You'd Think We Lived on the Mainland!

So last friday we had guests. Lots of em. Ursula came out to do her last guidance class with the kids, but we also had a huge group of administrators from MDI come out on the Gott Boat. It was amazing to see that many adults line up for the traditional Frenchboro greeting line. Scott McFarland, Dianne Helprin, Barb Neilly, Carol McRae, Gail Keith, Joanne Harriman and Rob Liebow all in Frenchboro School! Unbelievable. These are amazing administrators doing amazing things to keep our district progressive and student-centered. They're really all about kids, which you think should be a no-brainer in education, but...it's not!
Dianne Helprin... Principal of the Year in Maine! Seriously.
Gail Keith is the principal at Swan's Island, but also the assessment coordinator for MDIRSS, and there's Joanne and Rob, Superintendent/Asst. Superintendent. We get to call Joanne our principal because we're lucky like that, but she's first and foremost the Asst. Grande Fromage. We knew her before she was famous, folks.
Well, Doug and I thought they were coming out mostly for an all-admin. meeting, and a little bit of observing, but it was the other way around! In the hot seat, ladies and gentlemen...Mr. Finn! The kids were really amazing, as they always are, so much so that one principal said to me after class...."This is the best group of kids I've ever seen! Are they always like this?" Ahhhh, yes. Yet another reason why we LOVE our job!
Carol and Barb watching the kids sound off during math class. And afterward, it was lobster and crab rolls for all at the Offshore Store. Yum!

Ursula's Last Day

Ursula came out last friday for her final guidance class with the kids. The theme was 'giving'. In this picture, the kids were talking about giving the gift of laughter as someone inadvertantly cracked everyone up. It was Elijah's squeaky chair. They talked about ways that we give which can be everything from love to money to....yes....laughter. The kids give me that every day.
They came up with their list first and then began focusing on what each person would give to various groups, like family, or community.
They wrote their ideas on round pieces of paper and put them together to create a 'ripple effect' of giving. Amber said she would like to give Dawn soap to help clean the animals from the BP oil spill.
The idea of creating a positive ripple effect rather than a negative one is a great thing to think about. Ursula talked about instances when we might be having a really bad day and our negativity can have a not-so-great effect on everything and everyone around us. Then the opposite situation where our giving attitudes can create positive effects on those around us.
The K-2 class also came up with their positive ripple effect. It was pretty evident that we have a group of compassionate, giving students. I love the one that says, "When I give my mom a hug when she is crying." Who doesn't love that? And the little people with their hands up in the air? So sweet. We often write 'encouraging words' to each other and share them on fridays. Sometimes it's nothing more than a, "You're really good at kickball" which is great and encouraging, but then there's the deeper, "I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings," or "I'm sorry that your Nana died," that really get me.

In Alaska, I had this student named Leonard who had some real learning difficulties. He was such a sweet kid, though, and had a great sense of humor, that was often misunderstood by his peers. One day I was reading the encouraging words out to the class and there was this note that said, "Dear Leonard, HAPPY DAY! Love, Leonard." Well, the whole class thought that was a riot and I liked it so much I asked him if I could keep it. A short time later, he died in a whaling accident. I was full of grief for quite a while about it but one day I found something in my jacket pocket. I unfolded it and there was the encouraging word from Leonard to himself. I laughed out loud. Sometimes the greatest encouragement is what we give to ourselves and I keep his note on my dresser to remind me that even though the moment is gone, our words live on. Positively. Or negatively.

Hard Tack and Salt Tack....Yum!

Charlie came in again last week to share more about the Civil War. This time he brought his haversacks full of what a typical soldier would carry...food, a plate and fork, a tin cup, a piece of paper with their information on it (which was the equivalent of today's dogtags), bullets, canteen, etc. He made coffee in the old percolater (decaf!), hard tack, salt tack, and corn bread for the kids to try.
Here's Teressa trying to chew the hard tack. Very enthusiastic.
Saylor is covering her mouth as she found it all quite horrific. During the Civil War, soldiers would put their hard tack into their boiling hot coffee to soften it (and to kill the weevils!)
Jayde said the coffee tasted terrible. Everyone tried everything though and they were great sports. And then there was Johnny. Who wanted seconds on everything. I was seriously impressed. Did I mention that salt tack is salted pork fat?

Civil War

Who is this dapper visitor?
And this fair damsel?
We got a time machine here at Frenchboro School, care of our lovely neighbors, Charlie and Jackie Mitchell. Charlie is an authority on all things Civil War. He has been involved in reenactments over the years and has developed a skill with reproducing replicas of Civil War trunks. He has studied the era extensively and has a large collection of realia from the time, as well as replicas of things like money, flags, etc.
Jackie and Charlie showed up in full costume and discussed each article of clothing. The kids discovered the meaning of "snood", something that doesn't come up very often in everyday conversation.
Here's Amber checking out the replica of currency from the time.
And what day is complete without Cody trying on a bonnet?
And Johnny slipping into a pair of silk gloves? Ahhh, we can't wait to find out what Charlie and Jackie are going to do next? I hear hard tack and a shoot out are in store!

Memorial Day 2010

Traditions are nice to have in a small school like ours. It sort of ties us together through the years. Of course there are always things that change as time passes, and new traditions are started, but it's nice to know that not only are we in same building that the kids' grandparents came to school in, we often celebrate the same things. Memorial Day at Frenchboro School is celebrated by visiting all the cemeteries on our little island and placing flags on our veterans' graves. It usually takes us all afternoon.
We expedited things a little this year by using our bikes. It was great to get out and bike with a whole gang of people. We hit all five cemeteries and located each name. We have quite a few Civil War graves which leads us right into our special guests, Charlie and Jackie Mitchell who are coming in to talk about that era with the students.
As we all rode in and parked, Brody said, "Ms. Finn, I think we should use our bikes every year!" A new tradition.

Contra Dancing

Bo and Graham tried to mix things up a little while they were here and the kids got to do some contra dancing on the lawn. Graham played his fiddle and he and Bo called the steps of the dance. Everyone got to change partners frequently, so it was a lot of silly commotion as they switched off. I'm sure you could hear the shrieks and giggles across the harbor.
For anyone who doesn't already know this: It is a fact that children in the last few weeks of school have more than the average amount of ants in their pants, silly spells, and gobbledegook coming out of their mouths. This phenomenon is combated through lots and lots of exercise. So, as soon as the kids got a little twitchy, out we'd go to dance, dance, dance!

Music Performance

Here's our lead, Pearl the pig, played by Saylor. I don't think she was a fan of the nose during the performance, but afterward, she asked if she could keep it, so I guess she got used to it. There were lots of songs during the performance this year. The kids worked on folk music from all over the country which they performed before the play, which was an adapted version of The Amazing Bone by William Steig. Costumes and sets were very basic, which fit into our tight timeline, and kept the focus on the music. Even so, how cute is that pig?
And this witch with her bucket o' slugs? Apparently witches eat slugs for supper. I welcome all witches to Frenchboro where they can live down at the community garden and eat 'til their hearts are content.
Here are the treacherous band of robbers (Myron, Brody and Bradley) who attack Pearl and the magic bone (played by Cody). Throughout the play there were original songs that the kids had learned. They really liked the 'bad guy' songs. Instead of having solos, Bo and Graham opted for all the kids to be on stage throughout the play and to sing every song together, which is much less stressful, and of course sounds great.

It was such a fun week and a half having our musicians-in-residence. We are so grateful that they choose to travel all the way here to Frenchboro every year to share their talents.