Weekly Notes
January 31-February 6
Focus of the Week: Acceptance
- Pennies for Patients runs this week- Monday through Friday!
- Intervention Meetings (see below for more details)
- Vega/Margaret groups are in the art room/media center, as Book Fair is in the Title room across from Martha's room.
- IEP 8:30 (Compton, Frisk, Nick, Jackson, Maurus) Frisk's room
Tuesday, February 2
- Groundhog Day!
- NO Staff Meeting (unless you really are begging for one)
- Intervention Meetings (see below for more details)
- Carver/Maurus meeting @ 9:30
- JCC Meeting @ 6PM
Wednesday, February 3
- PBIS @ 8AM
- Family/Teacher Conferences from 4:00-8:00PM
Thursday, February 4
- Noon Dismissal- Family/Teacher Conferences from 12:00-8:00
- No Title Services Today!
Friday, February 5
- Popcorn Day!
Intervention Meetings this Week!
Also, remember that Emilie, Lisa A. and Cacey will not be pulling students for groups due to their participation the Intervention Meetings Monday (2/1) and Tuesday (2/2).
Reminders for 2nd-5th Grade
Workshop will continue Monday/Tuesday during intervention meetings. Hrit will leave work for her groups to do in their homeroom.
Workshop is cancelled on Thursday, Feb. 4th due to the half day. Hrit will hold the SRI progress reward that morning. See the list Hrit put in your mailbox to know which students may attend.
9:45-10:45 3rd
4th ---> rescheduled to Friday 2/5; Trac and Monica, let Hrit know the time
11:15-11:45 2nd
- New 3rd quarter groups will begin on Monday, Feb. 8th (except 3rd grade math).
- Feel free to tell the families of any students Hrit sees to come see her after conferences.
Last Week's Behavior Data
ISS: 1
OSS: 0
Send Home: 0
Trends/Hot Spots: Our newest students are needing a lot of transition support. Students spend more of their waking hours in school during the school year than they do at home, which means their lives are significantly changed by coming to a new school. I do find by talking to a lot of families and students that many times there were negative school experiences that are bringing them to us.
More Recess??? YES!
At the last PBIS meeting (and many, many other meetings), we had talked about how to address this better. We have tried training monitors better, talking to the kids about behavior, consequences, having items outside, yada, yada, yada...
I got to work researching some things to see what more we could do.
What I found was that there are many studies out there that support that we give kids more unstructured time. For example, in Finland (where just about everyone reads- the national literacy rate is nearly 100%), students get over an hour of unstructured recess EVERY DAY. There are many schools who are piloting doing this and are seeing great results.
- Less tattling
- Less issues with inattention (ADD/ADHD having less of an impact in the classroom)
- Less physical aggression
- Less relational aggression
- Healthier relationships between students and teachers
- Depth of learning is increased
That last one really stuck with me. One of the biggest things that we worry about in education is "I don't have enough time in the day for one more thing!" It is amazing to think about how taking more time for the kids to play can actually lead to deeper learning (not just coverage of topics).
I talked to Brian about his thoughts on our teachers giving kids more time to play and he fully supported teachers giving students additional morning and afternoon recess.
So, you have it right from the head honcho- GIVE THE KIDS MORE RECESS!