The end of a long weekend! Bitter-Sweet. Actually more sweet than bitter as this afternoon and this evening I will have the opportunity to meet with the parents of my students at Parent Teacher Conferences. The face and format of these meetings have changed so much over the many years I have been a part of this process. Tonight I hope to set short term goals in order for my students to end this year on the best possible note and to make the transition into middle school a smooth one. The following is a link to several strategies I hope to implement with my students at school and encourage parents to implement at home. Take a look and provide feed back as well as any other fantastic resources you may have found to achieve this goal.

http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/health/980-smoothing-your-childs-transition-to-middle-school.gs?page=3

Wonderful run this morning! Extremely fitting that Mandisa's Stronger came on as the last song of the run (which is entirely an uphill stretch). Made me reflect on all that we do which makes us stronger. I am 44 years young and I remember as a teenager thinking about how old people in their 40's were. Boy, was I wrong. By pursuing a lifestyle which makes us stronger (stronger in mind and body and also spiritually) we are creating a lifestyle which will create in us a greater ability to endure and therefore a greater ability to encourage others and push them to meet their goals and become stronger as well. Those we encourage could be our own family members, or complete strangers. It is only dependent upon the opportunity. The main point is that we have strive to become the strongest we can be (physically, mentally, and spiritually) in order to build stronger community/families.