Happy New Year! It is sure great to be back in school and see everyone! I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing Christmas break and are eager to start the second half of the school year. Do you sometimes wonder where all the time goes? Semester tests are on Thursday and Friday, and we will start second semester next week! It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming our students back from summer vacation. In the blink of an eye, it is 2016! The older I get, the fast the time seems to fly by!
As we look forward to the fresh start of a brand new year, it is traditional to pause and look back at the year we have just ended. Reviewing some 50 blog posts from this last year it is apparent that we have had quite a journey! In my first post of the new year, I shared how it was my goal to be grateful for the gift of each day:
'Even when the day isn't going so hot, there are things to be grateful for', I proclaimed.
Upon honest reflection, I certainly wasn't thinking how grateful I was when we were going through some of those less than pleasant days! Not every day was sunshine and daisies, but each of those days put us on the path to the next. Truth be told those days helped form the direction we now find ourselves headed. As we close out 2015 and begin 2016 hopefully we can see that things eventually turn out. I suppose that is due to the resiliency of our school and community.
Fortunately there has been a lot to celebrate in 2015! Those days far outweighed the others. It was relatively easy on those days to consider how grateful I was! For many, May 17th, 2015 stands out as a day to celebrate. Graduation day! We witnessed 57 young people walk across the stage that afternoon and become alumni of Hudson High School. One of many highlights in 2015!
Our school district was among the early implementers of a teacher leadership system. One of the first 39 in fact! Although we launched ours in July of 2014, it really began to hit it's stride in 2015. This fall we have begun to reap the benefits of this system as more teachers take advantage of the leverage this type of collaboration can have on student instruction. Strong instruction leads to better student outcomes, of this we can be certain!
We have enjoyed celebrating the success of our students as well. Recently we were honored to be counted among the top performing high schools in the state. And who can forget the success of our athletes and musicians? Girls track state champions, four students selected to the prestigious Iowa All-State Chorus, first football playoff win since the 1995 championship season...we could fill up this post celebrating and being grateful for the accomplishments of our students.
Now we turn the calendar to 2016, we can't help but wonder what's next? What will happen tomorrow that will shape the day that follows tomorrow? I wonder-when we get to the end of 2016, what will fill this column?
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