Taft Library

I had the opportunity to meet with Andrew Jenrich from the Taft Library today. Talk about an incredible meeting! We discussed how we can work together to provide our students with supplemental resources to assist them with their school work as well as keep them excited about reading and learning.  It was a productive meeting and more importantly it was great to hear firsthand all that the Mendon Library has to offer. Andrew’s willingness and eagerness to build collaboration with our school and staff is commendable. He had many wonderful ideas and was open to listening to my thoughts and ideas as well. Andrew will be attending our upcoming faculty meeting to talk to the staff about assisting them in finding appropriate resources and making them available for our students when they are learning about specific topics or working on projects.

Another idea being considered is having our first graders sign up for a library card at school and taking a trip to the library. How cool is that? I look forward to building this partnership with Andrew and the Taft Library. 

Who else is out there in Mendon who wants to work with us. I would love to tap into other people in the community who are willing to share their time and areas of expertise with us. Policeman, fireman, florists, seniors, story tellers, car dealers, restaurant owners, history buffs….. If you are interested in volunteering on a regular basis or even coming in one time to talk with students, read to them, or help with projects, please e-mail me @ jgallagher@mursd.org  or call me at 508-634-1580.

 

Rachel's Challenge

We will also be holding a Rachel's Challenge full content presentation (this will include footage and discussion on Columbine) at Memorial School at 7:00 pm on October 6th for parents of Clough and Memorial Parents as well as for any community members who wish to attend. This emotional presentation is for ADULTS only; absolutely no students/children will be allowed to see the presentation. Please make every attempt to see this program! I promise you, it will be worth getting a babysitter so you can see this presentation. Words just can’t explain what you will take away with you from this presentation. I have already seen the adult program twice and plan on attending next week’s presentation as well. The presentation and positive message is powerful and inspirational.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our two Physical Education teachers, Chrissy Horn and Dan Hayes who wrote the grant to bring Rachel’s Challenge to the elementary schools. Additionally, I can’t thank the Mendon Upton Education Foundation enough for approving to fund this grant and for supporting this huge event for our students.
  
If you want to learn more about who Rachel is and what the Kind and Compassion Program is all about check out the link below.

http://www.rachelschallenge.org/

Open House

I was like a kid myself waiting for the two Open House nights. I spent the past several weeks getting to know the students at Clough and now I was going to have the opportunity to meet their parents. As excited as I was to meet everyone I must admit I was a little nervous meeting the parents of 497 students! The two nights couldn’t have gone any better. The turn out was amazing. The sense of enthusiasm and excitement from students, parents, and teachers was felt everywhere.  Looking around and seeing the parents who showed up just reassured me of how lucky I am to be at Clough.