On Being BLUE

The problem with issuing a challenge to 538 elementary aged students is that they OFTEN MEET THE GOAL.  They rise to the challenge, embrace it and usually knock it right out of the ball park.  That's what happened during the month of February at Northpoint.  And I couldn't be happier.

Blue Women of NP!

I love, love, love being a teacher.  I love the place I work, the people I work with and the students I teach even more.  I also love that we all have a common goal during the month of February and try to read 1,000,000 minutes for the WSBT I Love To Read Celebration.  Our school has made this a huge deal all 9 years that I've been privileged enough to work there.  I LOVE IT.

This year, our school was recognized as a NATIONAL BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE.  That's huge.  That's bigger than huge, that's GINORMOUS.  It was such an honor when we found out that we received this very distinguished honor.  We've tried to keep the celebration going throughout the year with different "Blue themed events."

When it came time to plan for the IL2R goal, we came up with the idea of doing a "Blue Man Group" performance.  Since we only have 2 men that work in the building, we soon became the "Blue Woman Group," and the challenge was on.  We had an amazing parent put up an AWESOME bulletin board so we could track our minutes, and it soon filled up.  Our kids could only be found with their noses in books during those 28 days, as we recorded 1,080,661 minutes when it was all said and done.  We didn't hit a million...we "BLUE" IT AWAY! 

Two days before the performance, we decided that we should practice.  So practice we did.  Based off our amazing performance, you'd think we had been practicing for months.  (Okay, maybe I'm a bit biased on this!) 

Blue Buddies

Carefully becoming BLUE!

We had such a fun afternoon performing as the "Blue Woman Group"  We danced, we played instruments, we tried to catch marshmallows, we threw marshmallows, we covered people in paper towels...we had a BLAST!

The paper towel trick was awesome!

Here lately, the stress level of many public educators has been in the "dangerously high" category, last Friday that was all erased.  It was all about celebrating a huge accomplishment and having FUN! I was so blessed to be BLUE.  I'm so fortunate to work at such an amazing place. I'm so lucky that I get to go to work and celebrate the things are future leaders are doing.  Sometimes, it's good to be BLUE!