Parma Plan It: LEADING the way to the Final Stretch

Welcome back from a much needed and much deserved spring vacation. I hope you were able to rest and rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit. We enter the final stretch of this school year, and to be honest, I can't believe it. I hope you are able to look back at the first 3/4 of this year and realize the accomplishments we have made. I am overwhelmed with gratitude over your willingness to take on The Leader in Me for our students. It has been extra work, and it has taken extra time, and it has added roles to all of us. Right from the beginning, when this program was presented, and you heard how it would be benefit our students, everyone was all in. All in included 4 days of training during your summer, several days of cleaning and painting, and many hours planning and taking on additional roles as leaders of leaders. There have been two school wide "ideas" throughout my career that I have felt strongly about the potential to impact the school culture. One was Professional Learning Communities and the other is Leader in Me. I feel that we continue to become stronger and create a better school for our students and staff through our work and focus on transformational changes such as these.

I would like to share with you an email and photo I received from one of our parents while on vacation last week. This is from Erica Sponsler : (notice the tshirt)

"On the night of the MLKj assassination, RFK was in Indianapolis on a campaign stop. At this corner he got on the back of a flatbed truck and implored the people of Indianapolis to live the dream. To not react to the murder in violence but instead in peace. Indianapolis was one of the few major cities which 45 years ago today did not erupt in violence. MLKj and RFK working together one last time. This is what Leadership looks like.

This is my second favorite moment in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. So lucky to be here.

Stella told me about MLKj today and I told her about RFK."

Here are a couple more picture of a couple of our students on vacation:

This was posted on facebook this week by one of our parents:

Here are a few more Parma Leaders.....

I would follow these three anytime.....especially to the beach!

Our effort and work make all the difference in the world in the lives of our students. This is year one, and it is having an impact. I guarantee that our students are thinking more about leadership, being a leader, making good choices than ever before.

We have leadership day coming up in May, and we have much to show for our first year as A Leader in Me School. Let's help each other focus on the positive. Do we still have work to do? Absolutely, but we have come so far already. I love that Parma Elementary is always striving to be better, to do better! We are leaders, and don't you forget it! : )

This week at a glance:

We will be having random emergency drills this week, so please review procedures with your students.

Monday: 9:00 SE Team Meeting
Tuesday: 3:45 Lighthouse Team Meeting
Wednesday: Grades Y5 - 2 PLC Assembly
Thursday: 1:00 - 3:00 School Improvement Meeting
Thursday: 7:00 Kindergarten Parent Orientation
Friday: 8:00 Staff Meeting

Video worth viewing:

These are leaders in their field who were almost overlooked. Just shows we never know and can never, never, never give up!