Our school celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week by treating our teachers like superheroes...
Lots of elementary schools have several fund raisers a year... selling candy bars or wrapping paper door to door... but our school has always tried to keep it to one fund raiser per year and we've tried to avoid having the kids ask everyone they know to buy something they don't need or want. Our school for many years has done a fall carnival to raise money, which has always been so much work and took 50 or more parent volunteers to staff (I can take no credit for having planned any of the carnivals, but I do know what it was to show up and take my turn at a station or two). The carnival was always a lot of fun for the kids, but it really ended up being a big candy and junk toy fest. Now I love candy with the best of them, I just hate to see it given so freely and so often to the kids at school. Last year when I was really active with our PTA I was thrilled that our yearly carnival fund raiser didn't work out because of construction on our school grounds. At the PTA conference the spring before we heard of a few schools that did a Walk-A-Thon for their fund raiser and we thought with the construction going on last year it was a good time to try a change. As the health commissioner I was glad to see the kids doing a healthy activity to earn money instead of paying for junk. The Walk-A-Thon was a great success and much less work, and this year I was thrilled to see that the current PTA brought it back!
Coleman and Olivia loved it...
Coleman was so funny... I went to cheer them on and walked a lap with each of them. About half way through Coleman asked if I maybe wanted to rest, so he could run again. Poor kid, his mom was slowing him down!
Liv had fun walking and running with her friends...
...but my favorite sight was the two of them walking together. I have loved hearing them talk about how excited they are to be at school together and to find each other at recess... I'm so glad Liv is willing to be her brother's keeper and watch out for him.
Both of them ended up walking over three miles in just an hour... pretty impressive!
**Aren't you glad we didn't hit you up for a magazine subscription, a box of candy bars, or some overpriced wrapping paper?
A week after we got home I got to host book club (for a great book--The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch) and I still had Paris in my heart and taste buds... so I made or bought some yummy foods that reminded me of my trip. You might notice my toile tablecloth (happily purchased at a discount price at JoAnn Fabric) and Eiffel Tower and Fleur de Lis (also purchased here in the States at a discount store). You have to love that I bought my Paris souvenirs in the U.S. and a couple of them were more than likely made in China. Oh well... they still remind me of a fabulous trip and I didn't spend a fortune on them.
I made crepes and served them with Nutella and bananas (or butter and sugar). I made ham and cheese quiche (although I would have purchased the mini-quiches from Costco if they had been in stock). I served cream puffs (thank you Costco) and chocolate-croissants (thanks refrigerated crescent rolls and chocolate chunks). And I pulled out all the stops and served the very baguettes I had stuffed in my luggage (we froze it right when we got home) with Laughing Cow cheese (thanks to Costco again). We even had sherbet (not nearly as tasty as the sherbet from Ile de St. Louis) with ginger ale (my beverage of choice on all flights going anywhere, including Paris). I don't think anyone there was nearly impressed with everything I pulled off for that night as I was with myself... it had been my first full day at my clinic and we had a soccer game for Coleman in between, but somehow the house managed to get clean and the food got made, just in time for my lovely book club friends to come over and enjoy it with me.
The next week I had signed up to decorate a door for our PTA's Teacher Appreciation week... the theme had something to do with our teachers being world-class and so Olivia asked her teacher what her dream vacation was... she was so kind in saying that she was dying to go to Paris (I am sure she had compassion for me and knew that I could easily put something together about Paris). We came up with this rendition of the Eiffel Tower (complete with gem sparkly things for the lights they turn on at night) and put random sayings about Paris and our fabulous and wonderful Mrs. Rhodes who has been a great teacher for Olivia this year.
I think those two projects sufficiently got Paris out of my system... although we are still enjoying a baguette every few days and will likely keep the Laughing Cow cheese and Nutella a staple in our fridge and pantry....
Our PTA has felt that there is much in the world that drags us down. We wanted to help our kids focus on good things, so we dubbed February
This year I somehow got roped into being the Health Commissioner for our school PTA (read: Enthusiastically Volunteered For...). We celebrated Red Ribbon Week the last week of October and it was crazy busy. Our school combines the anti-drug message with the anti-violence message (denial that there is a problem with either in our quaint community?). I can say with all honesty that I am relieved and happy it is over. I think it went well--we had a lot of great ideas that were hard to implement with over a thousand students, but we did our best.
While I was gathering ideas, I read that fun activities for kids don't really make that big of a difference when it comes to choosing whether or not to do drugs. There was also some history about how they've tried to educate kids about drugs--they started off teaching about individual drugs, their effects, what overdoses were like, etc. This didn't deter kids. So they moved on to scare tactics--"This is your brain on drugs" type things or pictures of someone with a rotted out nasal cavity from cocaine and that didn't work well either. Another way was to have motivational speakers do assemblies and talk about the horrible things drugs do, how hard it was to get clean, and how kids should never, ever try drugs. Apparently, it took the opposite effect and kids thought, "Hey, if they can overcome it, I could too!" I remember all of those tactics--and although I've never tried drugs, I'm not sure any of those messages was the reason that kept me from doing them. More than the messages from school, it was a deeper moral conviction and a desire to keep control of myself that kept me from seeking out drugs. Aside from that, I had a pretty sheltered childhood and adolescence, and don't recall ever being somewhere that drugs were being used in close proximity (the stoner hall at school and some concerts aside). I was a good-girl through and through, which isn't a bad thing.
So, in preparing for Red Ribbon Week, I was pretty discouraged about what we could do to help kids so they wouldn't want to experiment with drugs. Finally, I found some scientific research that said that informing parents and giving them tools to talk to their kids would improve the chances that kids would actually say no to drugs. So, we provided parents with some solid information and then did the "fluff" with the kids during the week. We are trying to avoid giving treats at every turn (we are meeting with some opposition, from the kids especially) because I don't believe kids need or should get something every time they do something, especially if it's candy. I love candy and junk food, but I provide enough of that at home for my family, they don't need to get it at school too! We had to get creative, but it all turned out well.
Here are some of the highlights:
On Monday we had the kids sign a banner, pledging that they would say no to drugs and violence. They kept asking, "What do we get for signing?" and my response was always the same: "You got to sign the banner!" Each student got a red plastic bracelet in their classes (thanks to a donation from our school district) and we encouraged them to wear them all week.
"Tie One On" Tuesday--we put the message in the fence with cups and the kiddos tied red ribbons all over and they wore crazy ties.
I felt a little ghetto pushing the cups in, but it was very legible and the kids thought it was great. Unfortunately after 36 hours someone pushed every single cup through. So much for a strong anti-violence message (is vandalism VIOLENT or just really disrespectful?). In any case, I was bugged, and spent some time picking up 400 cups off of the ground.
On Wednesday the kids turned in a pledge they had signed saying that they would respect themselves and others--and say no to drugs and violence. They did get a prize that day (a Red Ribbon Week pencil!) and they were happy.
Thursday was "Inside Out Day" (because drugs and violence turn you inside out). Olivia wore her jeans inside out, but wanted to wear her Halloween t-shirt right side out so she'd match the lunch ladies.
Friday was Halloween and we encouraged the kids to wear their costumes. We had Halloween stamps for their hands and had put up a little surprise in the lunchroom. Each student decorated a ghost and we hung them all over the walls.
I am amazed at how much work goes into PTA activities. We had so much help from other moms, teachers, and administrators--and being with the kids made it all worthwhile. PTA moms become celebrities when they show up with trinkets and activities during recess!
**What anti-drug messages do you remember?
Last night was our Back To School Night... it's hard to believe that summer is almost over and school will start next week! Our school is under construction to add several desperately needed new classrooms and a renovated office and kitchen. In addition, there is road construction on every road to and around the school... should make for an interesting time getting our kiddoes TO school!
Last year I split a PTA responsibility with a friend and this year decided I was a big enough girl to do the job on my own--so I am the PTA Health Commissioner and will be in charge of Red Ribbon Week (drug awareness/safety) and lining up volunteers for vision and hearing screening. I have grand visions of doing a bunch of health/fitness/disease prevention awareness campaigns, but my hope for a bulletin board isn't looking so good... so we'll see what I can do! I also want our school to be a Gold Medal School... so I came armed with all sorts of sign up sheets with my display. We had a lower than hoped for turn out (maybe due to the construction???) so I only got a few to commit. Do you want to help?
Olivia and Coleman were troopers. We met Olivia's new teacher (who seems incredible!) and then they got to hang out with me. They entertained themselves by forming a conga line with their buddies (whose mama's were also staffing PTA displays) and singing out "cha cha cha cha cha CHA!" in less than quiet voices.
We were all quite proud to catch Liam's jump in front of the camera, the kids thought that photo was hilarious.
Liv, J.D., Sarah, Megan, and Addie in their conga line.
**How can I find more PTA volunteers (I'm not above bribery)?
**Do you like to conga?
