Champions of Rome...

-
As the winter sports season nears the end, Rome Free Academy has had several teams and individuals bring home league and sectional championships. For the second year in a row, the girls' bowling team has won the Section III Championship and are headed to the state tournament. The girls' track team continued their dominance in our league by winning their 5th consecutive league championship. Not to be out done, the boys' swim team also won the league championship this year. Topping all of this, for now, is RFA's Justin Swavely who won the Section III Championship in both the shot put and the weight throw, with RFA's Billie Mays III bringing home the silver medal in shot put as well. With both basketball teams, boy's hockey, and wrestling heading into their post season competitions, the best of the bunch has been the girls' ice hockey team from Clinton. Comprised of students from district's throughout the Mohawk Valley, the team includes 7 athletes from RFA. This group of ladies has not only already won the Section III Championship, but will play for the State Championship today. Congratulations to all of our student athletes and teams for an amazing season thus far. For those that are still going, good luck in the coming weeks and continue to represent Rome Free Academy and all of Rome in a great way!!


Midwinter Recess


A reminder that the week of February 17th through February 21st is our midwinter recess week. School will not be in session this week. Regular classes will resume on Monday, February 24th.

RFA Travel Club

The RFA Travel Club is currently looking for anyone interested in participating in their trip to Spain and Portugal in the spring of 2021. The meeting for the Spain/Portugal Trip will be held on February 27th (Thursday) at 6:00 p.m. in room 1310 at RFA. If you or your family want to learn more or enroll for the trip, this is the meeting to attend. For more information on this trip and/or the meeting, please see their flier HERE. 


Suitcase Art Show


Thank you to the Rome City School District Art Department for once again putting on the annual traveling art show throughout the Rome community. On February 6th, the show opened at the Fort Stanwix Willett Center. Over the next two months, the show can be seen in different locations. The art show will remain at the Willett Center through March 4, then can be seen at Community Bank from March 10-24. Congratulations to all of the students whose art work is displayed and don't miss this opportunity to see the amazing talents of our young artists in Rome!

Free Bully Prevention Workshop


 One of our local karate dojos is sponsoring a free bullying prevention workshop on Friday, February 28th from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. The seminar, sponsored by Bullyproof: Unleash the Hero Inside Your Kid and Sidekicks Karate, aims to give kids the tools they need to protect themselves and empower them to have the confidence to stand up for themselves and others. For more information, or to register, please see their flier HERE.



Popular posts from this blog

It Takes A Village...

-
Image
 We all know the old phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child." One can reflect on the phrase and find a few different ways to interpret its meaning, however, it cannot be argued that when groups of people work together to help their children grow, success is more likely. To me, I view this phrase as referencing that there is someone within every community that a child can connect with to help them feel a part of their school and/or community. It may not be their classroom teacher or their principal. It may be a bus driver, a coach, a teaching assistant, secretary, custodian, food service worker, music teacher, art teacher, computer specialist, monitor, etc. The list can go on and on. Why mention this? Well, currently, one of the largest and most important educational research projects in our nation's history is occurring with some of the leading educational experts researching what education needs to be by the year 2025. Education 2025 is producing information that m
Read more

Finish Strong...

-
Image
It is that time of year where many schools, teachers, and students want to "coast" to the finish line. A lot like that NFL team that has their playoff birth locked up weeks before the end of the season so they start resting players to avoid potential injury as the regular season comes to an end; some schools have traditionally modeled this mentality. Difference being is that we are in a race, not a season. In a race, if you let up at the end, your final outcome/product will suffer. Even if you are in first place in the race, you don't slow down as you approach the finish line do you? You don't see the jockey on the thoroughbred pulling on the reins so that the team doesn't set a time record. Those thoughts would be unthinkable. So why do we pull up the flaps at the end of the school year on our kids' learning opportunities. Yes, the weather is nice. Yes, it's been a long year. Yes, we've just made it through State testing and AP testing. But, we only
Read more

I Had A Dream...

-
Image
Once upon a time, when we all began our careers or started a new position/school, we had dreams. Dreams of what we wanted to accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our students accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our school communities achieve. Throughout my travels though, I have seen more adults tell students that should lower their expectations and downsize their dreams. Unfortunately, I would say that the ratio of adults encouraging students and adults discouraging students is close to 1:1 in my career. I ask, would you be where you are today without someone throughout your educational life encouraging you to pursue your dreams? As with many things in our schools, we need to focus on the positives that are happening and capitalize on them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for our country, and while his dream was related to equal rights and oppression, his intended message of having a dream and working tirelessly to achieve it can be applied universally in society. Recently,
Read more