Showing posts with label Success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Success. Show all posts

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Exciting Day!

The first day of school is always an exciting day and I look forward to it each year. As a teacher and now as a principal, I always get very excited about our first day together. On September 7 all the Sioux Trail students in first through sixth grade will join us and then our Kindergarten students join the group on September 9 and we will be ready to formally resume our mission.

We've gone through the transitions from me and the custodial staff alone in the building, to Mrs. Cenci joining us and then all of the teachers joined us last week. The building is ready to go and all of the people who make a Sioux Trail the wonderful educational community that it is are excited and ready to work hard towards continued personal and educational success. I hope that the summer break has been restful for all and we'll resume our work on Tuesday.

I had an enjoyable summer, which included a great trip to Montana. Despite having an enjoyable summer I question the need for a three month vacation from school. Changing that is out of my control right now, but leading a group of staff dedicated to ensuring student success and increased academic achievement for all students in well within my control and something that I am passionate about. This work is not done in isolation but by working within what I call the "triangle of success". The "triangle of success" is formed by school staff, the student and the parents or family working together to support and achieve increased academic achievement.

As we kickoff the first day of school, we're making one side of triangle very visible by wearing our new Sioux Trail shirts. The purchase was made possible by our PTO and money raised through Spring school photos. The shirts make our pride in Sioux Trail very clear as well as the new name for Sioux Trail staff - Trail Guides.

Friday, August 20, 2010

TRAIL Blazer Club

Dear Panther Pages Reader,

You are invited to join Sioux Trail students for a monthly meeting of the Sioux Trail "TRAIL Blazer Club". I believe that being successful fuels our willingness to try new things and be the best we can be. At Sioux Trail our primary goal is increased student achievement and one of the ways we achieve this is by helping students be successful.

One of the methods we are using to recognize success is through "TRAIL cards". Students who are "caught" making good choices may receive a TRAIL Card at any time during the school year from any Sioux Trail staff member. These cards contain messages which offer positive reinforcement and encourage students to continue making good choices. Students have several options when they receive a TRAIL card. One of the options is entering the TRAIL Card in a drawing for lunch with special guest and me at a monthly meeting of the TRAIL Blazer Club.

There will be a meeting of the TRAIL Blazer Club each month and I'm inviting adult members of the Siuox Trail community to join me at a meeting(s). We will be meeting during student lunch times and there will be four to eight students per grade level each time. The meetings are approximately two hours long as students will rotating in during their half-hour lunch times. When we meet students will share what types of good choices they are making, learn about you and what types of choices you have made to be successful. In the beginning of the school year I will share with students what the acronym TRAIL means to me and we'll discuss what it means to them at the TRAIL Blazer Club meetings.

Students will be providing their own lunch, but I'll be providing a treat for dessert and lunch for our special guests. I hope that we will have a wide variety of special guests and if you are interested please let me know and I will email you the meeting schedule. There are two meetings each month which provides for an uninterrupted meeting for each grade level. In addition to inviting all of our blog readers I have extended the invitation the ISD 191 school board members, ISD 191 distrct administration and elected state and national officials. If you are able to join us please contact me and let me know which month(s) you'd like to participate.

Thank you,
Taber Akin