Harry Houdini was a very interesting character that I got to watch. At the same time, it was sort
of creepy to "see" him alive and performing his magic tricks. Students seemed to have enjoyed his arts and tried very
hard to earn the $100 from him. The likeness of him was amazing and he looked like the real Houdini. He studied
him very well and the characteristics of him. He had a good personality as Houdini and the personality changed when
he took off his wig! He was a different person and seemed more gentle than the real Houdini. I enjoyed the
performance.
Vicky Bruno was our guest speaker about sign language and it very informative. I got to teach my first
graders how to sign to go to the bathroom and how to sign to get a drink of water. They sure enjoy it! Vicky told
us to do that and it works and there's less interruption. Using sign language helps us use both sides of our brain.
Wow! I sure need to have both sides working all the time! She has worked hard to be where she's at and she is
retiring this year. I'm sure people will miss her especially the students. It is hard to replace someone that
has helped out a lot.
Laura McClenny from San Juan Partnership was our guest speaker after working with our students at Apache
Elementary students. She had interesting statistics about our youth in San Juan County. It seems like we always
see and hear the negatives about our society through the media-tv and newspaper. It was refreshing to learn that
our youth are doing well than I expected. Especially staying away from harmful drugs that can become addictive.
It was good to hear the positive about our youth. I thought that the youth did not care about life, but just enjoy being
in the crowd being cool, but they do care about their lives like wearing their seat belts and trying to be responsible.
I will think differently of our youths now.
