Proud to be EV... The First Week of School

Wow! What an excellent week at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School! This truly has been one of the greatest first weeks of school in my educational career. The halls started out empty and slowly filled up with students whose lives I hoped would be affected in a positive way this school year~

The students managed to work around the parking lot situation with all of the construction taking place. This picture was taken towards the beginning of the week. The elementary classes came over to watch the walls be put in place. The junior and senior high school students were also given this opportunity. History is being made at EV~

On the first day of school an assembly was held at the beginning of the day. At that time I introduced myself, laid out some immediate expectations, and introduced new staff- the students were absolutely excellent. It was also exciting to listen to the club sponsors talk about their clubs and Mr. McCulley leading the students in a loud and boisterous EV cheer! When the assembly concluded, students were dismissed to their advisory classrooms to go over the handbook and take part in a leadership building activity. 

As I walked through and observed the activities in each classroom, I was in awe of how collaborative the students were in the task they were given. As I walked through the halls and peered into classrooms this week I could not help but get excited when I saw the enthusiasm displayed by the teachers in their classrooms.

The week ended with a "Spirit Assembly". 

I will be talking more about this in a later blog. Every Friday we run on a shortened schedule in the afternoon in order to hold a "Spirit Assembly". This is the time that we take to have class competitions and a pep rally. On weeks when there isn't a pep rally, we will just celebrate being who we are, English Valleys Bears. This assembly this week was run by the Student Council. They did an excellent job coordinating Tug-of-War. The juniors defeated the freshman, the seniors defeated the sophomores, the juniors then defeated the seniors in a really tough match! For the final match, several of our staff members defeated the juniors.

Fridays are "Spirit Days" in our building. Staff and students are encouraged to wear school colors or EV attire. We had 100% participation from staff and most of our students also took part in this display of school pride. What an excellent feeling to see the week end on such a note.

I am so proud of my students and staff. As I stated in a tweet on Friday, "So much pride today and tonight- words cannot describe it". Beyond this, I felt a sense of pride from so many in our district throughout the week. I feel like I am part of something really special and I believe that my students and staff feel the same way. I truly believe that this will be an excellent year and am looking forward to what next week will bring~

Go Bears!