BARBER BULLETIN
Week of September 16-20 Creating Joyful Leaders and Learners
SELF CARE REMINDERS!
Do you remember how excited, nervous, and downright giddy you were to start your first year of teaching? You were ready to conquer the educational world and change the lives of countless students. Hopefully, that feeling returns as you greet a new group of students every year. Here are four ways to help you focus on self-care this year:
Your MIND (bucket #1): Clear it
Teachers today need greater emotional resilience and self-regulation to manage the potential stressors of being an educator. May we suggest tools for sharpening your self-regulation skills?
This is where mindfulness can help. Mindfulness is about using meta-awareness to bring out the quality of your daily experiences. It is a flexible, yet focused awareness of that which is usually passing through your mind. Try using an app to learn more about how to implement mindfulness (Waking Up by Sam Harris is my favorite).
How does mindfulness relate to coping with chronic stress?
Evidence tells us that mindfulness is a strong tool that can mitigate both stress and the unhealthy eating habits that accompany some people’s stressful experience. In some ways, stress-related eating is mind-less-ness (Katterman, Kleinman, Hood, Nackers, & Corsica, 2014). Mindfulness-based strategies have been successfully incorporated into weight loss and weight management interventions (O'Reilly, Cook, Spruijt‐Metz, & Black, 2014). For instance, over time, mindfulness will help you disconnect easier from the mindless eating that hurts your body.
Your BRAIN (bucket #2): Nourish it
What do your eating habits have to do with your brain, or how you manage your stress levels as a teacher? What you eat affects your brain and stress levels (Marx, Moseley, Berk, & Jacka, 2017). There are many theories about why you may eat more when you are stressed.
One says, “Your body needs more nutrients to do triage and repair the damage (Ames, 2006). Another says that you eat to lower your stress levels (Adam & Epel, 2007; Newman, O’Connor & Conner, 2007). This theory asserts people may eat more unhealthy foods (carbs and sugars) that produce the amino acid tryptophan, which is synthesized to create serotonin (which can be calming).
To protect yourself from the potential stressors of teaching, fuel your body with the foods that will boost your energy, mood, and overall health. The general guideline is to consume more natural foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) and less high-sugar, high-carb processed foods such as candy, soda, chips, desserts, alcohol, white bread, potatoes, rice, etc. (Beilharz, Maniam, & Morris, 2015). If it is in a bag or box, read the ingredients and eat them less often. Remember, balance is best!
Change what you eat and you change both your body and mind. To do this, simply pick one micro 60-second or less habit. For example, limit yourself to only one drink (soft drink, beer, or wine) a day. After a month, limit yourself to these once a week. Or, limit yourself to one sweet item a day, and then after a month, limit yourself to a sweet just once a week. You can make the change that will change your life. Start today.
Your BODY (bucket #3): Move it Daily
If you leave school in a foul mood or frequently wonder if being a teacher is of any worth, try engaging in regular exercise for a couple of weeks and see if things change. Physical activity is linked to greater levels of happiness and self-worth (Reddon, Meyre, & Cairney, 2017). People self-report being in a better mood after engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity (Wen et al., 2018).
Start a morning walk/jog program to keep you motivated and accountable. Use it as an opportunity to start your day off right and build connections with students.
Your HEART (bucket #4): Fill it with Gratitude
The key to managing your stress levels is to fill your emotional reserves with enough positive deposits to handle the withdrawals that can accompany this challenging, yet meaningful, work.
Making gratitude a life habit is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. Gratitude is an orientation of noticing and appreciating the positive things in the world (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). Gratitude is connected to a wide array of benefits – improved relationships, physical health, self-esteem, high levels of work satisfaction, lower levels of stress and depression, and more (Rusk, Vella-Brodrick, & Waters, 2016).
Keep a paper in the same place on your desk to write just two phrases every day. As you enter your classroom every morning jot down a few words that express one thing you are looking forward to that day. As you leave each day, write one thing you are grateful for that happened that day. It’s a simple, yet powerful way to put a few drops back into your bucket as you begin and end each day.
Teaching can be invigorating, soul-filling, and a profession full of meaningful connections. It all comes down to the habits you form in caring for yourself. If you are serious about reducing your stress this school year, consider upgrading these four areas of your general well-being. Make a choice, right now, to make one small change to how you care for your mind, brain, body, or heart. You are worth it!
Book to Check Out: The Burnout Cure: Learning to Love Teaching Again(Chase Mielke). It is full of evidence-based, practical tools to help you stay at your best. As a bonus, you’ll find tons of resources and lessons to use with your students to help them thrive, as well. Definitely worth a read!
COVEY CLUBS!
Students will select their clubs during Habit Huddle next Wednesday, Sept. 18th. The Lighthouse Team will provide you with a google slideshow of available clubs to show your students, and we will place selection forms for each student in your box next week.
Our first club day is Friday, Sept. 27th from 8:30am-9:30am. There are 6 club dates scheduled this year. If you would like to purchase materials for your club, the PTO is generously reimbursing each club up to $100 for the year. Save your receipts and attach them to the completed reimbursement form, Then, place it in the PTO mailbox.
If you have any more questions, please let Julie Whitney know.
FIRE DRILL REMINDERS
Here are a few reminders that will guide you during our fire drills this year.
1. Make sure you get to your zone - see map for details
2. Look for your zone leader in an emergency vest
3. If you are at recess, look for the nearest zone leader in an emergency vest
4. Don't forget your emergency bag
5. Bring your device, if time allows
6. Make sure your classroom door is locked/lights off
7. Make sure you take attendance by 8:30am
8. If you have a radio in your class, bring it and turn it on low - DO NOT SPEAK on your radio
9. Hold up a red card if you have a child missing or a child badly injured
10. Hold a green card if all children are accounted for
11. Teachers should hold up a RED card if they have children missing for any type of pull out, bathroom run, nurse run, or any errand.
12. If your entire class is in Global, the homeroom teacher holds up green. The Global teacher would then hold up Red or Green for the reason's listed above.
OPEN ENROLLMENT
Open Enrollment for all Benefits will begin Monday, September 16, 2019. We will be having mandatory meetings for open enrollment with a Ward Services Counselor beginning Monday, September 16 through Friday, September 20. Each benefits-eligible employee will be expected to meet with the counselor, who will be located in our Main Conference Room.
Since the meetings are mandatory, please schedule yours if you haven't already done so. Otherwise, the district will reach out to you to remind you to sign up at another location before Open Enrollment closes.
MEET CHELSEA CANIPE!
Chelsea teaches 3rd grade with us at Pontiac!
A LOOK AT OUR WEEK AHEAD:
Today kicks off HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH!
K-2 classes - remember to bring your students' login cards to computer lab this week!
3:30pm Action Teams meet
Tuesday:
CONSTITUTION DAY (Federal mandate to include content around the US Constitution)
FR Doc 05-10355 (Federal Mandate)
The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement announces that, pursuant to legislation passed by Congress, educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year. This notice implements this provision as it applies to educational institutions receiving Federal funding from the Department.
7am NWEA Reading Fluency training for K-2
9:25am 4th grade MASTERY CONNECT training
12pm Montessori data meetings
12pm ESOL Cluster Lunch N Learn
3:30pm OPTIONAL MTSS Tier 1 strategies workshop
Wednesday:
K.Barber at Elementary Principals meeting
D.Savage out due to husband's surgery
3:30pm District MATH leads meeting
3:30pm AVID Site team meeting
3:30 NWEA Fluency training for K-2
Thursday:
Data meetings in Brainforest for K-5
7:45am SIC meeting
Montessori community meeting
Friday:
FALL PICTURES! Schedule linked here