Winter Olympics

The High School Student Council held the 2nd annual Winter Olympics for the 7th-12th grade students. What a fun time for everyone. Congratulations to the seniors for winning the Olympics and to the 8th graders for taking 2nd. Thanks to the student council and Mrs. Loomis for another fun event. Please check out the picture video below and let me know your thoughts.

Big Events at School this Week!

Rommelt Band & Chorus Holiday Concert

Please mark your calendars for some exciting events this week at school. On Thursday Evening will be our annual 5th & 6th Grade Holiday Band & Chorus Concert. The concert begins at 7:00 pm in the High School Auditorium. Please come out and support our students that have put so much time and effort into this concert. They have worked hard and sound great. I hope to see you there.

High School Christmas Play

On Friday Evening, the high school drama club will present Farndale, "A Chrismas Carol". The play begins at 7:00 pm and costs $5 per person to get in. They will also present the play on Saturday Evening. Please come out and support the drama club for an exciting evening.

Recreation Concert

Yesterday our K-6 students were treated to the annual "Recreation Concert" at the high school. This annual holiday singing assembly was another fun time for our students. Did you enjoy the concert?

I also need to congratulate a few students that won some great prizes at the end of the assembly. A lot of our students got their name entered into a drawing to win a Wii and two iPod shuffles. To get your name entered into the drawing you had to sell so much Wolfgang candy for our PTO. Congratulations to:

1.) Cyra Sterner - winner of the Wii
2.) Caleb Stover - winner of an iPod Shuffle
3.) Aaron Orgitano - winner of an iPod Shuffle

Congratulations to each of you and thank you for selling so much candy.

Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls

The Rommelt students spent a little time Friday afternoon decorating the 2nd floor hallways for the holiday season. They did a tremendous job of making our upstairs hallway very festive. Thank you for all your efforts.

Skateboarding in the High School Hallways:

Mr. Cremer's Science classes were doing a little skateboarding in the hallways today. Actually they were doing a Science Experiment on mass. The experiments were great, but Ryan you need to learn how to sit and steer your skateboard. I still think it was that Eagles jersey that made you go sideways.

Special 6th Grade Guest:

Finally, I was glad to meet Abby today. Abby was visiting us today from Germany. Her cousin Marissa attends South. Thanks for visiting with us today, and we hope you had a great time.

Check Out These 6th Grade Celebrities

Wow! Look who is rubbing elbows with the Penn State Football Players. Megan, Olivia, Laura, & Marissa got to meet Daryll Clark and Deon Butler at a recent PSU basketball game. Way to go girls, but you didn't get me an autograph! You know how much I am a PSU fan. Great Job girls. I am proud of you.

Rommelt Students - Get their Buck!

Congratulations to our Rommelt Students that got their buck on the first day of hunting season. Check out this picture of Colin and his trophy buck (a 10-point).

I also want to congratulate Emily on getting a 4-point buck also. Did you get a deer this year? If so, let me know and I will add you to my Deer Blog of Fame.

5th & 6th Grade Honor Roll

Congratulations to our 5th & 6th Grade Honor Roll Students. Great job this marking period, and I hope to see even more names next marking period.

5th Grade Honor Roll Students:

Alyssa Balawajder, Krislin Banzhof, Willow Best, Nora Deibler, Caroline Engel, Jamie Engel, Gracie Estrella, Emily Fuller, Madison Harada, Noah Hartley, Cole Hill, Joey Jacobs, Donavan Keen, Conner Mazzante, Tiana Pfirman, Madeline Plummer, Jenna Rankinen, Conner Reasner, Brady Sahm, Courtney Schonewolf, Lauren Sinibaldi, Heaven Stansbury, Anna Steer, Michael Steinbacher, Alana Stugart, Morgan Taylor, Emily Waldman, Ian Warner, and Alison Widing.

6th Grade Honor Roll Students:

Carter Alexander, Megan Allison, Joey Balawajder, Nicole Bamonte, Rocca Bausinger, Sydney Blosser, Sam Buck, Jonathan Butler, Anthony Caruso, Amanda Cohick, Kelcey Coppola, Trent Dunlap, Dillon Engel, Annie Fessler, Mackenzie Finn, Kelsey Gantz, Marissa Gonzalez, Autumn Greenaway, Robert Hammond, Caleb Hill, Easton Hill, Samantha Hilsher, Lexi Holtzman, Jonah Huffman, Brock Jones, Nate Jones, Sadie Kielwein, Sarah Kistner, Mara LaBarre, Olivia Lorson, Skye McNamee, Bryce Merrill, Bailey Miller, Griffin Molino, Jordan Mondell, Carissa Neece, Abby Nevill, Kiefer Ohl, LeAnn Paternastro, John Peters, Eric Reaser, Chelsea Rieppel, Laura Rook, Brennan Reyes, Rebecca Sauers, Emily Schlee, Tyler Schonewolf, Justin Silverstrim, Sarah Spatzer, Cyra Sterner, Caleb Stover, Sydney Waldman, Logan Wein, Derek Wisner, Sean Wither, and Miranda Young.

High School Holiday Christmas Concert

Tonight is the Annual Holiday Band and Chorus Concert at the high school. The concert begins at 7:00pm. Come out and enjoy an evening of holiday cheer. I know it is going to be a super concert.

November Students Of the Month

Congratulations to our November Students of the Month from 7th & 8th Grade. They are:

7th Grade: Maria Caschera and Taylor Koser

8th Grade: Ryan Orgitano and Andrea Bennardi

Mountie Boys Soccer Banquet

Tonight I attended a wonderful banquet for the South Boys Soccer Team. It was a great time to visit with the players and their families. We enjoyed a wonderful meal provided by the staff at Penn College. Congratulations to the players for providing us with a lot of wonderful memories from the season. I would also like to congratulate Logan Yerger, Zach Yoas, & Brian Mahonski on receiving all-star honors from the league. Thanks Coach Bloom and Coach McNeill for a great season. Please check out this highlight video below.

Penn State vs. Michigan State

What a weekend! It was extremely cold, but well worth the opportunity to watch a part of PSU history. I was fortunate to be sitting in the stands this weekend as Penn State crushed Michigan State for the Big Ten Title and a berth in the Rose Bowl. With the win, Penn State was earned the 800th win in school history. I am still trying to warm-up from being in the cold for so long this weekend.

Parent/Teacher Conferences This Week

Just a reminder that Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Please take the opportunity and meet with your child's teachers to discuss how your son or daughter is doing. We are all very proud of the hard work the students have done the first part of the year.

8th Grade Class Meeting

The 8th Grade Team held their end of the marking period class meeting on Thursday. The students were honored for making Honor Roll, Student of the Month, and for displaying the high qualities the teachers are looking for in our SOUTH Incentive Program.

The assembly began with a small skit performed by their teachers using the word SOUTH. I am trying to secure a picture to display on my blog. I might have to bribe Mrs. Jones for the picture.

After the teacher skit, all the honor roll students and the students of the month were asked to stand and be recognized by their peers. Then the students that earned gold metals during the marking period were all put into a box and a drawing was held for prizes. Some of the prizes include Candy Bars, McDonald's Arch Cards, Movie Gallery Movie Rentals, Subway Subs, and many other prizes.

Congratulations to our winners: Jake DeAngelo, Marco Estrella, Savannah Hill, Zach Welter, Nick Caruso, Chelsey Carnrike, Vicky Losell, Matt Bartholomew, Wesley Hall, Alex Smith, Ashleigh Breauchy, Josh Vroman, Marissa Tressler, John Bonner, Heath Newcomer, Jourdan Boehmer, Alex Kita, Alexandria Fiester, Erinn Morrison, Sarah Maffett, Tyler House, Mia Aliosio, Lou Anna Bragalone, Hannah Deibler, Gino Caschera, Justin Knee, Andrew Eigenbrod, Alisha Wein, Carissa Flook, Robert Lynn, and Brett Gair.

8th Grade Honor Roll

Congratulations to the following 8th grade students that have earned Honor Roll in the 1st Marking Period.

Superior Honor Roll:

Alysha Ardell, Chelsey Carnrike, Carly Engel, Ian Faust, Janelle Fioretti, Rebekah Fries, Andrew Gipe, Joaquin Gonsalves, Savannah Hill, Shon Huyck, Ryan Orgitano, Paul Warner, and Colt Young.

Regular Honor Roll:

Andrea Bennardi, Tiffany Betron, Nicholas Caruso, Gino Caschera, Marco Estrella, Carissa Flook, Gabe Fortin, Tyler House, Dylan Johnson, William Kepner, Joshua Koehler, Rocky Liddic, Kathryn Little, MacKenzie Miller, Erinn Morrison, Alex Plankenhorn, Alexandra Roles, Zachariah Staver, Levi Stover, Alisha Wein, and Rachael Wonderlich.

7th Grade Honor Roll

Congratulations to the following 7th Graders that earned Honor Roll in the 1st Marking Period.

Superior Honor Roll:

Dylan Beach, Kiersten Betz, Gabriela Burch, Maria Caschera, Leslie Cooprider, Jennifer Jackson, Roxie Keller, Megan Kinney, Taylor Koser, Bayli Kurtz, Sean McCormick, Sabrina Mussare, Kayla Pfirman, Zachary Reeder, Dakota Rosenberg, Sarah Summerson, and Alayna Thomas.

Regular Honor Roll:

Samantha Boyles, Julia Deibler, Katie Fuller, Logan Garvey, Riley Hengler, Nick Keeler, Valerie Losell, Noah Martin, Christopher McGee, Nicholas Mistretta, Katlyn Mitchell, Bettina Peluso, Jonathan Pulizzi, Tyler Scott, & Abigail Wright.

Veteran's Day

Please take a moment today and thank a Veteran. These brave men and women have done so much to protect our Country and to allow us to have all the wonder freedoms we enjoy everyday. Thank you to all the Veterans that have served our Country!

I would also like to thank Mrs. Furman and Mrs. Totin for providing our Kindergarten - 6th grade students with a wonderful Veteran's Day Assembly Yesterday. What an awesome job you did!

God Bless America!

High School Report Cards

The High School sent out Report Cards today. Congratulations to everyone that made the Honor Roll for the 1st Quarter. I will be posting those names soon. Please make sure you get your signed copy back to your 1st period teacher by Wednesday, November 12th.

Mounties Mission Homefront

The Mounties Mission Homefront has sent out a survey letter to the home of every student in the district. The purpose of this letter is to collect data on students in our district that may have loved ones serving in the military. We would like to be able to provide a support group for our students and their families that have suddenly found themselves to be military families.

Please complete the form and return it to your son or daughters school. If you would like to find out more information on Mounties Mission Homefront, please go to: http://www.mounties.k12.pa.us/53632087142828390/site/default.asp

7th & 8th Grade - Students of the Month

Congratulations to the following students that have been named students of the month by their teachers.

7th Grade: Samantha Boyles & Nick Keeler

8th Grade: Rebekah Fries & William Kepner

Great Job and Congratulations!

7th Grade Awards Assembly

The 7th Grade held their SOUTH class meeting/awards assembly today. Congratulations to the following winners: Dylan Beach, Jesse Schon, Megan Kinney, Riley Hengler, Miranda Jacobs, & Briana Heckel. Also congratulations to the Grand Prize winner: Kiersten Betz. Kiersten won a Ub flash drive. Please continue to work hard to earn a green slip, so your name can be entered into the prize drawing. Remember STRIVE, ORGANIZATION, UNDERSTANDING, TEAMWORK, & HONOR.

Conner Breaks 6th Grade Pull-up Record

Congratulations to Conner McCormick on breaking the 6th grade pull-up record yesterday. Conner did 21 pull-ups during the Presidential Physical Fitness Tests done in gym class. Way to go Connor!

Senator McCain Wins!

The Students at Rommelt today had the opportunity to vote in the Presidential Mock Election. After all the votes were counted Senator McCain was declared the winner with 53% of the vote. A total of 204 votes were cast. Senator McCain received 108 votes and Senator Obama received 96.

A Special thank you to junior Mersadies Burch for conducting a great election opportunity for the 5th & 6th grade students. Check a few of the pictures from today's vote.

Student Mock Elections

The 5th - 12th grade students will be participating in the National Mock Student Election tomorrow. All student will be voting for who they would like to be our next President of the United States. The 7th - 12th grade students will be voting in the Library, with the elections being conducted by Mr. Carper's P.O.D Classes.

The 5th & 6th grade students will be voting during lunch tomorrow. The election process is being conducted by Junior Mersadies Burch as part of her senior project. In addition to voting tomorrow, the students will also be viewing an election video produced by Mersadies and SWTV News. Please check back for pictures of the voting.

Who will you vote for in the Election? John McCain or Barack O'bama?

5th Grade SOUTH Winners

The 5th Grade Team honored the following students at their recent class meeting.

Organization is one key to being a successful student. Arriving to class ready to work, having a tidy desk, producing quality work, and using your time wisely all improve our productivity. The following students were recognized for meeting the Organization Goal. Congratulations to: Alysa Balawajder, Caroline Engel, Joey Jacobs, Maddy Plummer, Courtney Schonewolf, Anna Steer, Olivia Murray, Krislin Banzof, Jamie Camp, Aubrey Fagnano, Gabrielle Gardner, Desirae Klaus, Cole Hill, Alana Stugart, Emily Waldman, Dallas Butters, Jamie Engel, Nora Deibler, Gracie Estrella, Madison Harada, Donavan Keen, Ashley Caccia, Alyviah Martin, Nolan Moore, Jenna Rankinen, Connor Reasner, Alyssa Lair, Brady Sahm, Lauren Sinabaldi, Morgan Taylor, Kryslynne Vroman, and Rachel Kita. Great Job!

Mummer's Parade & PSU!

Did you happen to make it to the Mummer's Parade this past weekend? Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. It kept the crowds and parade entries down. It is to bad because the Mummer's Parade is always a great time.

Penn State Nittany Lions!

What a game! I was sitting in the edge of my seat all night long. I was getting worried the longer the game went on. What a defensive battle. This was one of the best games I have seen all year. Did you see the game? What did you think of the game?

The Brain Show

The Central and Rommelt students saw a great assembly today called "The Brain Show". It was an educational game show. The students got up on stage to answer questions and to dance around. I took some pictures today and put them into a video. If you would like to find more about the Brain Show, check out their website at http://www.magictouchentertainment.com/school.html

Did you like the assembly? Send me a comment and tell me if you liked the assembly.

Penn State vs. Ohio State

It is 48 hours away from kick-off. Can the Nittany Lions continue their winning ways this season against the Ohio State Buckeyes? Can they win in Columbus, Ohio for the first time since 1978? I can't wait for the game. Wear your Penn State Team Colors tomorrow and show your support for the Nittany Lions!

8th Grade Class Meeting

The 8th graders had a class meeting on Wednesday Morning to honor five students who earned gold medals. There were many students that earned gold metals, but five names were drawn from the box. Sorry ladies, but I pulled four boy's names again this time. Continue to work hard on improving the few things we talked about. You have doen a great job of improving some of the things we talked about a our last class meeting. Congratulations to the following students that earned candy bars this time. They are: Dylan Johnson, Josh Vroman, John Bonner, Autumn Harman, and Bryce Jones. Way to go!

Odyssey of The Mind Meeting

Tonight we had a meeting for students interested in forming an Odyssey of the Mind Team. This is a great opportunity for students to become part of a creative team. If you would like to learn more about Odyssey of the Mind, please go to http://www.odysseyofthemind.com If you missed the meeting and would like to become part of a team, please contact me.

PTO Fall Festival

The Elementary PTO Fall Festival was Friday Night. What a great time! Did you go? How many games did you play? I sold tickets all night long with my good friend from Central, Principal Furman. We had a great time and got to talk to a lot of the students and their parents.

I want to thank the PTO and everyone that helped make this night a great success. Thanks to all the volunteers for all their hard work. This takes some very special people to put all of this together. I also want to thank all the teachers that were there to work a stand, sell some food, and to just have a great time. Finally, thanks to all the parents and students for coming and supporting the PTO.

What did you have to eat at the festival Friday Night? There was so much good stuff I had a hard time choosing. I finally settled in on a hot sausage sandwich, a pepsi, and a big scoop of ice cream. Thanks Logan for making the scoops BIG!

The Video is Here!

Well, here are the pictures from Track & Field Day. It is a pretty long video. I hope you enjoy it. Have a Great Evening!

Track & Field Day

What a beautiful day for Track & Field Day yesterday. The weather was a little chilly to start, but warmed up by the afternoon.

The competition was fierce. Each class fought to the very end to be grade level champs. Congratulations to everyone for working very hard, competing, and showing great sportsmanship. I also want to congratulate our two track & field record breakers. Skye McNamee broke the 6th Grade Girls Triple Jump record, and Anna Steer broke the 5th Grade Girls Softball throw record. Great job girls!

I also need to congratulate our team champs. The 5th grade team champs were Mrs. Cruz's class. The 6th grade team champs were Mr. Hill's Class. Congratulations!

Finally, I would also like to give special thanks to Mrs. Pfirman and Mr. Baker for all their hard work in making the Track & Field Day such a great success. Mrs. Pfirman spends many hours getting all of this together for the students. She does a tremendous job. Please make sure you tell her thank you!

I got to take a lot of pictures yesterday. I am working on trying to get them all together for a video to show you. As soon as I get it completed, I will try to post it.

Track & Field Day

Tomorrow is the Annual 5th & 6th Grade Track & Field Day at Rommelt. The weather looks absolutely beautiful. I hope everyone gets a good night's sleep, because tomorrow is going to be a very exciting and exhausting day. Who will be the 5th Grade Champion this Year? Who will be the 6th Grade Champion? I can't wait to see the competition on the football field. Good Luck to everyone. Make sure you check back in a day or two to see some of the great pictures I will take.

Fire Prevention Activities

On Friday, we had a great day of Fire Prevention Activities provided by the South Williamsport Fire Department. They did a great job with the stations for the students. I hop our students go home and check their house and then talk to their parents on things they need to do to make their house safer. Special thank you to Al Cole for helping to get all of our activities organized. I also want to thank our students for being so attentive and so well-behaved.

Apologies

I want to apologize for my lack of posting the past 2 weeks. I have been unhappy with my previous blog and I have been spending time changing it back over to Blogger. I have finally got everything moved over and will begin making posts again.

Fire Prevention Activities:

On Friday, Rommelt students will participate in Fire Prevention Activities put on by the South Williamsport Fire Department. The students will go through a bus evacuation, smoke tent, making an escape plan, and hear from the Forestry Department. This should be a very informative event for the students.

Big Week Ahead!

This week is a very busy at school. We have some great things going on. Here is just a short preview:

• On Wednesday, It is picture day at the high school. Make sure you bring your best smile.
• On Wednesday & Thursday, it is the PTO Book Fair at Rommelt. Each class will have an opportunity to stop by the book fair during the day to either preview or purchase books.
• On Wednesday Evening it is Family Night at the Book Fair. Please stop in and purchase some great books for your son or daughter at home.
• On Thursday, The high school band is headed to the Bloomsburg Fair to put on another outstanding performance. I know they will represent our school with class and show everyone how great the are.
• On Friday, The Rommelt Students will have their picture day in the morning. The afternoon brings an exciting new assembly for the High School and Elementary Students. The Power Team is coming to entertain and motivate our students. Please check out their website at http://powerteamschools.com/ I am looking forward to a great performance and the challenges they will bring to our students. Are you up to the challenge? Did you see the great article in the Sun-Gazette Today?

Finally, I have to congratulate Mr. Cremer and his Eagles. They put a beating on my Steelers last night. I guess I will have to wear his Donovan McNabb jersey on Friday. Man, is that going to be a hard thing to do?

Game On!

Well this is a huge weekend for the Great State of Pennsylvania. Steelers vs. Eagles! A top NFC team vs. The Top AFC Team. Who do you think will won the game on Sunday?

Mr. Cremer started talking trash to me as soon as I walked into school today. Then he had the nerve to throw a little wager on the game. If the Eagles win, I have to wear his McNabb jersey for a day, and if the Steelers win, he will wear my Roethlisberger jersey for a day. Mr. Cremer will look great in Black and Gold! Oh yea, Ms. Powers you really upset me when you sided with Mr. Cremer.

Jr. High Football

Finally got a chance to see our 7th & 8th grade football team. They played Sayre tonight and played extremely hard. Keep working hard and listening to everything your coaches are teaching you. Great Job!

6th Grade Class Meeting

Today the 6th grade teachers held a class meeting to honor the students who have been seen doing great things in our SOUTH program. Congratulations to the students that received awards. I will get your names posted soon.

6th Grade, you need to do a better job with completing homework. This is the biggest area of concern I have at this point this year. Let’s work hard at completing our assignments and meeting the challenges your teachers have put before you each night.

Oh yea. What did you think of Mrs. Ogden’s Cartwheel today during your class meeting? Let me know your thoughts.

Rommelt Open House

Last Evening the 5th & 6th Grade Faculty held our Back to School Open House. What a fantastic evening we had. I would like to thank all the parents that came out. I hope you had an opportunity to meet your child’s teachers and to hear about the curriculum and expectations we have for this school year. It was great to see everyone last night.

I would also like to thank my teachers for an outstanding job they did last night. I have received many great comments from parents on what a wonderful job everyone did. It is great to work with such a great staff. Thank You!

September 11th Remembered

Please take a moment today to reflect on the events that happened on September 11th.

I also want to thank everyone that participated in the September 11th Motorcycle Ride tonight. What an awesome display of support and Patriotism by everyone involved. God Bless America!

Rommelt Open House on Wednesday

Wednesday Evening, September 10th we will hold our Rommelt Middle School Back to School Night at 6:30 pm. The Open House is an opportunity for you to meet your child’s teacher and to hear about the curriculum and expectations for the 2008-09 school year. We are looking forward to meeting all of you on Wednesday Evening. We will start the evening in the auditorium for a brief introduction.

High School & College Football

I am getting excited about the start of high school and college football starting this weekend. Good Luck to Coach Pearson and the Mounties as they open their 2008 season at Lewisburg.

Penn State opens this weekend with an easy game with Coastal Carolina. I am looking forward to watching the Nittany Lions this year, but I wish they wouldn’t schedule these types of games. Who is your favorite college football team?

Finally, I would like to thank my good friend Ali for the Penn State Pez Dispenser she gave me today. that was very nice of you. I know it was hard for a loyal Notre Dame Fan to buy something Penn State. Thank you Ali.

1st Day of School

Well, today was the first day of school for our students. Today went great. It was so fast paced today with all of our 1st day class meetings. I want to thank all of our students and teachers for such a tremendous day. How was your day? I am looking forward to getting to know all of our new students at South this year. I hope everyone has a tremendous year.

What a Weekend!

Little League World Series

What a beautiful weekend it was. The weather was great. What did you do this weekend? Did you make any of the Little League Games? I didn’t make it up this weekend, but did get to see some of the games on TV. Saturday’s games were great. How about the team from Hawaii? They had an unbelievable comeback on Saturday, and played a great game on Sunday. I really enjoy watching the Little League World Series and seeing all of the tremendous plays these 12 & 13 year players make.

I would also like to congratulate Kathy Rosenberg on her retirement from Little League and playing DugOut. She has done a tremendous job playing DugOut for the past 13 years. Thank you for playing such an important part of Little League and bringing so many smiles to the children and adults that love the Little League Baseball. Enjoy your retirement.


Bearded Dragon

My daughter got her bearded dragon over the weekend. She is extremely excited about getting it. She got a baby. It is pretty neat. Have you ever seen a bearded dragon?

Teacher InService Day

Today was our 1st In-Service Day. The teachers spent a lot of time today working on some great things for this upcoming school year. They did a great job and I am looking forward to seeing everything they worked on today being put into place.

I also want to welcome my two new teachers to the district. Welcome to Mrs. Lentz, who will be teaching 6th grade reading skills, and Mr. Rodgers, who will be teaching 7th grade Social Studies. Welcome to the District.

Mountie Docs

Today I gave a training to my administrative colleagues on Google Docs. We are going to begin using Google Docs with in the District to help our grade level teams collaborate more with themselves and the administration. Google Docs is a great tool. We are calling our version, MountieDocs. To find out more about it, please go to http://docs.google.com

Happy Birthday!

I would like to wish my beautiful daughter, McKenna, a Happy Birthday Today. She is 10 years old today. She wants to get a bearded dragon with her birthday money. She loves animals. Happy Birthday.

Wacky Wednesday is Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Wacky Wednesday for all our 7th grade students. This is a great opportunity for you to come to the high school from 9:30 am - 11:30 am and get to learn the high school. We will meet in the high school gym. This is your chance to walk through your schedule, try out your locker, get to learn about the cafeteria, and more. I hope to see most of you there. Check back for some pictures of this fun event tomorrow night.

A Day in Latrobe with the Steelers

Well it was a great day in Latrobe at the Steelers training camp. My daughter and I got on to the field for practice. We stood around the 10 yard line. I got some great pictures. I also created a short video of some of the pictures. Click on the black picture on the left to view the slideshow.

As we were leaving the campus after being in the merchandise tent, we almost got run over by Ben and his golf cart. The driver was going very fast trying to avoid the chasing line of fans. As Ben went by us he tossed one of his shoes to a little boy standing along the side.

Rommelt Class Lists & High School Schedules

The 7th & 8th Grade Schedules were mailed out today. You should be receiving them tomorrow or Thursday.

The Rommelt Class Lists will be posted on the front doors of the Rommelt on Friday afternoon.

Can you believe school starts in three weeks! Where has the summer gone?

Off to Latrobe

Tomorrow Morning I am off to Latrobe to visit the Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp. I have two field passes, so check back tomorrow to see how the day went. I know my daughter is extremely excited to go and is hoping to get Ben Roethlisberger’s autograph.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 5

Well it is the final day of the summit and the keystones are spending all day working ona portable professional development project. They will be developing their podcasts or vodcasts and uploading them to the Keystones Podcast Server. To listen to some of the podcasts that were developed at the summit, click here.

Finally after the summit attendees worked hard all day on their podcasts and learned how they could be developed using a simple laptop with a microphone and video cam, they were presented with their final gift - an 80 GB iPod Classic.

The picture above was taken at the conclusion of the summit. What a great group of Keystones and Keystone Staffers. This was a great opportunity for me to work the summit and hopefully I will got the opportunity next year to be part of the staff again.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 4

Today was a very exciting day. I was involved in leading a workshop for Principals from around the state. We had 25 Principals participate in the workshop. A few of my local colleagues attended the workshop. They included our own Kathy Furman, Tim Fausnaught, Matt Reitz and Eric Gee from Loyalsock, Brandon Pardoe and Justin Ross from Williamsport. It was great seeing them at the workshop.

The workshop focused on, What does effective teaching look like? How does technology support effective teaching? The principals also had an opportunity to sit in on two informational sessions on some web 2.0 tools. These informational sessions included Google Docs, wikispaces, and blogs. The focus was on how they as an administrator could use them in their role.

The principals workshop was very successful. Also each principal walked out with some cool gifts. I would like to thank my workshop colleagues, Ann Noonen, Rosie Parmigiani, and Matt Dancho. Also special thanks to Eric Rosendale, Keystone Director, Jim Beeghley and Shawn McDonough, from the Pennsylvania Department of Educational Technology, and fellow keystone staffers Kristin Hokansen, Chris Champion, and Alma Row.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 3

The summit again was a very busy place. The day began with four, hour and a half workshops. The Keystones had a choice of five different workshops to choose from during each session. Some of their choices were:

• Google Tools,
• Improving Elementary Writing Through Art & Animation
• How to Use iMovie
• Blogging to Encourage Student Writing
• Just Flip It
• Your Life with Comic Life
• Creating Curricular Wiki’s

These were just a few of the great workshops on Tuesday. Tomorrow I will be involved in a Principals workshop at the summit. Myself and three other colleagues will be leading the workshop. We have 25 principals coming from around the state.

I also would like to congratulate our own Keith Cremer, on his selection as a Keystone Technology Integrator. Keith got the opportunity to attend the summit.

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit - Day 2

Today was a busy day. We had a great speaker, Steve Sassman, in the morning. He spoke to all the Keystones and gave them a very powerful message on the power teachers have to influence their students. What a great way to start the day and to get everyone excited for a day of amazing things that happened.

I also had the opportunity to teach two classes on Movie Maker. The sessions went well and the teachers really began to look at their curriculum on ways they can begin to use Digital Video in their classes. I want to thank all the teachers that attended my sessions and thank them for for their discussions.

The Evening brought us the opportunity to bring the Keystones together for small group sessions and discussions. The excitement our small group sessions was wonderful and it is great to see and listen to the ideas that these teachers are now going to take back to their classrooms.

If you would like to learn more about the Keystones Program, please click on this link:
Keystone Technology Integrators

Keystone Technology Integrators Summit

I have been fortunate to be able to be a facilitator at the Keystone Technology Summit at Bucknell University. The Summit brings in 100 top educators from across the great state of Pennsylvania to teach and learn about new ways to integrate technology into their curriculum.

As a staff member I have been here since Saturday afternoon preparing for the attendees that arrived on Sunday Afternoon. On Saturday we spent a lot of time in meetings, unloading vans, and getting meeting rooms ready.

The Keystones arrived Sunday afternoon and were given the royal red carpet treatment. Staff members carried the attendees luggage into their rooms, gave them bags of goodies, and treated them to a picnic dinner outside. After the dinner everyone interacted together and played games on the lawn. A great 1st day!

The Dark Knight

Have you seen the new Batman Movie? My family and I went to the new Cinema Center in downtown Williamsport on Sunday Afternoon to see the movie. What a great movie! The new theater is also very nice. I really liked the reclining seats. If you get a chance, go see The Dark Knight, and let e know what you thought of the movie.

TitleTown USA

ESPN was in town today to film for an upcoming segment that will air on SportsCenter on Saturday. They were filming a segment called TitleTown. Is Williamsport and Little League really TitleTown? I believe so. This is the only place where a true Champion is crowned on the field every year in the purest form of the game of baseball. Special thanks to Chris Downs and Little League for inviting a lot of the local ball players to be part of the taping.

The New iPhone by Apple

The new iPhone went on sale on Friday and Apple has said to have sold 1 million iPhones in the first weekend. That is incredible! One Million iPhones sold in 3 days! The new iPhone is very cool and I hope to get one soon. Do you know anyone that bought an iPhone?

A Day at the Races

We had a great family night at the Route 87 Speedway in Montoursville tonight. My family and I spent the evening racing go-carts. It was a great time and the weather was fantastic.