Bailey Bear News
September 2019
News From The Principal
Welcome to Bailey Station!
The second most important thing for a happy school year is to communicate with your teacher and likewise, the teacher will be communicating with you! I know that when we communicate and build relationships with each other our children are the winners! You will find at Bailey Station Elementary that our children always come first in school decisions because their success is why we are here!
Please sign up and volunteer and be a part of our school. Our BEAR FAIR is coming up on Sept. 19th from 5:00 - 7:00 and I hope that you will be a part of this fun event to kick off this year!
As you probably know by now we are celebrating our third year in a row being a TN Reward School. To be a reward school means that you are in the top 5% of schools in the State of Tennessee. Reward schools are those schools with an overall accountability score greater than 3 on a 4 point scale. This score reflects the weighted average of all students (60%) and historically underserved student groups (40 percent) across all eligible accountability indicators. We were a reward school in both categories academic and growth. Once the state report card is out, I will post more about our academic and growth data!
Please call on me if you need anything! My email is ctesreau@colliervilleschools.org and the school number is 901-853-6380.
Superheros - Social Emotional Learning (SEL) this will be an area that we will focus on this year!
What is SEL and why is it important?
Imagine a classroom where teachers are supportive, students are inspired, and children care about one another and are working together to solve challenging problems. That’s social and emotional learning (SEL) in action, and it’s happening in classrooms across the country.
We now know that children can learn respect, empathy, responsible behavior, and other social and emotional competencies that help them succeed in school and life. Research shows that social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behaviors can be taught and fostered throughout the day.
SEL in the classroom takes shape in a variety of ways. It is promoted through explicit instruction, often using an evidence-based program, and should also be integrated across classroom instruction and academic curriculum. SEL plays an important role in classroom climate—for example, how teachers build relationships with students, how students build relationships with each other, and how conflict and discipline are addressed.
Another critical element of classroom SEL is the interaction of teachers and students with parents and community members. This includes parent-teacher interactions, service-learning opportunities, and partnerships with community organizations. SEL, when it’s most effective, is part of daily classroom life where teachers use everyday instruction to foster positive working relationships, increase student engagement, and model constructive behaviors.
I am looking forward to working as a school to better reach all of our students, parents, and teachers. I want to focus on those issues that are difficult to talk about, behaviors that cause parents to stay up at night, frustrations for teachers in trying to help ALL the different students that are in our classrooms and still teach the academics. Our children are coming to school more and more with anxiety, depression, out of bound behaviors, disrespect, a sense of not belonging, privileged and the list continues. We as a school and as parents owe it to our children to find better ways to help them cope with the world that is around them today.
Research Information: Previous studies suggest that adding an SEL program is likely to be a wise choice. For example, 57% more students in schools with an SEL program improved their skills compared to students in schools without an SEL program, 27% more improved their academic performance, and 24% more improved their emotional well-being and social behavior. In sum, current data collected from many studies indicate that adding an SEL program to the school curriculum can lead to several real-life benefits for students. Read the 2018 study and analysis by J. L. Mahoney, J. A. Durlak, and R. P. Weissberg.
The information given above can be found at https://casel.org/in-the-classroom/ I have also included another site below that is excellent about social-emotional learning and how it can help our children.
Get to know our faculty!
Meet our newest school members!
Scarlett Marsh - Art Teacher
Jayme White - Preschool Teacher
Morgan Brothers - Speech
Sabitha Sundararaja - SPED Para
Jorlene Phillips - SPED Para
Sandra Gambiya - SPED Preschool Para
We hope to see you at our annual BEAR FAIR - Sept. 19th 5:00 - 7:00!!!
Bailey Station Elementary Updated Mission and Vision Statements
Many parents struggle with understanding what behaviors are bullying and which ones are not. I shared the simple chart below with teachers and felt that it might be helpful for parents as well!
Great articles/blogs that I have read and shared with teachers that I feel you might be interested in as well!
Our school calendar can be found on our school website page and is also sent home at the beginning of the month!
Sept. 19 Bear Fair - 5:00 - 7:00pm
October 1 - PTA Meeting 6:00 pm in the cafeteria
October 11 - Bailey Bear Boogie (during the day at school)
October 14 - 18th Fall Break
October 21 - 25th - Red Ribbon Week
October 28 - 30th - One For Books
November 7 - Open House - 6:00 - 7:00 and Book Fair 5:00 - 7:30
November 11 - Veteran's Program - 2:00 Gym
November 21 - PTA Bingo Night
November 22 - Kindergarten Pow Wow and Feast at 2:30 Cafeteria
November 25 - 29 - Thanksgiving Holidays