Cloud 9

Today I met with the principal from my kids' future school. It's official. We're going. I went to talk about the upper grade reading program that I (with a small committee) started in 2007 at my kids' current school. First though, I had to get the math out of the way.

I never have gotten a personal response back from Emma's future teacher, Mrs. M. So I was nervous. But Mrs. Hart, the principal, put me right at ease.

"Mrs. M actually spoke with me, and she was very happy about meeting with you. She said that if your daughter needed that additional practice that she would be happy to supply you with the text and materials so she can get what she needs."

Yee-haw! I was so happy to hear that. My final fear has been put to rest. (As a side note, I interviewed the 5th grade ALL teacher from Foothill -- the other ALL school in my city, and she said that she taught using the Investigations or Connected Math lessons, but had homework almost exclusively from the Scott Foresman text which has more practice. This is exactly what Emma will be getting, just at the other elementary.)

I went on to explain how we started the reading program at my kids' current school, how we've improved it and the kind of response we've had. Mrs. Hart was almost out of her seat with excitement! I told her what I'd need to fund it and that I'm already recruiting volunteers to run it. My program also runs on a minimum of volunteers. You just need 2 people for 20 minutes once a month. That's it.

It was so nice to have someone as excited as she was about the program. She was so supportive. And thrilled.

"I was trying to come up with something like this," Mrs. Hart told me, "only it wasn't done and it wasn't this good."

"Why reinvent the wheel?" I asked.

"I definitely borrowed great ideas from others when I was a teacher, now I do it as a principal."

As I was leaving she said, "I'm so excited for the program...and, I'm so excited to have you at the school, too."

It was so gratifying to hear. I have to admit, I like being appreciated.