Chancellor News and Notes
October 30 - November 3
Happy Monday! Happy Red Ribbon Week! Happy Early Halloween! GO ASTROS!!!
A few reminders for the week:
It's RED RIBBON WEEK! Dress for the daily theme!
- Today: Hawaiian theme- Life's a Beach when drug free!
- Tuesday: Character book parade costume- Good characters are drug and bully free!
- Wednesday: Ugly Shirt- Drugs and Bullying are ugly!
- Thursday: Bright shirt- Futures are bright when you are bully and drug free!
- Friday: Team shirt- Team up against drugs and bullying!
RED RIBBON WEEK poster contest: If your class makes a banner for the hallway, you will earn a bag of Starburst Reds! This would be a great social studies or rotation activity!
Character Book Parade is tomorrow! What will you be??? If you are a teacher and in the classroom, remember your class can have a book theme together to make it easy! Use construction paper to make "costumes!"
Oskar and the Last Straw is Wednesday- refer to the schedule sent out by Mr. Horr. The Alley Theatre does a great job teaching about good character through their plays, and coming this week ties perfectly in with our Red Ribbon Week!
Alief Proud is this Saturday!!
This weekend is daylight savings time- we "fall back" one hour (that's an extra hour of sleep!).
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
The 50th day of school is next week, November 8th!
Teachable Moments: Behavior Intervention
- How do you view students who struggle behaviorally?
- How do they see you when they are struggling?
- What do you do when a student can't seem to follow your expectations?
Reflective Questioning
When we create structured and safe environments, most of our students do well, follow the classroom rules, and are "good" students. So what do we do when students do not follow the rules, or do not act like those "good" students we hope they will be? What is our reactions? Do we discipline, redirect, call home, take away recess, and hope things get better? Or do we try to get to the root of why the student is acting out???
There are some great restorative questions you can ask, to help your students be more reflective, and guide them to better choices. These can be incorporated into almost any classroom community situation that arises, whether between one student, multiple students, or the entire classroom. These questions will NOT work when a student is emotionally distraught, as they are reflective, so just something to keep in mind. These questions will also NOT work if you do not have a relationship with the student. The goal is to allow a student to process what happened, process the feelings behind their actions, and to understand the other side (if there was a "victim" so to speak). Building trust and a productive and positive climate is key to making community reflection possible, and can make a huge difference in how students react to one another.
I-STATEMENTS
Besides reflective questioning, you can also teach students to speak for themselves in a constructive and positive manner. I-statements are utilized by many disciplinary gurus, psychologists, behaviorally interventionists, etc., and have been a time-tested and proven tool to help anyone express their needs to another person, without resorting to negativity or violence. Students must be taught to use their words effectively, and what better way than a sentence stem?! We know this supports our students academically, but it can also support them emotionally. Below is a sentence stem you can post in your room, and use with your students. Teach them this stem to go through problem/solution conversation, and practice with each other. You can also use the stem yourself!
I feel ____ when ____, because ____. I need ____.
Example: I feel frustrated when I hear pencils tapping on the desk because it is distracting to me when I teach my small group. Could you please stop tapping during small group?