Our Student Honor Council, their enthusiastic sponsor, Mrs. Stanley, and our families of LME really CAN do it! Drum Roll, please: We collected 4,903 canned and boxed items to donate to our local food bank, Manna House! This is double our collection from last year! 
Thanks for the overwhelming response, for sharing many gifts of thanks, and for giving so generously to ensure others can celebrate the holiday with yummy food! 🙂
Thanks and Giving…
We celebrated our annual Family Thanksgiving Feast today with great thanks and giving indeed! From the traditional meal to great conversation during all six lunches, families noshed in fellowship, tradition, and fun. Special thanks to our cafe ladies and volunteers who fed
over 1100 LME family members. Thanks to our learning community for joining us today.
In the process of sharing, several learners and their families 
stopped by the “thankful tree” to post their blessings and drop off canned and boxed food items for our big food drive this week. Our Student Honor Council reports we have over 2500 products in just two days…WOW! Please keep them coming through Thursday! As always, thanks for sharing the love by giving this week…and throughout the year! 🙂
CAN you help this week?
Our 7th Annual LaRue Miller Elementary Thanksgiving Food Drive kicked off last Friday during our rally and will run this week until Thursday, Nov. 20th. Sponsored by our LME Student Honor Council, our 
homeroom classes are competing to bring the most food items based on specific needs of Manna House right now:
- Monday:Â canned corn
- Tuesday:Â dried beans
- Wednesday:Â boxed cereal
- Thursday:Â canned beef and chili
Please check expiration dates carefully and send items with your child as possible each day. The donated cans will go to local families for holiday support in our community. As one StuCo member noted, “Every can helps; CAN you help please?” 🙂
Denim and Diamonds 2014!
Thanks to the extraordinary work of our highly involved PTO membership here at LME, we enJOYed a most memorable evening event! From bronco riding and roping for the children to a highly competitive live and silent auction of exquisite opportunities, the festivities, food (catered by Babe’s), fun, live music, 
dancing, and fellowship flowed! Special thanks to guest auctioneer, Mr. Massey, for keeping the bidding lively! Our sponsors and those who donated items are commended once again for the superb selection of items and choices. More thanks to 
our incredible PTO Board of ladies who dream big and make it happen every year—outstanding work by all! Thanks to our families, our staff members, and our learning community who come out to participate and support the work and programs of our growing campus each year…blessings abound!  🙂
Veteran’s Day 2014
“Honor to the soldier and the sailor everywhere, who bravely bears the country’s cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for the brother of the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause.” These words spoken by President Abraham Lincoln pledged support and heartfelt thanks for the service and work of our nation’s veterans.
Our campus and learning community gathered today to honor and offer support, love, and thanks to our brave men and women who valiantly serve our country. Led by our extraordinary music teacher, Mrs. Perez (with the Specials Team and 5th Grade Team), our students talked, sang, rang bells, and shared stories in various ways. From the historical part of Veteran’s Day to the celebration of each branch of the military, they “covered all the bases.” 🙂 Special thanks to our LME families who participated in our traditional Wall of Honor this year; it will remain on display through the month of November.
Generation after generation, Americans have stepped 
forward to defend our freedom and preserve the founding principles of our great Nation. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, and beyond, these patriots stood watch over America’s peace, and when necessary, carried the costs of our Nation’s wars. These brave men and women have cleared the seas, charged the hills, and covered the skies; we pledge to uphold each veteran’s legacy by teaching our younger generations, our learners, about the role in securing the blessings of liberty. In teaching others, we teach ourselves. May we always take the opportunity to remember, reflect, and revisit the service and sacrifices of our Nation’s Veterans. Here’s hoping you thank a Veteran today and every day! 🙂
Fear vs. Love
A special friend and I had an interesting conversation today about fear versus love. This child is struggling and asked for some “advice” on how to conquer fear of failure. We talked about the “cure” to fear being love. Instead of fearing failure, learn to love the process and success will naturally come. When we learn to focus on love, we cast the fear aside. 
As parents and educators, teaching the idea of love conquering fear sets the tone for overall success in extraordinary ways each day. For example, teachers model and demonstrate love daily to their learners; they understand what they build with love will become so much more for each child. Loving the child is the focus rather than fearing new state standards or testing. Only through love and loving the process of learning will they help each child create something special, magnificent, and compelling…a personal masterpiece.
Jon Gordon in his book, The Carpenter, says it best: “That which is built on love will endure, so love all of it; when you love all of it, you will fear none of it…this a success strategy and secret to a life of great meaning…” He further explains:
- Love the struggle…because it makes you appreciate your accomplishment.
- Love challenges…because they make you stronger.
- Love competition…because it makes you better.
- Love negative people (they need love most of all)…because they make you more positive.
- Love those who have hurt you…because they teach you forgiveness.
- Love fear…because it makes you courageous.
Here’s hoping we remember to love all of it and fear none of it! 🙂
Denim and Diamonds Event!
Our exceptional PTO is once again sponsoring their big fundraising event for the year: Denim and Diamonds Dinner and Auction. Join us next Friday, November 14th for this evening of family fun. The doors open at 6:00 p.m. with supper served at 6:15. Peruse the silent auction, dance to the music of the live band, enjoy the petting zoo outside, and try your hand at roping and bronco riding before the live auction starts at 7:15. Everything from a Big Green Egg to golfing trips and more are being donated to raise money for additional playground equipment and technology carts for our students. You do not have to eat supper to attend the auction and participate in the evening (dinner reservations are due by Nov. 11th to the front office). Come for fun, food, fellowship, and festive holiday shopping; we hope to see you here! 🙂
Asking the big ?s…
“Take out your iPad for a reader response to the character’s idea of finding gratitude and meaning in each day…” Thus started a most reflective few moments for this small group of writers discussing character point–of-view during their literature group time; indeed, it sparked a personal interest in each learner to reflect on his or her own attitude of gratitude.
As one learner noted, “Gratitude is the surest way to heal a hurt and help you focus on what is good.” Another commented, “I’ve found it’s a great way to make a difference in my day.” A third child shared, “I find more reasons to be grateful for all I have even when we really have very little in our life now.” Finally, another chimes in, “So the way you see it, gratitude turns what you have into enough.” BINGO! 🙂
The group challenged one another to list the things they are each thankful for today and to then pick one to write about by describing how it came to be in their life. They asked big questions like, “What did you learn from it?” – and – “What meaning does this hold for you?” Finally, they summed up the message by challenging each other to have an attitude of gratitude every day to make them aware of the blessings coming their way.  So, the BIG question to you today: How will you choose to have an attitude of gratitude so you appreciate the blessings coming your way?
Success vs. Excellence…
Success is often measured by comparison to others. Excellence is all about being the best we can personally be by maximizing our gifts, talents, and abilities to perform at our highest potential. We live in a world focusing too often on success and comparison–just turn on the TV anytime and you get running commentary proving this point. We are all guilty of doing this (trust me; I’m a recovering perfectionist, so I know this to be true). 🙂 Perhaps we should begin then to focus more on excellence and less on success; focus on being the best we can be and realize our greatest competition is not someone else but only ourselves.
For example, look at golfing legend Jack Nicklaus (one of my daddy’s personal faves). His secret was to play the course and not his competition. He simply “focused on playing the best he could play against the course he was playing.” While other golfers were competing against him, he was competing against the course and himself.
In working with young learners, it is critical to teach and model this concept in action. We always have a choice as individuals, as teachers, as parents, as coaches, as a learning community. You can choose to focus on success and spend time looking around to see how the competition is doing—or—you can choose to look straight ahead towards the vision of greatness and excellence. We can look at competition as the standard or as an indicator of our progress towards our own standard of excellence. We can chase success or we can embark on a quest for personal excellence. Why not focus 100% of our energy to become our personal best and let success find us? After all, when our goal shifts to excellence, the outcome (and the byproduct) is usually success. 🙂
Speaking of excellence, here’s hoping you join us this evening for the excellent annual MISD Field of Readers Event @ 6:00 p.m. on the field at the MISD Multipurpose Stadium!Â
Red Ribbons and Parties and Readings galore!
Between the daily Red Ribbon Week events and other great things each day on campus, there’s hardly time or space to share it all!
In case you didn’t get the memo, it’s party day tomorrow–our first for this school year. Special thanks to our teachers for their patience in the midst of the excitement and to our incredible parents who make it all happen with such grace and style! We look forward to a festive event tomorrow!
Our annual MISD Field Of Readers takes place on Mon; Nov. 3 from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at the Multipurpose Stadium. This year’s theme, “Picture Yourself Reading,” focuses on #MISDshelfie with opportunities to 
participate in MakerSpace workstations, explore coding, hear great stories on the 50-yard-line, the famous book walk, and much more! Bring your family, friends, books, and blankets for a huge group read. Thanks to our amazing MISD Library Media Specialists for enthusiastically hosting this treasured community event!
Van Am Gram 