Our Golden Apple Winner

It is my great honor to announce that the 2012-2013 Golden Apple winner from Henley Middle School is Tiffany Stauffer. It’s always a pleasure to walk down to Tiffany’s class to see her in action with her students. I never quite know what to expect when I walk in the door, but I know for certain that I’m going to see excited, engaged students—no small feat when you’re talking about a middle school math class. One of the things that really stands out to me about Tiffany is how much care and concern she shows for each of her students. She is often here before school working with kids, she has multiple STING groups that come to her for tutoring, she loves to break down data and dig deep to uncover the keys to student success. Outside of the classroom, Tiffany is a great leader and colleague. She has provided strong leadership to the math department for the past few years and is always well versed on the latest in best practice in math education. She works diligently with her PLC team and builds relationships with middle school math teachers at other middle schools and at some of our feeder elementary schools. In the summer, when she’s not on her latest exciting road trip, you can find her teaching professional development classes for other math teachers. Her incredible dedication shows through each and every day, and I know she is not exaggerating when she talks of how little down time she has, let alone time to sleep. Tiffany has been a great addition to our Henley math team, and she is quite deserving of this award. Way to go, Tiffany. It is great to see you honored in this way.

Welcome to the final quarter!

Welcome back from Spring Break, everyone!  I hope that you add had a wonderful relaxing week with your families and that you are ready to get back to school for the final nine weeks of school.  This past marking period has been an incredibly busy time at Henley Middle School.  We have seen our students achieve at high levels in both the science fair and in National History Day, eighth graders completed their SOL writing test, our parks and rec sponsored volleyball team brought home another championship, we hosted student/faculty basketball and volleyball games, parents filled the building for our annual Expo Night and Talent Show, and, oh yeah, we missed a couple of days due to snow.  Time flies when you’re having fun!

Things probably won’t be slowing down too much as we push our way toward the end of the school year.  Just in the next few weeks we’ll have activity period, our last school-wide dance of the year, marching band season begins with the Dogwood Parade, our SOL testing really gets rolling in May and spring sports are in full swing for many of our kids.  Busy times, indeed. 

When life gets as busy as it is now, I always encourage parents to take some time to ensure that we aren’t overloading our kids.  Above all, my goal at Henley is to have a school filled with happy, healthy kids.  That usually can’t happen when a student’s day is scheduled to the minute.  School work and extracurricular activities are important, but so is down time that is unstructured and lets our kids decide what they want to do.  I encourage you all to strive to find that balance.

This school year has been a great one so far.  We’ve got such wonderful, talented students and teachers at Henley that it makes coming to work each day a breeze.  Enjoy the spring weather and the final weeks of the school year.  June 12 will be here before you know it and we’ll all be moving on to high school or our next grade at Henley.  Enjoy it, work hard and be sure to take time to stop and smell the roses.