Light Snow Delights Campers

The sixth grade students were delighted this afternoon by a brief flurry of snow, followed by some light hail. I heard some screams, looked outside and realized why they were so excited. Some of the students had never seen snow fall before. The snow quickly melted and the hail stayed on the ground for a few minutes.

The photo on the right, taken from my cabin's front porch, shows the cafeteria on the right and the gym on the left and hail on the front rail.

This second photo shows a group of students getting some great excercise and having a lot of fun in the process.

The sixth grade students are very thankful to the entire Emerson community for their hard work in sending them to camp.

Congratulations to Emerson's History Winners!

2010 Riverside County History Day Winners

Second Place in the 4th /5th Grade Posters: Innovation & Change in Prosthetics: Regaining Mobility and Independence, Rachael Newhall, Emerson Elementary

Third Place in the 4th /5th Grade Posters: Candle, Lighting the Future, Madison Ramirez, Emerson Elementary

Pictured with our students is Riverside County Superintendent of Schools, Kenneth M. Young.

Our winners will advance to the History Day in California-State Finals May 7-9, 2010, in Pasadena. The national competition is scheduled for June 13-17, 2010.

Congratulations to Rachel and Madison!

Students Write to First Lady Obama

Emerson students are spending time this week writing personal letters to First Lady Michelle Obama to invite her to the April 16, 2010 celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Riverside Unified School District’s Farmers’ Market Salad Bar.

Students plan to gather in the school office on Thursday, March 25 at 1 PM to personally hand over the letters for delivery to make sure they make their way safely to Washington D.C.

Nutrition Services Director Rodney Taylor stated, “We know that Mrs. Obama is passionate in her fight against childhood obesity and we applaud her efforts. For the past five years, our district has worked to increase healthy eating in students through our Farmers’ Market Salad Bar program, which has grown into one of the largest of its kind in the country. We want to show Mrs. Obama what can be done when a community comes together for the benefit of its children.”

Riverside’s nationally-recognized salad bar program includes fruits and vegetables grown at local farms. At Emerson, students plant and grow their own produce for the school salad bar. The award-winning RUSD salad bar program is a powerful tool in the fight against childhood obesity as the school district works to build healthy minds and bodies.”

Several federal, state, and local dignitaries are scheduled to attend the April 16 anniversary celebration, which begins at 8:45 AM on Friday, April 16 at Emerson.

Please click on the video icon above to see a great public service announcement.

Phone Service Limited, Email Off-Line

Phone service and email was off line for most of the school daywith a problem at the ATT network box. Service was restored after 1 p.m. in the afternoon.

Report Cards Sent Home

Report cards were sent home on Friday for all elementary students. Click here for a quick review of the reading themes. For Grades 2 through 6, most grades will include Themes 2 and 3 (some work from Theme 4) and math will include the second and third benchmarks. For grades 2 through 6, that's Topics 6 through 14, and some lessons in Topic 15. Click here for the topic lists for each grade. Our report card is a standards-based report card, meaning that students recieve a mark for their performance to grade-level standards. Click here for a copy of the standards.
This blog post was copied from the Elementary Education blog.

Open House Tonight!

Emerson's Open House is tonight! The PTA will be serving pizza tonight at 5:30 and the classrooms will be open from 6 p.m. until 7:30

Just Walking Through

There are numerous urgent issues for a principal, but probably none as important as visiting classrooms. My supervisor, Mrs. Judi Paredes, walked through 14 classrooms with me on Thursday. Walking through classrooms helps us to see strenths, potential problems and trends.

If you drove your child to school on Thursday, you probaby saw a line of black life-size silhouettes across the street from the school. The school staff stood with the silhouettes, which represented the Emerson teachers who may not return to Emerson next year.

As you pulled into the school, you may have also noticed that the parking lot was empty. While the parking lot won't really be empty next year (we will probably only lose three teaching positions), it was a dramatic visualization representing the impact of the drastic cuts on California school districts.

When Mrs. Paredes drove into the empty parking lot, she kept on going, joining the staff by parking across the street. Dressed in black, like the rest of the Emerson staff, she walked with me through fourteen classrooms. As we walked, we lamented the impact that the economic circumstances will force on both the teachers as well as its potential impact on the students next year.

Usually when we pass through the classrooms, we ask questions such as, "What are the students learning?" or "Were all of the students engaged in the lesson?" But not so much on Thursday- our hearts were heavy for 14 Emerson teachers. In addition to the implications of the lay-offs of teachers, how will the increased number of students per class impact learning next year?

Just walking through the classrooms never felt more important.

Conversation Over Pancakes

While many stories could probably be told about the Pancake Breakfast last Saturday, the most meaningful has been the connection that RUSD Superintendent Rick Miller made with two Emerson teachers.

Two recently hired teachers (who are on the lay-off list) entered the cafeteria together, as if by Divine appointment, with Dr. Miller at about 7 a.m. The teachers admittedly felt awkward as they knew who he was but chose to sit down with him anyway. "Does he know that we are getting laid off? Does he know what this could do to my family?" they wondered. Dr. Miller immediately started talking with Monica and Brandi, asking about their jobs, their tenure, their families, and the horrible economic conditions forcing teacher lay-offs throughout the state. They connected over pancakes. It could be easy for them to villianize an unknown administrator, assuming that he doesn't care about their plight. But after sitting down together and sharing a meal, the teachers realized that Dr. Miller is a real person who is genuinely torn apart by what is happening in our schools. While you may be saying "Go light on the syrup and butter, please, Mr. McCombs," I hope that you'll understand the importance of face-to-face personal communication...which is even better shared over a meal.

Dr. Miller spoke about his connection with the Emerson teachers during the school board meeting last night. He publicly expressed his appreciation for the two Emerson teachers with whom he shared pancakes, explaining that they could have expressed their anger or bitterness by staying home, but instead they went to school on a Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to volunteer their support for a school fundraiser. He realizes that these teachers who pour their hearts into their work everyday will be without work. The Emerson teachers are not numbers to Dr. Miller, they have families and they dedicate their full efforts to students every day.

Many great stories could be told about the Pancake Breakfast, such as how we raised almost $4,ooo, or how pies were thrown in the faces of the administration. But without a doubt, the greatest story developed through a chance conversation shared by three selfless professionals over a stack of pancakes.