Sticks and Stones

  • By Laura Phillips
  • 26 Oct, 2012
Our eighth graders have been in a discussion about words lately. We’ve talked about all sorts of words. Kind words. Harsh words. Encouraging words. Destroying words. They’ve come to understand that our words matter. They have an impact. They can impact lives. Sometimes in a good way, but in many cases in a bad way. […]
Our eighth graders have been in a discussion about words lately. We’ve talked about all sorts of words. Kind words. Harsh words. Encouraging words. Destroying words. They’ve come to understand that our words matter. They have an impact. They can impact lives. Sometimes in a good way, but in many cases in a bad way. Words can give messages of fear or hatred or superiority or worthlessness. And, unfortunately, we send those kinds of messages too often. Even more often than we intend to.
But we’ve been experimenting with some new words in the eighth grade. Words that uplift. Words that inspire. Words that draw us together. We envision a school full of those words. A school where students feel safe to express themselves. A school where students are glad to come to because they are encouraged. Not just by teachers, but by peers, older role models, and even younger schoolmates. Could you imagine a school like that? Well, the eighth grade can. And they are doing something to get there.
On Wednesday they hung a sign in the hall that reads “I want to be/feel…”. Under that phrase are blank spaces where students are free to anonymously share the things they want to be and feel. To their excitement it began to fill up within hours. It seemed that nearly everyone who walked by wanted to add a word. Words like “special” and “brave” and “respected”. Also, words like “skinny” and “beautiful” and “smart”.

This picture was taken the morning after the sign was put up. Now, students are having to write in empty areas because all the lines have been filled.

So what can we take away from this? If you are a parent or teacher reading this, know that our students want to be heard. They want to be able to express themselves in a safe environment. An environment where they know their feelings will be validated and not met with unkind words.
And if you’re one of the students, know that you’re not alone. If this experiment proves anything, it’s that we all have needs and desires. And many of them happen to be similar. And, as it turns out, none of us have reached perfection. So be forgiving. Give your classmates the freedom to fail and to make mistakes. And when they do, don’t remind them of it. Tell them it’s okay. Mistakes happen. Because your words matter.
By Laura Phillips March 7, 2020
Congratulations to all girls who tried out for both squads!

The 2020-2021 Junior Varsity Squad members:
Tyane Anthony
Abigail Brooks
Talley Carter
Kayla Howard
Halle Hurst
Gabby Lamb
Baeda McClellan
Sarah McClellan
Jordan Miles
Meleah Tigner

The 2020-2021 Varsity Squad Members:
Bailey Allen
Claire Allen
Jamie Clark
Lindsey Fuller
Kaylyn Keebler
Natalie Lovelace
Audrey Miller
Abbie Morgan
Kamdyn Oliver
Mattie Reese
Brandalon Rombokas
Alyssa Sorrells
Kendall Talbot
By Laura Phillips March 4, 2020

Media Mentions

Our Book Fair is March 9-13. We look forward to visiting the “jungle” to search for some great books!


February top readers are as follows:

Kindergarten: Allison McElvy and Phoebe Benson (11 points)

1st Grade: Rowan Benson (21 points)

2nd Grade: Yates Lashley (20 points)

3rd Grade: Layton Caldwell (22 points)

4th Grade: William Lashley (29 points)

5th Grade: Beth Landrum (10 points)

These students will enjoy lunch off campus!

By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020

My seventh grade science class has been doing some labs this week. We grew bacteria that was collected from different items in an incubator. They got to see how much bacteria is lurking and what it actually looks like. They compared bacteria and fungus. They also used the scientific method in performing this experiment and discussed independent and dependent variables. This was a nice break from note taking!!!

By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020

Hello Everyone

          HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We hope you all had a GREAT winter break. We are happy to be back in class. First grade has been working hard in January. We celebrated our 100th day of school. We are working on the first story of our fourth reading unit. This school year is flying by. We are all working hard to reach our goals for AR quizzes. First graders ARE SMITTEN with books. Our top AR reader in January is Rowan. Keep up the good work First Grade.

    We are looking forward to February; we will be doing a “Tell me something good” project for Valentine’s Day. We will write a nice comment about each student in the class on hearts. The ground hog did not see his shadow so we hope we can start enjoying the warmer weather of spring. We had a great time doing an experiment to see if we could blow up a balloon inside a bottle. Thank you to Mrs. Flanary and everyone else who helped us conduct our experiment. Do you think you can do it? Give it a try! Well that is all the news for now. Have a Wonderful February!

By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020
In the month of February, our students ‘love’ learning about new events in history. The 9th graders are finishing learning about World War 1 and begin to study the roaring 20s and World War 2. The 10th graders are finalizing their studies of the Civil War and succession of the states. The 11th graders are moving into World War 2 and our 12th graders have moved into economics and politics. The speech class is writing speeches on important figures from the 1920s! We can not wait to see what spring has in store!
By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020

January was a busy time in 4th Grade! In Reading, we read stories about puzzles and mysteries. We focused on literary elements and plot/theme. In Alabama History, we started discussing Alabama’s Early Statehood – specifically the first 5 capitals. In Science, we talked about Earth’s Changes like erosion. We did our first Weird Science Wednesday and completed an Ice Castle STEM Challenge.  WOW – it is hard to believe how quickly the year is passing!    

Our great year continues!

By Laura Phillips February 4, 2020

January has been a busy month in the library! We’ve gotten back in the groove after the break, and we’ve enjoyed making books of our own, and performing Readers Theater scripts!

Our Spring Book Fair is coming up! It will be held during the week of March 9-13. We will be open from 7:30-2:30 Monday-Thursday, and 7:30-11:00 on Friday. “ Finger Foods with Families ” will be held Monday morning from 7:30-8:00. Please come and join us for shopping and snacks. Grandparent luncheons will be held on Tuesday, March 10 for grades K-3, and Wednesday, March 11 for grades 4-6. More information will come home with students soon.

Top AR readers for this month are:

K: Phoebe Benson- 10 points

1st: Rowan Benson- 30.3 points

2nd: Yates Lashley- 34.4 points

3rd: Layton Caldwell- 18.3 points

4th: Eben Sasser- 14.4 points

5th: Beth Landrum- 36.5 points

6th: Easton Janowiecki- 18 points

 

Congratulations to these students!

By Laura Phillips February 4, 2020

The second graders are learning a new way to write ----- cursive!

Cohen had a tooth pulled and has now joined our Tooth Club. We have 6 members now!

Harleen guessed the closest number of triangles in the Triangle Tree! She guessed 32.

The first week after Christmas break was “Frog and Toad Week!” We listened to 4 books about two very good friends, wrote about our favorite Frog and Toad story, and practiced letter writing by writing 3 Frog and Toad letters. We read “A Lost Button” and did an activity with that story with K-5.

We continued our letter writing the next week by writing 2 letters to our classmates and mailing them via Class Mail. After reading “Flat Stanley,” we mailed Flat Fred/Freida letters to someone who does not live with us! After visiting for a week,  they wrote back telling us what Flat Fred/Freida  did and saw. We are sharing our letters with our classmates as soon as the letters come in.

January 27th was our 100th Day of School! We celebrated with activities, refreshments, and goody bags! Many thanks to Mrs. Dianne Lee for baking our cake. We ate every bit of it!  For several years, Lowe’s Pharmacy has blown up 100 balloons for us! The children enjoyed weaving through all the ribbons in our hallway!

By Laura Phillips January 31, 2020
Our elementary grades celebrated 100 days of school earlier this week! They each had special activities throughout the day as well as end it with some celebration and cake!
By Laura Phillips December 13, 2019

We have had a great month! The students are making great progress learning sight words and sounding out simple words. We made Christmas ornaments and decorated our tree.

More Posts