Hackberry Howl
Vol. 2 No. 30
This week I had to write a reflection piece on leadership for region XI. I wanted to share with you my thoughts on our school motto. When I speak about leadership I want each of you to understand that I believe that leadership not a position, title, or even something you are born with...It's a decision you make.
Are you embracing your leadership position?
Our campus motto this year has been, “Love, Serve, and Care.” Each of these individual words, when put to action, are powerful and could have a positive impact, but when combined together, have the power to change the culture in any school! The idea for this motto originated from a book study we have led our staff through, The Carpenter, by Jon Gordon. We have done our best to inspire the staff at Hackberry to measure everything we do with the “love, serve, care” motto, because we believe in order to be a respected leaders you must first excel at these three qualities and be willing to put them into practice daily.
Loving everything we do and every situation we find ourselves in may seem like an unattainable goal, but I believe it’s all about the attitude we choose to have. As leaders, we must learn to love every aspect of our job, even the struggles and challenges we face, because they inevitably will make us stronger. We must learn to love negative people because they make us more positive and allow us the opportunity to change their negative viewpoints onto positive ones. We must also learn to love when people push back, because it requires us to know more deeply why we do what we do and improves our systems.
Serving is the ultimate sign of leadership and character. The person with a servants’ heart is an ultimate leader, the kind we should all strive to be. This kind of leader is willing and eager to get his hands dirty doing menial jobs because it benefits the organization. He understands his place in leadership, and views everyone as equal and striving for the same goal. The servant leader’s primary concern is the growth and well-being of those around him.
Caring about the work you do and the people you do it with may seem like a over simplified objective, but one that when done well will completely transform the culture of any campus. By creating a school that cares about each other; administration, teachers, students, and parents, you are potentially changing lives! We as humans naturally gravitate towards people that make us feel cared for; imagine a school that every student feels important because their teachers take the time to really get to know them, every parent feels like they matter because the administration always had a kind word, and every teacher feels valued because they are supported by fellow teachers and leadership alike. Caring for those around you takes little effort, but has enormous rewards.
Implementing “Love, Serve, Care” on our campus has helped to refocus the simple yet profound and often overlooked common courtesy’s in life and education. There is no finish line with this objective, we will never reach a point that we have mastered all of these qualities, rather my hope is that each individual on my campus will continue to grow in each of these practices and will be better educators and people because of it.
Countdown the 10 BIG Ideas from the Carpenter!
# 8 Talk to Yourself
Dr. James Gills completed six double Ironman triathlons. He’s the only person on the planet to do so. In a double Ironman triathlon, you swim for 2.4 miles, ride your bike for 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, and then 24 hours later, do it again.
How did Gills do it?
He learned to talk to himself.
Via The Carpenter: A Story About the Greatest Success Strategies of All:
“I have learned to talk to myself instead of listening to myself. If I listen to myself, I hear all the negative thoughts, all the complaints, all the fears, all the doubts, and all the reasons why I shouldn’t be able to finish the race. But if I talk to myself, I can feed myself with the words and encouragement I need to finish the race.”
"ROCK STAAR" Shirts
Teacher Spotlight- Melissa Lawley
What is your position at Hackberry Elementary? 3rd Grade Teacher
How many years have you been with Little Elm ISD? 12 Years
What college did you attend? What are your degrees? Texas A&M, BS Education
Hometown? Dallas, TX
Do you have children? Yes
Do you have pets? No
What is your favorite color? Black
What is your favorite quote or saying? "When everything is done with LOVE, anything is possible."
- Lourdes Northcutt (my mommy)
Where is the farthest you have traveled? Mexico City, Mexico
What organizations are you involved in? Girls in Action- Young girls ministry
Recommended Reading
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder-By: Richard Louv
Quote of the Week!
Article of the week:
Howl Outs!
Ms. Cruz HOWLS!!! to Mrs. Morales for a great talent show and to the entire staff for pulling off and great Open House.
Ms. Zaidi would like to say that the staff in the front, Ms. Carol, Ms. Karla, Ms. Silvia and Ms. Lay are a pleasure to work with. They are kind, courteous and keep me always smiling with their special comedy.
Ms. Zaidi enjoys the pre-k, kinder, and 1st grade staff who are always friendly and willing to share. Thank you ladies.
Ms. Zaidi would like to thank Ms. Diaz for all the hard work she does in pre-k and always offering to help out others where and whenever she sees a need. Thank you for improving my door.
Ms. Morales gives a Huge Howl to everyone who helped me with the Talent show. The pack made the magic happen! Mega lobos: Karla, Del Valle, Vergara, Carol, Mathews, Warren, Cruz, Wagner, Wells, our principals, our PTA, custodial staff, and to all of our teachers who helped remind our kiddos about rehearsals. THANK YOU for your support!
Colon Howls to Mrs. Webber for making Science very engaging and real life.
Colon Howls to Mrs. Branch for collaborating with the process of learning about the life cycle of a chicken.
Phan howls out to Mrs. Robinson. She is so gifted at what she does everyday! We are very blessed to have her as our school counselor!!!
Phan sends a howl out to Patty and Brenda, for all their help with TELPAS. I appreciate you ladies!!!
Richardson GIVES A GREAT BIG SCREAMING HOWL TO MORALES for all her hard work in the talent show. The kids did awesome and we had a great turnout from the community! Great job!
Ms. Lawley gives a big howl to Mrs. Marquez and Mr. Freer for having sharing their rooms with us and having them ready to go in testing format. Big stress relief !
Ratliff Howls out to Karla and Sylvia for going the extra mile by helping me recruit volunteers for Read Across Little Elm!
Karla sends a HOWL to Mrs. Phan for helping me take pictures at Open House! #TeamWork
Karla sends a HOWL to Morales for a PHENOMENAL talent show. I can't wait to see what next year brings.
Karla sends a HOWL to Mr. Richardson for tag-teaming with me to make the lunches happen on Monday and Tuesday.
Karla sends a HOWL to everyone at Hackberry Elementary. As a team, we come together each school day to make Hackberry the BEST school for students. That to me... Means EVERYTHING! #WIT #HAPPYSPRINGBREAK
Gomez Howls out to Ms. Torrence for sharing her Dr. Seuss' books with my class to be used for the reading lesson during this week.
Richardson Howls out to the 3rd and 4td grade team for a successful benchmark!
Richardson HOWLS out to Wood and Northcutt for scanning benchmark answer documents! Thank you!!!
Richardson HOWLS out to Northcutt for a successful science fair! The kids did great!
Richardson HOWLS out to Karla for making the best of a stressful week! She is amazing!
Hackberry Calendar
NO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK----Spring Break!!!!!!!!!!
WoooHooo!
Monday, March 20-
- 2nd Grade PLC-Looking at Data
- School Board Meeting-6:30PM
Tuesday, March 21-
- STAAR TRAINING-NUTS and BOLTS-(4th/5th Grade and Testing Teachers)
- Faculty Meeting 3PM-4PM (Library)
Wednesday, March 22-
- STAAR-Office Training-10:30AM
- STAAR-Small Group and Oral Training-1:30PM
- OHI Team Meeting 3PM
Thursday, March 23-
- PTA Movie Night-6PM
- Lockdown Drill 1:00PM
Friday, March 24-
- UNT College Day
- Pack Rally- Pre-K-2nd---8am
- Pack Rally-3rd-5th---9am
- Verify Testing Buckets-4th and 5th Grade Teachers and Testing Teachers
Saturday, March 25
- SATURDAY STAAR CAMP 7:30-10:30