I feel appreciated!

What a tremendous day! I entered school eager to catch the first glimpse of my decorated door. What a treat. Lindsey's and Aliyah's moms created the most spectacular display, complete with wacky photos of the students, an uncomfortably large picture of me and a life-size lemonade stand. And get this--a lemonade stand from which they actually served lemonade this morning! I also have three mammoth bouquets of flowers and a supply of sugary treats to last for months. Best yet, of course, were the verbal thank yous and generous hugs. I have an amazing job, and I am lucky. Thanks to all of you who contributed.

While the day was amazing, it was for me bittersweet. I know there has been some speculation about my plans for next year, and I am eager to share with you all what is happening. My family and I are about to embark on a new adventure! This week I accepted the position as Assistant Head of the Lower School at Isidore Newman in New Orleans. For sure, the decision to leave the classroom was weighty. I value relationships with students tremendously and will miss working so closely with students in a classroom. While I am excited about my new adventure, I continue to dwell in the realm of Lemonheads, and am so happy to be there! I will enjoy the next two months with your children and look forward to all that we still have to do and learn together. These next two months promise a thrilling fourth-grade ride. We have so much left to do!


Today, I began talking with the students about our second large project we will be doing in social studies. Later this week, I will post and send home with the students a detailed project description, expectations and rubrics. Ultimately, students are charged to study any topic related to Colonial America they wish in order to learn more about how life in Colonial America was similar to and different from their lives in America today. Today we began generating and categorizing potential topics in order to help students identify subjects they would like to investigate. By next Monday, I expect that students will have chosen topics and we will begin making individual plans for conducting research. This project should be complete by the end of April or beginning of May. (Yes, I just said it--MAY.)

I hope you will join us for our fictional narrative author celebration on April 19th. The students have been working hard on numerous pieces over the course of the past two months and are eager to share a sample of their work with their biggest fans! Other projects and learning have stretched out our work in writing workshop, but the work on fictional narratives is always a favorite. We hope to see you in class that morning!

On April 10, the fourth grade take their annual trip to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. I am looking for one parent volunteer to accompany us. Please let me know if you are interested. 

Upcoming important events:
March 30: Relay for Life
April 3 and 4: WrAP testing
April 10: Ringling field trip
April 16 - 20: Celebrate the Arts
April 19: Author Celebration
May 2 - 6: ERB testing