Reston Now sent questionnaires to area elementary school principals so readers could get to know them and hear what is in store for the 2016-17 school year. We will be running them occasionally as they are sent back over the next weeks.

Reston Now: Tell us about yourself and how you came to be at your school?

Shane Wolfe: I’m embarking on my eleventh year as an administrator in Fairfax County Public Schools; I am very excited to begin this school year as the Aldrin Elementary School Principal. I LOVE working with the parents, teachers and especially the students in the Reston and Herndon neighborhoods.

Having previously been the principal at Armstrong Elementary School, I am keenly aware of the enormous focus our teachers, parents and school administrators place on student academic and emotional wellness.It was my honor to return to the Herndon High School Pyramid five years ago, and I look forward to many more years to come.

RN: What’s in store for your school this year? Any big changes? If you are a school under renovation, give us an update.

SW: Expansion of BOB (Band of Brothers), is a mentoring program for fifth-grade boys, will be expanded and include a group for fifth-grade girls.

Focus on Project Based Learning (PBL) — Aldrin, along with many schools, will begin to focus on PBL, an approach to teaching where students explore real-world problems and challenges. PBL’s active and engaged learning encourages students to reach a deeper knowledge of the subjects they’re studying.

“Aldrin READS” — A program where teachers and volunteers deliver many books to the neighborhoods to give students a chance to have a library at home — will continue.

Student-run Middleburg Bank — The Aldrin branch re-opens in September.

Outdoor Learning Environment – -We’re looking at options for an outdoor learning environment. A committee will be formed to help us create an outdoor learning space to go along with our garden. Read More

Aldrin Elementary School Principal Shane Wolfe ended the 2015-16 school year by allowing students to “slime” him.

For a Read Across America Challenge, Wolfe offered to be “slimed” by every student who read the most books from their class — but only the student body as a whole read 15,000 books.

The students read voraciously through the spring and as a result, reached their goal — surpassing 15,000 books, Aldrin teachers report.

Wolfe — who let the kids turn him into a human ice cream sundae last year — is pictured here disguised in wig and mustache, as is his trademark for the year-end assemblies.

A couple of weeks ago, students at Reston’s Buzz Aldrin Elementary School dumped chocolate sauce, marshmallows, whipped cream and other ice cream sundae accoutrements on school principal Shane Wolfe.

The kids were not suspended. In fact, they were applauded.

Earlier in the 2014-15 school year, Wolfe told the kids that he would allow them to turn him into a human ice cream sundae if they they read 3,000 books in the month leading up to Read Across America Day in March.

Not only did the students meet the goal, they surpassed it by 3,878 books, said Wolfe.

On the last day of school, students brought all types of toppings to school to transform Wolfe into a sundae at an end-of-the-year assembly.

“Anything that gets the students excited about reading and learning is fine by me, even if it means I get to wear tons of sticky ice cream toppings”, Wolfe said.  “It was a great way to end the school year and it didn’t taste too bad either,” said Wolfe.