FFA meets DC

Last week Clint and I had the privilege of chaperoning 33 Arkansas FFA members to our nation's capitol.

We were responsible for getting the students from Little Rock to DC and back home safely. (In case you were wondering it's about a 17 hour drive.) The students were attending Washington Leadership Conference.

WLC is an AMAZING experience for these students. I attended WLC as an FFA member in 1998, and it was my first trip to DC.

WLC has four main focus areas:

-knowing your purpose

-valuing people

-taking action

-serving others

During the course of the summer, 2,300 FFA members from all over the country will give 11,000 hours of community service to those less fortunate. The WLC motto is:

We must because we can.

While we were in DC, the FFA staff organized everything for the students while we attended advisor workshops and did some site seeing on our own.

We traveled with a great group of students. It's encouraging to see such good kids get such great leadership training.

I encourage every FFA member to attend WLC during their high school career. It will put

your life into perspective. THe leadership skills you learn will take you far.

Let's get it started in here...

Even though I'm a lover of technology, I've felt overwhelmed lately. How can I effectively communicate with my students, their parents and our administration?

After much thought about a website, wiki, blog or electronic newsletters, I decided a blog would best serve our purpose. Agtivities at Southwest will be a communications effort between students, parents, other schools, and Mrs. Hale.

I hope to update this regularly to showcase students and their projects. Hopefully, when school gets back into session student volunteers will assist me in maintaing our blog.