Once again, my school did something amazing today!
The Wellness Committee organized a day to partner with Stop Hunger Now to provide meals for people in third world countries. Every grade level worked for one hour to bag meals, and by the end of the day, we had enough meals to feed 10,000 people!
It was amazing to see the students have so much fun and jump right in to do whatever needed to be done. Even six year olds were so happy to find a job that worked for them. Some were fillers and filled bags with rice, some were runners and took the filled bags to the weighers and sealers, who weighed and sealed the bags. More were runners who ran the sealed bags to the packers, who counted the right number of bags to box up and ship out. There was incredible teamwork and enthusiasm, and no one complained. What a powerful lesson and special experience for our students AND teachers!
What struck me most about this day is how wonderful it is to work in a school with parents and administrators who understand that there is more to school than book work and test scores. Even with end-of-grade tests approaching, our administrators and parents didn't think twice about missing class time. They understand that lessons like the ones learned today are life skills and in many ways are more important than lessons on fractions or grammar. What if more schools understood this? Even better, what if our politicians understood this? What if members of our General Assembly could see for themselves and understand how wonderful today was. The experience today was far more memorable and meaningful for our students than studying and taking standardized tests.
Once again, my school inspired me. And once again, it served as a powerful example of what a public school should be.
The Wellness Committee organized a day to partner with Stop Hunger Now to provide meals for people in third world countries. Every grade level worked for one hour to bag meals, and by the end of the day, we had enough meals to feed 10,000 people!
It was amazing to see the students have so much fun and jump right in to do whatever needed to be done. Even six year olds were so happy to find a job that worked for them. Some were fillers and filled bags with rice, some were runners and took the filled bags to the weighers and sealers, who weighed and sealed the bags. More were runners who ran the sealed bags to the packers, who counted the right number of bags to box up and ship out. There was incredible teamwork and enthusiasm, and no one complained. What a powerful lesson and special experience for our students AND teachers!
What struck me most about this day is how wonderful it is to work in a school with parents and administrators who understand that there is more to school than book work and test scores. Even with end-of-grade tests approaching, our administrators and parents didn't think twice about missing class time. They understand that lessons like the ones learned today are life skills and in many ways are more important than lessons on fractions or grammar. What if more schools understood this? Even better, what if our politicians understood this? What if members of our General Assembly could see for themselves and understand how wonderful today was. The experience today was far more memorable and meaningful for our students than studying and taking standardized tests.
Once again, my school inspired me. And once again, it served as a powerful example of what a public school should be.