Greetings
GreenMount Community,
Two
weeks ago, I was happy to share with you the fact that our 6th – 8th
grade students received rave reviews from our guides during our trip to
Gettysburg. And now I can report to you
that we have received similar accolades from our guest presenters at our last
two Community Day events. David Wright, of
GWWO, Inc./Architects, visited GMS on Friday, October 28, to talk about the
American impressionist painter, Thomas Moran, who painted during the time
period that included the Civil War.
Thanks to Kirsten and Mark Lapointe, who arranged for our guest, we were
treated to an impressive slide show along with signed works of Mr. Moran.
Our students were engaged and excellent
listeners during the presentation; afterward,Mr. Wright complimented the
students and expressed how impressed he was with their responses and
questions. Mr. Wright did an excellent
job of exciting the students about Thomas Moran’s art, but he gave due credit
to our students for their attention and obvious curiosity. Likewise, our guest the following week, Charles
Hawley, a Civil War re-enactor, was also very impressed with the knowledge on
the subject of even some of our youngest students. “I have been to many Maryland schools and
never had (seen) the knowledge and attention displayed by your students,”
stated Mr. Hawley. “Congratulations on a
wonderful job.” Our visit to the
Maryland Historical Society last Wednesday resulted in similar compliments for
our students and, of course, our teachers.
It is obvious to all of these folks that our theme studies program,
headed by Ms. Laura, Ms. Tanza, Mr. Fletcher and the rest of our staff, is
exceptional in scope and supported by an ethic of excellence that is indeed
becoming part of how we live and breathe around here. I couldn’t be more proud of our teachers and
our students!
Some
announcements:
Many of you are already aware that
Ms. Charita is leaving us after Thursday to have back surgery, and we certainly
wish her the best. We had arranged for a
long-term substitute for the rest of the year, but unfortunately, that person
called late last week to cancel as she had found a full-time position. I was
out of town on Friday and contacted Ms. Elaine, who did an excellent job of
immediately posting our opening on the AIMS web site. This morning, I have been calling each of the
12 candidates that have already applied for this position. Many of them have impressive resumes, and we
have already started interviewing the applicants (three today). I will select the best candidate by the end
of the day on Wednesday, and that person will start on Monday.
While in Connecticut this weekend, I
saw many TV promotions concerning a nation-wide test of the Emergency Broadcast
System. It will commence at 2:00 p.m. on
Wednesday and run concurrently across the country. The reality is that this broadcast may not
warn the audience that it is just a test.
So don’t get all War of the Worlds-panicky
if the test sounds genuine…
Actually, it will sound genuine. It’s a genuine test.
Cheers,
Steve
