Thanks Ann!!

As graduation week begins there is much to celebrate.  Certainly, we have many graduates, their families, their teachers, and their mentors that have worked hard to accomplish the celebrations of this week.

On the other side, it is also a time to look at the spectacular work of many of our teachers and staff that do extraordinary things for our students.  To point to one example, that in my view represents many, I would look at the Senior Exhibition event at JW North HS.  This is certainly a great example of preparing our students for the world beyond high school (next week!). 

Though it probably is not an “official” Senior Exhibition project – I am stunned by the work of just one of our teachers in this area.   In this case, AFTER graduation, the teacher contacts you and asks you to write another essay and make sure it includes a literary work as part of the overall theme.  Guess what, many students did exactly that and emailed their essays back to the teacher (had to use email as they didn’t show up for class anymore).  The teacher, of course, commented and edited the work and returned it.  All of it ended up as the most extraordinary book of these essays – that are very thought-provoking and insightful from our students about their various journeys in life.

The book is entitled:  Bookmarked by Ann Camacho (JW North teacher).  If you haven’t looked at it I would highly recommend it.  I was intrigued and impressed by the project -- I was even more impressed by the quality of writing and thinking by our students.  To that end, I would also thank Ann and all of the other teachers across RUSD that are so committed to our students and their excellence.

P.S.  Ann, please don't edit my work as it is not likely to be to the standard that you have demanded of your students.