K-12 News

     "Principal for a Day" was an honor recently bestowed upon two Frederick Leighton Elementary School students.
     As part of the celebration of reading, second-grader Anna Cloonan and fifth-grader Abby McPherson partnered with Principal Julie Burger for an entire day.
Students earned the opportunity through their dedication to reading.      "At the beginning of the year we had a read-a-thon and it just finished," Cloonan said. "Last Friday was celebration day and I had read 550 minutes to win the pre-kindergarten to second-grade principal of the day."
     One of the first things the "new principals" learned about Mrs. Burger is her concern for the safety of the students.
     "Every day Mrs. Burger has to think about the children and their safety here at Leighton," Cloonan said. "She wants to make sure everyone is safe."
     "We started out the day to see if everything was okay," Burger noted. "We walked the hallways and things looked fine in the classrooms. We did dining hall checks and did some distribution of the Common Core New York State testing materials."
     The youngest "principal" said that with her partner "we read a book to the kindergarten classrooms."
     As the day progressed, McPherson said, "We did walk-ins in classrooms."
     "They watched what is going on in the classrooms and left notes with compliments about the best pieces of learning that they had seen," Burger noted.
     She explained to the two "principals" that walk-ins were important as "we are able to witness what kinds of learning are taking place" and the observation is similar to coaching.
     McPherson said she was excited about the experience.
     "I was able to read over 1,000 minutes to be selected as the 'Principal of a day' and I have read to some classes and have been checking on classrooms with Mrs. Burger," she said.
     Both students that they were not surprised at what Mrs. Burger does on a daily basis, but they understand the importance of student safety for all of the youngsters attending Frederick Leighton Elementary School.