February is often seen as the Heart Month! We celebrate Valentine’s Day and Staff Appreciation Week. Our grade 7/8 students offered the school community the opportunity to demonstrate their caring for others by purchasing and sending Candy Gram! It truly is the month of Love.
February also has Family Day and what a joy it was recently to just have a full day away from work to be with our own families. It is a perfect holiday to have in the month of Love. But tonight while preparing for school tomorrow, I happened to flip the channels and came across the Oscars. I’m not one for much Hollywood glitz and glamour, but I have seen a few of the movies and was interested in knowing how they might fare tonight. The show was indeed a wonderful escape to the glamorous lifestyle of the rich and famous, but it was the ending of the show that I enjoyed the most. A chorus of children from New York had been flown by United Airlines all the way to Hollywood to sing at the Oscars. In the tradition of Glee, the P_22 Chorus from Staten Island, with their music teacher, Gregg Breinberg sang their way into the hearts of America with their rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
The background story of this school’s rise from a very normal and ordinary school on Staten Island is most insightful.
Their teacher, Breinberg had been singing the songs of many famous artists for years now and posting them on YouTube. One of their Lady Gaga songs has had almost 5 million hits. Many of these famous singers who’s songs were taped and posted were so impressed with what they heard, the path to the Oscars was paved by their suggestions.
And now they were on the set at the Staples Center at the Academy and the Oscars.
As I listened and watched the kids I couldn’t help but see all our own Jury students there. But I was so taken with what the music teacher from New York said about his students when asked if he could have ever believed this could have ever happened to his choir. Breinberg told the interviewer “I could have never dreamt this was possible..But it shows that hard work can make anything possible.”
That struck a strong cord with me. “Hard work can make anything possible!” And although it’s exciting for this young group of students from New York to be at the Oscars, I couldn’t help but think how hard work helped a young student in grade one read an entire short story for the first time. Hard work brought a group of grade 3 students excitingly into my office sharing a math story they had written. Hard work brought a group of Early Years students to my office with their story webs. Later I thanked those teacher who had worked so hard to help get their students to that point. And so it goes on each and every day here at Jury – the hard work and the exciting pay-off.
Thank you parents of all our children. YOU have worked so hard to produce the wonderful attitudes in the children you send us each morning. Thank you to all our staff here at Jury for your dedication to working with all of our students and ensuring that they learn something new every day.
But most of all I want to thank each student who comes through our doors each morning. When you feel like quitting and giving up, remember “hard work can make anything possible”. What is your “anything?” What are your dreams? All of us are here to help you see your dreams come true – each and every day.