The One With the Veterans Day Breakfast

 

 

This Friday, November 8, we hosted the 22nd annual Veterans Day Breakfast at Kennedy Middle School. This tradition has become a cherished tradition at our school, with the Morse Institute Library (which helps organize it) and with Metrowest Veterans.

 As always, it takes a ton of work to pull it off. But it is so worth it. Fortunately, we have a great Civics team, with Brian and Jeff, as well as fabulous 8th grade teachers, which helps it run seemlessly.

 This year we had some of our same veterans, including Mr. Leupold, who was in World War II and turned 100. We also had Mr. Radock's daughter, who worked at Johnson when I was there, come with his memorabilia. We have several parents and grandparents of students arrive as well...which made for an amazing day!!!

 The students were spectacular. My decorating crew - aka the Weather Service crew - were official greeters, too. And they did a phenomenal job.

Thanks so much to all those veterans who gave their time, treasure, talent - and in some cases their lives - to protect our country.

Happy Veteran's Day

Happyt Veterans Day!!! 

The One Where I Am A Trivia Question

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, we did Kindness Week at Kennedy. As part of this week, students were asked to answer trivia questions about Kennedy throughout the week.  On the last day of trivia week, the question was:

 

Why staff member has worked at Kennedy the longest?

 

That was a shocking question, because I knew the answer...me. I have been working here for 27 years, which is hard to believe.

 

Good memories, but wow, how time flies.

The One With The Time Capsule

 

 

Yesterday, after two and one half-years of work, we buried the time capsule in the new Kennedy Middle School. It took years of searching and a lot of help, but Mrs. Lemon and I worked to gather more than 60 artifacts from the original school, including newspapers, the last American flag to fly there, an original brick from the building, tons of pictures, and notes left by students, among other things.

 

The time capsule was a great way to recap the first year at the new school a year to the week before the old school closed.

 

What is amazing is one day, a future generation of Kennedy students will open that time capsule. Oh, how amazing it would be to see it.

The One With We Are The World

Last week (May 29 to be exact) I had an experience that has never happened before at our middle school. During the 5th grade chorus concert, I was invited to take part in one of the songs. Mr. G, who knows of my beloved fondness for "We Are The World" invited me to sing the song with the fifth grade if I wanted.

Now, I have a long-standing grudge with this song that dates back to over-analyzing it in 7th grade back in the 1980s at the same school I teach. Sure, the song is wonderful, and has a great message, and the story behind it is truly amazing. However, that being said, we studied the song so much, that it has ended up on my "NEVER TO BE SUNG AGAIN" list.

However, when students started showing up to my classroom singing it after I joked how much I disliked it, I decided I had to find out if it was going to be part of the 5th grade chorus. Indeed, Mr. G decided to add it to the sing list.

Well, one thing led to another, and students asked if they could sing it well, would I be willing to join them on stage singing it. It actually sounded like fun (and motivational).

It was awesome! I sang that first song on stage (Bri, Kiff, and Emmie were there to see it, as was one of Emmie's former partner teachers from the Brown School in Peabody). And, I have to admit that I really had a blast, enjoyed being on stage with the students (who cheered when I walked in the room before we went out to sing), and even liked the song.

Who would have thought that 30 years later, in the same school that I learned to dislike the song, I would learn to like it.