Griffith Elementary
Weekly G-News July 23, 2018
Principal's Welcome Letter
Dear Staff,
I would like to welcome you to the 2018-2019 school year. I am so excited to be the new principal of Griffith Elementary. I have been in education for over 20 years as a teacher and administrator in the Chicago-land area. The majority of my career has been spent in high needs schools and I want to tell you, that is where my heart is. I have a strong passion and background working with students of diversity and families to persevere though adversity and strive for excellence, both in and out of the classroom.
I hope your summer has gone well and you are excited for the beginning of the new school year. We are anticipating an exciting year as we collectively strive to foster a culture and climate that facilitates learning through magnificent teaching and of true professional and respect of each other and our craft. Our goal at Griffith is to begin a journey together as a staff and maintain that over the years. We are looking towards stability and longevity.
In order for any classroom or school to be successful, there are 3 key elements that are crucial. They are PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES. Therefore, the first 3 days of school we will follow a BoY (Beginning of Year) Schedule to allow appropriate time to establish procedures.
I look forward to working with you to take G.R.O.W. towards academic success and making Griffith a school of top professionals and TOGETHER WE CAN...
WELCOME to the 2018-2019 School Year.
Principally yours,
Annamarie Dowling-Garrott
(aka Mrs. D-G)
Week at-a Glance
Meet the Teacher Night
We are looking forward to greeting parents and students at Meet The Teacher Night on August 2nd. Please make sure your classrooms and hallways are set to welcome parents and students into an engaging learning environment.
Parent Emails!!! I will be emailing Parent/Principal Newsletters home. Please do your best to obtain a parent email. Teacher Incentive: Any teacher that obtains 100% of class parent emails receives Starbucks or DD Gift card (October deadline).
Thursday, Aug 2, 2018, 04:00 PM
Griffith Elementary School, East Palm Lane, Phoenix, AZ, USA
8 Ways to Create Positive Classroom Vibes
(1) Keep an Uncluttered Environment
Now, this can seem like a bit of an impossible dream – especially in the early years! Reducing the amount of external stimuli that enters our brains helps us to focus, reduces anxiety and increasing teaching and learning outcomes. Having an uncluttered classroom doesn’t mean you need to ditch all of your posters, displays and open bookshelves. What it does mean is starting to think explicitly about the value of what you do put up around the place.
Consider one of the following:
- Be highly selective about the pictures, posters and decorations you put up around the room
- Choose softer, more earthy or pastel colors for displays
- Use affordable fabrics like calico hanging over stretch wire to create no-sew curtains for busy bookshelves
- Decorate with real-life classroom plants!
(2) Encourage Student Ownership of the Space
A little while ago we profiled an amazing Year 4 classroom in Western Australia where the students had designed and created their own flexible seating classroom. The student ownership of this space was amazing! For many reasons, it’s not always possible to have your students design their own learning space. But, there are many other simple things you can do to ensure your kids feel as though their classroom belongs to them.
Personalize your students learning space by using one or more of these simple ideas:
- Create a customized welcome sign at the entrance to your classroom.
- Attach desk plates to student desks if you use a seating plan.
- Use the student avatar widget to create little cartoon-like illustrations of your students for use around the room in displays and activities.
(3) Create a “Wow Wall”
Another means to increase student ownership of your classroom space is to create a “Wow Wall”. This is a simple classroom display where students can put some of their work up on display. You may like to select one piece of work that all students have completed or allow students to put up a ‘pride piece’ every week.
(4) Visibly Value Life Outside of School
Providing your students with ways to connect their home life with their school life will increase classroom positivity too. There are many ways you can do this including:
- having a weekly ‘show and tell’ roster with topics related to items and experiences from outside of school
- putting family photos on display
- creating a ‘send us a selfie’ wall and invite students to email photos from their outside of school time adventures
- inviting parents to help out in the classroom.
Remember, concepts like ‘show and tell’ and involving parent helpers don’t need to be limited to the early years. Parents of middle and upper primary and elementary students will also enjoy the opportunity to connect with their child’s classroom and students will always love sharing their favorite personal artifacts and stories!
(5) Provide Permanent Positivity and Growth Mindset Reminders
This might sound too simple to be effective, however it is one of the best steps you can take towards creating a positive classroom environment. By choosing one or two positive or motivational quotes and displaying them in your room, you will be providing your students with a constant reminder of their innate potential. While students are working, at those little moments in time that they need a mental break from work, they will be able to look around the room and lay their eyes upon the quotes or messages you have selected.
The longer these are up on your classroom wall, the more ingrained the messages will become. Just like repeated exposure to advertising catch-phrases!
Here are some of our favorite positive posters and growth mindset display resources
(6) Dedicate a Space for the Inevitable Negatives
A crucial part of positive classrooms is making space for the negative. Everyone experiences challenging moments, where difficult emotions can get the better of us. Rather than feeling like a positive classroom is full of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows 100% of the time, you will find your students experience more positive well-being if they know they can experience these challenging moments in a supported way too! Create a space for the inevitable negatives to help students learn how to self-regulate their emotions.
This could be a chill-out corner where students can access calming activities like a watching a glitter bottle settle, listening to classical music or blocking out classroom noise with noise-cancelling headphones or doing a puzzle.
Check out our post “Self-Regulating Emotions with a Chill-Out Corner in the Classroom” for more tips and ideas.
(7) Provide Active Kindness "Encouragers"
Set up at least one means for students to actively promote kindness in their classroom and around the school. There are so many great kindness activities that can become and ongoing part of your positive classroom.
Why not try out one of the following ideas?
- Create a Links of Kindness installation inside or outside of your classroom.
- Set up a classroom Compliments Box.
- Use the Bucket Fillers concept for encouraging kind behaviors.
- Create a Kindness Rock Garden and allow students to add to the garden as a classroom reward.
- Use a Random Acts of Kindness Calendar to practice kindness regularly.
Here are some printable kindness themed resources to help you set up your active kindness encouragers.
(8) Help Students Take Their Positivity Home
Take some steps towards capturing all of this positivity and sending it outside of the classroom into your students’ lives. Spend five minutes each week writing out a handful of positive parent notes, or sending messages in parent communication apps like Seesaw and Class Dojo. Keep a list of the students you have sent positive notes about to ensure every student receives at least one personal message home each term.
Take a look at our post about how to create a positive parent communication strategy for more resources, tips and ideas.