Snow Days

On a serious note, there is an increasing confidence that we will see some sort of winter weather between Thursday evening and Saturday morning. I will send out notification to you via text message if and when a decision is reached concerning delays or cancellations. The district also attempts to make contact with all employees when winter weather affects our schedule. Furthermore, you can look for a decision to be posted on our ASD1 website and stay tuned to local news channels for announcements as well. The brief period of snow we witnessed today during dismissal was certainly beautiful and it was fun to see our students so excited. In the south, we get a little carried away at the prospect of snow ...

Penny Sales Tax:
Have you noticed the monitors in the front lobby, cafeteria and media center? The new portable amplification system in the media center? How about our new Clear Touch interactive board? These items were purchased using the first round of penny sales tax money available to our district. This money is specifically earmarked for technology and equipment. Next up will be our Art, Music, and P.E. programs receiving some money to upgrade equipment and make new purchases to enhance our classrooms. We will also receive money to significantly upgrade our presentation system in the multi-purpose room. We will keep you updated on our progress in terms of spending these monies, but it is certainly nice to be able to use the penny sales tax money to better the product we offer to our students!

Talent Show:
Thanks to the many of you who assisted Mrs. Turner in the tryouts that took place for our upcoming Talent Show. We were able to select many talented students to perform. I am also appreciative of the many teachers and staff who will be opening our Talent Show with a little dance number. You will not want to miss that! A reminder that our Talent Show is held on Thursday, January 28th beginning at 6:00 PM at Powdersville High School. Some of you will be dancing that night. Some of you will be serving that night. And some of you will simply be there to support us. Thanks for that!

PRIDE:
We have always prided ourselves in having the best behaved students and have received many compliments about our students from visitors in our building. Some of you have approached me and mentioned that our hallway behavior is not up to standard. I agree. Please help us in dedicating some time and effort into making sure our students understand the pride we take in walking in the "third block" quietly at all times. Feel free to ask your class to practice and hold them accountable for their hallway behavior. It certainly helps when the teacher is present with the class and sets the tone for her students. Thanks for your help with this!

Guidance Corner:
I wanted to mention a few important announcements that impact your classrooms related to Tammy Lee and guidance. First of all, Tammy sent an email out today about our EAFK virtues for the third nine weeks. They are perseverance and discipline. With a crucial stretch of learning now underway, I can think of no better virtues to discuss and highlight with our students. Tammy will visit your classes to spend some time discussing these virtues. She will also need to speak to your class about sexual abuse prevention through Erin's Law. Bless her for taking this on! Finally, we will have our next RTI meeting on Wednesday, January 27th beginning at 2:45 P.M. If you need to be on the agenda, email Tammy as soon as possible.


Now, let's take a look at some coolness happening at PVES...

Early Act First Knight ceremonies were special events and make a huge impression on students and parents alike. I want to compliment all of our teachers for the thoughtful comments you prepared about your students. As I told parents in attendance, we all want our students to do well academically and athletically, but being recognized for showing compassion and tolerance is a big deal. These virtues will serve our students well in life. A special "thank you" to Randy Thompson, Stacey Turner, Lindsay Nix, Michelle Young, Deb Fowler, Kelle Martin, Tammy Lee, Melissa Tollison, Patty Ellison and Lisa Booth for their hard working in preparing for our knighting ceremonies. From setting up the stage to mailing out letters and preparing parent brochures, this group is dedicated to making our EAFK program a special event!

Our 5th graders have been reading... a lot! And last week we celebrated with our second badge ceremony. Over 200 badges were earned by our 5th grade readers. I was proud of our students for showing such an interest in reading and more proud of our teachers for making reading a priority. Students were proudly wearing their badges after the ceremony and that was wonderful to see.

Jessica Preisig led our latest Digital Playground event this past Tuesday and it was all about wonderings. We enjoyed popcorn was we discussed "wonder walls" in classrooms and other wonderings our teachers wanted to share. It was great to see such a large crowd of teachers dedicated to this activity and, more importantly, dedicated to collaborating with their peers. This is when true change and growth occurs. I hope we will have our biggest crowd yet at our next Digital Playground event!

And last, but not least, for this week is our third grade team. If you haven't heard of PBL (Problem-Based Learning) then get used to the term. It's real world learning centered on solving a problem. It can involve many curricular areas and take weeks of planning and instruction to complete. In my humble opinion, it's a direction we need to consider heading if we are serious about preparing our students for college and career. We are excited about our third grade PBL that we "kicked off" in style with a guest speaker who posed the problem to our students: How can we create a healthy honey bee hive? I am trusting third grade with documenting their journey and sharing their successes with us. Be on the lookout for hashtag #webeelearning and stay tuned for more!

Moore's Musings:

• Our faculty picture will be taken on Monday, January 25th at 3:15 at the lion mural. Please wear your blue school shirt (and blue jeans) on this day. 
• Mr. Havird and our district teachers of the year will be in our building on Friday morning. We are proud to host them in room 102.

Mark Your Calendar:

• January 21st: Talent Show Rehearsal #1 in the MP Room from 2:35-5:00 P.M. (meet in music room first)
• January 22nd: Class Pictures in the morning. We will start with grade 5. Thanks in advance for being flexible. 
• January 25th: Staff picture at 3:15 P.M.
• January 26th: AdvancED Committee 5 Meeting from 8:00-11:30 A.M. in PD Room.
• January 26th: Talent Show Final Rehearsal at PVHS from 2:35-5:00 P.M.
• January 28th: PVES Talent Show at PVHS from 6:00-8:00 P.M.
• January 29th: PVES Spelling Bee held in MP Room from 8:15-10:00 A.M. 

Video of the Week: My Favorite Talent Show Skit