It's Almost Time....

Back to school is just around the corner at Rann Elementary and new this year is the blog, The Rann Review. I hope you will find it helpful with the information provided from current and upcoming happenings at Rann to informational ways to support your student's learning. Stay tuned for more things to come.

New Student Registration is now in full swing. Stop by the office and pick up an enrollment packet, once completed return it to the office with the following items,

• Official student birth certificate
• Student current shot record
• Proof of residence, most current electric bill with guardian's name on it
• Guardian's driver's license
• A copy of student's records from the school most recently attended, if child was in school 

It's Back to School Time

When the temperatures hover around 100, it's time once again to hit the school supply aisles at the local store, and pray they have everything needed to complete the dreaded school list. Why is it that each year the list seem to get longer and longer? As an administrator of an elementary school we looked over the list for this year with an extra set of eyes, taking off what we could to help our parents out financially. I can truly understand how going through this one little ritual act of buying back to school supplies can truly break the bank, especially if you have more than one child to buy for. We are very fortunate in our community to have churches and organizations which help out when our families run a little short. The campus budget is also used to buy things in bulk for the classrooms, saving our parents this worry. I remember as a child how excited I was to go and buy my supplies needed for back to school and then going home and neatly organizing them for the first day of school. I never thought about the burden it might have brought to my parents, being I was the second of five children. Needless to say I know parents look forward to that first day of school just as the kids do. It's a fresh start, a time to begin again. So parents take the time and visit with your kids before the first day, talk about what school will be like this year. What goals are being set by you and your child for this year. Our children are never too young to realize hard work and effort can help achieve goals, and reaching goals can help to achieve dreams. Have a great 2012-13 school year!

"I taught my dog to whistle."

In one of the Charlie Brown cartoons Charlie tells his friends, "I taught my dog to whistle." As all of his friends gather around Snoopy spellbound waiting to hear him whistle, nothing happens. His friends become annoyed and tell Charlie, "I thought you said your dog could whistle!" Charlie replies, "I taught my dog to whistle; I never said he learned!" WOW! This may be Charlie Brown's answer, however with the stringent requirements facing schools today, NCLB says all students will reach proficiency by the year 2014! This speaks directly to all of us and the high accountability we face as educators. Some things to ponder as we near the year 2014,

What do you know about the content area you teach?
What do you do about meeting the learning needs of all your students?
How do you learn in order to meet your optimal learning needs?
How do you react or approach an unfamiliar task?

As you think on yourself as a learner, share with the rest of us. We can support and learn from each other. We don't all learn the same way.

Now use these same questions for the students you have in your classroom each day. These are great questions to help you begin to understand and learn more about your students in order to serve them better.

Let the Games Begin!

"For most of my life I have believed that success is found in the running of the race.How you run the race-your planning, preparation, practice, and performance-counts for everything. Winning or loosing is a by product, and aftereffect, of that effort. For me it's the quality of your effort that counts most and offers the greatest and most long lasting satisfaction." John Wooden

A super effort given by all today that would have pleased even John Wooden. The time and effort put in up front to assure a smooth day paid off. The planning and preparation for dismissal, lunch times, class list, and arrival of students was very manageable with a few tweaks for tomorrow. Let's continue with the rules and procedures to assure all have them down correctly. This will make our year so much better. For those of you that may not know this, Lana had the opportunity to greet bus students this morn, and her first student to greet was our one and only Mr. Townsend. This sends a huge message to me that we are not in this alone. He stood with her while she did her bus duty and greeted our kids too. Pretty impressive if I have to say so myself. Never in my educational years have I had a superintendent ride the bus to school. Very few glitches happened, even in the office. I want to say Hip Hip Hooray to everyone for a fantastic start to what is going to be a Super Year. Keep up the good work, and know that the time spent up front in planning and preparation is never wasted.

Exemplary Eagles

Well it's official, Rann Elementary is a TEA Exemplary Campus! I am so proud for each of you, it was a long time coming and very deserving. At times like this you reflect upon what was it that made this year different from the past years, and why did it take so long for Rann to get here? I don't have the answer as none of us do, but we each have our thoughts as to possible reasons why. Last year Dr. Gindt came to me when they were beginning to think about who would be the principal at Young. We discussed the possibility of me moving over there, would have loved the new building and stuff..., but I told him that I felt Rann needed consistency, and change of admin again would not be a good thing, however I would do whatever he felt was best for the district. He decided that it would probably be best to keep me at Rann, and I agreed with him. I think we are beginning to get in a groove as a staff, understanding each others wants and needs better, and realizing that we are in it for what's best for our kids. I am very excited to begin my third year with all of you. I know we are on the verge of exploding with great potential for our students and each of us. I think the consistent communication every six weeks or so through the RTI process was a huge way of supporting you, determining which strategies would work best for our kids, and creating a plan to meet our students needs. The continual practice and immediate feedback our students received through tutorials, extra intervention, CEI lab, and aids giving extra academic support was a tremendous help also. What moved us from ordinary to extraordinary I believe was doing the ordinary things more often and with more focus and consistency than the others. Winners are not made the day of the game, but many hours of blood, sweat,and tears poured out earlier in the season. That is what it's all about. We put the hours upfront with the students through hard work, practice and repetition, immediate feedback for correction, and the by product is success! This is the plan, this is what we all must follow, and this will continue to produce strong students, thrilled teachers, and ecstatic parents! Way to go Rann, you truly are Exemplary Eagles. Let's go forth and shine!

What Happened to Summer Vacation Time?

WOW, the month of June just flew by. It was packed with workshops, finishing things for 2009-10, and getting ready to embark upon 2010-2011. I haven't had much time to enjoy our summer so far. I know many of you have also been busy with workshops, moving, and planning for next year. In June a group of us went to the CSCOPE conference in San Antonio. We came away with a variety of things to do and many reassurances that we have been on the right track. That was a great feeling. I went to one session on Parent Nights and even won "The Best of the Mama's and Papa's" CD. I was pretty excited, since I seem to never be one of the lucky ones when it comes to winning things. The session had some great ideas that I think we will be able to use this year with our parents. The building is still a mess, lots of painting going on, things still need to be moved, textbooks piled in the halls, and cleaning going on all around. Hopefully this next month we will begin to see things coming together. I am really looking forward to next year! We have a lot of good things going on and are on the curve upward for even greater things to begin happening at Rann. I know some of you have had the chance to meet Lana Thompson, the new AP, when you have been at school. She officially does not begin work till the last part of July, but she has been at Rann helping get things together, leading book studies when I have been called away to central, and lending a hand where ever it needs to be. She is pretty excited to be with us! Our theme for next year will be sports related, all of them, just take your pick, "We're in the Game for Kids!" Our student's needs change seasonally, as do the sports we partake in, and with each new season comes a burst of excitement and passion to do your best. We too are like this at Rann. As coaches we are continually striving to do better than the season before, always looking for new ways to help our students shine! So get your game plan and be ready to begin two a days soon! We are going all the way this year. THINK EXEMPLARY!!!! It can happen AGAIN!

Anybody Out There????

Hey everyone hope your summer has started off with a bang! I know I have been very busy, have actually only been on campus about 3 days. I went to Austin last week for the Elementary Principal Conference, got lots of good ideas, today I went to Tango Data Analysis Training at central, it was great!, will be at Keller for the next two days with Thinking Map Leadership Training, and then at San Antonio next week for the CSCOPE conference! I need to do some work at school, but just haven't had the chance to stay there long enough to get my thoughts together. I know you all have LA textbook training this week, I hope it is going good. Heard from a few of you that went to the Mentoring training that it was good. Let me know who is reading and receiving this, I would like to use it this summer for some discussions, so respond back to me so I will know. Also you can put post on here too, and start new strands. This is one goal for the new year, use more technology with us through a variety of ways. Have a great day and see you around!
Melonie