Wise Owl: March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

"Have You Seen the Owl Today?"
 

Some important news and fun celebrations to share as we finally approach spring. Enjoy the warmer and longer days!

THANK YOU! Town Meeting Day was a day for the MPS community to give thanks, and not just because of the overwhelming way in which our community supported our school budget (by a 2 to 1 margin!). I'd like to lead off this Wise Owl by offering a heartfelt thank you to both Charlie Phillips (12 years of service) and Jen Cahill Bean (3 years) for giving so much of themselves to our community while serving on the Montpelier School Board. Serving and volunteering on a school board requires a calm, visionary, and patient approach while being able to listen to all sides of some often controversial issues. Charlie and Jen served us with honor. Thanks to you both!

WELCOME NEW SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS!  Best wishes and a sincere welcome to new school members Tina Muncy and UES Dad Steve Hingtgen!

WINTER CARNIVAL 2015! Our first Union Elementary Winter Carnival was a smashing success! It was one of the great joys of my career to walk out in front of our school that Wednesday evening and see well over a thousand children, parents, and staff getting ready to walk through town with their lanterns. What a beautiful way to bring our community together and celebrate our school!

I saw dozens (hundreds?) of amazing photos of the parade shared on both social media and email, but you should know that we also had a successful "Dress As 1939 Day." The participation was widespread and very creative! Check out some of these highlights:

In 1939, you didn't mess around with a tough crew like this!

Mrs. Wrigley's very serious 1st graders.  Who are the glum tall guys?

The Spirit of 1939!

Authenticity from 1st grader Kaya and 4th grader Cale!

 2015 Faculty at the 1939 Dedication Plaque

Very serious, very sharply dressed.

I think it's safe to say that the Winter Carnival needs to be an annual event. Plan ahead and mark your calendars early for the Montpelier Lantern Parade of 2016!

COFFEE WITH MR. HENNESSEY! Come join me and school counselor Suzanne Francke this Thursday, March 12 for our first "Coffee with the Principal" gathering! This month's topic will be Internet Safety for Families with Young Children, and we will have three separate 30 minute presentation/Q & A sessions at the following times: 8:30, 12:30, and 5:30. All three sessions will take place in the library, and a recorded version will be made available in a future Wise Owl. I'd like to get an idea this first time through on what times work best for you and your family, so please let me know what works for you; no crowd is too small!

PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES and a REPORT CARD UPDATE Remember to schedule your Parent/Teacher conferences as soon as you can! If you haven't heard from your child's teacher yet, you will soon! The conferences are officially scheduled for the day of Friday, March 20. There will be no school that day.

On a related note, I mentioned in an earlier Wise Owl that we are in the process of revamping our UES report card and were aiming to unveil the new version in time for next week's parent/teacher conferences. Despite months of hard work and discussion, it is clear that the new report card will not be ready to go this month. As a result, we have decided to put out an end of the year report card the last week of school. This much needed time will allow us to get it right the first time and give families (and us) an authentic and meaningful way to assess their child's progress. We're almost there! In the meantime, the conferences next week will provide a window into how your child is progressing, and you can check in with any of your child's teachers at anytime between now and the end of the year if you have questions or concerns. If you have any questions about the report card, please contact me at any time.

CELEBRATING SPRING! Our own Pat Collier has suggested that Union Elementary celebrate the coming spring a day early! Wear your brightest colors and warm weather gear on Thursday, March 19 to celebrate the much needed change of seasons!

2014-15 UES SCRIPPS SPELLING BEE CHAMPIONS! The first annual UES Scripps Spelling Bee was a huge success!! What sportsmanship! What excitement! What excellence!

The fun began last Wednesday morning when sixteen of our 4th graders took the stage and competed for eleven full rounds of increasingly challenging spelling words. Finally, Nora Holmes of Mrs. Kelley's class emerged as the 4th grade champion by spelling "celestial" correct in the championship round. Congratulations Nora!

Nora the "Celestial" Champ!

The UES 4th grade Spelling Team

Avery, taking care of business.

The next day, it was the 5th grade's turn!  This time, the stakes were even higher, as the champ would get to represent UES at the Vermont State Bee at St. Michael's college on March 19!  After a few very tough early rounds, the crowd was treated to an epic battle between Ben Collier and Sam Watson, who went toe to toe against each other for eleven nerve wracking rounds without a mistake!  I consider myself a pretty good speller, and I started faltering during these rounds; both of these boys could have competed favorably at the middle school competition based on the skills they demonstrated in this bee! Tensions and drama were building in the crowd until Sam finally emerged as the champ by correctly spelling "persevered," which put him over the top.  Showing the sportsmanship that was evident throughout both contests, Ben shook Sam's hand to congratulate him, and the audience cheered all of the contestants.  Here are some highlights:

The 5th Grade Spelling Team checking out the Middle School Bee before vacation.

Pressure?

What pressure?

Dr. Ricca joined me and Sam for his big moment.  St. Mike's is next!

HENNESSEY'S HOOTS!  A Hennessey Hoot goes to:

* from Instructional Assistant Kelly Grey, who knows a thing or two about CARES:

"I want to nominate Bus 22, yup, all of these amazing students (as well as Ariel Pascoe who has been working hard to reinforce CARES and their driver).

The bus had been without a bus monitor (Ariel) since returning to school from vacation.  Thursday morning the bus driver relayed to me (and asked me to tell Mr. Hennessey) that the students were awesomely behaved this morning, he didn't have to speak with anyone and they all followed the rules. 

CARES -

Cooperation - check, they followed the rules and expectations and that helped the bus driver do his job.

Responsibility - check, they were following the safety rules.

Self Control - check, they were in control of their bodies on the bus!

Nice job Bus 22!"

*  Scripps Spelling Bee team members Sylvia Fagin, Cathy Clements, and Jeffrey Jarrad for their excellent judging skills.  But the biggest hoot goes to pronouncer-extraordinaire Marita Frey, who read dozens and dozens of difficult words to our students in a fun but high-stakes environment!  She and the judges handled the pressure cooker beautifully!

*  Charlie Phillips, who gets a special Hoot for showing this uncertain principal how to raise two daughters in our community while serving as a school leader at the same time.  Thank you for the inspiration, Mr. Phillips!

*  well, I don't think this one needs any explanation...

Really, what would we have done without her?

Wise Owl: February 16, 2015

February 16, 2015

"Have You Seen the Owl Today?"
 

Some important news and fun celebrations to share as we gear up for February Break. Stay warm everyone! When we return, we'll only be weeks away from spring! Right??

WINTER CARNIVAL 2015! The Big Event is finally here! And the good news is that it's looking like we're going to get a little break with the extreme weather for Wednesday's Lantern Parade! There are no changes to the schedule at this point, with the exception of the Rainbow Ice Sculpture work being moved from yesterday to Tuesday afternoon. (Thanks to UES mom Marni Leikin for making that very sound call!). Children, faculty, and staff have been hard at work getting their lanterns ready for weeks. Check out some of their work below:

PERSONAL DEVICES AND CELL PHONES AT UES It's recently come to our attention that there has been some significant misuse of personal devices and cell phones by some of our students (some as young as 1st grade), both inside and outside of school. In addition to some instances of anonymous, mean communication, we have also been hearing that some students are accessing inappropriate material and sites on their devices while at school and on our buses.

I have been working with older students and their families navigating this very complicated issue for years, and I have rarely found it desirable to engage in an outright ban of devices for many reasons. It has become clear to all of us at UES, however, that personal devices at the elementary level are fraught with risky and dangerous implications and are simply not necessary. Many of your children's teachers already have their students keep devices away during school hours, but this approach has not been universally applied at UES.

As of this morning, the UES community will begin an "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" approach to all personal electronic devices for our students: if your child has a device and does not need it for emergency communication with you, they should keep it home at all times. If your child has been given a phone for emergency contact with you, it will need to be turned off and in their backpack (or turned in to their teacher) upon arriving at school. Any devices seen in school, including the playground and buses, will be confiscated with a phone call to the parent to come in and pick it up.

Again, we know this is a very complicated issue, but we firmly believe that the safety of all our children can be seriously compromised with unsupervised use of these devices. Please think about how easy it is for you to accidentally access inappropriate and sometimes even scary material on your devices, and then think about one of our children seeing it. This happens in schools around the country every day! There are an enormous number of resources online to help parents with keeping their children safe on the internet; here is a good place to start:

http://www.safekids.com/kids-rules-for-online-safety/

We all appreciate your cooperation with this, and I welcome your questions and concerns.

COFFEE WITH THE PRINCIPAL! Beginning on Thursday, March 12, I'll be starting a series of monthly "Coffee with the Principal" gatherings with parents and community members, and I'd like to invite you all to join me! These gatherings will be 30-40 minute presentation/Q & A sessions focused on important topics of the day. Our first topic will be Internet Safety For Young Children (see above!), and School Counselor Mrs. Francke will be joining me. Knowing that different times work better for all of you, we'll be giving the presentation three times (beginning of the day, lunch, and after school) on the 12th to see what works best for the most people. I'll have more details in the next Wise Owl, and, in the meantime, think about what topics should come up next!

MONTPELIER IS #1! This shouldn't come as a surprise to any of us, but according to Best Choice Reviews, Montpelier is the #1 out of 50 ranked small towns in America! Check out this very interesting list below. How many of these beautiful towns have you been to?

http://www.bestchoicereviews.org/50-best-small-town-downtowns-in-america/

100TH DAY OF SCHOOL! Anyone who happened to visit Union last Monday may have noticed groups of Kinders searching the halls for numbers 1 to 100 in a variety of hidden spots as a way to celebrate the 100th day of school. Well, the number 100 happened to be in my office, so I got to see many of the children very excited to come to the end of their journey! They were even greeted by a special guest:

Mrs. Dostie's class gets a 100-worthy hug!

Mrs. Koch's Kinders at the Finish Line!

SCRIPPS SPELLING BEE! The Scripps Spelling Bee is coming to UES right after vacation! Twelve to fifteen top spelling 4th graders will be our unofficial "test pilots" on the morning of Wednesday, March 4. They will be followed on Thursday, March 5 by our 5th graders, the winner of whom will get to represent Union Elementary at the state bee at St. Michael's College on March 19! More details will be coming home with your children by the end of the week.

"I THINK I CAN" BY THE MSMS PLAYERS Many of our K-2 students were treated to an outstanding performance last Thursday of "I Think I Can", a one act play performed by our MSMS drama club. The play as described by the players:  

"I Think I Can is a one-act play produced by the Main Street Middle School Players for audiences in Kindergarten through third grade.  Here is the plot: a ten-year-old girl, Becky, struggles to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up, but her real problem is lack of confidence. Her cat, Professor, leads her on a fantastic journey exploring different jobs that eventually help Becky see that she can accomplish many important things if she believes in herself.  The play carries this important message to its audience with physical humor, audience participation, and plenty of funny situations."

It was a terrific show!  Some highlights:

The big crowd awaits the show!

UES Alumnae on stage!

LOST AND FOUND UPDATE If your child is missing any clothing items, now is the time to come in and check out our Lost and Found! All items in the Lost and Found will be recycled and/or donated this Friday, February 20.

BOX TOPS! From UES Parents Group mom Jenny Sheehan:

"Thank you to all who have sent in Box Tops for Education!  This fall we earned $341.30 from submitted boxtops. Last year we raised $861.00 from boxtops and we hope to raise a similar amount or more this year!  If you have more boxtops to add to our collection, please send them in by Thursday,February 19th to the UES main office or to your child’s classroom. Any questions please contact Jenny Sheehan at Jennybrownsheehan@gmail.com"

HENNESSEY HOOTS!  A "Hennessey Hoot" to:

*  all of the volunteers who joined over 35 UES students on the relatively balmy (10 degree!) morning of February 4 for the annual Winter Walk to School Day!  Joining me that morning were (and I hope I got you all) Cathy Clements, Mayor John Hollar, Theresa Giffin, MJ Jennings, Emmanuel Riby-Williams, Diana Hart, Harris Webster, and John Snell, and we all got to join the kids for some hot chocolate and tea before school!  The regular Wednesday walks will resume some time in March -- details to follow.

Dez and I discovered that John Snell knows a thing or two about trees on our walk from the Co-op!

* to the UES Winter Carnival Committee for their incredible devotion and commitment to making this event fun and memorable for the whole community!  A big Hennessey Hoot to Diadel Ortiz, Sharon Pine, Melissa Parker, Chris Parker, Wendy McGuiggan, Jeffrey Jarrad, Jenny Sheehan, Marni Leikin for their time and efforts, with the loudest Hoot going to Kristina Kane for her organization skills and amazing leadership!  

* all of our Kinders and their 5th grade buddies, who refused to let the cold heart of Mother Nature get them down!  When they came to school last week to discover a fresh new mountain of plow-made snow, it didn't take them long to make the best of it!  We were all overjoyed to see our new, low cost play structure:

Kings and Queens of the Mountain!

Wise Owl: February 2, 2015

February 2, 2015

"Have You Seen the Owl Today?"
 

Welcome to the Union Elementary Wise Owl!  We hope that you enjoy this new way of learning what's going on at UES! I'll be updating the Owl every few weeks with both news and celebrations, and our goal will be to send it to as many members of the UES community as we can. If we have your updated email address, you'll get it!

BINGO at UES! If you and your children were fortunate enough to have attended Bingo Night at UES a few nights ago, you know that there was no better place in Montpelier to be! What a wonderful display of our community at its best that was! The packed house contributed over $1200 to UES Parents Group programs! It was a great night! Here are some highlights of the fun:

Packed house!

UES Alumnae and "Topping Masters"

Big Winner #1

Big Winner #2!

The Winner's Circle!

WINTER WALK DAY THIS WEDNESDAY!! With temperatures forecast to rise above zero for Wednesday morning (!), UES is ready to join schools throughout the northeast and Canada for a Winter Walk to School Day! Have your children join six of us at 8:00 at various strategic spots around the city to have a brisk healthy walk to school! Hot chocolate and celebrations will await the walkers when we arrive! Please check out this link for all the details:



TASTY TESTERS! I was recently invited by UES mom, physical therapist, and "nutrition master" Liliane Savard to join Mrs. Pierce's class in a "Tasty Tester" session to pick a favorite muffin to be served in the UES cafeteria! Did you know that UES qualified for a School Wellness Grant this past year? Liliane and MPS Food Director Betty Hammond have been using these funds to improve selections in both our cafeteria and our snack program, and, even better, our students are getting to pick their favorites! Check out this link for more info on the grant and the Tasty Tester program:

Mr. Hennessey and Mr. Watson finding the muffins to be...  tasty.

NAEP: The National Assessment of Educational Progress This Tuesday, all UES 4th graders will be participating in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a national standardized test administered annually by the U.S. Department of Education in selected schools across the country. UES 4th graders have participated numerous times over the last decade (my daughters took the tests three years ago), and we look forward to doing our part! Parents can check out this NAEP link below for more info:

NAEP: FAQ for Parents

5th Grade Transition Night at MSMS The next 5th grade transition info night at Main Street Middle School is scheduled for this Tuesday, February 3 from 6:00 to 7:00. Though the discussion will focus on next year's 5th grade, all members of the community are welcome to join us. We hope to see you there!

New Student Teachers at UES! Let's all please welcome both Katie Swick and Jacob Parker to the UES community! Mrs. Swick has begun her student teaching practicum with Susan Koch's 1st graders, and Mr. Parker just started with Lara Slesar's 3rd graders. A big UES welcome to both of you!

Mrs. Swick

Mr. Parker

CARES Assembly! Mrs. McGuiggan was "Hennessey Hoot-Worthy" and more for her excellent idea to have faculty and staff nominate members of the UES community for CARES Awards at our last assembly! Her 4th graders did a terrific job leading the student body and creating a show that was both entertaining and well run, and there were no shortages of worthy candidates for CARES awards! Some highlights:

The ever-assertive Mrs. D!

The constantly-cooperative Ms. Stetter!

CARES Fun!

WINTER CARNIVAL UPDATE The UES 75th Birthday/Winter Carnival is kicking into high gear, and we want to make sure you have this big event in your calendar! From Mrs. Kane's press release:

Union Elementary School invites the entire Montpelier community to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of our school building!  Please join us for an evening lantern procession on Wednesday, February 18. 

Our lantern procession will begin at 6:00 pm at Union Elementary School.  Led by the samba band Sambatucada, we will parade from the school to the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where we will celebrate on the VCFA Green with rainbow ice sculptures, music, hot chocolate and cider!  This is the main event of our first-ever UES Winter Carnival, which will take place the week of Monday, February 16 through Friday, February 20.  

Our parade is made possible with the support of Coldwell-Banker Classic Properties and is funded in part by a “Community Arts Grant” awarded by Montpelier Alive and funded by the Downtown Improvement District Assessment.  We thank Lake Champlain Chocolates and Champlain Orchards for their donations. 

Local artist Gowri Savoor will be guiding UES students in making their lanterns during a ten day art residency from February 2-13, thanks to the “Artists in Schools” grant awarded by the Vermont Arts Council as well as the support of the UES Parents’ Group and The River of Light in Waterbury.  All K-5 students will create a hand-made lantern from sustainable materials including willow and tissue paper. Lanterns will be suspended from bamboo poles and lit with battery operated LED lights. 

Montpelier residents and community members are invited to create their own lanterns at free daylong lantern making workshops on Saturday, February 7 and Saturday, February 14.  The workshops are sponsored by Hunger Mountain Coop, Coldwell-Banker Classic Properties, and The Montpelier Senior Activity Center.  For more information regarding the parade and the lantern workshops, please visit <uesart.blogspot.com> 

Finally, the plan is to have a wide variety of ice sculptures up on the college green, and we're going to need your help! For more info, check out this link:



VOLCANO BUDDIES! Mrs. Quinn recently invited me to join her 2nd graders as they taught Mrs. Dostie's kinders all about volcanoes! It was great to see these 2nd graders have so much fun sharing their learning with their kinder buddies!

NEW UES LISTSERV! Many of you got my message last week about the new UES LISTSERV, but just in case you didn't see it, here it is again...

Dear Members of the Union Elementary School Family:

At a UES Parent Group meeting, the parents present discussed the need to improve communications with one another and the school.  In response, we created the “UES Families" LISTSERV to organize and connect parents, caregivers, teachers and administrators in ways that constructively support UES.  This LISTSERV is a two-way communication vehicle that enables discussions related to school, activities, and education.  

• Do you  want to start an after school club and connect with others in the UES community with a similar goal?  This LISTSERV can help find partners to work with.

• Would you like to become more informed with the school budget process before voting? This LISTSERV can be be used for such inquiries and to announce relevant meetings.

• Did you wish that you heard about the World Chorus before you booked your after school activities?
• Would you have liked to know about the UES through the Box Tops campaign before you sent out the recycling?

Regardless of how often you are able to actually be at the school, "UES Families" will enable you to easily interact with others. If you are worried about an excess of emails, fear not.  The LISTSERV is hosted on google groups, which allows you to control how often you receive messages (e.g., individual emails or as a digest).

"UES Families" is managed by parent volunteers and not the UES administration.  The LISTSERV will be moderated to ensure that discussions are appropriate and follow the etiquette described below (The key point is to be respectful.)   If you have any questions, email ues.families@gmail.com.

We look forward to meeting you on “UES Families"!

Alison Lamagna, Marni Leikin, Edisa Muller, Laury Saligman, Jenny Sheehan,

TO JOIN:

OPTION 1:  Follow the link: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/ues-families.  If you don’t have a gmail account or want to use your non-gmail for this LISTSERV, check out our helpful hints:  http://goo.gl/Ek5o6d

OPTION 2:  If you don’t like online systems, just  write us at  ues.families@gmail.com and tell us your child’s teacher or your role at the school (e.g., 2nd grade teacher).  

ETIQUETTE:

When posting comments, it is expected that users maintain respectful dialogue and will adhere to the following LISTSERV etiquette:

• Absolutely, no negative remarks of  parents, teachers, or administrators
• No solicitations or classifieds
• Limit messages and use “Reply to Sender” whenever possible

HENNESSEY HOOTS (A Special Dad Edition)! A Hennessey Hoot goes to ...

* UES Dad Justin Turcotte for joining Ms. Freeman's 1st graders to show off his awesome sushi making skills. 

Sushi definitely makes us happy!

* UES Dad Eli Rosenberg for joining Mrs. Mello's 1st graders to show off his tremendous knowledge of Japanese language and culture.

Learning to make origami animals!

Kimono = Authentic Learning Experience!

Wise Owl: December 23

December 23, 2014

"Have You Seen the Owl Today?"
 

Welcome to the Union Elementary Wise Owl!  We hope that you enjoy this new way of learning what's going on at UES! I'll be updating the Owl every few weeks with both news and celebrations, and our goal will be to send it to as many members of the UES community as we can. If we have your updated email address, you'll get it!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL!!

ENJOY THIS TIME WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES!

Some news and information that will be helpful to know as we head home for the Holiday Break:

SCHOOL BOARD MEETING LAST WEEK Anyone who got to see the "Must See TV" of last week's school board meeting on Orca got to see students from all three schools shine in the spotlight! Prior to our budget presentation, students from grades K-12 were invited to give a brief presentation on personalized learning and how such an approach has made school a more engaging experience for them. Representing UES were Mrs. Pierce's 5th graders, and I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was of their presentation! The students spoke with passion and heart about their work with the Whole School Energy Challenge, composting initiatives, waste audits, and various community outreach programs that they've been involved in the last two years. Board member Ken Jones spoke afterwards about how impressed he was with the poise of our students, and I couldn't agree more! Check out their presentation here for yourself.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS TO KEEP/SEND A CHILD HOME WHEN SICK This is the time of year when many of us, young and old, struggle staying healthy. Our school nurses, Sarah and Trees-ah, wanted to share some established guidelines you should follow when wondering if it's OK to send your child to school if they're not feeling well. The goal is to try to keep the whole UES community healthy through the winter, and we need your help! Here are the guidelines we all need to follow:

Signs and Symptoms to keep/send a child home 

• fever, over 100 degrees.  Children must be fever free (without medication) for 24hrs. before returning to school.
• diarrhea or vomiting within the past 24 hours.
• persistent sore throat with fever or enlarged tonsils/glands
• persistent upset stomach or headache
• undetermined rash
• reddened, itchy eyes with drainage
• suspected/known head lice. Children will be seen by the nurse for return to school.

As always, parents can call the health office and speak with Trees-ah or Sarah Mele, RN if you have questions.  The nurse's office phone is 225-8206.

UES WINTER CARNIVAL/75TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION KICKOFF! Mrs. McGuiggan's 4th graders led UES through an opening kick-off assembly last week as we all get ready for our Winter Carnival in February! Mark your calendars: there will be all kinds of fun activities and celebrations the week of February 16-20! Here are some photos from the show:

UES WHOLE SCHOOL ENERGY CHALLENGE Mrs. Pierce's 5th graders ended our assembly by letting us all know about the UES Whole School Energy Challenge! The students shared tips on how we can all save energy for the school district, and we were all treated to a demo of a bicycle powered light bulb display! Check out this action shot:

UPDATE ON THE UES REPORT CARD You may have heard that UES is in the process of updating and improving the way we report our students' progress to both you and each other. The UES report card, which has traditionally been distributed twice a year, has not had a significant upgrade in many years, and our goal is to provide you with a document that meaningfully addresses the progress your child is making as a learner using language that any of us can understand.  

The faculty and I are determined to do this well, and we came to the conclusion this month that we're simply going to need some more time to unveil a new report card that is worthy of our community. As a result, the first report card of the year will be distributed the week of March 16-20 instead of the traditional end of January. This extra 5-6 weeks will give us the time needed to get it right the first time. We'd like you to know that even though there will be no report card at the half way point of the year, teachers will instead share a progress report with families which highlights your child's progress in literacy, math, and social development. Again, you will have these progress reports by the end of January. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns about the status of the UES report card, you can contact me at any time.

HENNESSEY'S HOOTS A Hennessey Hoot to....

* From IA Ariel Pascoe, who spends a lot of time having fun with and keeping our students safe on the playground: "I would like to nominate 5th graders Declan and Caleb of Mrs. Hickey's class for Hennessey Hoots!  Declan is such a natural helper that he noticed the playground teachers could use help carrying the ball bucket out to recess. He started helping every day and now it is a regular job. He recently started helping out with kindergarten recess at that time (I hear its going great!) and Caleb decided to fill in for him. What an awesome team!"

Declan and Caleb getting it done!

*   Another 5th grader, Tia Leno, who must have noticed that I looked a little, um, stressed out last week and decided to help me out by giving me a small gift to wear.  Thanks, Tia!  I calmed down immediately when I put this on!

Batman never fails.