Mr. Dunn’s Blog

OK, I didn’t do a great job keeping up with my blog with the start of the new school year.  Part of the reason is the lack of comments and part of the reason is that it has been a very busy start to the year.  I am really very pleased with how the past three weeks have gone.  We have twelve new staff that are all up and running.  When you visit Martha Brown you will see their pictures and a brief bio located in our main foyer showcase.  Our students have made the adjustment from summer mode to school mode with ease.  At our sixth grade open house last week I asked the parents how their child’s transition to middle school went.  Overwhelmingly the response was positive with most sixth graders making a great adjustment in the first day!  I had the pleasure of walking around after school today and visiting two girls soccer games and a boys volleyball game.  I was very happy with the large numbers of kid playing modified sports.  Last night’s cross country meet at Center Park had close to 100 athletes from grades 7 through 12 running for Fairport.  Your have to love the Raider Red and without an official result sheet I can say that I saw many Fairport runner’s coming in early in the races.  It was great to see the many parents cheering their children on.  It doesn’t get any better than that.  I would love to hear comments and how I can use my blog to best provide information to my readers.  Let me hear from you.

Mr. Dunn

I had the best day of the summer today working withapproximately 40 eighth grade students along with about 20 high school students on leadership.  Thanks to Debra Tandoi’s (FCSD Asset Coordinator) leadership and support.  Our Martha Brown students spent the day participating in a variety of activities with high school student involving leadership and doing the right thing.  Students participated in skits regarding the 40 developmental assets and ways in which we can help to promote them in school and outside school.   We are going to talk frequently about the “20-60-20″ split in any school regarding positive leaders, neutral leaders and negative leaders.  One of my goals is to move as many of the neutral and negative leaders towards the positive group.  There are a lot of “bystanders” that sit back and watch certain things happen and fail to take action.   I am convinced that all of our students know right from wrong and want to empower them to take action when they see things happening that they know is not right.  Bullying is still a high priority for me and our staff as we work hard to have every student feel emotionally as well as physically safe.  I’m hoping that this group of 8th graders will help pave the way for all students at Martha Brown to have a great year this year.  I will keep you posted on our progress throughout the year.

Mr. Dunn

One of my goals this summer was to explore the way to use technology to increase communication between school and home.  I enjoy my weekly newsletters but find that too often it is one way communication from school to home.  I’m hoping that the blog will open the lines of communication between home and school and include parents, students and members of the community.  I am going to explore the use of blogging to see how effective it can be to accomplish this goal.  I’m not sure how much time will be required of me to manage the blog on a daily/weekly basis.  I will evaluate the use of the blog on a monthly  basis and see if it works.  Bear with me.