A little over a week ago, Neshaminy School Board member Bill Spitz attended the Reading Olympics held in Warminster. During that evening he witnessed the middle school groups, which were represented by 6 teams each from Maple Point and Sandburg, and 3 teams from Poquessing (ten students per team). After watching the Reading Olympics, a proud Dr. Spitz sent me an email saying “Neshaminy was extremely well represented (in number and quality).” But that is only a part of the story. Also at the Reading Olympics were the teachers who helped to coach, prepare and cheer on these students – 31 teachers from the 3 middle schools, to be exact. There was no extra pay for being involved, no awards, no special recognition. These teachers participated in the Reading Olympics for a much more important reason – they were there to inspire our students.
Student preparation for the RO doesn’t just happen overnight. In fact, there was 6 months of coaching and meetings that took place prior to the competition. The teachers involved met during lunch periods to coordinate strategies, and countless after school meetings occurred with the teams to organize and discuss which books would be used. Clearly all that hard work was evident in the results achieved by our students.
Someone once told me that students are discouraged by bad teachers, learn from good teachers, and are inspired by great teachers. On this evening in Warminster, our students were accompanied by some really great teachers.
Thank you to the Neshaminy students and teachers who participated in the Reading Olympics. You all receive a well-deserved A+.
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7 comments:
Very thoughtful article William. With so much anti-teacher sentiment over this contract issue, it's a nice reminder that we do have many "great" teachers in Neshaminy who are worthy of equally great praise.
Now this is more like it. A kinder, gentler blog without the Courier blog nastiness. I hope the Board and Teachers Union can come to an agreement soon so we can get back to our number one priority - preparing our children for the future.
First time Newbie ever posted a nice flowery message, it only took LiL 30 minutes to insult her/him. Is LiL out there, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting Newbie? It's been 15 minutes. 15 more to go. Wait for it, WAIT FOR IT!!
Kudos to Dr. Spitz for attending this event. It's nice to have a board member who cares enough to do more than just show up at board meetings.
AMEN! See... It's about community! Kids, teachers, parents, principals and board members excited about reading! I too watch proudly.
Thank you William!
It would be nice to see some of the people who have criticized teachers at the public meetings compliment the teachers for the effort they have shown here. They don't have to change their view on the negotiations, just admit that teachers aren't the failures they have been described as.
Nice story but now back to reality. We have a contract we can't afford and its strangling taxpayers. There are really good teachers in neshaminy but how we pay them needs to be fixed.
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