“I’m hungry. I hope there’s pudding.” – Luna Lovegood Earlier this week, I received a letter from Liana, a 2nd grade student at AAS. It was a well written opinion letter with proper form. The letter had a good introduction, three solid arguments supporting her opinion, and a clear conclusion. As expressed in her letter,…
Welcome Back After Spring Break
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.” – Yogi Berra I hope that you had a relaxing and fun Spring Break. We had the good fortune to visit Scotland and Ireland over the holiday. As is the way with travels, we had some expected and…
Spotlight the Daily Wins
“There’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait.” – Hamilton (musical) Last night I had the pleasure of watching the AAS students’ performance of Cabaret. It was an incredible show! Through the years, I have enjoyed and been impressed by all of the AAS musicals. The addition of the Rila Theatre has…
Keeping New Year’s Resolutions
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot Happy New Year! I hope that you and your family had a pleasant and relaxing holiday. We are two weeks into 2023. For many people, that means they are two weeks into their New Year’s resolutions; for some people, that…
The Magic of December
“Winter is not a season, it’s a celebration.” – Anamika Mishra Autumn was longer and warmer than normal this year (yes, technically it is still autumn). The usual easing into winter didn’t happen. With the recent dustings of snow and holiday decorations in the malls, it feels sudden that the “holiday season” has arrived. A…
Welcome to the New 2022-2023 School Year
“I think sleeping was my problem in school. If school had started at four in the afternoon, I’d be a college graduate today.” – George Foreman When summer holiday begins each June, many students welcome the opportunity to sleep in each day instead of only on weekends. As the summer progresses, they stay up later…
Thank You For The Splendid Times
“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen As another school year comes to a close, the weeks have been full of special events, celebrations, and farewells. The farewells are difficult: we have to say goodbye to friends who have made our individual lives and the school community better. It is nice to…
The Power of Memories
The end of the year is always saturated with feelings of both happiness and sadness: teachers smile proudly as students graduate, parents’ hearts ache as teenagers leave home, graduates look ahead with giddy hearts. We share so many feelings looking back on what used to be, often fondly. The friends and experiences we have during…
Friday The 13th Brings Good Fortune
Today’s Weekly Howl is about the opposite of the unluckiness of Friday the 13th: today feels like it is full of good fortune….
The Magic of Words
According to the internet (so it must be true), there are 273,000 English words in the Oxford English Dictionary; there are 470,000 English words in Webster’s Dictionary. The Oxford dictionary is from the United Kingdom and Webster’s Dictionary is from the United States. The United States is larger than the United Kingdom, so it makes sense that the Webster’s Dictionary would have more words. (Somehow that makes sense, right?). Each year, about a 1000 words are added to the Webster’s Dictionary: in my life over 50,000 new English words have been born. There are other dictionaries as well. One of my favorite words recently added to Dictionary.com is “sharent” which means “to frequently use social media to share photos or other details and information about one’s child”. In English, all it takes to become an official new word is making it into print many times. A friend recently used the word “psychologied”, which means to have psychology used on you. It is not actually a word, but it should be a word. I’m hoping that by putting it in print here it will be added to a dictionary next year. If Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words, it is fair that my friend can invent 1. …
‘Just Keep Swimming’
I am a sucker for animated films. Ratatouille, Encanto (“We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no…”), Moana, Frozen (yep, Frozen), and almost all of the rest: and of course Finding Nemo. I say “almost all of the rest”, because I never liked the Mickey Mouse films or cartoons. I guess that’s because I have an aversion to rodents. I’ve never liked rodents, and rats freak me out (it took me a while to appreciate Ratatouille). Even squirrels give me the creeps. I think of squirrels as fuzzy tailed tree rats. My daughter, though, has a zillion photos of a squirrel named Alberto who lives in a tree at our house. Beavers are cool, because they are unique and industrious. Capybara are also ok: they are noble somehow. Lemmings are fascinatingly weird, but I wouldn’t want to run into a slice of them. …
Should Snowball Parties Be Allowed at School?
On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, I had an important meeting with two middle school students. They approached me in the Atrium during lunch. One of them had pasta stains on her sweatshirt; the other had not finished her sandwich. They asked me if they were allowed to have a snowball fight. My answer was no; for two days, I have thought of little else. As a former elementary school teacher and principal, I am hardwired to say “no” to snowball fights. Now I am questioning myself. After almost 30 years working in schools, have I been mistaken this entire time? I need your ear and your advice. After disappointing the two middle school students, I went outside and did some impromptu supervision. Many times I had to remind students that snowball fights were not permitted. Almost every student at some time was throwing snow. They laughed and screamed (the snow down the back of the shirt kind of scream) and had a lot of fun. It got me wondering whether snowball fights should be allowed, so I did some research Wednesday evening. I was planning to support the “no snowball fight rule” with some statistics….
