SPIRIT...You just won a not so new van!!!!

This past school year some of my teacher buddies and I decided that the climate at our school was SUPER LAME. So we created a school improvement program called SPIRIT

S - Success

P - Pride

I - Integrity

R - Respect

I - Involvement

T - Teamwork

We came up with school rules (we focused on what to do and not on what not to do) that all had to do with SPIRIT, we held monthly assemblies to recognize students and staff for all the positive things they were doing, we had contests, student of the week, student/staff of the month, SPIRIT bucks that could be earned to buy cool stuff, etc. Basically, we were trying to recognize the kids that were already doing positive things at school and we tried to motivate others to join this positive behavior and attitude movement. I could write a book on all the things we tried to do last year...some successful, some not so much.

One of the fun things we did was the ROCK STAR AWARD. To be eligible for the drawing you had to meet the following criteria for the WHOLE school year!

- 4 or less excused absences

- no referrals

- no tardies

- no incompletes (our school did not have D's or F's only INCOMPLETES)

Needless to say, only 12 kids qualified for the drawing. We had the mechanics class buy a car and fix it up. We were hoping for maybe a "cooler" car, but we played it up and a great kid won this "groovy" van.

If you are really bored you can click on the links below to see our main SPIRIT documents.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7YlmUOcfO9bNDQxYjc0NDktZGZmNy00ZWRlLTg2ODgtMGIwYzkzNjdlNzUx&hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7YlmUOcfO9bNWEyMmNmYTItNmU3OS00MDU2LTk1ZGYtOGZjZDZjMzRlYzNk&hl=en_US

Copper War

A lovely young lady, Hannah Olheiser came to me one day in my classroom requesting me to be the sponsor in her desire to raise money for The Make a Wish Foundation. She told me a touching story of her inspiration and how could I possibly say no?

The first thing we did was sponsor a Copper War at our school. We put all the 4th period classes on 10 different teams. I was the captain of the purple team. You put pennies in your own team jars and them silver coins and dollars in other people's jars. Pennies are positive points and all other money are negative points. Your quest is to stay in the positive. Of course I bragged all over school that my team would win. I even wrote a "beautiful" song about how the purple team would be victorious and sang it on the video announcements. Of course, if you tell teenagers that you will win, they will do everything in their power to make you lose. It was AMAZING to watch the students and teachers be so generous and competitive. Just when you think teens are selfish and too self-absorbed to serve or give to others, they surprise you. What a great experience. As could be expected my team ended up losing (we were something like negative 12,000 points - even after bringing in 150 bucks in pennies), BUT we raised the most money. All in all we ended up raising almost $1300 to help grant some wonderful child dealing with a horrible illness their wish. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few of the kids that volunteered to come in a count all that money.

Zombie Gina

I am a high school teacher. We had dress up days for homecoming week. I LOVE to dress up. One of the days they had Generations Day.

Freshmen = babies

Sophmores = toddlers

Junior = Adults

Seniors = Senior Citizens

Teachers = Zombies

As you can see I am quite the zombie. I looked even better at school because I ripped up an old lab coat and goggles. I said I died from teaching 9th grade science. Plus I tried to stay in character as much as possible all day long. Lots of grunting and weird walking.

SOOOOO FUN!!!!!!!!