Hello Baldwin Community,

This past week was a fabulous week at Baldwin!

We had our first Family Fitness Night on Thursday and what a night of fun it was for all! We had different stations for the children and their parents to experience.  Some of the stations were: basketball, tennis, yoga, nutrition, karate, and kayaking.
All of the children that attended seemed to be having a great time.  I want to thank the parents and friends that came out to help us at each of these stations: Sarah Urbanski, Leslie Ivey, Brandon Maribal, Jeffrey Rockwell, Melissa and Jack Baker, Grant Dorsey, Jamie Dorsey  (Mrs. Dorsey's children) and our very own teacher Mrs. Cherry Lee. I also want to thank the following businesses for coming to share their time and talents with our families: Circle Tennis Club, i9 Sports, Austin Diagnostic Clinic, Total Speed and Fitness, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and My Gym Children's Fitness Center.   Also, thank you to Coach Grumbles, the science cadre and our parent volunteers for helping organize this fun event.

Every school year In AISD each school chooses a Teacher of the Year as well as a Teacher of Promise. As you already know, Mrs. Julie Burns, third grade teacher, is Baldwin's Teacher of the Year for 2011. We just recently announced Baldwin's Teacher of Promise for 2011:  Mrs. Mechele Dorsey, Kindergarten Teacher. The "Teacher of Promise" recognition program is for novice teachers (zero years experience) who are demonstrating "promising practice" in their classrooms. The Office of Educator Quality asks campus principals and Lead Mentor Contacts to nominate a novice teacher who is demonstrating an overall grasp of the components of good teaching.  Mrs. Dorsey has been doing an outstanding job with her students and overall on our campus. She provides her students with hands-on, creative and meaningful lessons. She has established strong classroom procedures and routines and positive relationships with all of her students. Please stop by to visit her classroom and to congratulate her for this great honor and her great work with our children! We are very proud of Mrs. Dorsey and so happy that she is a Baldwin Bobcat!

If you are at Baldwin this week, please visit the yellow wing to see some of our first and second grade work that is on display.  As you enter the yellow wing, you will first see on display work from Ms. Cheaney and Ms. LeBlanc's classes. These students recently studied Texas and measurement and their learning is on display. The students created Texas Maps as they learned the topography of Texas. They also drew a picture of themselves showing the different measurements of their bodies such as their arm lengths and waist sizes. Mrs. Lentz, Mrs.Perry and Mrs. Fuentes had their students write some poetry and there are some very creative poems on display. The students in these classes learned about different types of poetry and then they each created their own poems. Mrs. Brady's students have been discussing Earth Day and they created some booklets on ways to help take care of our Earth and those are hanging by their classroom. Mrs. Forotanrad and Mrs. Lee's classes wrote some reports on an animal that they researched. There are some very interesting facts about the animals they researched and wrote about. In the orange wing, our third graders created some interesting art work with three dimensional shapes, which is the concept they were recently studying in math. Their creations also include an explanation of their work and the 3-D shapes they used.

Another display that you must see at Baldwin is the art work by some of our fourth graders. As you go up the main staircase in our building, you will be amazed with the beautiful art work that is on display. It took my breath away! I stood their for at least 7 minutes taking it all in! Fourth graders have been learning about Japanese carp, called Koi. Students began with a detailed anatomy drawing of a fish, carefully labeling the body parts and fins. Next, each student learned how to draw a koi from a side view and a bird's eye view. Scales were added to the fish and carefully decorated. Final versions of the koi fish were carefully scratched onto gold scratch board and the background was embellished with waves, bubbles, cherry blossoms and Japanese characters. Way to Go fourth graders and Mrs. Rutledge!

On a different note, I need your help if you drop-off and/or pick up your child at Baldwin. It seems that the traffic flow in the front of the school is not going as smooth and as safe as we need it to. I am once again asking everyone to please stay in the right lane when dropping off and picking up your child. I realize that the right lane may get long at times but it is important for the children's safety that we follow this rule. We will begin blocking the left lane just past the parking lot entrance so that we don't have anyone coming through in the left lane and trying to cut across to the right lane when there is a gap in the traffic. This presents a very dangerous situation so we need everyone to follow the rules. We will continue to do our best to get every child on and off the vehicles as quickly as possible. Thank you for helping us with this very important matter and helping us keep all of our Bobcats safe everyday!


Roaring with Pride,
Dr.  Peña