest have thousands, but every school seems to have a personality that shows up. Something about the school and its families give a school a feel, a persona that makes it “someone� to remember. Birney has its personality. It’s someone I’d like to know.
Posted by Dr Joni at 06:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2007
Birthday Fun
Last weekend I went to a birthday party. It was one of those where the guest of honor had a 0 at the end of the age, so it was a big event. She had invited friends, relatives, co-workers, church friends, and family member so all ages were in attendance.
My draw, besides my friend, was the cake and ice cream, but the draw of young and old turned out to be the magician. She had hired the Great Zambini to entertain the small crowd, and entertain he did.
What I found most fun was watching the children. Okay watching the children of all ages was fun, but it was most fun watching the younger children. They were wide-eyed in amazement as Zambini made tissues disappear, wands turn into flowers, and items vanish from his hands and reappear other places.
William, a young man of ten, was involved in identifying a card which somehow was selected right back out of the deck. A young lady of eight got to try a similar experience. The crowd loved it and so did the kids.
I don’t know what it is about slight of hand, but we are all interested in being fooled into believing something is not what it seems. It was great fun. So was the cake and ice cream. Happy birthday Margaret.
Back to school tomorrow, but this seemed like such a fun event for kids I wanted to share it.
Posted by Dr Joni at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2007
New Look
I've missed writing my blog lately. Sometimes creativity disappers when you most need it so it's nice to feel it coming back. In my quest for providing you, me, and our kids with the best education possible, I'm changing my focus a bit. My own kids have moved into young adulthood so there are no middle of the night changings, beginning reading or multiplication tables to tell you about. Until official grandkids become available, I have no children to provide my models of what works and what doesn't. I've tried both. I also just retired so I don't have the school children that I've enjoyed so much over the years. I had begun to think I wouldn't have what I wanted to provide you.
But then creativity struck. I do have some great sources of really good information. I have visited schools for years. It's a habit of mine to stop by a school and find out what they're doing. I'm always interested in the successful, fun activites schools and families provide.
I'm visiting schools. I have been, am now, and will be visiting a lot of schools so why not share with you what I find? There are some great places out there.
One that comes to mind is a school I visited in Washington DC when I was there for a lobbying trip. I don't know how I dredged up the name since it's been a few years ago, but the school was Peabody Elementary. The school was for prekindergarten and kindergarten only. I just checked it out on the Internet and it's still there providing, I'm sure, the same wonderful quality programs I saw for the little ones. The school was in this wonderful three story building near a park in DC. It had a basement housing the cafeteria among other things. The top floor was a library, art center. The feel of the place was just warm and inviting, and I couldn't imagine a child not liking to go here. They had several special programs I unfortunately don't remember. I'll do better as I move into this sharing with you and make sure that I give you information on what programs are really exciting and seem to be making a difference for kids.
I'm sure there will be fun and useful things to tell you about in my travels and explorations. Things about the schools I passed in just the past few days. I will endeavor to do so as we move into future blog entries. I hope you'll enjoy the new look.
Give me some feedback as we try this out. What kinds of things would you like to hear about? What successful learning activities do you want to know about? Do you have a school that is really successful that you'd like to make sure I visit? Let me know. I'll make an effort to at least contact them if I can't make a personal visit. There's so much in the way of wonderful learning experiences for us as adults and the children we care about. I'm looking forward to sharing what I find with you.
Posted by Dr Joni at 09:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack