Awards

OK, I meant to do this quite awhile ago, but there's a video I hope to eventually have on the blog connected with this story that I haven't had time to try to cut down to a small enough size to put on here yet. Plus there was the whole Christmas thing, and then going out of town...

But enough excuses. Hopefully I'll get several posts up this week. I want to split a few things up rather than have one huge monster post that no one would ever actually read.

Anyway, on the 17th of December they had a big assembly at the school. All we knew ahead of time was that it was for the whole school, and the Texas Commisioner of Education as well as media would be there. Needless to say, this led to curiosity. I went to see the assembly (Dee was at work). In addition to the aforementioned people, our State Senator and State Representative were there, as well as the district superintendent and the district board of trustees. Not to mention Rosy Greer and Neil Bush.

After a lot of introductions of all the above people, we were told the assembly was because one of the teachers at the school was being awarded a Milken National Educator Award. This is a $25,000 award to 80 teachers in the country each year. There are no nominations, so it is apparently always a surprise to the recipient. They then announced that the winner was Mrs. Calagna, Jessie's teacher last year.

Dee and I were impressed with her, and Jessie adored her, so that was very exciting. It's also exciting for Mrs. Calagna, as she is expecting her first child in April. So the extra $25,000 will certainly come in handy. If anyone is interested, there is a website for the award, and you can read Mrs. Calagna's biography, see some pictures, and there's also a video of excerpts of the assembly which includes a quick shot of most of Jessie's face (as well as a good shot of Jessie's current teacher).

But the fun doesn't stop there. Friday was the annual Winter Sing a Long. Again, all the students are together and sing songs from any holiday celebrated during winter that you've ever heard of, and perhaps some you haven't. As part of it, each grade has a song that they sing alone. But the biggest part (for whatever reason) is the third graders. Their song is "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", and any of them who wish can dress up in a reindeer costume. After the whole grade sings, those who dressed up get to sing it again, and then everyone votes on the best costume and performance. Jessie came up with an elaborate costume that words can't do justice to, so here's a picture:

Here's a close-up of her sign, which again, she came up with completely on her own:

While she did get some competition from a boy dressed up as a reindeer wearing a Santa suit, in the end Jessie won, and was awarded the traditional necklace (if you click on the picture above, you'll see it). Inside reports (that agree with what I saw) is that the entire fourth grade voted for Jessie. In fact, some of the fourth grade boys were particularly enthusiastic in their support (hmm... maybe that should concern me....).

Just because, here's another picture, of Brennan sitting in the sleigh: