Greetings
GreenMount Community,
This morning, at our Monday Morning Meeting, we unveiled
our new climbing wall and discussed safety and certain rules to follow. Ms. Kelly will be receiving some personal
staff development from Gary Dunn, of Alpine Inspirations, who has donated his
time and energy consulting and then finally installing the holds on the
wall. Gary is very knowledgeable and has
created many walls for gyms and specialty venues that offer this kind of
activity. He was very impressed with the
job that our parents did in creating the wall and especially the mural, completed
by Chris Marsico last week, which gives the authentic look of a rock face. You should come in and see it. Please make sure that you have completed the
release form so that your child can participate in climbing activities. For your peace of mind, here are some rules
we will be following:
- No one is allowed on the wall without adult supervision.
- Students may not place their feet above the center line of the
wall (4 feet from the floor).
- A student starting from left to right on the wall must wait until
the student in front of him/her has passed the center point of the wall
under the basket.
- Mats must always be in place (doubled) before any climbing can be
done.
- All climbers will be spotted as they climb.
- Students will report immediately any holds that seem loose.
Today,
we received some especially good news: our two teams who participated in “Destination
Imagination” returned from this weekend’s tournament with first-place
recognition! This is quite a feat as
they competed against teams throughout the city and county region. Particularly significant is the fact that
other schools in the competition typically have more students from which to
choose; our small population would seem, therefore, at a disadvantage. But these are GREENMOUNT STUDENTS who are
confident and creative! They only need
to be given the opportunity and they rise to the occasion. The students listed below (omitting last
names) were coached by Linda Pietila and Dale Meyer, who gave a great deal of
their time meeting with the students after school each week and sometimes on
the weekends. We are truly grateful for
their participation. I must mention how
difficult their jobs are as coaches. The
students have to come up with solutions to the “problems” on their own. The coaches can only be Socratic in their
approach and cannot participate in the final product the students create. They do, however, present the students with
many problems to solve to teach collaborative work and critical thinking. The competitive piece is the creation of the
students only.
The
next step for our teams is the state competition, from which they could go on
to a national and then the world competition.
Wow! This is a big deal!
Congratulations
to our GreenMount winners:
GreenMount Soul Seven:
Chloe B.
Eliza P.
Sydney S.
Tali S.
Jeffrey O.
Tess P.
Cecelia R.
Gr 8t Kids:
ON TO STATE! – APRIL 14
Cheers,
Steve
