December 1, 2017                                                                    Barton Creek Elementary

Blue Jay Bulletin

COUNSELOR'S CORNER

JESSE RUBEN

Thanks to our generous Booster Club, we were fortunate enough to have singer/songwriter Jesse Ruben fly to Austin from Brooklyn, NY and spend the entire day at our school yesterday! We were so privileged to have Jesse Ruben engage with each grade level for 45 minutes encouraging the students and staff to identify their dreams and goals in life and to pursue them individually and together. He sang with each group and taught the kids his inspiring song, "We Can" before holding a school wide assembly where students and teachers from all grades stood up and shared their "I Can" and "We Can" ideas to the entire crowd. Singing together his songs was incredible for both the students and the staff and brought us together in such a motivating way. I cannot be more proud to be at a school that encourages unity, community and philanthropy like Barton Creek Elementary, and I attribute this to the core values that our students are taught at home with their desire to make this world and better place by reaching out and helping others.

The kids were asked "What is a marathon?" yesterday in each session.  Responses ranged from "a man with a pot of gold" to "a show" to "a running race." Then in response to, "How far is a marathon?" the kids exclaimed, "Farther than a mile," "More than 5," "Actually more than 6," and our favorite, "A hundred thousand."

Jesse's favorite responses to his question about students' "I Can" ideas were: "I want to go to MIT," "I want to be a good friend," "I want to open a dog rescue," and "I would like to keep going to Africa to feed the hungry." Some of our teachers shared that they would like to a write children's book, develop an educational app, help feed the homeless, and find a cure for cancer. It was so amazing to see the emotional responses displayed as everyone shared their goals and dreams.

Jesse Ruben's "We Can Project" is an initiative for elementary and middle school students designed to encourage kids to help others and to give back to their communities and other areas around the world. He has run the NY Marathon for both The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (which is the largest non-profit dedicated to spinal chord injury research) and The Global Lyme Alliance. Our Blue Jays shared their "We Can" ideas in each session and some are listed below:

• "Help others because we want to be a good person"
• "Recycle"
• "Giving out toys that other people don't have"
• "We can support Alzheimer's Awareness by doing walks to raise money for it"
• "Be kind"
• "Taking care of animals"
• "Helping everybody in the whole world"

Please take a moment this weekend to talk with your children about their "I Can" & "We Can" ideas. Over the next couple of months, we will be gathering ideas of We Can Projects and will come together as a school to choose a philanthropy to adopt this Spring. Thank you again, to our amazing Booster Club Co-Presidents, Nancy Grimm and Laya Sharma, for working with the Booster Club to fund this memorable experience for our teachers and students. We cannot wait to see what ideas our Blue Jays have in mind to improve this world! ~Karen Wager

From a Kid's Perspective: Jesse Ruben #KidBlog

NEW THIS WEEK

CALLING ALL BCE CUB SCOUTS & GIRLS SCOUTS!

We are invited to visit The Community First Village to spread some holiday cheer to the residents on Saturday, December 9th at 10am. You can sign up to participate HERE.

BARTON CREEK GIVES BACK! #WECAN

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BARTON CREEK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
1314 Patterson Road, Austin, Texas 78746

http://bce.eanesisd.net

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