"The more you focus on what's good, the more good you will see."

Time. Time is the holy grail of education. If we only had more time... Related to that quest, I recently read a book by Todd Whitaker (@ToddWhitaker) and Annette Breaux (@AnnetteBreaux), The Ten-Minute Inservice. Contained in the book are 40 quick (10-minutes) training sessions to build teacher effectiveness. Ten-minute training sessions! That's a manageable amount of time; 10-minutes is affordable.

The first inservice that I wanted to use at Riverside Elementary from the above mentioned book was 'Twenty-Five Reasons to Be Proud of Our School.' A quote that stood out from this chapter of the book inspired the title of this blog post. So with the help of several teachers we planned how we would deliver this to our staff at a staff inservice

First, we showed our staff a video containing of our students. Leading up to our inservice, I was stopping students in the hallway and asking them what they liked best about going to school at Riverside Elementary, or why they were proud to go to school at Riverside Elementary. After the students initially answered, I asked them if I could ask them again so that I could record their responses for a project that I was creating. The following is the iMovie that was shared with our staff.

After the video was shown, we presented an example of what each staff member was about to do next. Each staff member was given four paws to write four reasons why they were proud of our school. All of the paws were then collected and compiled into a giant Huskie paw, which now hangs near the front entrance of our school. We want everyone coming into Riverside Elementary School to know ALL of the reasons that our staff is proud of our school!

Below is a sampling (in no particular order) of the responses.

Proud of my school because...

1. ...of the kids. They are the most important part of our school.
2. ...we practice being respectful, responsible, and caring.
3. ...we have a great support system. The ESO has done a lot to help our school.
4. ...all of the great learning going on.
5. ...everyday the students make me smile.
6. ...we care about our students
7. ...our students and staff work hard everyday.
8. ...the staff never gives up on a student. They work hard with each child's education.
9. ...we are always learning new things.
10. ...we are a team.
11. ...it is fun to be at a smaller school where everyone knows the kids.
12. ...we have fun while learning.
13. ...we grow a little everyday and we are always getting better.
14. ...we have fun learning with the students.
15. ...the students are very creative.
16. ...our students show enthusiasm for learning.
17. ...the kids are so much fun.
18. ...our students are eager to learn.
19. ...we have parents that are involved and communicate.
20. ...our students are willing to help others.
21. ...our community is supportive and involved.
22. ...we are the Highland Huskies!
23. ...we get to be a part of a tight-knit community that is committed to kids.
24. ...teachers work together to improve student achievement.
25. ...it is very rewarding.

Hearing Our Students' Stories

One of the things that I hope we can accomplish through social media is to give our students at Riverside Elementary a voice in telling our story. To accomplish this, prior to Thanksgiving, I asked our fifth grade teachers to select a couple of students that I could work with and we found times that I could work with them that didn't cause any of the students to miss out on any new learnings in their classrooms. We started to work through the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising, drafting, and publishing) with a topic that I provided. Posted today are the finished products. So please enjoy what a small selection of our fifth grade students had to say when asked, what are you thankful for in regards to going to school at Riverside Elementary (I had planned to have this published by Thanksgiving, but plans don't always come to fruition; sorry).

Alyssa Clarke
I'm thankful for going to Riverside Elementary School for many reasons. We get to go on field trips, have pep rallies, watch good plays, and do the Walk-a-thon. The teachers help the students and are nice to us. I'm also thankful for going to this school because we get to do fund raisers that help us to buy things for our school like iPads for the teachers and our Promethean Boards. I'm really thankful for this school because the kids are respectful and caring to everyone; also, they help us when we need to be helped.

Matt Colbert

At Riverside Elementary I am thankful for our cooks and their good food.  Also, I am thankful for teachers, students, and friends who are respectful, responsible, and caring.  I am thankful for people that respect me and don’t say mean things, but instead say nice things.  I am thankful for our fun specials’ teachers: Mr. J, Ms. Feldman, Mrs. Burns, Ms. DeLacy, and Mrs. Pat; they are cool because they are nice and caring. Lastly, I am thankful for all the teachers and my principal.

Jocelyn Day
Thanksgiving isn't just about eating meals and getting together, it's also about thinking about what you're thankful for. I am thankful for being at this school every day because I get to see all these fun and nice teachers that help us with problems at recess, and do things to make learning fun. All the students at Riverside Elementary get a good education. The teachers are great because they let us have fun through learning programs and online things that help us learn. Our specials teachers do a great job at making sure we are good at what we do in our specials, and preparing us for our futures. Also, our students are respectful, responsible, and caring, which is the Huskie Way.

Grant Prybil

I am thankful to go to Riverside Elementary. Our good cooks make awesome food, and they have a good selection of food, too. We have people that teach us the best possible things that we need for our future. Our kids are very good at helping the teachers out,too. This school has money because we do all the fundraisers that allow the teachers to have iPads , Promethean Boards, good white boards, and other stuff for our classrooms. All of the specials teachers are very nice, too; they help us out with a lot of stuff.

Mr. Ewald

Riverside Elementary School is a great place! There are many things at this school that make me thankful. Number one among these things is the students; they are the best. I am, also, thankful for the willingness of our staff and students to work hard towards learning. I admire the staff for how eager they are to try new things.  As a result of the iPads and everything else that we are provided with for our staff, students, and school, our Elementary Support Organization (ESO) deserves recognition of our thanks. Furthermore, it should be known that the exceptional involvement and support that we receive from all of our parents and families that contributes toward our students' education causes a great sense of gratitude amongst us.

It is my hope to continue to work with various small groups of students throughout the school year so that our kids - our best storytellers in our school - have a platform where they can share.