Life Lessons from a High School Senior

The following is a guest post from Tattnall Square Senior, Ashley Clay, editor of the Tattnall Blue and Gold, and recent winner of the Macon Telegraph’s prestigious Golden Eagle Award for Excellence in Journalism.

I started elementary School at Tattnall Square Academy in Kindergarten and now that I’m days away from graduation Mr. Kosater wanted me to share some of my life lessons with you.

A- Always follow the rules. I’ve always been a rule follower. Elementary school taught me that life has rules, and you simply have to follow them. When others are breaking the rules, it makes it harder to follow them, but you have to stand your ground, and do what you know is right. Elementary school, like life, is all about the mistakes you make and the lessons you learn. I have found out the consequences of breaking rules and the rewards of following them.

B- Believe. I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was in the second grade, and I am committed to keeping my promise to Him to live each day in His honor and glory. Through the countless chapel services I have sat through in my 12 years at Tattnall, I have never ceased to be moved by God’s work at Tattnall. Even as a little girl sitting in the bleachers of the gym during chapel, I can remember feeling God tugging at my heart and the inspiration I received to go through the rest of my day. I will forever be blessed that I had the opportunity to hear God’s word each week of my elementary, middle, and high school years.

C- Care for yourself and others. In kindergarten, you couldn’t let everyone steal your crayons, but you also had to be willing to share. As the co-editor of the school newspaper, I have put this kindergarten lesson into practice. You have to know when to stand up for yourself and when to share your advice with others. Elementary school taught me how to deal with tough situations. Everyone couldn’t be the mom when we played house, so we had to compromise and take turns. Life is all about how you deal with situations, compromising, and sometimes waiting for your turn.

Ashley plans to attend Georgia Southern University and major in Elementary Education.

The world is flat

Just another instance of the world we live in becoming flat.
You've heard me talk about calling the help desk for a computer problem and talking to someone in the Philippines, well here is another example closer to home. Sunday morning early is usually reserved for reading the paper while drinking a vanilla latte'. This morning my paper wasn't here so I called the circulation desk to report it. When I finally was able to talk to a person they filed my complaint and credited my account. I knew the man had a foreign accent so I asked him where he was and he replied " the Philippines."
Amazing, we live 20 minutes from Macon and when I don't receive a paper I report it to someone in the Philippines. Definitely a case of outsourcing the job somewhere for less money but the key fact is that we're all connected. We need to make sure our students can deal with all this connectivity. We can't shy away thinking it will go away, if anything there are higher levels of connectivity that I'm sure we'll experience in the future.
Get ready, the world is becoming flatter by the minute.

Why Not?

Forgive me for borrowing from television commercials but it makes sense as a different approach to the same old same old approach.I've always been a believer of the Bobby Kennedy quote,
" There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
Where is it written that the old way of schooling is the best way? Have you seen this Kaplan commercial? Very apropos as far as embracing a new methodology.
Can we please ask ourselves these questions as precursors to our decision making. Why not? We can't be timid when it comes to thinking outside of the box in the effective education of our students.

Great News

I hope your year is going well and you are looking forward to a learning filled November and December.

Several weeks ago we applied for a grant through the Loveday Foundation for Innovative Teaching. The grant is given yearly to one elementary school, one middle school and one high school that are members of the GISA . This includes not only the schools we compete against interscholastically but also independent schools that compete in GHSA. The grant rewards innovative teaching which the Foundation defines as ” containing original and innovative ideas and involving significant numbers of students. The proposal should also have an impact which continues over time.”

Tuesday, November 11th, we were notified that our proposal for the creation of an “Outdoor Living Laboratory” had been awarded the $1000.00 grant as this year’s elementary winner. We are very excited not only about the opportunities this will provide for all of our lower school students but to be selected from such an elite pool of independent schools from all over the state is also very rewarding .

Past winners can be viewed at this website-

http://www.gisa-schools.org/tch_grant1000_pastwinners.asp

This project was the brainchild of a collaborative Lower School with many of us contributing to the final plan. The plan for a garden” laboratory” will begin to take shape in the coming weeks and more information will be forthcoming but I wanted to share this great news with all of you.

The holiday season is fast approaching and that is definitely an extra special time with the K-5 presentation of Thanksgiving at chapel, November 19th, the Lower School Christmas Musical December 4th, the Band Concert December 11th, and Kids Yule Love December 12th, just to name a few of the upcoming events. I encourage you to join us at these traditional events as we demonstrate our true Christmas spirit. Thanks for being a part of our academic community.