Class Visits

What a great week I had visiting classrooms. I am most impressed by the behavior of our students. In each class that I visited students were on task! Natalie Nelson was implementing science notebooking with her class. The students were excited about being scientists, and I was excited about the writing in science. I have noticed that our students seem to be reading more. Please continue to encourage them to participate in 100 Book Challenge and AR. Remember the media center is open at 7:25 for students who need to complete missing assignments. Due to budget cuts, the computer lab is not open before school this year. Please look at your MAP data before next Tuesday's faculty meeting. It would be beneficial to have that information as we meet in our groups to develop our plan for improvment.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Clemson field Trip

What a great time we had on Saturday with the fourth and fifth graders. They were so excited about seeing the stadium and believe it or not- riding the cat bus! We had great weather and the kids were so well behaved. It was a perfect trip, except for the mountain of stairs at the stadium. I am really getting old! Many thanks to the wonderful chaperones we had on the trip. They were so helpful, and we could not have done it without them. Please enjoy the pictures from the trip.

Grits for Grands

Thanks to everyone for being patient and flexible during our

Grandparent's breakfast. What a wonderful turnout we had for this event. I appreciate the cafeteria staff and the teachers who arrived early to help during this time. It was so helpful to have you to guide our grands and get everyone served. What a great team we have at Orchard Park. If this is any indication, the Tuesday folders are working!! Thanks again for making all of our visitors feel welcome at our school.

Olympic Readers

I thought you might like to see some of the pictures from our Olympic Reading Celebration. The Olympic Rings picture turned out really well, and the students appeared to have a great time reading and eating ice cream. Thank you for your flexibilty on Friday and for making the day fun for the students. It is important to maintain our reading focus, and promote daily reading at home and at school.

Reader's Theater

Can you believe two weeks of school have passed? What a week this has been! Thank you to everyone for a great job this week during the severe weather. Our staff and students remained calm, and thankfully we are all safe. We had a visitor in our school from the District Office during that time, and he complimented everyone on the smooth and calm way the situation was handled. You all are the best.

I was invited to visit Mrs. Nelson's class today during Reader's Theater. They did an outstanding job, and I was pleased to see the class involved in such an engaging activity. Thanks for the invitation!.

Team Building Activities

Wow, what a great day we had together! Jeremy Garrett did an outstanding job with us. I hope the day was beneficial to you, and that you got to spend a little time with someone you really didn't know. We have an awesome team at OPE, and I know we are going to work together to support each other and make our school a great place for students and staff! I am so excited about the coming year, and our goals this year. Thank you for being part of our team.

Summer Buzz

Thank you so much to everyone who helped with our Summer Buzz on Saturday. While the attendance was not as good as I had hoped, the 100 families represented gained valuable information. Hopefully word of mouth will bring in even more families next year. This is a start toward our goal of raising the bar at OPE. With our continued emphasis on raising our expectations and accepting no less than their best work, we can make a difference. It is so rewarding to work with teachers who are willing to do whatever it takes to help our students succeed.

The time is getting closer for our August 9th Summer Buzz. I appreciate all of the planning and preparation that is going into this event. This is our initial step in changing the expectations of our school, parents, students, and community. We know our students have the potential to be successful, and we are going to accept nothing less than their best. We are ready to accept the challenge and make whatever changes necessary to reach our goal! I am so fortunate to work with such a wonderful staff. I look forward to August 9th and the new school year. Please enjoy the days you have left of summer break.

Hello Everyone. This is my first attempt to post on my blog page. This is a tool I am going to use this year to share information with the staff at Orchard Park. I hope it will be a useful way to share ideas with each of you. I will update it often, so please check each week for new postings.