Fixed!

The link to the pencil survey has been repaired - please try again!  Thank you for the emails notifying me of the problems.

New Pencil Slogan!

It is time to vote for a new slogan for the Sioux Trail pencils!  I'm going to keep the voting for a new slogan open for a little while to collect some votes!  Vote as often as you like and pass the word!

Click here Pencil Survey:

Academic Risk Takers

On Friday, November 19 we hosted the 2010 Sioux Trail Spelling Bee.  We had 19 contestants and ended up with two finalists and an alternate.  We live in a culture that makes a big deal about athletes and athletic competitions, but does not draw the same level of attention to academic endeavors.  I doubt my blog post is going to get the attention that our competitors deserve, but I'm going to do my part to recognize their hard work.  I am very proud of these students for getting up in front of a large group of parents, staff and their peers to do their best with spelling words that got more and more challenging.  This is a terrific example of risk taking and they did an outstanding job. One of our jobs as educators is to encourage students to try new things, take risks and put their best foot forward.  During the day our classrooms provide a safe place to do this and then we set up opportunities for students to step forward and take a chance. Congratulations to all of our contestants and to Tania and Rachel who will serve as the Sioux Trail representatives at the ISD 191 district spelling bee.

Sioux Trail Spelling Bees stats:
Number of contestants: 19
Total Number of Words: 152
Total Time: 130 minutes
Words removed from the competition: Alumni (the contestant asked for a definition and we discovered a different spelling (Alumnae) in the dictionary!)
Some of the words that stumped our contestants: premonition, connote, sympathize, nucleus

New Pencils

When I was hired as the principal at Sioux Trail Elementary School I wanted to share my excitement with all of the staff and students. I did this by purchasing pencils with the statement "Proud to be a Panther" I am still very proud to be a Panther, but that original set of pencils I brought with me are almost gone. I can't believe they have lasted this long (over three years!). The pencils are given away to student, staff or anyone else that can use one.

I'm seeking ideas for what is written on the new set of pencils that I order.

    * The ideas should be related to Sioux Trail Elementary School
    * The message should be positive
    * The message needs to be a single line and fit on a pencil
I will collect the ideas and then post a survey on the Panther Pages blog.

There are some choices you can choose from, or better yet, write your idea!

Thank you,
Mr. Akin

The form has some ideas, but I really want to get some original ideas.  I'll collect the ideas and set up a survey to vote for the best ones.

Got an idea? Please go to: New Pencil Ideas