Joe, Marcia, Carrie and parent volunteer Justin Ohlinger have started track practices off to great numbers! Mr. Ohlinger will be joining the team officially as an assistant coach sometime after break.
Danielle and Chris F held the talent show tryouts on Thursday and had a bigger turnout then we have had in years. I look forward to that assembly.
Morgan Martin with the assistance of Alyssa Sutor had a great band field trip to Elmhurst University where they performed and had a clinic. Learning, improving, fun!
Mrs. Anderson had many parent volunteers in for her 7th grade fiestas on Thursday. Having parents work together with students and Mrs. Anderson created a community atmosphere with lots of food to enjoy while learning.
Mrs. Erickson put on a very impressive NJHS badminton tournament Wednesday after school. There were SO many students that signed up! (common theme of this blog is our great student involvement) Many NJHS student refs, parent and student spectators, an amazing bracket on the big screen with live results and the new sound system in full effect made for a great experience. Thanks also goes out to Stephen for setting up the sound system and supervising concessions.
I've seen Marisa Choate's students conduct several art critiques recently. It is great to see them put care and effort into giving their peers productive feedback.
Thanks to the 8th grade team for having a team conversation to ensure consistency on how they enforce our school phone policy of off and concealed. I think it is a strength of our small school that each team has the flexibility to define the "concealed" part of the policy as long as it is consistent among all team members.
I was very impressed with students and staff during our IAR testing. Our attendance was very good and time taken per test overall saw improvements Thanks to Michelle F for getting the IAR Make-up testing complete.
Check out Krissy Campbell's student class work "We are Biologists" in the hall outside her classroom, it is another example of the great work she is getting out of her students with hands on, engaging learning activities.
The 7th grade team had their students in a frenzy over the three "mascots" they raffled off. Hyping up the mascots to represent the qualities they look for in good students made them more valuable to the kids than raffling off a new car!
Our teaching assistants have been knocking it out of the park with student support, flexibility and covering open teaching periods like the pros that they are. I know we appreciate the great job they do to help our staff and students.
Sherry, Angela and Megan P have done it again with another great STEM parade. Watch the parade, stay for the outtakes!
We had our final Zoom meeting of the strategic planning process Thursday after school. Dr. McGill and Perry have done a great job of leading our staff, parents, students and community members through this process. Everyone has had a chance to give input and I am excited for next year as everyone will have a chance to contribute as "We live the plan".
All good things come to an end...On August 28th 2014 I posted "Hi Everyone. The Bengal Blog is something that I will send out each week to praise, send reminders and provide resources to the staff." Twelve years and 378 blog posts later the Bengal Blog has run its course. While I used to barely miss one or two weeks in a year writing the blog, you may have noticed the blogs have been coming very inconsistently this year. To be quite frank when I miss writing the blog I feel additional stress and guilt from not hitting my own self-imposed weekly deadline! Don't worry I will still be sending praise, reminders, and educational articles through email, in person and the old fashioned teacher mailbox. I hope you all enjoy a well deserved week off and come back fully charged for our positive push to the end of the school year!
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent." Calvin Coolidge
"A ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not what ships are built for" John A. Shedd
"It's a small world but I wouldn't want to paint it" Steven Wright
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Winston Churchill
