I am not one to brag, so this post is a little uncomfortalbe for me.  However, so many people have asked, I figured I needed to let them know.  Yesterday, I finished my Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership through East Carolina University.  I defended my dissertation in front of my committee, my wife, mother, mother-in-law, and Dr. Mark Savage - a close friend.  It was a humbling experience that ended in a family celebration. My daughters have enjoyed calling me Dr. Daddy and are looking forward to using the several drafts as a bon-fire for SMORES this weekend.

I really want to thank my  family, close friends, and the entire staff of Lake Myra Elementary School and Swift Creek Elementary School for their support in the four years of Doctoral work. 

One final thought and then I won't talk about this again.  I am most proud of the role model that I have been to my daughters, my students, and the staffs that I work with for being a life-long and continuous learner.  One of the values of Lake Myra is to motivate a love for learning.  My wish is that my example and love for learning will spark a desire for life-long learning in all our students, staff, and in my daughters.  That will serve me so much better that any degree!  After all - at Lake Myra, We Prepare All Learners for their Future!

It is a rainy day at Lake Myra today, but the sounds of our students at our Lake Myra Camp definitely brighten the mood!  Our fabulous ESL teacher, Jane Ferguson, helped write a grant to enable us to offer a week of “camp” for some of our students that needed just a little bit extra.  We were able to add a little bit of tutoring money to the mix and we currently have over 85 students receiving an additional week of instruction. 

Our staff is working hard and has created tremendous 21st Century activities within the camp theme of the Winter Olympics.  It is amazing to see the engagement and smiles on faces as students use the Wii to slalom ski and then graph their own results as they rank order them.  OR to watch a student research the curling on an Apple iPad – OR watch a community outreach member from the Carolina Hurricanes teach them how to use a hockey stick and talk about perseverance OR how about students using Google Earth to study vocabulary terms on landforms.  The list goes on and on for the incredible activities our students are having. They are creating, critically thinking, collaborating, and communicating to high levels.  These opportunities are incredibly rich and provide the extra push to help these students reach their goals. 

This week, the Lake Myra community is walking the walk on their school vision – we are definitely preparing our learners for their future!