School’s Out For Summer!

That sounds like the title of a song that we hear about this time of the year. From the student perspective, everything is finished with the exception of the items that were left behind. A few dibels reports were left for those students that started their summer journeys early. A blue ribbon left from Field Day was found. Lots of crayon marks on the backs of chairs as though no one would ever notice. Now, if only I could find the missing game pieces that came up missing such as cute little fish with Velcro on the back. It seems strange that the voices of children are no longer there and there is quietness with only muffled movement echoing through the hallway. Summer always brings changes and hopefully they are good changes for those children who brought joy to our lives for the past nine months. When those students return on August 15, we hope that the caretakers have taken time to review some of the skills that the students learned during the last school year. We hope that the parents can take time to read with their children and help them to refrain from losing what everyone had worked so hard to gain during the past year. As parents pick the activities that their children engage in, we hope that it will include reading, math and science. Math activities such as games for money recognition would be one that I would suggest. Other math activities might include patterning or equal parts. Reading is a skill that everyone should participate in daily to continue to grow. Share a book from the library, buy a book at a yard sale or thrift store, and check-out books at the local bookstores. Check with the local library for summer reading programs. Visit web sites such as http://www.starfall.com/ for reading practice. Visit http://www.wegivebooks.org/ for good literature that you can read and make a donation to others. Visit this great site to have a book read aloud to you by a professional actor or actress: http://www.storylineonline.net/ .

Develop some good reading habits during the summer.

Graduation, June 1, 2011

Events Remembered!

This was our last full day of school for 2011. Our year has been very eventful with snow, ice, tornadoes, and power outages. The state of Alabama was severely damaged by the tornadoes on April 27, 2011. My dog woke me up that morning and I turned the tv on to get the weather report as we knew from the news that we were under a slight risk on Tuesday and a moderate risk on Wednesday. My husband watched the storm out the back and when the barn across the pasture lost the roof, he came to the closet. Hanceville was first hit in the state by an F2 tornado early that morning. The devastation was not realized at first as school was delayed for two hours. My neighborhood was hit and lines were down. It was not long until helicopters were buzzing over to the subdivision across the road. Of course, we could not see the damage so we did not realize how devastating the storm had been throughout all of Hanceville. It was like a ten minute hurricane throughout Hanceville. It had effected every bus route on our end of the county. The transformers were down and the powerstation on our end of the county was out. If we had been at school, we would not have been able to get home for days. Trees were everywhere! Roads were blocked everywhere. The buses would not have been able to deliver the students home. Our campus was damaged. There was no power. Homes were damaged everywhere. I am thankful that we were at home when the storms hit. Everyone in our subdivision were out cleaning up the trees and debris. Everyone was hard at work and our neighbors from Cullman came to help out. It was only a few hours before the F4 popped over the mountain outside my bedroom window headed for Cullman. The weather that day was just eery and it was like you could feel the weather pressing on you. Seeing the devastation of these storms is heart wrenching. President Obama declared Alabama as a national state of emergency following all of the destructive tornadoes. The Alabama State Legislature passed legislation that allowed the school systems to be exempted from having to make up the days that the schools missed due to the storms.