JWL Weekly Update
Volume 7 * Issue 40 * week of May 20, 2019
******* Final Issue *******
Please be aware of summer hardships for students
Summer holidays revealed as one of the loneliest times of year for students
The summer holidays are meant to be one of the most eagerly-anticipated times in a young person’s life but, worryingly, it’s actually emerging as one of the loneliest periods for many.
Dr Aaron Balick, psychotherapist and author, described how maintaining real-time relationships is “critical” for positive mental health in the way it stimulates complex social, psychological, and emotional processes in the growing brain. He said: “Parents can help their children by encouraging them to maintain face-to-face relations with friends and supporting them - even by inviting others around.”
The study’s results have come as mental health-related issues are reportedly rising and continue to rise among young people, particularly in students.
...to read the entire article click here.
Calming End-of-Year Stress
The school year's end can be stressful to students leaving a structured environment for uncertain situations. Offer connection and affirmation to help them feel valued and confident.
For many teachers and students, nearing the end of the school year can be a time of mixed feelings, sometimes including fear and anxiety. Students who walk through our doors with what Dr. John Seita and Dr. Larry Brendtro call "family privilege" look forward to time with friends and family, summer outings, and a freer schedule. These students are entering summer break "feeling felt and accepted" within their home environments. Their secure attachment with caregivers allows for expression, mistakes, and freedom to explore their self. Family privilege is defined as an invisible package of assets and pathways that provide us with a sense of belonging, safety, unconditional love, and spiritual values.
Disconnected and mistrustful youth, whose experience of a school and classroom culture was an island of stability supporting their emotional and social needs, find the end of the school year frightening and stressful. Classrooms that nurture social-emotional growth and expression create a kind of family privilege, and when summer break becomes a reality, these students can feel an escalation of end-of-school-year stress.
Reasons for Concern
Those students struggling with upcoming changes may wonder:
- Will I be promoted to the next grade level?
- Will I pass all these tests? And if I don't, what then?
- Who will my new friends be?
At a more visceral developmental level, these worries loom:
- When will there be a next meal, a next hug, a kind word, encouragement, and a next safe place?
- Will I be accepted in new class environments?
- Who can I trust? And how will I know?
These students may begin acting out, appear less focused, and possibly shut down. Also, to adults, youthful fear and anxiety may look like anger.
...to read the entire article click here
The Case Against Summer Countdown Calendars
Here’s something else to consider with a numerical summer countdown—think about how it could affect some of our students. For many, school is their safe, loving, happy, and stable place.
For these students, summer isn’t necessarily a good time. So when we post our days-left countdowns, it can actually cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. The summer countdown becomes a constant reminder that their safe place is going to be closed for two to three months. This could mean no hot meals, loving words, or books. It could mean being alone, hungry, or even in danger.
Don’t Add to the Stress:
As an early childhood educator, I know that during this time of year a phenomenon occurs in which our youngest students realize that they’re leaving their teacher, their friends, and their classroom. This can cause a lot of stress because they’re moving to a new grade and a lot of unknowns.
I see it every year. As my students come to terms with leaving kindergarten, their behaviors become a bit more challenging. They act out because of fear and stress. So I don’t want anything, including a summer countdown, to add to their stress.
So Focus on the Good Times...
As teachers and students, we have much to celebrate at the end of the year. We’ve come so far together, and we’ve done so many incredible things.
Let’s turn those end-of-year countdowns into fun and engaging celebrations of learning. For example, instead of counting down our days left, my class has a daily alphabet celebration. Each day, we celebrate with a letter of the alphabet. We make rainbow zebras for Z, we wear red for R, we throw glitter for G, and we eat donuts for D.
Each day also begins by creating a word web of words with the letter so we can review our letters and sounds. All this fun keeps us engaged and keeps us learning. This way we can celebrate the end of the year without adding unnecessary stress or giving an unintended perception that we have checked out.
So as we bring this school year to a close, let’s celebrate our year, our students, and our colleagues in a fun and engaging way that rings in summer on a positive note.
...to read the entire article click here
Instruction Focus
1. Effective instruction
2. Classroom management with student engagement
Just a few more days to grow our kiddos:
These are not babysitting days. We need to still keep students engaged in high-impact lessons that support students' learning.
Some ideas:
A book in a day
Divide class into small groups; each group gets a chapter of book to read. Then groups present in order. Here's an example of this task using an information text.
Complete an author study
Choose an author and allow students to read multiple books by the author and then compare/contrast, make a book matrix, write a letter to the author, etc. For more ideas click here.
Authors of note: Chris Van Allsburg, Kevin Henkes, Ezra Jack Keats, Patricia Polacco
Students are in charge of designing an extreme playground design using geometric shapes, elements, and properties.
The Ultimate Paper Airplane Competition
by Michael at www.thethinkerbuilder.com
Working in groups, students must design and construct a paper airplane that can survive four rounds of performance tasks, including hang-time and distance.
Classroom Mangagement
10 Things About Childhood Trauma Every Teacher Needs to Know
With grief, sadness is obvious. With trauma, the symptoms can go largely unrecognized because it shows up looking like other problems: frustration; acting out; difficulty concentrating, following directions, or working in a group. Often students are misdiagnosed with anxiety, behavior disorders, or attention disorders rather than understood to have trauma that’s driving those symptoms and reactions.
For children who have experienced trauma, learning can be a big struggle. But once trauma is identified as the root of the behavior, we can adapt our approach to help kids cope when they’re at school.
1. Kids who have experienced trauma aren’t trying to push your buttons.
2. Kids who have been through trauma worry about what’s going to happen next.
3. Even if the situation doesn’t seem that bad to you, it’s how the child feels that matters.
4. Trauma isn’t always associated with violence.
5. You don’t need to know exactly what caused the trauma to be able to help.
6. Kids who experience trauma need to feel they’re good at something and can influence the world.
7. There’s a direct connection between stress and learning.
8. Self-regulation can be a major challenge for students suffering from trauma.
9. It’s OK to ask kids point-blank what you can do to help them make it through the day.
10. You can support kids with trauma even when they’re outside your classroom.
Attendance
Goal: 98%+ Attendance
Here are our attendance rates from last week. Thank you so much for encouraging your students to be here on a daily basis.
K: 95.4%
1: 95.05%
2: 97.07%
3: 98.18% Congrats!
4: 96.63%
5: 97.94
JWL: 96.77% Each grade level INCREASED this past week!
YTD avg: 95.56%
Belt status:
White:
First grade: Week of August 20
Fifth grade: Week of August 27
Third grade: Week of September 17
Second grade: Week of December 3
Fourth grade: Week of December 17
Kindergarten: Week of March 25
Yellow:
Fifth grade: Week of September 3
Third grade: Week of October 1
First grade: Week of November 5
Second grade: Week of December 10
Fourth grade: Week of January 14
Gold:
Fifth grade: Week of September 10
Third grade: Week of October 15
First Grade: Week of January 21
Fourth Grade: Week of February 11
Orange:
Fifth grade: Week of October 8
Third grade: Week of October 22
Fourth grade: Week of February 18
First grade: Week of May 6
Green:
Third grade: Week of October 29
Fifth grade: Week of November 12
Fourth grade: Week of April 1
Blue:
Third grade: Week of January 7
Fifth grade: Week of March 4
Fourth grade: Week of April 8
Purple:
Third grade: Week of January 28
Fourth grade: Week of April 15
Brown:
Third grade: Week of February 4
Red:
Third grade: Week of February 25
Black:
Third grade: Week of March 18
Black with white stripe:
Third grade: Week of April 22
Black with yellow stripe:
Third grade: Week of April 29
Black with gold stripe:
Third grade: Week of May 13
What's Your Mindset?
Heads Up
Incentive Punch Cards
We will call for your class within these times:
9:00 Kinder
9:30 1st
10:00 2nd
10:30 3rd
12:30 4th
1:00 5th
As you see we only have 30 minutes per grade level. That means each class has approximately 3.5 minutes of total "shopping" time (and 1.5 min for transition). As done previously, we will have tables by punches earned. Please line students up by the maximum number of punches earned in 5 point increments as this will help expedite the process. (5, 10, 15 & 20)
Teachers, you will come with your class, and those that did not earn enough punches or don't have their cards will need to stay in line with you in the hallway, or partner with a teacher friend so they can stay in their classroom.
Thanks!
I think we'll be in the library. (I need to verify with Mrs. Esquivel if the library is available for this project.)
EOY Checklist
2019-2020 Class Lists
Your team leader has the specific information needed to complete this task. These are due to me by close of day Tuesday, May 21st.
Summer Professional Development and Flex Days Info
We want to provide you advance notice of summer professional development opportunities and the TISD Flexible Exchange Guidelines so you can make your summer plans accordingly.
Terrell ISD will continue its practice of having three flexible exchange days built into is school calendar for the 2019-2020 school year. In short, employees contracted for 187 days or more must secure three days of professional development on their own time in exchange of the three additional days off during the week of Thanksgiving break. Details of the Flexible Exchange Guidelines are link HERE.
We are very excited to announce that Terrell ISD will host a Region 10 Summer Roadshow and host the Region 10 Summit this June! These trainings will provide three days of meaningful professional development right here in Terrell.
During the R10 Summer Roadshow, you will have access to two days of learning opportunities over a wide variety of topics. The Terrell Roadshow will take place June 3 & 4. You are encouraged to review the offerings being made available to us using this link: (See Terrell link) https://sites.google.com/region10.org/roadshow/home
The one-day Region 10 EL Summit will also be held in Terrell and will serve as an avenue to increase achievement for English Learners. A keynote speaker and professional learning for teachers and administrators will be provided. Sessions at the EL Summit include Cultural Responsive Teaching, Technology for Second Language Acquisition, Sheltered Instruction via the Google Classroom and content specific trainings based on effective instructional practices with ELPs interwoven within the courses. The EL Summit is scheduled for June 5. Region 10 is still finalizing plans and the link to register will be shared as soon as possible.
It is the responsibility of all employees to register for each event through Region 10.Registration opens April 1, 2019 at www.region10.org. Please set aside the dates June 3, 4, and 5 for some awesome training right here in Terrell!
If you are unable to attend these sessions, it will be the responsibility of the employee to secure his or her own professional development. Please make sure you conform to the rules and guidelines for the flexible exchange dates, including securing written permission of your supervisor.
Region 10 Road Show @ TISD this summer!
Our teachers and staff can now begin registering for the roadshow on www.region10.org.
Here is the link to the Roadshow Google Site for a summary of offerings in one location in an easy to read format that you can share with teachers.
There are many great opportunities being provided. Some sessions have already been filled to capacity, so be sure you've registered!
Lexia
Dreambox Usage
Parent Communication
Keep up the communication with families!
Remember, each user (homeroom, special interest group, etc.) is to send at minimum one message each week to parents informing them of weekly ongoings, curriculum topics of focus, and/or special projects. Please stay connected with families; they are our partners in educating their kiddos.
Huge thank you to our top 5 users last week:
Mrs. Nichols
Mrs. Stack
Mrs. Morgan
Miss Vasquez
Ms. Way
This Week's Ongoings:
Monday
- Grades due by 8am!
- EOY awards:
- Kinder @ 8:30am
- First @ 9:30am
- Second @ 1:30pm
- Third @ 2:30pm
Tuesday
- Grade verifications due
- Class Lists due at 4:00pm
- Punch Card Prize Store
- Kinder @ 9:00am
- First @ 9:30am
- Second @ 10:00am
- Third @ 10:30am
- Fourth @ 12:30pm
- Fifth @ 1:00pm
- ARDs
- 11:20
- 12:35
- 1:15
- 3:30
- Meet Mrs. Carrero, new principal for JWL; we'll be meeting in the library
- Leadership meeting (brief) in room 15 after meet and greet with Mrs. Carrero, re: Class Lists
Wednesday
- Last Day of School; Early Release at 12:30pm
- Report Cards go home
- Fifth grade walk @ 8:30am
- EOY Awards:
- Fifth @ 8:45am
- Fourth @ 9:45am
Thursday
- Meet in Cafeteria @ 8:15am
- Housekeeping Matters/Paperwork
- Cumulative file updates and checks
- Turn in keys
- Clean and pack up rooms
- Post your signature page to your classroom door so we can come do room checks and sign to make Friday's process more timely
Friday
- Finalize rooms and be ready for room checks, if not done Thursday afternoon
- Meet in front office for final signatures
- EOY district celebration @ PAC @ 10am
- Reading Summit (for those invited) @ PDC @ 1:00pm
Staff Shout Outs!
#BestStaffEver
I will miss my JWL family.
Stay strong. Stay focused. Keep up the positive work you've started and continue to excel in all that you do. I will continue to root for you off campus.
I am so proud of you.
As 2 Timothy chapter 4 states,
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Sayonara.
(Goodbye in "ninja" terms)