In with the new out with the old, out with the heat and in with the cold? Man it is freezing here in Dallas (quarterly franchise meeting) as I am sure it is in Houston. Mother Nature has brought in a weather system from the north that has caused us all to pull out our winter wear, if just for a week/day :).

While warming up to the cold, we are forced to warm up to a change in the very culture of our country and also a new 6 week grading period.

For many of us, this is the chance for a new start. Though the first 3 grading periods are on the book, there are 3 open boxes on our report cards that still need information. The question of today is: “What grades will be placed in those boxes?”

While we can’t erase or adjust the score in the first three boxes, we can predict what will be entered in the next 3 boxes. I want to suggest an equation to you that will ensure that your student will finish the 2008/2009 school year and produce high numbers that reflect your student’s growth and future potential.

The equation is: Student Effort x (Resources + Support) = Grade

Follow up:

Student Effort (S.E.) is an important part of the Grade results. Coming off the Christmas Break, our students have experienced the blessing and curse of time off. Just as Mother Nature has pushed in this cold front, many of our students are still mentally frozen plains. Our students are in need of some mental activity to warm their minds from the educational cold front to aide them in finishing the school year strong. Our students are in desperate need of a warm front of resources and support.

Although important, Student Effort is not enough. This effort must be multiplied with two things: Resources and Support. The resources that are provided to our children by the district are of value, but in some cases are not enough to help students learn the material and excel in their educational pursuits. Our students need ever resource available to them to help them become the best student they can become and to aid improving the numbers at the end of the 2009/2009 school campaign.

The last piece to the puzzle is the Support. This support is a mixture of Parent and Educator. Parents and Educators must partner together to insure that our students receive lots of encouragement and that we share our resource of knowledge and experience to aide them in achieving educational excellence.

If we fill in the right numbers to this equation, we will be successful this year. Let’s end this year focusing on this equation. With this, we can ensure that we will see the desired grades that reflect the full potential of our students.

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