February is the month of love!

Junior high students express this in so many ways on February 14. Young love is expressed with flowers and chocolates and friends trade stuffed animals and small treasures just as a reminder that they care about each other. We too are alert to finding ways to show our students here at Monteleone how wonderful they are! We feel so lucky to be working with this exceptional group this year and we want to remind them as often as we can how special they are!

We have learned that just by taking an extra few minutes at lunch time for a fun activity or two, students feel refreshed, revived and have a fun memory of junior high. On a recent Friday, teachers expressed their love in a couple of ways. They allowed students to take chances to throw whipped cream pies in their faces. Students were able to participate in a raffle to see who might win that chance and two lucky students threw pies in the faces of the top ticket winning teachers faces. Those winners were Coach Westcott and Mrs. Golden. What greater love could be shared as proceeds were gathered for the victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake? After realizing that our students had almost completing come unplugged as these events were aired, our broadcast team did a wonderful job presenting a special edition show on the earthquake. I believe it to be very important that we keep our students in tune to world events and especially to the reality of how life affects those around us. St. Tammany Parish will be possibly getting together a team to travel to Haiti during the summer to work toward getting a school back up and running for the children there. From time to time, we will be doing some small activities to help those children. We probably discard items daily that those children never have seen in their schools and classrooms.
Yet another way we will spread love at Monteleone.

In order to more fully celebrate every child, we are on a quest to highlight as many talents of our students as we can. We want our Marlins to know that they are special whether they are an athlete, they sing, write, skate, play music, dance, act, or are serious thinkers. This is not always an easy task! We have a few ideas that you should see springing up around campus.
Mrs. Derossier and Mrs. Phares, our Talented Theatre and Chorus teachers respectively did an outstanding job presenting a performance of, "After Oz" with our Drama Club on January 28. The students were dynamic! We will begin having once a week "Karaoke Days" during lunches so that students can step into their own and sing their hearts out. We also would love to have students turn in their original art, writing, and photography work into the office for display even if it was not created in a class. Appropriate work will be displayed around campus and on our web sight.

Lastly, the one event that all students love, Monteleone Magic is just around the cornor. Mark your calendars for Thursday, April 29! It will be here before you know it. This Student Showcase event is sure to amaze you. This is truly a family event. It is also a wonderful opportunity for you to volunteer your time and talent if you have not been able to do so before. There is a form in this newsletter that I hope you will consider filling outl. There is much to be done and even if you are unable to be with us that day in preparation, perhaps you can work a shift in the evening or allow us to send home a task or two for you to complete at night. We sure would appreciate your help!
Have a great February. Our love to your family!

Donna Addison
Principal
Monteleone Jr. High School