Sunday Shakedown
Washington Elementary Weekly Memo
Principal Post
Hoping you had time to reflect on all you were thankful for this year. Let's start this miraculous season ahead!
Week at a Glance
Monday:
- Welcome back to a day without anything on the calendar
- Welcome back Laura Swearingen
- All bus riders who normally wait in the library will wait in the auditorium in the afternoons during the bookfair.
Tuesday:
- 3rd grade literacy job embedded citywide planning day (Jefferson)
- Birthdays with the principals
- Wolf out all day at principal meeting about literacy
- Bookaneer Book fair begins- Dress like a pirate day!
- Kindergarten job embedded citywide planning day (Jefferson)
- RTI data conferences all day
- Jacki Wolfe at GWES for SPED collaborative with Wolf (2:00-3:00)
- GWES Tech Night-with visitors from a galaxy far, far away! Need 5-7 staff members to attend
- Book Fair open
- First day of the 3rd annual GWES 12 Days of Christmas celebrations. Greet a colleague by breaking into song!
- First grade job embedded citywide planning day (Jefferson)
- Book fair open
- 2nd day of 12 Days of Christmas: Flannel Friday (see all 12 days below)
Thank yous, celebrations, and appreciations:
- Thanks to LCA and LCB teachers for providing a great feast for our students
- Thanks to Peggy Galloway and staff for a wonderful Together Breakfast
- Thanks to all teachers and staff for great Education Expos
- Thanks to our SPED teachers for not giving up and working hard to try to get parents in for important educational decisions
- Thanks to Lisa Hazlett for helping in the office when needed
- Thanks to Virginia to connecting with Stop Hunger Now so we can plan our event later this year
- Thanks to Charity Shepard for a being with us for Billie B
- Thanks to Andy True, Jim Nash and Officer Roark for visiting to brainstorm ideas about our walkers
Service Club Heartprint Bulletin Board
Our service club, lead by Leslie Yarber, has created a bulletin board outside of the cafeteria titled, "How many heartprints will you leave today?" The purpose is to encourage children to recognize acts of kindness. There will be an envelope on the board on which students can write thank yous, appreciations, or compliments. These notes will be displayed on that board. I will see that we have tape or stapler available. Let's encourage our students to really look for the good in one another and leave positive notes for one another. They may also compliment an adult or an adult may thank a child.
Professional Musings
Recently, we discussed the need to re-focus some of our attention on the elements of Positive Discipline, the importance of class meetings, the use of I messages, the alignment of the PP to our wheel of choice, and our re-designed expectations I read an article (below) that fascinated me. It discusses the power of restorative practices, like those we have learned previously from Jane Nelson in Positive Discipline about conflict resolution. It reminded me about why I think it is so important to bring children together to discuss conflict, even when it might be difficult. I hope it will empower you to try/revisit this:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov16/vol74/num03/After-Sticks,-Stones,-and-Hurtful-Words.aspx