Messages from Memorial
November 2020
HEART*EFFORT*ATTITUDE*RESPECT *TEAMWORK
WE ARE VIKINGS WITH HEART!
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I would like to thank you all for your flexibilty as we moved to Remote Learning this past week. I know this has been an increased burden on parents trying to figure out child care and making sure the school work gets done. I must commend your efforts, as the attendance at the Zoom lessons has been great. If your child cannot make a particular day of learning, please let us know. It would be an absence, just like if a student can make it to school. The important part of the absence would be just making sure the work gets made up. The goal would be for students to keep learning even during these two weeks away from the building. Please reach out to your child's teachers if your child needs individual help. We do have instructional assistants in the building able to help out.
Please note that we had more COVID-19 cases reported after leaving school on Monday. I hope that your familiy is able to continue to follow the COVID-19 precautions while we are away from school so that we are able to return to learning at school without more cases. Even though we are implementing social distancing as much as possible, we are still seeing that one positive case can impact up to 15 other people's ability to be at school. If your child has any of the COVID-19 symptoms or if your family is experiencing symptoms, please keep your child home.
If you are not sure about what to do about your child's health, please call the school nurses. Mrs. Keeanan and Mrs. Scott are a great resource.
With Great Respect,
Mrs. Debra Misecko
Dates to Remember
NOVEMBER
3 - Election Day and eLearning Day (instead of Wednesday Nov. 4)
11 - Veteran's Day - Thank you to the Memorial Family Veterans!!
11 - PTO meeting via Zoom at 3:45 p.m.
11 & 18 - eLearning Days
17- Students return to school
18 - PTO Family Dinner Night at Panera Bread
25 - 27 - Thanksgiving Break
DECEMBER
2 - PTO Family Dinner Night at Culver's
9 - PTO Meeting via Zoom at 3:45 p.m.
16 - PTO Family Dinner Night at Jimmy Johns
17 End of Second Grading Period - 1/2 Day of School for Students - Dismisal at 12:20 p.m.
18 - January 3 Winter Holiday Break
Reminders for Remote Learners
- Congrats on learning how to navigate this tricky way of learning. You are doing great! It is really fun for us to see you during your live sessions.
- Please remember to be ready for your Zoom sessions on time. Being ready means that you are logged on, have removed distractions from your learning area, put away all food and drinks, and have the needed school supplies ready to go.
- Keep your computer on mute until you are ready to speak. Keep in mind when your computer is not on mute, the entire classroom is hearing all noises from your home. Family discussions can be distracting.
- Remote student attendance is determined by the students' completion of the class participation for the day, whether it is one or more live sessions.
- If your child is ill and cannot participate, please inform your child's teacher and the office in the morning.
- Classroom teachers will let you know if there are books or materials to pick up. When necessary, you will have contactless pick up in the front vestibule. Please come during office hours, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Information about including remote learners for picture day will be sent in a separate email, stay tuned.
Habit #3 - Put First Things First
Memorial continues to focus on sharing The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen Covey. We will talk about one of the 7 Habits each month. The November Habit is Habit #3 - "Put First Things First." Students are taught that "Put First Things First" means, "Work first, then play." For more information please read more from Dr. Stephen Covey's website.
The following article was taken from The Love and Logic Institute Blog
copied from: https://www.loveandlogic.com/blogs/our-blog/how-failure-can-lead-kids-to-success
How Failure Can Lead Kids to Success
September 18, 2020
Albert Einstein understood that failure is success in progress. This view of the importance of failure is critical for understanding how to help our kids learn. In this week’s blog, we explore how allowing failure actually helps our kids to learn how to succeed in life.
Synthetic success
Ten-year-old Kaylee rarely blundered. Apart from a few small errors committed under her mother’s radar, her slate was clean.
Managing this state of near perfection required a tremendous amount of vigilance and work on everyone’s part, including by her parents. Every friend had to be carefully monitored and continuously assessed. Each homework assignment, book report, and science fair project necessitated high levels of vigilance so that the adults in Kaylee's life could help her detect and correct errors before drafts landed on her teachers’ desks. Participation in sports always led to significant financial sacrifices, since private lessons were the only way she could learn to run, jump, throw, hit, and catch, without error.
Kaylee’s parents were dedicated to engineering success, a type of success not created organically through trial and error but arising from the fragile thread of good intentions instead.
Failure snatched from the jaws of success
Is this a sustainable plan, or will Kaylee’s parents eventually lose their ability to engineer success? Does Kaylee truly believe that she has what it takes to overcome failures, or does she live in fear that one might someday come her way?
Have you ever met an adult who was raised this way? Do these adults demonstrate high levels of perseverance when the going gets tough, or do they avoid challenges like the plague?
What are the societal and economic impacts of raising children like Kaylee?
Failure is not final. It’s informative.
Who are the most successful people you personally know? Have they always been successful, or have they experienced a good degree of failure?
At the heart of all science and all great innovation are risks and resulting failures. The data of each successive failure informs the path to success. As a country are we raising kids who understand this process and are therefore truly prepared to discover greatness or are we creating young people who are too fearful to walk this path?
Growing success from the seeds of failure
Parents and educators dedicated to raising tomorrow’s great thinkers and doers understand that all children need to:
- be encouraged to grapple with unanswered questions, to use a sewing machine, to explore the ins and outs of cooking a complex meal, to play group sports, to use a microscope, to fix a bike, to do homework, and to complete other tasks with as little adult interference as possible;
- have us place greater emphasis on taking healthy risks and persevering through failure than on stellar grades, great fashion, and athletic stardom;
- make plenty of affordable mistakes over basic hygiene, homework, money management, social interactions, and other daily matters;
- have parents who are brave and loving enough to allow these wonderful failures even when criticized by more socially appropriate and politically correct parents;
- experience the logical and natural consequences of their failed choices;
- simultaneously experience sincere empathy and unconditional love;
- be guided to see that success is earned by having the guts to fail and learn more frequently than the average person;
- have adults who show them that failure is not final—it’s informative.
Thanks for reading!
MEMORIAL PTO
We are so excited to announce the PTO Executive Board for the 2020-2021 school year and greatly appreciate their willingness to work in these valued positions.
President - Kristen Elinkowski
Vice President - Rose Gutshall
Treasurer - Megan Taylor
Secretary - Rae Smedley
Stay tuned for more information coming about 20-21 PTO events. They will be shared in the Memorial Newsletter, on the Memorial Elementary PTO Facebook page, and the Memorial PTO Website.
Memorial's Pumpkin Decorating Winner
Box Tops for Education Continues
THE NEXT PTO MEETING WILL BE AT 3:45 on November 11 via ZOOM (link will be emailed that week.)
Reminders from Memorial
- Please make sure that you are screening for Covid 19 symptoms before sending your child to school. This link can take you to the VCS Return to Learn Plan and the screening guidelines.
- Thank you for following your dismissal plans as written.
- We recognize that family situations change from week to week for various reasons, and we will accommodate weekly dismissal plans as needed. Those plans need to be in the office by 10 a.m. on Monday morning. That gives us time to communicate with all stakeholders and to make provisions for assigned seats, if needed.
- Unfortunately we cannot accommodate mid-day switches for convenience, as it is difficult to make sure all of our safety provisions can be in place and that we can communicate the change with the appropriate personnel. If it is truly an emergency, please call the school office to discuss your needs.
- If your child gets picked up in a car from school, please continue to follow the correct times for lining up: Last names of A-K dismissal begins at 3:10 and last names beginning L-Z start dismissal at 3:20.
- Morning supervision and breakfast begin at 8:50. Please drop off your child after 8:50. If they would like to eat breakfast we will send them right in. All other students will be let in the building at 9:00 a.m. The tardy bell rings at 9:15.
- Pick up and drop off should only be done along the school on the curb on Milton Street. Students should not be dropped off or picked up in the school parking lots. The parking lots are not supervised for safety.
- Please consider putting a spare mask in your child's backpack. Some students are experiencing mask malfunctions during the school day.
- Please refrain from sending your child to school in flip flops. Flip flops are not safe on the playground and are also likely to break during play.
Memorial Elementary
Email: dmisecko@valpo.k12.in.us
Website: valpo.k12.in.us/Domain/337
Location: 1052 Park Avenue, Valparaiso, IN, USA
Phone: 219-531-3090
Twitter: @Valpo_Memorial