Lucille M. Nixon School
from the principal
September 3, 2020
Dear Nixon Families,
I hope you and all of your loved ones are doing well. In our third week of this very special school year, I am seeing creativity and problem solving, active listening, effort and perseverance, organization and resourcefulness from the children and the staff. I encourage you to talk with your child over the long weekend and acknowledge the successes that have been achieved already. Here are some possible questions or comments to get the conversation started.
· Tell me two things you like about school so far.
· What have you gotten better at already?
· Have you met any new students? made a new friend?
· Have there been any problems that you solved? (Or you could name a problem that you know about and say, “I noticed that you figured out to _______________ when _________happened. That is being a problem solver!” )
I also see some students struggling with this version of school. It is still important to identify successes for every child. Has the child been able to complete more of the classwork this week than during the first week? That’s progress! Has your child made a friend? Is your child able to log on and join a zoom session without help? Please email the teacher and share your concerns and listen to what the teacher has noticed during class. Allow your child’s teacher the opportunity to speak individually with him/her. Let them talk without your participation. Your child needs to have a relationship with his/her teacher that is not mediated by you. We have to find the successes and grow more success from there. We’ll keep working together!
We are all expanding skills and capabilities that we didn’t need nearly so much before Covid changed our lives. Across my many years as an elementary principal, I have said to children more times than I can remember that we don’t get to choose the challenges – or the hard things – that happen in our life, but we do get to choose how we are going to react to those challenges. We all want to help our students see the choices that they do have. I know that, as parents, you choose to encourage, to smile when you may be worried, and to insist when that is what is needed. I do believe that, together, we can make this distance learning work for as long as we need to.
Take care,
Mary Pat
PTA and PiE Contributions
It was very gratifying to have so many parents join us at our first Nixon Parent Meeting on last Tuesday evening. Thank you! Our PTA and PiE leaders explained the ways that parents can contribute to each of these important organizations. If you were not able to attend you can view the slides from this presentation.
We depend on both PTA and PiE at Nixon, so please help at whatever level works for your family. Here are the links you might need to make a contribution. All donations to PiE will be matched if made by Tuesday, September 8, 2020. PiE: https://papie.org/donate/ PTA: https://my.cheddarup.com/c/join-the-nixon-elementary-pta
Nixon Book Fairies
What a grand success that was last week! We are getting print books to our students and building links within our community at the same time! Please help your children keep track of the books (hint: store them in the bankers box) and keep the ziplock plastic bag in which they were delivered. Next weekend beginning Friday, September 11, the Book Fairies will be back at work in most grade levels and your child will have the opportunity to return the books that he/she is finished reading. Book Fairies, you rock!
Webinar: Supporting Distance Learning From Home
Supporting Distance Learning at Home: Tips for Caregivers of K-5 Students
Reminder
Lucille M. Nixon School
Email: moconnell@pausd.org
Website: lmnixon.org
Location: 1711 Stanford Avenue, Stanford, CA, USA
Phone: 650-856-1622