Cherokee Trail

IN THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER:

• PSP NEWS
• FROM THE AP
• COUNSELOR'S CORNER
• FROM THE PRINCIPAL 
• NEW FLYERS - SUMMER CAMPS
• GIFTED & TALENTED NEWS

PSP NEWS Volunteer Opportunities: We would love to have you join the PSP team in supporting our school! PSP is responsible for the community events at CTE, as well as sponsoring the fundraisers that help fill the financial gaps at our school. Please complete the form to let us know what you are interested in helping with and email us with any questions. PSP Membership & Yearbook Order: Become a supporter of PSP, order your yearbook, and get a CTE Stallion decal! Complete the form, attach payment, and send it to the CTE office. Restaurant Day/Night: Papa John's in Parker is hosting our first restaurant day/night this school year on Thursday, August 23rd. When you place an order anytime during their business hours, 10:30am - 10:00pm, and let them know you are supporting CTE we will receive a portion of the sales. Look for a flyer in Thursday folders. Thank you for supporting our school!

Welcome back to school! We are so happy to have the building come back to life with laughter, love, and learning. Thanks for sending your students ready each day. Safety First! * Here are some great ways to ensure your student's safety while traveling to school! * CTE is tentatively planning our first Evacuation Drill on Friday, August 17th. It's required by law that public schools practice an Evacuation Drill within the first 10 days of school. Douglas County follows the Standard Response Protocol. For a quick overview of this protocol, please watch this short video. CTE's expectations for students during an evacuation drill are as follows: - classroom and exterior doors closed - no voices during the drill (raise your hand if you have a need) - walk safely and stay in line so your teacher can easily see/find you - walk to the wooden fence on the west side of the field and stop - stay in line and face the building so you can see and hear directions easily - wait for directions from your teacher or administrator - stay quiet from the time the alarm goes off until you return to your next activity

Did you know that elementary school counselors…..

- teach classroom lessons on a variety of topics?

- facilitate small guidance groups to build social, emotional and academic skills?

- counsel individual students as needed?

- assist families with community resources?

- work with parents and teachers to assist students with difficulties?

I have been enjoying visiting all of the classrooms and introducing myself.  I look forward to working with all of the students this year. Please feel free to contact me if you have a question or concern.

We are back for a fifth straight year on the Principal Chronicles. If you are new to this, it is basically me rambling about all things going on in my life as Principal of Cherokee Trail elementary which I consider to be one of the best jobs in the country. This summer went by pretty fast as it always does but I had a chance to really unplug and spend some quality time with my family. Our big outing this summer was our trip with my parents to Costa Rica. My parents love to travel and spend time in nature so they decided to include my crew with them this time. Not sure what they were thinking but hey, who wouldn't want to go to Costa Rica? Of course it wouldn't be a vacation with my family if we didn't have some sort of drama before we left. Three out of the four of us were lucky enough to contract hand, foot, and mouth disease two days before we left the country. Super. My oldest had a few blisters and a sore throat but nothing more, my youngest had a fever and a few blisters and nothing more. Me??? I got NAILED. I ended up getting 8,425 blisters on my feet, hands, elbows, nose,  and ear lobes. Who gets blisters on their ear lobes? The plane ride was the worst as literally every step I took it felt like I was walking on a bed of nails. Costa Rica is a beautiful country with very friendly people and tons of volcanos. They also eat boatloads of rice and beans. There was rice and beans at every single meal we ate. Yes, every single meal we ate. I can't tell you how fun it is t be in a confined space like an automobile after all members of your traveling party have consumed large quantities of rice and beans. (Thank goodness I have girls instead of boys or no one would have made it out alive). Probably the highlight of the trip, besides the beautiful scenery, animals, and birds, was the zip line. If you have never done zip lining before, they basically strap you to a cable and send you flying down said cable at a high rate of speed. It's awesome. I had been zip lining before so I felt pretty confident but as we drove to the place where we were to zip line I suddenly noticed that we were driving up the side of a huge volcano. Once the straight up drive was done we got on a ski lift Costa Rica style and again went straight up the side of this volcano. On the way up we learned (noted that we learned this on the way up and not at the bottom prior to being on the way up) that there were eleven lines and that a few were over a mile long and a couple traversed a gigantic canyon. Confidence - waning. At the top they strapped us in and one by one they sent us shooting down the canyon, it was absolutely nuts. Once you realized you probably won't die, it was really fun. Of course my two girls had a blast and found particular enjoyment in screaming their faces off on every ride. Of course we had lots of other fun adventures but that is a story for another chronicles. Just know that I am very excited about this year and, as always, I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this great staff and community. Plus I love our kids. That is it for this week, stay tuned next week when the Principal Chronicles continues...