Things Remembered

The end of the year is that traditional time of reflection and new promises. Have to admit I have no idea where or how time flies by so rapidly. I can remember thinking that 2000 was a long way off. I definitely remember speaking to this 2011 graduating class thinking the is still four years away. But the new millennium is two days shy of being 12 years old.

Promises -- somehow new year resolutions have become a ritual that we assume will never really happen. I want something more this year. So I use the word promises. How guarded would we mark our words if we thought of them as promises that we really had to strive to bring into reality? Walking the talk is very difficult.

I know that regular daily attendance to school improves academic achievement. But I can't promise that will happen for every child. I know that being prepared for class will improve academic achievement. But, again, I can't promise that will happen for every child.

Obviously, I can strive to influence those activities but I do not control the circumstances making them happen. What I control and I can promise is a strong and relevant curriculum. I believe that we offer IB to all students grades 9-12 and it is a powerful framework for students and teachers. I can promise to continue to support the development and implementation of IB for our children.

I promise to continue to support strong and relevant teachers who motivate children, provide rich instructional opportunities and demand the best from themselves and their students. I believe that we are fortunate in this educational community to have many outstanding teachers for our children. I believe we have teachers who have a solid background and training in their content area. They are professional educators dedicated to continuous improvement. They are passionate about teaching and learning. I know that we must continue to support our excellent staff and celebrate our tremendous successes.

I promise to support activities, programs and events that promote the educational opportunities for our students. The arts are vital to the success of a creative, productive and responsible society. In the broad sense I include athletics in the arts. In the Classical ages athletics were important to the society, its politics, its statements of faith and its education of the young. I think clubs and events enrich the lives of it's members and connect people to one another and to the school.

I do wish I could enable every child to be academically successful.

Critical Ingredient

“[E]ven when students are willing to cooperate, they are still children. They are immature, disorganized, unreliable, and easily distractible, and they begin their schooling with little or no experience of the kind of sustained, focused, purposeful work that is required for learning. This simple fact – that teachers work with children rather than adults – has profound implications for teachers. For their task is not merely to teach other human beings about school subjects, but also to teach them how to cooperate and how to learn, neither of which comes naturally, so that teachers must also persuade students that all of this is worthwhile.”
“Attribution Error and the Quest for Teacher Quality” by Mary Kennedy in Educational Researcher, November 2010 (Vol. 39, #8, p. 591-598)

With all the discussions moving about Washington DC and St. Paul concerning education there are some factors that need to be remembered. We are dealing with children and their families. Schooling is not a natural activity. If one is dealing with an uncooperative child (or family), the task of providing schooling becomes tremendously more difficult.

The popular notion at the moment for both DC and St. Paul is to move the cooperative children to charter and hope for the rest. Clothed in fancy words it appears that some politicians are ready to abandon public - free and appropriate - schools for a separated system of schools that empower children who have supportived and aware families to choose to be separated from the type that is "forced" to take everyone.

In the name of something are we encouraging a system of have's and have not's?

Something for everyone

If you like the winter activities there is ice fishing, skates, pond hockey, skies, snow board and the list goes on and into the motorized vehicles. If you like family events and time with relatives -both out and in laws. If you want to shop till you drop or take advantages of those let's get rid of this stuff sales, it is out there these winter break days. Many families have traditions and their own special customs of the season. For others there are special celebrations and expression of faith services. Regardless of the interest or design, there is something out there for everyone.

Lots of snow, plenty of cold and several days off. Regardless of your particular choice of celebration I trust this time has been fun and treasured as important moments for and with family and friends. One of the constants of life should be the people who love us and those we love. With all the rush and silliness that surrounds this time, it is people -friends, family and all those we hold dear. Hopefully you took time for them and yourself.

One more week to relax, celebrate and enjoy. The moments are precious.

Southwest building closed Thurs. through Sunday

Southwest building will closed for winter break starting Thursday, the 23rd through Sunday the 26th.

Building will reopen on Monday the 27 and will be open 7 am to 3 pm Mon., Tues., and Wed. The building will be closed the remainder of the week and reopen with the start of school on Monday the 3rd.

The offices are closed for the two- week break. No one should be in the building except athletes for scheduled practiced with the coach.

Have a restful winter break. With all the snow so far this winter digging out driveways and sidewalks might be the break activities. Don't forget to think of the neighbors and those who mitt have difficulty shoveling out.

See you in 2011.

A Wonderful Friend Passed Winston Wallin

The area lost a great friend and outstanding leader this week.

Winston Wallin, founder of the Wallin Education Partners, passed away on December 20. Each year, the Wallin Education Partners provide generous scholarship support to public school students in the Twin Cities area. The scholarship program began within the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Many young people have been supported in their quest for college and a better life through the support of the Foundation.

If you have a personal connection to the Foundation or you or your family have benefited from the Wallin Education Partnership and you would like to express your thoughts please use the following address:

The Wallin Scholarship Program
Calhoun Executive Center
3033 Excelsior Blvd, Suite 420
Minneapolis MN 55416

Speech Contest Winners

Sowda, Kia and Sophia

Three Southwest students competed in the American Legion 5th District Oratorical Contest.

Kia Okuma placed 4th; Sowda Mohamed place 2nd and placing 1st was Sophia Deady. Sophia will move on to regional competition.

Southwest Math Team

The Southwest High School Math Team dominated at meet #3.

• Here are some statistics from the meet:
  16.5 inches of snow fell over the weekend, postponing the meet until Wednesday.
• Streets are still a mess. Transportation was cancelled.
• We had to hold the meet at the individual schools.
• 158 total students from six schools in the Minneapolis division participated
• 97 Southwest students participated individually at the meet (we seem to get to 100…darn it)
• 87 of the Southwest students scored at least one point
• The top nine individual scores at the meet were all earned by Southwest students
• The junior varsity team scored 47 points officially, good enough to unofficially place second in the division
• The varsity team (official scoring team) earned 84 points, finishing in first place within the division for the third meet in the row.
• Before the meet, Southwest was officially ranked 6th in the state out of 178 teams. This was a hard meet, so we might have moved up.
  
• Official state rankings that include the scores from this meet can be viewed at http://www.augsburg.edu/mathleague/ once they become available.