A Hopping Good Time at Fickett Elementary School

A ‘sock hop’ was in full swing at Fickett Elementary School when I arrived.  The entry ticket was a canned food item.  The school’s annual canned food drive is a big hit each year and the items are donated to Atlanta’s Hosea Feed the Hungry.  Principal Twyman uses this activity to teach students to work together and to foster a love of community service and giving to others.  

I was too late to dance, but I was able to grab a bag of popcorn as the cart rolled through the hallways!

It was the end of the school day and visual arts teacher Mr. Kerr allowed his students to draw freely before dismissal. Check out a cool ‘Despicable Me’ drawing at the bottom of this blog.

Next door, Mr. Little teaches the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) class.  First and fourth graders have been learning about reflection, refraction, transparency and translucency this month.  As I walked the hallways, I met Christian, my new buddy from 3^rd grade, and we compared battle scars.  He has a scar on his forehead due to a head butt, and I have a scar on my chin from a motorcycle accident.  I heard that Christian was looking for meand wanted to ask me a few questions.  We had a good conversation about safety and what it is I do for the kids of Atlanta Public Schools.  

Our UPS Scholars were in the house – tutoring elementary students throughout the building.  These students are from throughout the United States, attend local colleges and universities and volunteer at least 10 hours per week inside of APS schools.  A big thank you to UPS for allowing APS to participate in this program!

Just before going outside for dismissal, I was invited to give out Fickett Tickets to students who were safe, responsible and respectful.  Check out my photo below with the winners.

By the time I made it outside, the buses were lined up and the organized chaos known as dismissal was beginning.  I’m not sure how helpful I was with getting students on the correct buses, but I did have a great conversation with a few students who were waiting for parent pick up.  As always, they were full of questions and I had a blast speaking with them.  They had quite a few requests including; a touch football team, a cheerleading squad and a pool.  Yes, a pool. They even pointed to the area of the property they thought would be appropriate for the pool.  While I told them, I thought we may be able to handle the football and cheer – the pool was something I would need to think about for a while!

The weather was perfect, my popcorn from the sock hop was delicious and the students – the students at Fickett were super sweet.  It was a fantastic visit.