Fiske Community News 12/12/14

Smiling faces and singing voices are what’s most on my mind this week.

The singing voices come from students in the Select Chorus. Twenty, fifth-graders willingly give up of their recess time to study, learn and sing under music teacher, Julie Verret’s direction. Just this morning, Ms. Verret, asked me to swing by the Select Chorus’ practice of a song they’ll be singing for our Winter Concert on Tuesday, December 16 at Fiske.

It says a lot about the fifth-graders who give up their time to sing and to do so with the joy, talent, teamwork and determination that is necessary to sing well as a chorus. If you have not checked out the brief snippet of their singing, please take a moment to refer back to the School Messenger message and click on the attached audio link for a preview of next week’s show.

After I watched the three minutes or so of practice, in which Ms. Verret was brought to tears of appreciation for her students, I told the Select Chorus how happy and inspiring it was to hear their voices sing so well and in harmony. As always, I am looking forward to seeing more of our students’ talents on display when the school band and orchestra plays and the entire grade five chorus sings.

The smiles I’m thinking of come from last week’s class pictures. As was the tradition of my predecessor, Elaine Harold, I stand in each class picture – 18 in all. Besides this presenting smile fatigue by the end of it, posing for each class picture provided lots of fun moments like:

Now, I wasn’t able to snap self-portraits with every class because at times two photographers were setting up simultaneously, thus, I was hopping from class to class. But the ones I did take, I cherish. A smiling face at school represents so much – a snapshot in time of how a child feels about her school, her class, her school, dare I say, her life.

As you know, almost 100% of Fiske students come to and leave school happy each day. They are inspired to learn from their teachers and to play together with their peers. Of course, parents and families create the foundation for happiness and learning. For this, I share some of the smiles from last week with you here. Thanks and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Anthony J. Colannino
Principal