Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Welcome to the New TRE Parent Blog


(This is our annual family picture. It was taken on our vacation to Cedar Point last summer)






Dear TRE Parents,

This is the new TRE parent blog. I wanted to start a parent blog so that I could both introduce myself and provide an avenue of communication from me to the parent community. I am sure that many parents are anxious to get to know me and a blog is a great way for me to communicate a little about who I am and a super way of providing 24/7 access to communication and announcements from me to our school community.

As I mentioned above, this particular blog’s purpose is to provide an introduction to Mr. Harris as the new principal and to provide summer communication to parents before school starts. It is not set up for interactive responses. I will use other blogs for that purpose in the future.

I would like to say how excited I am to join the TRE staff. It's kind of hard to put into words how much it means to me to return home to Bedford. I've had a lot of great experiences both professionally and personally since the time I graduated from Bedford High School and it seems as though all of those experiences have come full circle back to my home town. There is an excitement of returning but there is also a huge excitement of getting to know all of the parents, students, and staff.

The following is a little bit about me professionally… You can read about some of my personal information by looking at the column on the left side of the blog or clicking on the “view my complete profile” link.

This is my twentieth year in education; seven years as a fifth grade teacher, three years as a middle school assistant principal and athletic director, and ten years as an elementary principal. I have always loved working with elementary age children. As a junior and senior in high school at Bedford I would spend part of my summer months as an elementary camp counselor in Brighton, Michigan.

From High School I attended Moody Bible Institute and majored in Christian Education. After graduating from Moody I then attended Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana and majored in Elementary Education. Grace College is one of two colleges and universities in Indiana known for their excellent teacher education program. I was fortunate enough to be selected as my graduating class’s Outstanding Perspective Teacher by faculty in the Education Department. After graduating from college I accepted a position in the local school district where I student taught. Warsaw Community Schools provided great opportunities for me to grow both as a teacher and coach of several sports. I coached 6th grade boys’ basketball and girls’ volleyball for many years. I was also an assistant varsity volleyball coach during a time when our girls’ varsity team was ranked in the top five teams in the state. Warsaw provided a lot of great beginnings in my career. I eventually completed my graduate degree in school administration from Indiana University and started my administrative career with Warsaw Schools as a middle school assistant principal and athletic director.

My first elementary principalship was in Crown Point, Indiana where I served as the principal of Solon Robinson Elementary. During my tenure in Crown Point I was able to lead Solon Robinson to a “Four Star” school designation which is Indiana’s highest award for school excellence. My desire was to return to Michigan so I pursued an opening with Birmingham Public Schools in Birmingham, Michigan and have been there for the last seven years. Birmingham, like Bedford, has a strong community expectation for vigorous academic achievement, innovative practices in curriculum and instruction, and a valued partnership with parents and community. I recently had the privilege of leading Pembroke Elementary through a 14 million dollar new building construction project that was completed just two years ago.

Some of you may have heard that my mom, who lives in Temperance, has experienced health issues for some time now and in the last two years it has progressively declined. Moving back to Temperance will afford me the opportunity to give my mom the care and attention she needs.

Having attended Temperance Road Elementary as a second grader and graduating from Bedford schools I feel such an excitement about returning home to be a part of the TRE community. I have heard so many wonderful things about the students, staff, and parents. I look forward to serving your children as their school principal. Well, my blog entries will normally not be this long but I thought it was important to give you some background about me. As the parent of four children I would want to know all about the new principal too (smile).

In my next few posts I will be introducing you to my family and will be including some pictures so you can get to know a little more about the Harris family. I hope you enjoy the information provided to you in this blog.

Sincerely,
Bob Harris