Oak Grove Elementary
March 2019
Message from Principal Landon
DEAR OAK GROVE FAMILIES,
We know that students achieve their best at school in safe and supportive environments, where they are free from bullying and disruptive behavior. At our school, we put a deliberate emphasis on making sure we provide a safe learning setting for our students, including one that is free from bullying.
What Is Bullying?
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.
In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
- An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
- Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.
Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. (stopbullying.gov)
We also know that with the rise of social media, cyberbullying is an increasingly important issue. Cyberbullying is just as harmful as face-to-face bullying, and online actions can have real life consequences.
The best way to tackle bullying and cyberbullying is for schools, students and parents to work together, here are some things for our students to consider:
- Think about other ways you can respond to bullying. For example, practice saying ‘I don’t like it when you say that/do that – Stop. Think about other people who can help you if you are being bullied – this could be other classmates, or a teacher. Always REPORT bullying.
- Only spend time with people who make you feel good about yourself. If someone constantly puts you down they are not a real friend/ boyfriend/ girlfriend and not worth your time.
Our HABIT THIS MONTH is SYNERGY. Synergize is when two or more people work together to create a better solution that either would have thought of alone. Let’s synergize to stop bullying - TOGETHER IS ALWAYS BETTER!
Your Partner in Education,
Principal Landon
Keeping you informed
Many of you are aware of a new “challenge” circulating the internet. This “challenge” appears on videos on YouTube, YouTube Kids, the game Fortnite, and texting apps like WhatsApp. A character, named “Momo,” challenges and threatens young people to engage in risky and harmful behavior. The character can manipulate young people into believing they and/or their families will be harmed if they do not complete the risky/harmful tasks and report to “Momo.” The character appears as a scary Japanese sculpture.
Our district wants to keep all of our students safe. We encourage you to be monitoring your children’s online presence. This includes the apps they are using, the videos they are watching, and the games they are playing. This character can appear in any video on YouTube and other gaming sites without approval.
Digital Citizenship
Please talk with your children about this, especially if they have questions. Remind your student(s) to block and report any suspicious accounts, pictures, and videos. Remind your student(s) to never share personal information with people, to NOT engage in conversation with this character, and close out of any videos this character may appear in.
The Internet has drastically changed the way that children interact with the world. They have access to in-depth knowledge, tools to express their creativity, and people from all over the world. Yet along with offering a fascinating, new way to connect with the world, the Internet also offers new risks like:
- Cyberbullying and,
- Exposure to inappropriate material.
Learning to recognize the warning signs of these risks will allow trusted adults to intervene and lessen potentially negative impacts. By acting as a resource, parents and guardians can help make the Inter-net a safer place for their families.
As a parent or guardian, you should stay well informed about current issues to understand what your children are experiencing on and off the Internet. Even sites like YouTube Kids can have inappropriate content posted there. Most recently, “The Momo Challenge” found on YouTube has been observed as a potential safety risk for children.
If your child(ren) are social networking, instant messaging, using webcams, or blogging, help them use these tools safely by learning how to use them yourself. Children whose parents and guardians regularly talk to them about personal safety are more likely to exhibit responsible behavior on their own.
Children use a variety of online services, and each of these services can have different safety concerns. However, there are some basic tips that you can employ no matter how your children use the Internet.
- Keep your computer or child’s devices in a high traffic area of your home.
- Establish limits for online sites your child(ren) can visit and for how long and collect electronic devices before bedtime to avoid unsupervised use and to ensure your child gets restful sleep.
- Remember that internet technology can be mobile, so make sure to monitor cell phones, gaming devices and lap tops.
- Surf the internet with your child(ren) and let them show you what they like to do online.
- Know who is connecting with your children online and set rules for social networking, instant messaging, e-mailing, online gaming, and using webcams.
- Continue to dialogue with your child(ren) about online safety.
Taking an active role in your kids' Internet activities helps ensure that they benefit from them with-out being exposed to the potential dangers.
Shamrock Fun Facts
Shamrocks only have three leaves.
You may find just one four-leaf clover in a patch of 10,000 normal three-leaf clovers.
A Shamrock is not the official symbol of Ireland.
The shamrock is said to be a fairly easy plant to grow, and you can get them as seeds or bulbs. If you plant these indoors around early January time, then you could get a nice little growth by the time that St. Patrick’s Day comes around in March.
March Calendar
March 8: Oak Grove Spelling Bee
March 13: PTO Meeting at 5:30
March 21: The Great Body Workshop
March 22: No School (teacher grading day)
March 25 - 29: Spring Break - No School!
Spelling Bee
March 8th Oak Grove will be hosting it's own spelling bee. Here are some of the winning words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest over the years:
1925: gladiolus
1930: fracas
1940: therapy
1952: vignette
1967: Chihuahua
1976: narcolepsy
1981: sarcophagus
1993: kamikaze
2000: demarche
2017: marocain
Oak Grove Art Gallery
March Power Words: EVALUATE & SUPPORT
EVALUATE: To judge or determine the value of something
SUPPORT: Back it up with details! To defend something as valid or right.
PTO Corner
THE NEXT PTO MEETING
Will be held March 13th at 5:30pm
SHARE THE LOVE!
Oak Grove's Ram Store is held every month to give kids the opportunity to buy fun stuff with the Ram Bucks they earn for good behavior and we are struggling to keep up with the demand! Is it possible for kids to be too good? We are looking for any gently-used items that your kids are done with - toys, games, puzzles, books, jewelry, stuffies... to resupply the store. If you have extra after the holidays, or just want to contribute new items you think the kids might like, we would love to accept your donations. We will collect boxed or bagged items the week of February 11th - 15th in a bin in the lobby. Please mark your items for "Ram Store." Thank you for your contributions to this worthy cause!
About Us
If your child is absent today, please call before 8:30am.
If a child has a temperature of 100 degrees or higher in the last 24 hours, is vomiting, has a colored discharge from the nose, or has other flu-like symptom, s/he should not be in school. When a child is recovering from an illness, we cannot keep the child in during recess. If a child is too ill to go outside, s/he is too ill to be at school.
Call in advance if: you need to pick up your student from school for an appointment or if they need to leave early for the day.
Call BEFORE 2pm if you are changing after school pickup plans.
Email: oakgrove@medford.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.medford.k12.or.us/oakgrove
Location: 2328 West Main Street, Medford, OR, USA
Phone: 541-842-3830
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/OakGroveMedford/posts/