Ideas for New School Year

School starts next week, and I need your help. Any parents interested in working with the school on various teams and committees should email me. We need your input on the great things planned and to be planned for SLE children this year. If you prefer, call me at the office at 601-253-2324. Thanks, JH.

"New" Schoolnotes.com

Schoolnotes.com has upgraded itself, and teachers who were using http://www.schoolnotes.com/ should update their pages for this year, too. You can access the new site by going to http://new.schoolnotes.com/. If you have questions, please email me. - JH

Take a survey

Please look at the righthand side of the page for a new survey I've added. Take the survey and give us an idea for what you think SLE can do this year to make our school even better.

August 3-6 Events

The following is a tentative schedule for the first three professional days:


August 3
7:30 - noon - meet at CES for district business
1:00-3:30 - Staff Meeting at SLE

August 4
7:30 -3:30 - Staff Meeting at SLE

August 5
7:30 - 3:30 - Work in Rooms

August 6
7:30-1 p.m. (60% day) Students start
1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Work in Rooms

Unscientific America Article

Go to this site, Unscientific America, for a great interview with the author of the book by the same name. He talks about how the American population's lack of understanding of basic scientific concepts may be adversly affecting our public policies. It's a little unnerving, when you think about it.

See How D.C. Is Coping with Test Scores

I listened to a very interesting story on NPR via the Internet about D.C. schools and their recent analysis of their test scores. The chancellor, Michelle Rhee , gave some interesting information during the interview that may shed light for teachers and parents of South Leake. Click here for a link to the story.

Web Resources for the Coming Year

Those of you who are looking for resources for the upcoming year may want to check out the links below.


•http://www.worldofteaching.com/ - This has many free PowerPoint presentations ready made for you. They are categorized and relatively easy to find.
•http://www.whatworks.org/ – This site offers resources for teaching reading.

•http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/never-work-harder-than-your-students.html
This is simply an interesting book and author interview that I want to share with you. One of the points the author makes is that the teacher should "never work harder than the student" when learning something. See what you think and write back.