Superstar Snapshots
January 2020
A Community of One
A few years ago, I worked with emergency fire fighters at a building that had smoke in one of the rooms. It turned out it was just a fan that had malfunctioned and everything was fine. What I observed from the emergency fire fighters, however, was something that intrigued me.
There was one person with the emergency team whose sole purpose seemed to be making sure everyone was accounted for on the team. This was done through the buddy system and making sure that everyone was accounted for anytime anyone went into the building or came out. If someone did not follow protocol, this designee went to that person and reminded them of the safety precautions. As a team, they not only made sure that the building was okay, they made sure everyone was okay as well. The mission was a success! In essence, there was a partnership that recognized the success of their team (or community) was dependent on the success of the individual.
I really struggled with what to write in the New Year. I didn’t want to write about resolutions; those are rarely successful and not always realistic. I shared this story of the fire fighters to convey this message: as we begin 2020 and continue in the current school year, my desire is to see a partnership between the school and the community. My desire is for this partnership to be committed to the success of each individual student so that we may see a successful school. With a successful school, the potential for greatness within the community is endless! I wonder, will you help us become a community of one?
Stephanie Teel
BELIEVE YOU CAN ACHIEVE!
Conscious Discipline
Welcome back! As we start a new year, we will be focusing on empathy for the month of January. What is empathy? Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It is having the willingness to connect with others using empathy—to feel with them, to care about their well-being, and to act with compassion—is critical to our lives, helping us to get along, work more effectively, and thrive as a society. (Workplace Articles & More, 2019).
This is a very big concept for our students, and we are working each and every day teaching them the importance of having empathy for each other. As we travel through this year, our goal is to teach and guide our students to think of others, to be happy in others happiness, sad in someone else’s sorrow and simply treating each other with respect and compassion. Our goal at St. Helens is to build a culture of respect and understanding…using empathy is one of the ways we are reaching this goal.
Happy New Year,
Kim Childers
PTO News
Are you looking for ways to support our St. Helens Superstars? You can:
- Attend PTO meetings. January's meeting is January 23 at 3:15 in Room 107.
- Buy after school goodies every Friday for $1.00.
- Fill out a CHAMPS form to be a school volunteer!
Counselor's Corner
Dear Families, Happy New Year! We hope you had a refreshing Holiday break and excited to be back with students at school. In January we will be helping students build their sense of Empathy. Empathy is “…understanding what another person feels and having insight into their thoughts and actions”. The skill of Empathy builds connection and emotional safety between people. It also helps students recognize their feelings and learn how to take ownership of them.
What does modeling empathy look like at home or school? When big emotions happen Conscious Discipline suggests that adults use the ‘DNA’ model. Describe what we are seeing with our words and bodies “I notice that your face looks like this”. Name the feeling the child is communicating, “You seem frustrated…” And finally Acknowledge their desire with positive intent, “You were hoping to finish playing your game and it’s hard to stop doing something you enjoy.” Empathy builds connection and helps students be responsible for regulating their own feelings. We hope you’ll join in us in continuing to guide students on a path of healthy emotional development.
Joel Thomas
We Need You!
We have had quite a few issues during drop off or pick-up times. To promote the safety of all our Superstars, please remember the following:
- If you are dropping off or picking up, please stay in your car.
- If you need to get out of your car, please park in a designated parking space.
- Please enter the pick-up/drop off zone slowly and cautiously.
- When waiting to drop off or pick up, please stay in line.
- We will be re-organizing the grade level pick-up areas. Each grade level area will be clearly marked. There will also be areas that are to be kept clear so that classes can get to their pick-up areas.
Thank you for partnering with us to make sure all of Superstars get to and from school safely!
Save the Date!
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2020, 05:30 PM
St. Helens Elementary School, 27th Avenue, Longview, WA, USA
About Us
Email: steel@longview.k12.wa.us
Website: sthelens.longviewschools.com/
Location: 431 27th Avenue, Longview, WA, USA
Phone: (360) 575-7362