MCDOWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL waits ... patiently

Ms. Bochenek's class patiently waited for chickens to hatch at McDowell Elementary School … while someone took photos!

HONOR STUDENTS combine with others on cleanup

It started out as a community service opportunity for Career & Technical Center (CTE) Honor students by sprucing up the outside of the Career Center and Titan buildings. 

It “blossomed” into quite the event. 

On April 22 staff and students stayed after school and worked for hours.  There was digging, pulling out weeds, raking and planting, and eating and laughing – not necessarily in that order.  In the end, both buildings were relieved of their dead leaves and weeds and replenished with new mulch, plants, flowers and a new tree.

A big shout out to the following people: Mrs. Lancina for providing the food and the plants, mulch, flowers and the tree; Linda and Kim, our day maintenance staff, for all their help and giving their own time after school to help with this project; Mrs. Kevra and Mr. Murray who head up the CTE Honor Society and organized the event; and teachers, support staff, parents and so many great, hard-working students.

This was just another example of Taylor staff and students working together for the good of the district.  

HOOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL classes shine through project

RANDALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL pupils have starring roles

 Mrs. Holstein's kindergarten class at Randall Elementary School became moviemakers!  Mr. Keunellis taught her class how to use the iPads to make a movie. Students enjoyed being stars.

HOOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL band kicks off Little League season

On April 23 the Hoover Middle School Band marched in the Taylor Northwest Little League Parade. They also performed various marching band songs and the Star Spangled Banner for the opening ceremonies at Papp Park.

(Look for more photos of this event in the coming days.)

SIXTH GRADE ACADEMY teachers wins grant for trip

The students at the Sixth Grade Academy had the opportunity to go to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn recently.  

Ms. Evans, the World Language teacher, applied for a grant and was awarded this trip for the whole school.

Everyone on the trip was able to go to the "Giant Screen Experience: Living in the Age of airplanes" movie, and tour the museum.

Students were given a series of scavenger hunts to do to help them understand the different exhibits. The students, staff and parent chaperones had a wonderful time.  

Thank you Ms. Evans!

TOMMIE SAYLOR: Counselors are he heart of the school

“If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”

Joseph Addison

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

At Kennedy High School, there is a group of people within our professional staff – professionals that are not “on the front lines.” They don’t stand before students each day delivering curriculum, nor are they educational leaders providing governance and logistical support.

These professionals work in the shadows, solving problems and cleaning up messes that the rest of us would rather not know about.  On the surface, their titles are fairly simple, leading most to believe that their duties are routine.  But in reality their duties take them to places that most would rather not go, to places that the rest of us just simply do not have the skills to master. 

These “shadow warriors” are known as counselors.

Today’s school counselors are no longer the artless curriculum guidance drones, plugging students into random classes, directed by a curriculum guide often decades old.  No, today’s counselors work with students who may come from homes where both parents work, from working single-parent homes, and from homes oppressed by poverty.

The job has evolved into a position where the student can find compassion and understanding wrapped in a sense of humanity.  This is not to mean that our counselors are easy on our students.  What this means is that our counselors artfully practice tough love; forcing students to see the error of their ways, yet at the same time, revealing to their students the beauty they possess inside.

Our counselors are “dream weavers.” They bring in a young freshman and develop their schedule, probing for strengths, likes, trying to find their interests. What do they want to do when they grow up? 

This year we have a senior who earned an appointment to the West Point Military Academy, an appointment that would have never happened if not for her counselor’s insistence on her giving our JROTC program a try when she was a freshman. 

Our counselors motivate, cajole, coax, sweet-talk and even threaten our students into passing classes, earning credits, graduating, applying to trade schools, colleges and universities.  In the last two years 100 percent of our seniors applied to at least one college or university, a program inspired, directed and conducted by our counselors who understand the importance of our students gaining some type of training following high school. 

In fact, many of our students who will be going off to trade schools, colleges and/or universities this fall will be the first in their families to do so, and would never have done so if not for the relentless work of our counselors.  In essence, our counselors are not just changing the lives of one student at a time; they are changing the lives of generations of Americans, one student at a time.

Our counselors are student advocates.  It takes a lot of guts to walk into your boss’s office and tell him you believe he is making a mistake.  Yet our counselors do that on a regular basis, advocating for their students. 

Getting to know their students as well as they do, they know who is staying up late, taking care of their younger siblings; who is working late to help support their families; those who live in abusive homes; and those who are suffering from neglect.  They help fix the broken hearted. 

Our counselors work as mediators between teachers and students, administrators and students, and sometimes between students and parents. 

Though we all talk about doing what is best for students, our counselors live and breathe this motto daily; their lives intertwined with the wellbeing of those with whom they serve. 

If the administration is the brains of Kennedy High School and the teaching staff the backbone, counselors are the heart, filled with love, passion for students, and hope.

How and where will you lead them. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.