This new school year has been a flurry of activity and events.  It is hard to believe the end of September is upon us!  The days are getting shorter and the darkness and seemingly longer!  Leaves are on the ground, the weather is different moment to moment, football is in the air.....aaaahh, fall! 

Just as the seasons change, our school has also been undergoing some AMAZING transformations!  We are in the midst of setting up new transitional work and school programs, service hours/giving back to the community is getting ready to launch for the upper grades, project-based learning is most definitely under way being utilized by every class and team within our community....just as the seasons change our school has shifted its climate to one of Commitment to Excellence: Trust, Respect, Responsibility!  These ideas are vital in real-world, real-time life; what an excellent example of teaching these necessary skills in the school setting! 

Enjoy the last day of September, embrace the coming of October and all its possibilities for growth, and welcome change....all the new possibilities are endless.  As the poet Emily Dickinson wrote:
I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--

How fitting for the end of one month and all it had to offer and the beginning of the new with all its potentials and possibilities.....opening doors and windows for more to happen!

Who knew learning could actually be fun?  As we venture in to the concept of project-based learning and creative collaboration, Team 2 has already gotten a jump on what it's all about!  On Friday, September 23, 2011 students in Team 2 were given baskets of items they could use to build a "Table Top Olympic Game."  They were only allowed to use the items in their own baskets, and they could not train.  After they created their games, they had to determine how to score their games.  When the games were completed, groups traveled to each station to play the array of games.  The students in 5th grade did a model comparison today of our solar system.  In other Team 2 news, on Tuesday, September 27 the students in 5th grade did a model comparison today of our solar system; below the pics of the Olympic games are a few pictures of the day's events.