An Ode to Seussical

To Seussical the Musical, from Mrs. Marchant:

The stage lights dimmed

Jojo ran from stage right

To discover the striped hat focused in the center light.

Soon to follow came

The Cat in the Hat, don’t you know!
Who put that hat right on the head of his bro.

So Coolidge play began

Otherwise known as “Seussical”

What I learned tonight… It is one special musical!

Let’s give some credit,

Where credit is due,

Such as hats off to that Elephant, (You know: Horton the Who!)

He was not the lone singer

There were many, at that!
Such as Gretrude McFuzz, And the Cat in the Hat!

More beautiful singers included

The jazzy Mayzie Labird.

While the Sour Kangaroo was one of the sweetest voices I heard!

The Wickersham Brothers

Danced in intimidating fits,

While a strong voice emerged from General Gengus Khan Schmitz.

The Bird Girls swayed their hips,

The Dancers jumped and flipped,

The Jungle Creatures sang, and danced, and dipped.

The Grinch, with a heart

Growing sizes throughout

Sang with Cindy Lou Who (Their problems sorted out.)

The Whos down in Whoville

Were as sweet as could be

From their speck they did call: “Horton: Do you hear me?”

The cadets marched so neatly

In such great contrast

To the Circus Performers who flipped and twisted by fast!

The entire production

Was a marvelous feat

I was so lucky to have such a special front seat!

To the actors and actresses,

To the technical crew,

To Ms. Loussedes, Ms. Prindiville, and the orchestra, too!

The singing, the dancing,

The costumes, the set.

This was one of the best Coolidge musicals I have seen yet! 

Congratulations to you all

For a production that was just beautiful!
Thanks for all your hard work in Seussical the Musical!

A Personal Message

Dear Coolidge Community,

I decided to write this week's blog post in letter format to you, as it seems more personal, and my message this week is very personal.

As you have likely heard, I have been officialy appointed as the Principal of Coolidge.  This means I will officially stay on in the role of principal moving forward.  I am extremely honored to have been offered this opportunity as well as extremely excited to be able continue to have an impact from this vantage point.  While my learning curve has been steep, I feel that I am coming into my own as an administrator, and I am very much enjoying the new challenges and opportunities this new opportunity affords.

The decision to stay on in this role is not a decision I took lightly.  As is the case with all parents, we try to find a balance among all of the aspects of life, including family, work, and selves.  No matter what job I take on in life, be it parenting, teaching, being a principal,  etc., I want to do that job well and to give it my absolute best.  These past six months have allowed me time to see if I could balance the aspects of life and to also feel that I was giving both my family and Coolidge the quality involvement that both deserve.  It was important for me to weigh all aspects of this decision, as I care so greatly for both my family as well as the Coolidge community.

Now that the position has been offered and accepted, I feel completely invested in the role and decision.  I feel more energized than ever to continue to be the best principal I can be for Coolidge for the sake of the students, staff, and parents.  And so it is with a full heart, and full committment to do my absolute best, that I move forward in this position.  I appreciate the support of so many of you, and very much look forward to all we will share moving forward as we work together to make Coolidge the best it can be!

With warm regards,
Sarah Marchant

The Spirit of Music

I have always felt such a connection between music and my spirit.  Prior to vacation, the week was filled with music, and both my spirit and those of others were high!  Thank you to all of the students and teachers who participated in all of these musical adventures.

The Winter Concert occurred at the high scool and was filled with wonderful music by the 6th grade band, the 6th grade chorus, the select chorus, the advanced band, the advanced chorus, the acapella group, and the chime choir. 

6th grade band clip:

6th grade chorus picture:

To add to the musical fun, we had a wonderful Winter Assembly, put on by Team Pegasus, on the day prior to vacation.  The team shared many wonderful reflections about New Year's and resolutions.  During the assembly, we heard from many of our musicians.  Here are a couple of clips, the first from our student-developed acapella group (led by Ms. Prindiville):

Our lovely chime choir also shared music of the season:

In addition, I would be remiss to not mention that there was a lot of music happening around the building in less formal fashion.  Here are some 8th grade boys with their own rendition of Feliz Navidad:

And last but certainly not least, Mrs. Jacobsmeier and Mrs. Guilbert serenaded the 6th grade lunch, inspiring students to sing along:

I hope that your spirits were lifted this holiday season by whatever it is your spirit connects to, as mine was with music!

I very much look forward to seeing all students back on Thursday, January 2 for the year 2014!

ELA Visits and Technology

Greetings, Coolidge Community!

I am sure many of us have shared a similar range of emotions this weekend.  For me, I felt a great degree of reflection on Saturday, the one year anniversary of the Newtown incident.  Despite the sadness and loss that still fills the hearts of so many surrounding what happened that day, from great loss has arisen many stories of courage, perseverance, and rebuilding.  No matter how directly or indirectly impacted, the event  has changed us all.

One of the gifts of being in my new position is the ability I now have to get into all classrooms at Coolidge and to support teachers to do the best work they can do.  I had the pleasure this week of sitting in on all of the ELA classes at all three levels.  At the 6th grade level, students in one class were dissecting a poem as they applied their learning of similies and metaphors.  In another, they were being challenged to find the deeper meaning in the story Gaston.  And in a third, students were presenting new (impressive!) vocabulary words, acting as teachers, which is the ultimate evidence that material has been learned.  In 7th grade, all classes were doing class reads of the book A Christmas Carol.  The teachers at this level not only spoke with British accents as they narrated, but knew all the right places to pause in the dialogue to probe students to go deeper and to discern what the text truly means.  One class was using iPads to read, and the teacher had embedded questions within the text that students would answer on their screens; they were able to read each other's responses, as was the teacher, who could give them immediate feedback.  It was a lesson that showed technology as a useful tool.  All 7th grade students will see "A Christmas Carol" on Wednesday; thanks to their lessons, they will have a better understanding of what the strory really means.  In 8th grade, students were analyzing the difference between books vs. movies made from books.  They had to draw on evidence from real texts/movies.  In all of these situations, I saw the new ELA Common Core working well.  The new standards challenge teachers to challenge students to go deeper into material, to support their writing with evidence from various texts, and to express their knowledge both with writing and with speaking and presenting.  I truly believe these students who are experiencing these new standards will evolve to be stronger in all aspects of reading, writing, and expression than they would have otherwise.  The teachers have been putting in a great deal of time to prepare thoughtful, new lessons that maintain high standards for all.

Another neat moment this week was to be privvy to Ms. Anderson's classroom on Thursday.  One of her groups presented their use of technology in the classroom to a group of adults who were attending the Blue Ribbon Conference in Orlando, FL.  The Blue Ribbon presentation was being led by our library and technology specialists, Ms. Steinhauser and Ms. Grant, who were attending the conference.  With the use of video streaming, Ms. Anderson's class shared their experience with the group in FL, who we could also see and hear on her SMART board.  A second classroom from the high school was also part of the presentation.  It certainly left an impression on me, and I think it did even more so on the students involved.

In case I don't get the chance again this year, please know I wish you all a wonderful, happy, and restful holiday.  It will be wonderful to see your students back in 2014!

Busy Holidays

I want to apologize, as this post will be brief tonight.  I have had a busy and spirited family day, but as a result am not in work/blog mode as yet.  I have more of a Coolidge updated with a picture to include tomorrow when I reuturn to work.  Until then, I hope your and your families are having a nice weekend!