New school year off and running

We’re off to a bang-up beginning of another new school year. With new and returning teachers on board, welcoming new and returning students, there’s still great anticipation in the air with our new year under way.

Our Clovis Municipal Schools’ Operations Department was extremely busy this past summer. If you’ve happened to drive by the CHS Freshman Academy and Zia Elementary, you will have seen the beautiful new parking areas, much-needed improvements. Along with an extensive list of standard repairs, upgrades, deep cleaning, polishing, scrubbing, and grounds tending across the district, our Operations staff worked hard to ready all facilities for the new school year.

Once again all CMS staff gathered at Marshall Auditorium for the annual Convocation for a rousing and inspiring speaker, enhanced by delightful illusions. Billy Riggs — “master of enchantment, entertainment and empowerment” — reminded us that education is a noble and worthy calling. Regardless of our roles within the district, we are all touching and changing young lives daily.

Our hearts are always filled with gratitude for Central Baptist Church in Clovis who annually provides the luncheon for all Clovis Municipal Schools personnel after convocation for the twenty-second year running.

Kudos to our CMS Human Resources Department, as well, for organizing and hosting a first time event, “Back to School Teacher Boot Camp” for an excellent array of free, quality training sessions. From classroom management strategies to purposeful and practical lesson planning; from questioning and discussion techniques in the classroom, to effectively integrating iPads and other technologies into the classroom; from professional learning communities to integrating the arts into the classroom, the variety of sessions offered was extensive. Many new and veteran teachers alike took advantage of these specialty enrichment opportunities just before students started back.

With this crazy world in which we now live, many virtues, all too often, seem to have fallen by the wayside. The spirit of educators in pressing on, relentlessly, nurturing and inspiring students despite circumstances, puts me in mind of a famous Winnie the Pooh quote, which, of course, is actually author, A. A. Milne’s: “Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” I do believe that applies to educators as well as students.

It’s a new year, a clean slate, a bright new opportunity to grow and stretch ourselves, and we, in the Clovis Schools, embrace that challenge.

Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools and can be reached at: [email protected]