Poems With Powerful Messages

This is a book that I highly recommend that every Esperanza stakeholder read!  Each bilingual poem has a powerful message. 

Thirst For Knowledge

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. -Laurence Sterne, novelist and clergyman (1713-1768)

This is what we want to instill in our Esperanza scholars--a thirst for knowledge. This is what will turn them into lifelong learners. All it takes is one book that catches a child's interest to get him hooked on reading. It only takes one topic to pique a child's interest to cause her to want to continue learning about that topic that leads to wanting to learn about other topics. Therefore, we need to continually expose our Esperanza scholars to all kinds of books and all kinds of learning experiences. We can only do this if we are continually reading and learning ourselves.

Birthdays Are for Celebrating

Because today is my husband's birthday I have been thinking about birthdays...and how we want to celebrate birthdays at Esperanza. A birthday is special because it is the day to specifically celebrate someone.

For Esperanza students we might want to consider doing the following to celebrate:

• When making the morning announcements the principal can wish students a Happy Birthday who are celebrating their birthday that day.



• One day each week the principal can have lunch with all the students who had a birthday that week. The principal would give each student a small gift, preferably a book that maybe a business partner could help sponsor. Each student would also get a birthday cupcake.

Note #1: For students who have birthdays in the summer their 1/2 birthdays could be celebrated.

Note #2: Teachers would be encouraged to find ways to celebrate birthdays in the classroom.

Note #3: Parents would be encouraged not to bring birthday treats as it disrupts the classroom and it could make students feel left out whose parents don't bring birthday treats.

Birthdays of teachers and staff members also need to be celebrated. Esperanza's social committee could be responsible for how this is to be done. Over and above this the principal might want to find ways she can celebrate the birthdays of staff members.

Finding ways to celebrate birthdays is one way to give inviting "blue cards" to others and thus help make Esperanza Elementary the most inviting place in town.