Let's all just breath a collective sigh of relief that a week of testing is almost over. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Better? I know testing is a stressful time for students AND teachers alike. It seems like everyone is on edge during testing. Like I'm going to walk down a hallway and see a teacher with bloodshot eyes and part of a muffin in their hair or something...Okay not really (maybe). And yet, even in the midst of all of the stress, good things still happen! This week was no exception. First, Adrienne Emerson, Robowranglers coach, received the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award at the Robowranglers most recent competition, the Dallas Regional. This award is very prestigious/exclusive. It's presented to an outstanding mentor in the robotics competition who best leads, inspires, and empowers their team using excellent communication skills. The award is only given to one mentor at each regional throughout the season. Each recipient is eligible to win the World Championship Woodie Flowers Award later in April at the World Competition. In order to be considered for the award, students must submit an essay nominating someone from their team, “which made it all the more special to receive” said Emerson. You can read about the Robowranglers most recent win here! Right now, the Robowranglers are in Canada competing in the Waterloo Regional. More on that later! Pictured with Christine are Bowie staff members and Ila Gilstrap, former Bowie teacher of 46 years, who received the 2016 Person of Distinction Award. Did I mention there were several awards this week? This week, Christine Sandlin, a Bowie Elementary Crossing Guard for 13 years, was awarded the 2016 Unsung Hero Award. Christine, who will be 87 in June, has served the Bowie students through rain, wind, heat, snow and sleet since 2003. Always going above and beyond, she also crochets caps for the children that don’t have warm clothing. I don't know about you, but that warms my heart. In a world where we are bombarded with horrible images and stories daily, it's nice to be reminded that there are amazing people in this world. The GISD Finance Department won the Meritorious Budget Award for the fourth consecutive year as well! The Meritorious Budget Awards (MBA) program promotes and recognizes excellence in school budget presentation and recognizes exceptional school business officials' skills in developing, analyzing, and presenting a school system budget. After a rigorous review by professional auditors, the award is conferred only on school districts that have met or exceeded the program’s stringent criteria. I love when "behind the scenes" people receive recognition for their hard work. Make sure you reach out to our Finance office to congratulate them! Remember this moment? It's when our GHS Lion Pride Band won the coveted Sweepstakes Award for the first time in over 30 years! Well, this week, Director of Bands, Joel Weisberg, received a very kind and encouraging letter (pictured below) from the Assistant Director of Music for the University Interscholastic League (UIL). Y'all...That. Is. Cool. To take the time to not only notice that record, but then to write a congratulatory letter to the band and Director? Kudos UIL. That's all for now! See you again for next week's post!
Did everyone have a good Spring Break last week? Mine was extremely relaxing, which was much needed. This week has definitely been a "hit the ground running" week. Yesterday, the GHS Navy Junior ROTC had their Annual Military Inspection Pass & Review and it was impressive. Our NJROTC students are truly so inspiring! They are so disciplined and controlled and it wow's me every time I see them. GHS NJROTC in formation. At the School Board Meeting on Tuesday night, the 6th grade and Middle School UIL winners were honored and the GMS 8th grade class was recognized for their UIL 1st place win for most cumulative points in the competition! Way to go guys!! UIL winners at Tuesday's board meeting. With testing coming up (yes, it's almost here!), the staff at Crockett Elementary decided to help the odds be in their students' favor for the STAAR test. Fourth grade students have been participating in a week long competition, THE STAAR GAMES, in preparation for the writing test. Today marks the final game and the victors will be crowned! In honor of the games, fourth grade teachers are dressed as characters from the book, The Hunger Games. How awesome is that?! The encouraging banner hung in the Fourth grade hall. Tonight is the Elementary P.E. Showcase at 6 p.m. in the Greenville High School gym! Each elementary school has selected their own fitness routine to perform with music and tons of fun! The picture below is from last year and it is just a taste of what's to come! On Monday and Tuesday, GHS had some special visitors from China! Remember this past summer when the Robowranglers went to China to help the students learn robotics principals and teach them to run their own competitions? Well, this week some students from China and their mentors came to GHS to shadow robotics, engineering and other STEM classes to help further their robotics knowledge. Can we talk about how cool it is that students from China wanted to come visit lil' ole Greenville, Texas (pronounced in full blown country twang of course!)?!?! Just one more way that our robotics program is forging and maintaining a global reach. Students from China work with GHS students on engineering skills. So what's coming up next? Saturday, April 9th, will be the next of ACE's "STEM Saturdays" studying Science for Space Survival (based on The Martian) where students will produce inventions designed to withstand the harsh elements of Mars while taking advantage of the planet's resources to create a plan to escape! From 9 a.m.-12 p.m. at GHS, Saturday, April 9th! Still image from The Martian. Also, The Greenville Educational Enrichment Foundation has released the 2016 grant application! If you're not familiar with GEEF, they're a non-profit organization that helps raise money for teacher grants that supply our staff with any number of things that wouldn't ordinarily be covered in their funding. You can access the application here.
That's all for now! See you for next week's update :) Hello everyone! Like I said earlier this week, there has been too much awesome for one post around here! I think it's fair to say that everyone around here has earned a nice little break next week (can you tell I'm excited for Spring Break yet?) Speaking of breaks, on Monday, teachers at Lamar Elementary were treated to massages during their conference period. Principal Tharp hired two massage therapists to set up in the teacher lounge and every teacher was able to swing by for a pick-me-up. Not bad for a Monday! The GHS powerlifting team won their first regional powerlifting championship since 2001 last Saturday. Three lifters qualified for the state meet next month in Abilene and Carandal Hale received two outstanding lifter awards for his squat and deadlift. He also set a new regional record for total weight lifted with a 1,580 lb. total. Y'all let's just take a moment to appreciate the fact that TWO programs, that hadn't won a regional championship in some time (GHS Band's Sweepstakes award and Powerlifting's Regional win), brought home wins in the SAME WEEK. That's just cool. NJROTC had their annual Chili Cook-Off and Silent Auction on Tuesday night, hosted by the NJROTC Parent Booster Club. The smell of homemade chili, side dishes, and desserts filled the air as the silent auction kicked off. In all, the event raised over $1,500 to support the unit’s Navy Ball that will be held next month! Last week, we started filming for our second Career/Tech video with Joe Hudson Collision in Greenville. The basic premise of these videos is to film a 2-3 minute summation of that industry (in this case auto-body repair), then show that video to our students to let them see what the Career/Tech classes at the High School can prepare them for. I'm so excited for the final product! Holly Rice Films shot and is editing this video for us and she did such an amazing job with our last video that I am DYING to see this one! Kenneth Fifield shooting with Body Technician, Emanuel Pearson, for the upcoming video.
The members of Greenville ISD’s Destination Imagination team, Donuts Inc., received the prestigious Spirit of Discovery & Imagination Award for outstanding spirit, teamwork, volunteerism, and sportsmanship. This team ran into technical difficulties during their performance, but never lost their outstanding spirit and even created a hover-board that carried a member back and forth across the stage. Team managers Michael and Samantha Phillips and their 2nd grade team Keira Clayton, Avery Phillips, Emma Shepherd, Diego Olguin, Logan Green, Urban Casper and Josh Perkins. And last, but not least, former Carver teacher, Jinger Surles, accepted a position as the new Assistant Principal at Travis Elementary! Obviously, Painting with a Twist was the appropriate way to celebrate! Congrats Jinger!! How's that for a pre-Spring Break catch up?! I hope everyone has a safe and fun/relaxing time next week! When we get back, I'm sure I'll have plenty more to share!
Well, it's the last week before we all head off on Spring Break (insert long sigh). It has been so busy the last few weeks and there are some MAJOR accomplishments that need some bragging! So, if you're not into seriously awesome news, go ahead and look away now. First, our GHS Lion Pride Band competed last weekend at the Region 4 UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest and, for the FIRST TIME IN 30 YEARS, brought home a Sweepstakes honor! Earning Sweepstakes is essentially the trifecta. It requires earning a Division I rating, the highest score, in three categories: concert performance, marching and sight reading. Click here for the full article (which I highly recommend reading). Next, our Robotics programs have had some big wins in the last week! Both the GHS and GMS VEX Robotics teams competed in the State Competition and qualified for the National Competition as well as the World Competition! The GMS Gigabots won first place! You can read all about their win here. The GHS Iron Cowboys won the Design Award! You can read about their victories here. Our GHS German class students also competed in the German State Competition in San Marcos, Tex. The students competed in Folk Dancing, Polka Band, Level 2 skit and Level 3 skit. Every entry placed within the Top 10 of their event. Check out the full story here.
This week is also Texas Public Schools Week! Tonight, Greenville Middle School will have Open House at 5:30 p.m. and Greenville High School will have Open House at 6 p.m. You can find the full schedule here.
Due to an overwhelming amount of program victories over the last 2 weeks (not a bad problem to have, eh?), I'll be doing another post later this week to recap some other wins and goings on around campus. Stay tuned! |
AuthorSydney Hanner is the Director of Community Relations for Greenville ISD in Greenville, TX. Archives
January 2017
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