Georgetown Elementary School

The staff and students at Raey Guang Elementary learn about American customs and traditions while they are studying English.  This week, they learned about Halloween—even holding an all school assembly about the holiday.  Enjoy these videos created for us!

I was the luckiest principal in the world this week because I had the honor of eating lunch with the top money earners for our school walk-a-thon.   It was the perfect day for lunch with me because it was a cold, rainy day and the Jet’s pizza was exactly what we needed to warm ourselves up!

During the lunch we shared pet stories (ranging from silly pets to crazy pets), talked about our Halloween costumes, and much more.  There were lots of giggles and plenty of YUMs.  The pizza and cinnamon sticks were delicious.  Thank you, PTC, for sponsoring this great lunch.  And many thanks to everyone who contributed to our walk-a-thon.

Walkathon PIzza Lunch

We have a very special sister school in Pingtung, Taiwan.  The teachers have posted introductions of themselves on our BLOG PALS website.  Feel free to visit this and learn about the teachers at Raey Guang Elementary.

This fall we are fortunate to host two student teachers:  Miss Ashley Barbieri from Hope College is teaching with Mrs. Reifschneider and Miss Stacey Bouwkamp is from Calvin College, teaching with Mrs. Kuieck.  We have several veteran staff who are graduates of Hope or Calvin—and because my husband is a professor at Hope, I have been accused of Flying Dutchman favoritism.   To prove that I do not have a favored school when it comes to student teachers, we will host a friendly PULL competition on Friday.

Hope and Calvin hosts their own “pulls”–and we will set this up as a mud-free, student friendly event.  Mr. Kooiker (our intrepid teacher assistant, football recess coach, playground supervisor, and overall morale booster) will ‘ref the event.

This is also our first popcorn day and our team building recess day for  grades 3,4, and 5.

We invite all  students to wear either HOPE Flying Dutchman colors (blue/orange) or Calvin Knight colors (maroon/gold) to support a team.  Students who are best dressed will be selected to help with the pull.

Of course, we will have video of the event to share after the event!  Go Dutch!  Go Knights!

The Principal of Raey Guang Elementary wrote to share some exciting news.  Read on:

Dear Mrs. Reagan,

I would like to pass a good news to you! Our program of international networking with you has won the first place in Taiwan and I was invited to share the experiences in our ministry of education! Thanks to your help on much ideas-sharing and blog-constructing. This award belongs to you, too.

The new semester is running now. This semester, we are going to have new courses for students and teachers as well. For students, high-achievers and low-achievers of English will both be selected out and given special training. Furthermore, all students will have more courses about e-communication. We hope all children in our school can learn English well and have more communication with your students. All teachers are going to have extra English lesson, too. Learning is not just about the students, right?

Last, I hope children in both of our schools can be educated happily and have better global visions for their future.

Mrs. Chung Wen Yu

We have received two emails from Raey Guang Elementary following the typhoon disaster of early August.

The principal, Chung Wen Yu, shared the following:

Thanks for your kind care about the typhoon in Taiwan. Places near sea and in mountains were severely destroyed after this typhoon. Our school is located in downtown area, and luckily nothing was really damaged. But, we all really concern the people who are suffering from this disaster. We’ve been trying to provide what we have to people there to help them. We also really appreciate your international rescue team; they worked really hard cleaning the mess and helping people rebuild their house and lives. Thank you again!

And, from Sarah:

Thank for your caring. It’s all fine in Pingtung urban center. The most terrible disaster is in the mountains. So far. there were much mud in some villages, and many soldiers, volunteers help clean the mud. However, there is anthoer potential crisis-infection disease, like H1N1. Anyway, hope everything and everybody are safe and well.

Please continue to keep the thousands of people who are homeless and dealing with the loss of loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

I am very excited to share with you that our sister school, Raey Guang Elementary, has successfully loaded photos, videos and texts to our common blog, BLOGPALS: Schools that Blog Together, Learn Together.

Please visit the blog to see how the students in Taiwan learn conversational English.  The examples posted include “How to check out a library book” and “How to explain you are not feeling well.”

Enjoy!

From Mr. Dave Powers, Principal of BMS:

Dear Fifth Grade Parent/Guardian:
It is time to begin the process of welcoming your child to Baldwin Street Middle School and plan for this new world that is sixth grade. Whether they have older siblings who have been at BMS before or not, your student will encounter this transition in his or her own unique way, and we aim to make it a positive experience.
We are excited about the transition activities in store for you and have quite a program set up to make both you and your child comfortable with the change that awaits. The process gets under way on Wednesday, March 18, when we welcome all incoming sixth graders to Baldwin Street Middle School for a special visit. The complete schedule for this visit can be viewed by clicking: BMS parent-letter-09-10

We are a Georgetown family who feels incredibly blessed during this time of economic stress in West Michigan. For this reason, we have decided to share our resources in an area where there is a great need in our school. We are asking, most humbly, and as you are able, if you will join us in this pursuit. We attend Fair Haven Ministries, and through a special project called the Kingdom Assignment inspired originally by Leesa and Denny Bellesi and then replicated in many other ways through a concept called Pay It Forward (as seen on Oprah in 2006).    We have decided to use our money in a similar way to help families in need at our own school.

The greatest need of Georgetown families at this time is for food. Some families are unable to qualify for free or reduced lunches because of their income, but at the same time, the money they do receive is going to pay mortgages and bills. There are also many children who come to school without snacks, leaving them hungry as they are trying to learn.

Up to this point, there has been a group of very committed teachers and staff who have been pooling their own money to address this concern. We are hoping that we can multiply their generous donations through this blog posting.

Again, if you are able, we would appreciate any donations of gift cards to food stores. Meijer, Family Fare, D & W Fresh Market and WalMart come to mind, but there may be others that you can think of. The gift cards can be dropped off at the Georgetown school office at any time during regular school hours (8:30 to 4:00). Please mark any donations as follows: SPRING SERVICE PROJECT. Please know that you can also purchase gift cards through out PTC scrip program. If you have questions about how to do this, contact Carrie Clark-Berry (csclarkberry@comcast.net).

Thank you so much for your consideration and your support of this Spring Service Project. Know that you will be helping our Georgetown families in this difficult time.

The Shereda Family

I would like to invite you to visit our school blog that brings together two schools, thousands of miles apart: BLOGPALS. You will find an entry from our sister school, Raey Guang.  A Year Six teacher, Chia Pin Chen, created a blog post on our site.  In addition, Mr. Chia Pin Chen has also created his own class blog that has photos of some of his students.

This has taken perserverence from both schools–one that speaks English only and another that speaks Mandarin with some English.  Please visit the blog and ready entries from our sister school students.  Mrs. Reagan