"A Beautiful Grind"

Glass Beach Fort Bragg, California

Our first week of school has come and gone.  We all have experienced the excitement in the start of the school year.  Sooner or later, most are sooner and some come later, the new wears off and we, meaning both the adults and kids, will fall into a routine.  This routine can start to wear us down. Educators are not alone in this, for everyone who has a task of doing something over and over again every day.  This is just a simple fact of life.  Get up, go to _____, go home, go to bed, and then start all over again.  If not careful we can fall into a rut and the joy of day can be ground down by the routine.   I would encourage everyone to be, not only be physically, but most importantly mentally present in their day.  By doing so we will see so many "small miracles" in our daily routine.  These "small miracles" end up becoming a bigger story in our lives. Take the picture above as an example.   This is a picture of "Glass Beach" in Fort Bragg, California. What most people might think is trash is actually broken pieces of glass bottles which have been smoothed over by the waves and sand.  Our, and the students, daily routine can break us down or make us into something beautiful.  It's all a matter of a choice in our own perspective.

As we start moving throughout the year I'm always looking for ways to inform the staff on new and innovative ways of doing education different and hopefully better.  I think this is important to stay up and new trends and ways to reach and teach our students.  Check out the new trends in education in the links below.

Everything you want to know about Flexible Classroom Seating.  I would really encourage all grades levels in considering this in their classroom.  Sometimes it can be as simple as allowing students to stand in the back of the room or sitting in another area of the classroom.  I know as an adult it helps me to stand when I have sitting for long periods of time.

Moving Away from Behavior Charts in an Elementary Classroom

Building Relationships in the Classrooms

I want to let you all know the you have permission to experiment and even fail in trying something new in your classroom.  I'm a firm believer in the following saying by Nelson Mandela.

I would like to spotlight some great items by our staff and students from the start of the school year.


A big shout out the elementary teachers, kids, bus drivers, Bret Ricke, Monte Miller, and most importantly our community of parents and/or guardians.  Because of everyone's efforts our bus loading and unloading zones are very safe for our kids and the vehicles whom enter our school zones.  You will notice new crossing lines painted, courtesy of Bret and Monte, on the street south of our elementary building.  Thank you everyone for helping keep everyone safe!



Another shout out for the cheerleaders and Ms. Polson for putting together the Back to School Photo Booth.  Here is a picture of the line which was forming on the first day of school!  Fun to watch!

Lastly, I want to draw your attention to Mr. Farhing's first hour Carpentry Class.  In order to apply the knowledge he has been teaching in the class he has been meeting his students at our old, soon to be new, grocery store and helping with the remodeling project.  This is a great example of using partnerships with school and community to have students use real world application skills.  Here are some of pictures of our young men at work!  

A few updates on policy and procedures:

The Jr. and Sr. High School Student Handbook is being reviewed by the Student Council and Class Officers past Thursday and Friday.  I'm sure it will take longer than just two meetings to review, ask questions, research, and eventually settle on any revisions.  Hopefully we can work together and get the review process completed in a short period of time.  

Crisis Drills will start up in September.  The first one will be a scheduled drill with plenty of notification by the office.  I will have resources available to use for the classroom.  This include all ages Pre-school through Seniors.  I also will be sending out information to our parents and community so they are well informed.  In the mean time please review the Crisis Plan for Attica Public Schools.  I also need to remind everyone that school officials are only allowed to give five minutes warning for a Fire Drill.  This is to prevent any premeditated incidents by someone wanting to harm our students or staff.

Culture Audit:  We will be catching up the other half of our staff on September 13th and 14th.  Please allow for some flexibility within the work day to meet for about one hour with the VenturedIN consultants.  I have a list of names, you will have to go to second tab on the bottom of the sheet, on the September Training Google sheet.  If your name is listed then you are involved on either the 13th or 14th of September.  I will follow up with the participants before those dates to let them know the schedules for the two days.

Thank you all for everything you are doing for our kids!  They could not have a good day if you didn't help them through their day!  I end on this great quote from St. Bernard Clairvaux of the late 1000 A.D.  When reading it think about how you retain and disperse your gifts and energy to our kids and parents.

“The person who is wise, therefore, will see his/her life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself ...

Welcome Back to School!

It's one of the biggest understatements of the year to say how excited I am to start 
this new journey at Attica Public Schools. I want to thank everyone, staff and 
community members alike, for making me feel so welcome to my new position.  
I know all of you have also made our new faculty members feel very welcomed to 
our school!  I would encourage everyone to take that same type of energy and use it 
to welcome our kids and families back to the new school year.
One of the most exciting things about the start of a school year is the new 
beginning it creates for all of our students, families, and staff. Old memories are 
cherished from last year and new ones are made throughout this school year.  
To kick our year off I would like to have a few areas of emphasis we could focus on 
as a staff. The links below will help guide us through the themes we can all set our 
intentions on through out each and every day with our students.

Love in Education

Be present with the students!

Trauma with Understanding not Discipline

How do you want to welcome them everyday into your classroom?  Do you want 
to use handshakes, high-fives, fist-bumps, hugs or come up with your own way to 
greet? The research on greeting whether it be a handshake or some other type of 
greeting sends a message to our unconscious state that "people think positive of 
one another. Here is a great article to reinforce this state.  

Handshake and the Meaning.  

As the school starts and moves throughout the year, I would encourage you to 
think about how to greet your students everyday at the start of the day but also 
each time they come into your room.

The next topic I want to focus on is something that has been talked about in 
education for years, but this time with a different spin. Most of you have heard about 
closing the "Achievement Gap" in education. I would like for us to focus on closing 
the “Opportunity Gap" for our students. In a small rural community sometimes 
students don’t know what they don’t know.  Let’s show and give them the 
opportunities which are out in our world. The videos below are just a few examples
of the opportunities for careers which will become a way of life for us.

Amazon Prime Air

Amazon Unmanned Airships

Amazon Go

Is this technology used in Kansas?  Amazon has three major 
"Fulfillment Centers". Kansas City, Gardner, and Lenexa, Kansas.  
The link below not only uses technology in Kansas but also right here 
in Attica, USA! Realtor and Google Maps  

So how do we help our students work towards the jobs which don't even 
exist today?  Research will discuss getting kids to learn in a collaborative 
setting. This will reinforce social and emotional kids need in their future.  
Learn to have a state of mind which looks for solutions, opportunities and 
choices. Academic skills are needed but they are not the point of emphasis 
in student learning. Have them start learning about who they are and how 
they operate in hardships and joyful moments. This Future Jobs article 
helps reinforce what I'm referring to.
This new school year will be an adventure is new to some of us and 
routine to others.  Together, with our students and families, we can make it 
exciting school year for all of us!