What a night!

I can't believe all of my cute little students are graduated. The time just flew by to me and I really wish it wasn't over yet. Sigh... such is life.

I have lots of things to talk about so please bear with me.

1- Angie. I stopped by the hospital for a visit with her and her son tonight. For those who hadn't heard, the reason she only made a five minute appearance at graduation was because her youngest had a health scare. He had a couple seizures and they aren't sure what is causing them. He now at Ogden Regional (which is why she was able to be at graduation at all) but it looks like he is going to be moved to Primary Childrens for further tests. If you need to talk to Angie, it might become more difficult to get a hold of her, just be patient and she'll get back to you as soon as she can.

2-Photo shirts- We were more than a little short staffed at graduation tonight and some of the gift passing-out suffered as a result. I got each of my kids a book and a t-shirt with their picture on it. It seems two shirts were missing (that I heard of, there might be more) if your child did not get a shirt, please let me know and I will make them another one. Things were crazy and I don't know if people took the wrong shirts or they just got misplaced at some point. I'm very sorry about that.

3- Roses- Thank you all so much for the wonderful gifts. It was so sweet and thoughtful and really very touching. However, I did get a mystery gift and it's driving me crazy. My son handed me roses but he didn't know who they were from. They were pink, long stemmed and kind of bi-colored. The bottoms of the petals were dark pink and the tips were pale pink. If that was you, please let me know so I can thank you.

4- CD slide shows- I had the most unbelievable luck with the slideshow this year! I was putting together two for graduation. One for you to watch while the children were lining up for the processional, and one for the middle of program. However, a third of the way through making it, my program (Windows Movie Maker) froze up and quit. I tried several more times to use it and it froze each time- patches from the company didn't help the problem. I gave up and downloaded Corel Media One and then Thumb Studio but neither had the capabilities to make the kind of slideshow I wanted. Next I tired DVD Slideshow Professional and it worked great- those movies turned out fantastic, but each time I tried to burn one to a disk there were errors. Yesterday I finally I went out and bought a top of the line program only to find the software disk is bad. No matter what computer I put it in, the computer wont recognize the software. The store I bought it from will not even refund my money.

Eventually I had to give up and have someone else make it. The photos she had were a mix of my classes and Miss Stephanies class instead of just mine, and was it was also missing pictures of some of the funner things we did. Because of that, I didn't make copies for all of you. I'd really like to try and find a program that will actually work for me and complete the slideshow I started. If anyone knows of a good program, please let me know. I will try to do it next week. (My older AND younger brother are both moving this weekend, so I know I'll be too busy helping them to do it right away.)

When it IS done, I'll send out an email and let you know. I can mail them to you or have them at the school for you to pick up. Again, I'm sorry. I really did try hard to have them ready for you. I invested HOURS working on it and I promise I'll do my best to get it to you when I can.

5-Feedback- Angie gave me feedback forms to give you. I didn't get them until the last day of school and I know that makes it difficult to get them back, however, Angie says she would like them back if possible. You may mail them or drop them off at the school once summer school starts. Summer school will begin next Tuesday and run Monday-Friday from 10 till 1. You don't need to put names on the top. Please feel free to be totally honest and say whatever you want about me. I can take it, I promise!


6-ReadingI am putting together a little email for you with tips and links to websites. I hope it will help someone. I did want to take a minute though and point something out. I know sometimes it's hard to tell exactly how your child is doing. Sometimes parents worry when their children don't seem to be learning fast enough. But I'd like to share something with you that might help. Did you see my two sons that were there tonight? My oldest started reading at age three. By age four he could read books as big as "Green Eggs and Ham." (70+ pages) On the other hand, my youngest son entered Kindergarten as a non-reader. He knew a little less then half his alphabet at that point and wasn't reading till Christmas break that year. However, at ages 12 and 8, both are now thriving, both get top grades and are very comfortable in their school work. Please believe me when I say that children will read when they are ready for it. Don't worry too much about "where they should be." In my opinion, it can be remarkably beneficial to concentrate more energy on helping them develop a strong sense of self worth and confidence and a healthy love of learning. When they start reading does NOT matter as much as how they feel about themselves when they do read.

Make sure your children know you believe in them and that they have the potential to do/learn anything they put their minds to. I am being completely sincere when I say I believe in your children and I am grateful you shared them with me for a year.