Monday 11/13: 7:00 Library Cross district Collaboration - Bring concerns, thoughts, suggestions for our 21st Century skills class. This is a school day!
Tuesday 11/14:
Wednesday 11/15: Kaiser out - Data Summit II
Thursday 11/16:
Friday 11/17:
Week of November 20 - Thanksgiving Break
Bus/Parking lot duty: Levy and Mahoney
Monday 11/27: Resiliency III Training 9:00 Please be ready to begin at 9:00
Tuesday 11/28:
Wednesday 11/29:
Thursday 11/30:
Friday 12/1: Last Day of Trimester
Holidays
It's time for my annual reminder that the holidays are often stressful and not fun for our students. As families reach the limits of their emotional and physical resources, kids can become the casualties of dysfunctional coping mechanisms. Hence, the unhappy memories. Mix in the teenage tendency to believe everyone else has a better life than they do, add a sprinkle of unstructured time and a smattering of disrupted routines, and teachers become the collateral damage of 140 hijacked amygdalas.
A few things to remember:
- Don't make assignments based on the assumption that holidays are fun for all. Don't ask them to reflect on, refer to, or tell stories about past holidays, plans for current holidays etc.
- This doesn't mean that you have to avoid festivity. However, focus on themes that are non religious and common to most cultures. Please don't add to anxiety with gift exchanges etc.
- Keep your schedules as normal as possible. Giving anxiety-ridden, stressed-out students free time is not helpful. Unstructured time is not a teacher's friend. Consistent and predictable routines serve to calm the amygdala and free up the frontal cortex for learning and decision making.
- We already have reduced time at school. It's really important to use every minute to learning advantage. We can't show movies in their entirety (copyright laws, or something like that) Activities should be tied to standards and learning objectives.
Lock Down Drill
The lock down drill went really well. We rattle doors, opened some doors to make sure kids were hunkered down and quiet. And it went pretty well.
IMEN Visit
I wish I would have video'd the IMEN student interviews. Five students were interviewed and they RAVED about how helpful their teachers were and how much they loved their classes. When asked what they would change about the school, ALL of the kids said they would change nothing - everything is working well for them. Kudos to all of you for creating a safe and accepting learning environment for all of our kids. You guys are the BEST!!!
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