ANNUAL GIVING SNEAK PEAK

This week will be the kickoff for our Annual Giving drive. We have all kinds of great news, exciting events, and competitions in store for the next six weeks. And right here you can get the first glimpse of what we have in store! Below is a tape of Alaina Gull, Channing Hall Board president and Heather Shepherd, our head of school discussing the importance of Annual Giving at our Charter school.

Brain Gym at Channing Hall

We had another great teacher presentation at the last Board meeting. This time Rosanne Delaney explained how Brain Gym activities are applied in the classrooms to stimulate learning. She brought up many great examples of how this cutting edge learning tool is being used by the teachers. Rosanne has been very active nationally and within the state to teach and promote Brain Gym concepts. We are fortunate to have such an enthusiastic teacher stimulating our children at Channing Hall.

While the Kids are at Play.....

I hope you are all enjoying the long weekend with kids! But this is to show you that not everyone is playing on these days off. The administration and teachers were busy learning and getting inspired to give the best and latest in teaching to our children. This Thursday and Friday all the teachers were involved in an intensive seminar on Differentiated Learning titled, "Hope For All Students: Differentiating the Classroom With Research-Based Strategies". Dr Michael Shackleford, Professional Development Specialist provided training to our teachers about how to bring out the best in our students no matter what level they are at. He introduced the program with this statement; We must always first ask, What is in the best interest of the children?"

According to Ms. Heather the teachers were very engaged and the enthusiasm for the program was palpable. She noted that, "Professional Development really makes a difference, especially when it is someone that is a great speaker and has tons of useful information that can be directly applied to the students." She went on to explain, "To me it's revitalizing and reaches the core of why I am in education. I think many of the faculty feel this way too. Everyone I asked this afternoon told me this was meeting needs and provoking thinking and learning from within."

ANNUAL GIVING PLUG: This type of invaluable professional development costs money, but as Ms. Heather so eloquently explained, "According to studies the biggest indicator of higher student achievement is teacher professional development." In other words, motivating and giving our teachers the tools to do their best is one of the most cost effective ways of giving OUR students the best education. Let's keep this in mind when the ANNUAL GIVING drive begins in a couple of weeks!

Have a great weekend everybody!

p.s. Check out Channing Hall in the news again! Monster truck comes to CH! http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9277496

TIME Management - New Years Resolution?

HAPPY (belated) NEW YEAR! We are into the a new year and I figured this would be a good 'time' to publish a short Channing Hall "Time Management" video. Middle School history teacher, Mr. Marsden, gives some great pointers on time management for our students at Channing Hall. BUT, all of us can benefit from what he points out in his presentation, "Be KIND To Your Future".



I am excited about the prospects at Channing Hall for 2010! We have a lot of exciting events and developments coming up for this year. Stay tuned!