Wallace School District 65-R
September 2024 Newsletter
What is going through your mind the day before the first day school? I’m sure most students fall under one of the following categories: excited, depressed, worried, anxious, nervous, or happy? How do I know our kids follow under one of these categories? I did something that no one does anymore, it’s certainly not popular amongst students, made some uncomfortable, made others want to flee in fear. I went up and asked them!!! Kind of a lost art in the days of social media.
This is my 39th year in education. The biggest change I’ve seen in education during that time is social media, in particular the use of the cell phone. I want to go on record as saying that I’m not against cell phones at school. I feel like cell phones can serve an important service in our school, especially in the area of safety. Some of our students drive quite a way to school, and sometimes in some sketchy weather, with tough roads. Cell phones serve a great purpose in those situations. As far as the classroom, I’m not convinced they are a necessary item for students. In fact, with our computers, I can’t think of a scenario that our students couldn’t handle in the classroom without the cellphone. I always ask the teaching staff that if you have a project that involves a cell phone, make sure I know a head of time so I’m not walking by the classroom watching kids on phones. I’ve had very few requests for that to take place.
I’m going to sound like the old, cranky, get off of my lawn, guy now. For teachers and administrators, phones are a big distraction for a lot of our students throughout the school day. I deal with at least one phone a week being brought to my office because a student was messing with it during class time. The first time the student loses their phone they can come and get the phone after school. The second violation requires a parent to come and collect the phone, the third time I keep the phone and parents have to come get the phone, the 4th time the phone must be checked into my office before school and can be picked up after school. Etc.
Again, I want to reiterate that I’m not anti-cellphone, I’m anti-trouble. I want to try and get our students to communicate face to face, rather than text, and emails. I think communication is a huge building block in friendships. I want students who know how to talk to people about things, to come up with solutions rather than creating more problems.
So, I’m asking you to have the talk about responsible cell phone use during school hours. I need your help with this please. I really appreciate your continued support.
Wallace FFA
Hello friends of the FFA, school has started up again and our FFA members are already busy preparing for this year's many events. This year's theme for Ag and FFA is GRIT! Students have worked to prepare goals for their FFA events and have created ways to use GRIT to accomplish them.
Our chapter had the opportunity to be recognized in the FFA’s National Magazine this year. Our chapter was mentioned for raising chickens last year! The chickens were raised in the ag room until they were old enough to harvest. Our students were even able to help with the harvesting process. We are very proud to see that our hard work last year has led to National recognition!
On September 10th, our FFA members will have the opportunity to participate in the District Range Judging competition. This year the contest will take place in Arthur. The participating members will look to qualify a team to compete in the State Range Judging competition in Chase County on September 25th. We can’t wait to see how our members do!
On September 11th, our FFA chapter will attend Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island! This event gives our members the opportunity to look and see new advancements in agriculture! There are many booths for our members to look at and get information from. Dayspring Bank in Wallace has graciously donated money for our meal tickets again this year! We would like to thank them for their continuous support of our FFA Chapter! Husker Harvest Days is a day our chapter always looks forward to, and we can’t wait to attend again this year!
Our chapter is happy to be receiving a National Chapter Award at National FFA again this year! We are happy to have received a two star rating this year. This means that we get to send a group of our chapter officers to the National FFA convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. These officers will get to walk across the stage and be recognized on a National level! We are very proud of our FFA chapter because this award would not be possible without the help of our members and Mrs. Kemp!
August 23rd through September 2nd is the Nebraska State Fair FFA show weekend! Ashley Robertson, Ryleigh Hanson, and Allyson Kemp will all be showing animals! These individuals have spent many hours working with their animals and we can’t wait to see how they do at the State competition!
Wallace FFA Reporter,
Mallory McConnell
