I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED. You guys. They totally surprised me... Mrs. Ruppenthal said that there was a projector issue in a science classroom, so I followed her down to the classroom to fix it (yep, it was that easy). There was no projector problem. There was, however, a huge group of people gathered to surprise me ... I was selected as a finalist for WCPS Teacher of the Year! Literally my face: 😱 That's our superintendent, by the way. No big deal. 😱 😱 😱 I have no idea what he said to me after telling me I was selected as a finalist. It's all a blur! I did manage to hold it together to take pictures with my admin team though... it's easy to be a great teacher with support from great administration! My favorite picture, by far, is the pic with the kids. They are the reason we show up every day. Just look at them: Can you believe this?? I can't. To quote Junie B. Jones, "Wowie wow wow!" What an amazing day!
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In December 2019 / January 2019, our library underwent a major overhaul - we genrefied the fiction collection. It was a ton of work, but well worth it when it was finished. You can check out my blog post about the process if you want! Because I work with the most supportive admin and staff ever, they decided that we needed to celebrate the grand re-opening of the media center with a ribbon cutting ceremony! Guest speakers were arranged, important people invited, a cake ordered, and the invitation distributed in short order... and at the end of January we celebrated reading at Springfield Middle School! Mrs. Ruppenthal welcomed everyone to the event! Greenley gave a lovely speech! Maddie's speech was amazing, too! We presented an amazing parent volunteer with a gift card to our local bookstore, too! WIthout Ms. Graves' help, this project would never have happened! It was time for the BIG EVENT! The ribbon cutting!! Students made a big line and held the ribbon, and I used a GIGANTIC pair of scissors to cut the ribbon! How exciting!! The ribbon cutting was a great success... thank you to all who planned and participated! I am so proud to be a part of the Cougar family!! The SPMS Knitting Club had our first meeting last night, and it was amazing! We had such a great time learning how to needle knit, loom knit, and crochet. We practiced casting-on and basic knit stitches during our first meeting. Over the coming weeks, the students will learn more techniques, including: knits, purls, yarning over, increasing, decreasing, and more! They will then select a project (such as a hat, scarf, ear wrap, etc.). Several of the students expressed interest in knitting newborn hats for our local hospital! Are you wondering why you should learn to knit? In addition to being able to make cool projects, it turns out that knitting has some neat health benefits as well. Read about them here! We had a lot of staff interest, too! Special thanks to the teachers who helped oversee the club and teach the various skills. Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Knepper, YOU ROCK! Are you an SPMS Student or staff member interested in joining knitting club? Check out our meeting dates on our website: http://www.springfieldmiddle.com or see Mrs. Hurley for details! Check out pictures from our first meeting below - it was a blast! As you can see, we even had one student's Nana come to knitting club. YAY! Marylanders love Edgar Allan Poe - his suspenseful, creepy stories ensnare middle schoolers across the state every year! The celebrated poet met his untimely death in Baltimore and is buried there - you can visit his grave! The Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore has a wonderful special collection of Poe-related items. You can make an appointment to view them in person by calling 443-984-2451. Unfortunately for us, that wasn't really an option as we are about two hours west of Baltimore. Enter Mr. Michael Johnson! Mr. Johnson is the manager of the Poe special collection. He brought replicas of artifacts from the Poe collection to our students. His 25-minute presentation was a great overview of Poe's life and gave the students some solid background knowledge to kick off their module on suspense (featuring the works of Edgar Allan Poe). Of particular interest to the students was the fact that Poe married his 12-year-old first cousin, Virginia... when he was 25 years old! As you can imagine, the students were surprised and appalled. Mr. Johnson brought reproductions of several letters and poems written by and about Poe, and discussed his life and death with the students. I was fascinated by the letters and how they were addressed - even though they only had the addressee's name and the city of Baltimore, MD, they were able to be delivered. Incredible! Check out these great pictures! It was a wonderful experience that we are lucky to have been able to give to our students. I highly recommend that you contact Mr. Johnson and have him come present to your students, too! Here is is contact information if you are interested:
Michael K. Johnson Manager, Special Collections Enoch Pratt Free Library/Maryland's State Library Resource Center 443-984-2451 [email protected] |
About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
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