A Couple of Shout-Outs
To JSIS principal, Kelly Armaki, who won the 2010 Milken Educator Award for Washington with a $25,000 cash prize. Good for him and good for JSIS.
(One slightly sad note: the OSPI website story says that he works to connect Spanish immersion students with native Spanish speaking ELL students. This is great but if you will recall from the NSAP discussions, fewer native speakers will be able to go to JSIS because it is an attendance area school, not an option school.)
As well a shout-out to Lowell Elementary, Stevens Elementary 2nd grade and South Shore Elementary for creating altars for Dia de Muertos at Seattle Center. I'm sure that was a great project for kids, both interesting and educational. There will be altars at the Center House and a candlelight procession from the Center House to the International Fountain at 7 p.m. on Saturday. As well, there are other activities on both Saturday and Sunday.
For those who may not know, Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a traditional Mexican celebration with rituals that dates back centuries. In most of Mexico, November 1 honors children and infants (Dia de los Inocentes) while November 2 is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). People go to cemetaries to be with their loved ones, tidying up or decorating graves, building little altars with the deceased's favorite food and drink and music. (It can be a bit like an Irish wake on a grave with a lot of remembering of good times.) As well, in most of Europe, November 1 is All Saints Day, a holiday.
(One slightly sad note: the OSPI website story says that he works to connect Spanish immersion students with native Spanish speaking ELL students. This is great but if you will recall from the NSAP discussions, fewer native speakers will be able to go to JSIS because it is an attendance area school, not an option school.)
As well a shout-out to Lowell Elementary, Stevens Elementary 2nd grade and South Shore Elementary for creating altars for Dia de Muertos at Seattle Center. I'm sure that was a great project for kids, both interesting and educational. There will be altars at the Center House and a candlelight procession from the Center House to the International Fountain at 7 p.m. on Saturday. As well, there are other activities on both Saturday and Sunday.
For those who may not know, Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a traditional Mexican celebration with rituals that dates back centuries. In most of Mexico, November 1 honors children and infants (Dia de los Inocentes) while November 2 is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). People go to cemetaries to be with their loved ones, tidying up or decorating graves, building little altars with the deceased's favorite food and drink and music. (It can be a bit like an Irish wake on a grave with a lot of remembering of good times.) As well, in most of Europe, November 1 is All Saints Day, a holiday.
Comments
Yep - I'd be proud of my award and have fun spending the cash....
This is great for Kelly & the staff at JSIS. This is more proof that bold initiatives at the school and community level vs. the district level are what really work best.
Kudos to Kelly for recognizing the contributions of staff, without whom, he would not have had such success.
Collaboration, not competition, bears the biggest fruit.
Kelly's been great to work with in dealing with the problems coming out of the NSAP. He's been very responsive, very interesting in working with parents and teachers to find solutions that work for them, and very aggressive at dealing with the problem. I can easily imagine him dealing with other problems in a very aggressive but collegial manner.
And, yeah, the loss of the ELL program is a sad outcome of the NSAP. The ELL program was big part of the international-ness of the school. Yet another reason for ths school to be an option program.
JSIS parent