One day ends, time for some thank you's...

The 8th graders have been promoted to ninth grade and they head off to keep building their dreams at the high school level. Their journey here lays the foundation for what lies ahead. I still look back fondly on my elementary teachers and the memories I have of them...

Mrs. Parmelee in Kindergarten, who was kind and sparked the joy of learning in me and let us play with the big lego blocks to make ships...
Mrs. Apfel, a tall fire breathing, bee hive sporting woman who I remember teaching us the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance...
Mrs. Pritchard who tried to get me to stop biting my finger nails... it finally worked, although I think I was closer to 40 year old than I was to 8!
Mrs. Cooper my Stanhope Elementary English teacher who was fun and engaging...
Mr. Togno who taught me to make a napkin holder and I even made my own coffee table!
Ms. Silverman, who did not appreciate my classroom antics and who was instrumental in me stopping from calling Leonard Kubik a "schmuck" in in class...
Mr. Bobiak, who is the reason I wanted to be a Social Studies teacher....

Thanks to those wonderful people and many others in grade school and high school who set me on the path of education and are the reasons I became an educator....

Enjoy the Summer....

Till next time...

Sad, Sad News...

I have just finished looking over teh voter records from the April, 2011 election for the school baord, the school budget and the township referendum on the proposed tax increase, and the results are very sad indeed!

Here at the Oxford Central School we have approximately 518 parents representing 274 students. Only 49% of our parents are registered voters!

In the most recent April, 2011 election, 276 of our parents were registered to vote... only 76 did. 30%..... sad news.

Homerooms will be combined, textbook purchases will be put on hold, concert programs may not be held, staffing will be decreased and certainly new or expanded programs that parents have been asking for, can not be accomplished.

Enough said right now, I am too sad to keep writing...

Til next time

A new blog

I was able to get a hold of some blog comments posted back in April by Adam Bauser--who was here to film our Archery Team in April as part of the NJN Classroom Close-Up program. Adam was the producer of the segment and apparently wrote about his experience here with Mr. C, our team, school and community! Here is the blog address. Adam tells us that the purchase of NJN by WNET--purchase, buyout, backroom deal, call it what you like-- will not affect the airing of the episode shot in April.
Anyhoo... here is the address:

http://bauser.blogspot.com/2011/04/oxfords-strongest-man.html

Till next time...

Ocean Night Aftermath

Thank you to the staff who spent the last 6 weeks teaching students about the importance of the marine environments of our planet. Last night was our 13th Ocean Night and I want to thank all the parents, grandparents, assorted relatives and students who came out to share the projects and games that had been created over the past few weeks. From the plankton race, the GATE projects, to Mrs. Fallen's squid to the kelp forests and the rocky tidal pools of first grade, there were many wonderful projects on display that illustrate the students hard work! This program is best summed up by two of our former students who let me know that they loved MARE and how much they learned and remembered from year to year. They seemed to still have a good time last night as they watched their siblings enjoy their Ocean Night!

I received many positive comments about the Ocean Night!

Till next time...

School Surveys

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents who sent in the school survey that we recently sent home. We received 63 surveys back representing 93 students, or 34% of our student population (not the mandate from the majority we had hoped for). I have been looking over the surveys and finding that some of the comments people made, while at times difficult to swallow, are comments that the school board and administration have been addressing as we head into the 2011-2012 school year.

One of the interesting things I saw initially as I looked them over is the number of new programs and additional programs that parents would like for their children and the school.... most we could accomplish if we had not faced two years of defeated budgets that saw additional money that we set aside to provide extras for the students get CUT through the defeated budget process. If the budget passes, better things can happen.

Besides passing responsible school budgets, coming out to provide additional requests to the school board at one of our two monthly meetings would allow us to better serve our students. Your input is always welcome! Feel free to call me or stop in to share any ideas you might have that would serve to improve the educational offerings we have for our students.

Full survey results will be forthcoming.

Till next time....