The Pine Bough
Pine River Elementary School Newsletter, February 2018
Empowering Children with Encouragement
Twenty-five years ago, as a new educator fresh out of college, I began reading about the dangers of praise. I was completely shocked by what I was learning. Praise, the feel-good strategy of choice, was not good for our kids? How could that be? So, through the years, I spent time reading about the effects of praise, talking with other educators, and observing how my own students and children responded to encouragement (instead of praise) and was soon convinced to stop praising and focus on using encouragement to empower kids.
Even today, with all the research available to parents, I still hear—”What is wrong with praise? How can saying, ‘Good job’ or ‘I’m proud of you’ be bad? It makes my child happy, it is positive, and it’s easy!” I understand. It can be a difficult habit to break—and the fact that it feels good only increases our resistance to giving it up.
The Problems with Praise
Praise focuses on:
- perfection rather than progress and improvement
- a right or wrong outcome rather than a meaningful experience
- good or bad decisions rather than the decision-making process
- pride or disappointment rather than acceptance and support
Praise trains children to depend on constant feedback regarding what a “great job” they are doing. This dependency shatters rather than builds a child’s self-esteem.
Praise trains children to inquire, “Do you like it?” “Did I do a good job?” “Are you proud of me?” “Did I do it right?” Children begin to believe that what others think is more important than what they think about their choices, actions, accomplishments, and mistakes. Praise jeopardizes children's abilities to develop their own internal compasses to guide their decision-making processes.
Praise fractures the relationship between parent and child. Without even realizing it, parents may be using praise as a tool to direct and manipulate the child’s behavior. The message is clear—I approve of you when you … and I do not approve of you when you. … Living with this kind of constant judgement can damage not only the child’s confidence but also the relationship.
So If Not Praise, What?
The remedy to the problem of praise is encouragement. Encouragement can be given at any time, to anyone, in any situation. It is an observation, an acknowledgment, a statement that focuses on effort, improvement or choice, and it helps to promote self-esteem and a sense of well-being, confidence, insight and resilience.
Encouragement is often confused with praise. Here are two scenarios to illustrate the difference:
A child comes home from school with a 95% on her math test.
Parent says, “Good job, you are so smart, let’s put it on the fridge!”
A few weeks later, the same child comes home with a 65% on her science test.
How would the parent respond to this child? “We have a problem. We have to fix this. Maybe we should hire a tutor. What were you thinking? I know you can do better.”
In this light, it’s easy to see the limitations of praise. In the second scenario involving the science test, how do you praise? You don’t. As parents, we inadvertently send the message that we are disappointed and bring the learning process to a halt.
Using encouragement, the same scenarios might look something like these:
Parent observes and asks questions. “You got a 95% on your math test. Tell me about that. Was it easy? Did you do anything differently? What do you know now that you did not before? How is your relationship with the teacher? What does she do that works well for you? What have you done to overcome any challenges you met? Is math interesting to you?”
Or something like, “Wow, you got a 65%. Tell me about that. What do you think happened? Did you study? Is this the grade you deserved? What would you do differently? Do you know anything new that can help you in the future?"
If you as a parent are preoccupied by feeling proud or disappointed, you miss the opportunity to be curious and help the child learn more about himself/herself, his/her learning style, the situation, and what he/she might do differently the next time. After all, it is more important that the child know himself/herself than it is for you to pass judgment on his/her experience.
Use encouragement on a regular basis and teach your children to:
- Create an internal framework for themselves in which to self-assess their lives, their choices, attitudes, actions and behaviors, as well as their preferences and their progress.
- Figure out what is important to them, which will make it possible for them to create a satisfying and meaningful adult life.
- Spend less time asking the outside world to measure their worth as people.
If parents develop and master the art of encouragement, they will experience dramatic and lasting changes in both their children’s behavior and the quality of the relationship between parent and child.
Can you think of a situation when your child would have experienced the benefit of encouragement instead of praise?
Your Principal,
Mrs. Rachel Card
Cold and Flu Season
We are in the middle of cold and flu season, so here are some tips to help protect your child from getting sick and prevent the spread of germs and illness at school.
1. Know How and When to Wash Hands
One of the most common ways children get colds is by rubbing their noses or eyes after cold virus germs have gotten on their hands. Children often don't wash their hands often enough or well enough at school. Make sure your child knows to use soap and warm water. S/he should scrub all over -- including the back of her/his hands, between fingers, and around nails -- for about 20 seconds (about the time it takes to sing the Happy Birthday song twice). Then rinse well in warm water, dry with a paper towel, and use the towel to turn off the water. Our students are encouraged to wash their hands many times a day in school, especially after using the bathroom and before eating.
2. Reinforce Germ Etiquette
Teach your child to stay away from sick children as much as possible. When children see another child hacking or sneezing. they should move away from the person. On the other hand, your child should cover coughs and sneezes to prevent spreading germs if s/he is sick. When possible, sneeze into a tissue and throw it in the trash right after and then wash hands. Otherwise, s/he should cough or sneeze into crook of her/ his elbow, not her/his hands.
3. Don't Share Personal Items at School
Especially during cold and flu season, children should not share food and drinks. They especially should not share items like lip balms. We do share books, learning materials, and computers at school, but frequent hand washing and the use of hand sanitizer helps reduce the spread of germs.
4. Keep Backpacks Clean
As you know, school backpacks can get pretty nasty from long-forgotten lunches and all the other things children stuff into them. Have your child clean out her/his backpack regularly. Then clean the inside of the backpack with a wet cloth or sanitary wipe to remove spilled food items and dirt.
5. Build Immunity
Help protect your child from the inside as well as the outside. Make sure that s/he gets enough sleep and exercise, avoids stress, and eats a well-balanced diet. Pack healthy lunches and snacks. Encourage her/him to drink water at school to help keep her/his immune system strong.
6. Provide Classrooms Germ Supplies
We appreciate donations of hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and tissues for our classrooms. Teachers may also appreciate soaps with a fun smell or color to encourage lathering up.
7. Follow the East China Elementary Student Handbook Guidelines
Please do not send your child to school with a fever or after s/he has recently vomited.
Please adhere to these guidelines:
From the East China Elementary Student Handbook: The school does not diagnose illness; however, we do exclude any child suspected of having a contagious disease. It is the parents/guardians’ responsibility to notify the school office concerning any specific health problems that their child may have. Students may not attend school if they have had a fever (99.0 degrees or higher), diarrhea, or have vomited within the last 24 hours.Parent Dashboard for School Transparency
Michigan has adopted a new way to provide transparency about its public schools. The new online Parent Dashboard shows the performance of every public school in Michigan.
Families and others can use the dashboard to get a more complete picture of how their child’s school is serving students. They also can use the Dashboard to compare a school’s performance with the average performance of other similar Michigan schools.
State Board of Education members commissioned the Parent Dashboard because they believe that all Michigan residents deserve to easily discover how well public education is serving their children.
The new easy-to-use Parent Dashboard:
• was designed with parents to show school information they say is important, and enhanced by ongoing parent feedback;
• provides one easy location where parents and caregivers can view building-level information and data;
• can be accessed on any computer or mobile device;
• offers a more balanced picture of school quality, since it contains information about more than just test scores.
Information in the Parent Dashboard:
• includes nearly 20 different factors—or measures—that parents say are important to them;
• comes from data that are already collected from schools;
• can be viewed for a whole school, or viewers can dig deeper to see performance for certain groups of students;
• can inform decisions and encourage richer conversations about school progress—with students, with other parents, with school leaders, and within communities.
Check out the new Parent Dashboard for School Transparency by clicking on the button below.
50th Annual Beatrice Thornton Student Art Exhibition
The Annual Beatrice Thornton Student Art Exhibition is on display from January 27th to February 17th in St. Clair Community College's Fine Arts Gallery from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Fridays, and 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. A reception will be held on on Thursday, February 1st, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.
Our talented art teacher, Mrs. Dana Wilson, facilitated the creation of several incredible projects by our Pine River artists. The following Pioneers have work featured in the exhibition.
5th Grade:
Elizabeth Simons, Reeve Garth, Aubry Nadolski, Rylee Schneider, Jaxon Weigand, Ava Lanfear, A.J. Simons, Aubrianna Herrin, Shelby Parker, Nathan Schwartz, Kadie Badger, Emma Terhune, Allie Komarowski
4th Grade:
Ezra Taube, James Gruben, Gretchen Guevara, Molly McNabb, Leah Betz, Kaden Pruehs, Grace Askew, Addison Oles, Lauren Maier, Audrey Cole, Zak Jahn, Hailey Will, Daniel Kiger, Braden Schalk, Lily Hack, Graham Allam, Laila Yost, Jack Shafer, Julia Letson, Haylee Mills
3rd Grade:
Blake Jamrog, Cameron Lohr, Blake Green, Amanda Barber, Ella Thornton, Ethan Gilroy, Mason Sagan, Ben Simons, Ava Schroeder, Audrey Cowper, Ella Groeneveld, Marissa Lambert, Isabella Ursitti, Drew Schneider, Henry Askew, Misha Shah, Annelise Huston, Amaya Graebert
2nd Grade:
Lydia Stockwell, Kaitlyn Herms, Zachary Postma, Hailey Mailloux, Reese Robinson, Colten Yost, Zoey Mills, Josie Poppe, Bailey Cole, Levi Bean, Myles Zoia, Erin Betz, Morgan Popescu
1st Grade
Noah Phelan, Sarenity Dano, Bella Parrotta, Camryn Cody, Natalie Mailloux, Meadow Karas, Grace Lang
Look "Who" is Performing in Seussical the Musical!
Emma enjoys acting. "I like that I get to express my feelings about anything," she reflects. "I also like the positive encouragement from my director."
Seussical the Musical is playing at the the Riverbank Theater from February 16th through March 18th. Please click on the button below for more information and a link to purchase tickets.
Kindergarten Registration
Box Top Challenge: Get your Swing to the Top!
Our next Box Top Challenge starts on February 7th and runs until Spring Break. Students are encouraged to bring in Box Tops with the challenge of moving their classes' swings to the top of the school swing set design that will be created as a visual incentive.
Prizes will include the following:
- When the class reaches 300 Box Tops, the class will receive a snack.
- When the class reaches 750 Box Tops, the class will receive its choice of a game.
- Every class that reaches 1,200 Box Tops by March 28th will earn a hot dog party on March 29th, in honor of the Detroit Tigers' Opening Day.
Please be sure to mark the envelope with your classroom teacher. Every classroom has a collection bin, and there will be one placed in the main lobby area as well.
Contact Annette Chase, our Box Tops Challenge Coordinator, with any questions at achase@ecsd.us.
Send your student a Valentine through the Pine River Postal Service!
January Pioneers of the Month
All of our students strive to be motivated learners, as well as model citizens. Each month we will honor students from each class who exemplify the following qualities:
Academic
- Student prepares for classroom activities.
- Student goes above and beyond his/her role as a student.
- Student has made significant progress in the classroom.
- Student has been working to his/her potential.
- Student completes all assignments and homework.
- Student has a good work ethic and is diligent.
Leadership/ Citizenship/ Character
- Student demonstrates respect of self and others.
- Student assists others in need.
- Student shows acts of kindness.
- Student demonstrates a positive attitude.
- Student displays good conduct.
- Student is a positive role model by example.
- Student participates and puts forth full effort in all areas.
- Student follows school rules.
Kindergarten
Ms. Duda's Class: Abel Justice and Luciana Meldrum
Mrs. Schneider's Class: Sophia Ferguson and Alden Volz
First Grade
Mrs. Jensen's Class: Dameion Lebeau and Meadow Karas
Mrs. Wise's Class: MacKenzie Heythaler and David Matthews
Second Grade
Mrs. Kenyon's Class: Zoey Mills and Mason Vandiver
Mrs. Williams' Class: Nathan Phillips and Kaitlyn Herms
Third Grade
Mrs. Koprivica's Class: Ella Groeneveld and Cameron Lohr
Ms. Peterson's Class: Hunter Freeland and Madison Heythaler
Fourth Grade
Mrs. Huston's Class: Addison Oles and Benjamin Harwood
Mrs. Ursitti's Class: Mason Ecker and Jane Sagan
Fifth Grade
Mrs. Beach's Class: Kody Beauregard and Ava Lanfear
Mr. Griffin's Class: Senea Jahn and Gabe Lang
Mrs. Mackesy's Class: Charlotte Whalen
Mrs. VanderMeulen's Class: Carlos Green
Pioneer Code of Conduct
Kind,
Courteous,
Respectful,
Responsible,
and always Safe!
Mission: The mission of the Pine River school community is to work collaboratively, providing an enriched curriculum that allows for intellectual, social, emotional, physical, and creative growth in a positive and safe environment, empowering all children to become productive lifelong learners.
Pine River Elementary is dedicated to the belief that all students can learn and achieve through the combined efforts of the staff, parents, students, and community.