Lincoln Lion's Local Buzz
December 13, 2019
Proactive Is the Name Of The Game
I encourage you to take a moment this weekend to really think about the practices in your classroom and ask if you are living your most proactive life at Lincoln. Are you referencing our expectations, zones, and using the RP card to talk to students when needed? If you are GREAT! keep it up! Another think to think about is are you using circles (fishbowl, one large circle, or even triads) to address problematic behaviors BEFORE they happen. If you are experiencing lots of social issues between your students, take the initiative to talk about the social issues before it happens. Fortunately our kids are predictable. We know what might happen between our kids do 90% of the time. Use your circles to discuss behaviors and problematic behavior---BEFORE it happens.
Some question ideas for kids to ponder and discuss could be:
- One thing that makes Lincoln the "Best in Town" is that our students are kind to one another. What are things that you do to show kindness on the playground?
- What behavior have you seen at school that promotes positive communication between students?
- One thing that I can do to support a classmate who is having a rough day is.......
- A celebration that I want to share that I saw from another student during class today/yesterday is.......
- One positive thing that I tell myself when my work is hard and I'm getting frustrated is......
80% proactive...that is how restorative practices should be used and really when you think about all of your supports put in place daily should be 80% proactive in nature.
And let's not forget about being proactive with our own mental health this week. Get enough sleep, eat well, and take time to breathe. If we are stressed out as adults, we are not equipped to address the stresses that our students bring to school. Our kids follow our lead. If we loose it, our kids will loose it.
Thanks for all that you are doing to support our kids this upcoming week. This is a hard one coming up but know that we are ready and able to have a GREAT week!
12 Days Of Fun--only 5 days left!
Please refer to last weeks Buzz for the 12 day calendar. I believe that it is also posted on the office back door and likely in the work room. For fun for our kids we will have a few "Spirit Days" on that last week we are here. The half sheet flier for this was sent home yesterday/today.
- December 16th--wear a holiday sweater/shirt
- December 17th-wear holiday accessories
- December 19th--Wear PJ's to school (students must wear shoes at all times-no slippers--and that is the same for adults due to the possibility of an emergency.
Please remind students that they must have shoes--NOT SLIPPERS-- on Thursday. That is one that we need to remind students about as we must have people ready to react to an emergency at any time.
Snowman Contest!
To have some school wide fun that last week, we will have our second annual snowman/door decorating contest this year. This year our categories for judging will be:
- Most school spirit
- Most creative
- Best example of meeting any/all of our school wide expectations
- "Best In Town" --highlighting Lincoln and Kingsport in some way--be creative :-)
All snowmen must be up by noon on Thursday the 19th. Judging will take place Thursday afternoon. Classes are encouraged to take a walking tour of our snowmen Thursday afternoon or Friday Morning. Winners will be announced on the morning announcements on Friday Morning. I am unsure of who the judges will be at this point...but I will see if I can get some PTO/ASC folks to come over and judge.
Happy Snowman Making!!
Upcoming Events--
December 15-19
- Snowman Making for Classroom doors--Instruction/Benchmarks/Testing/Whatever else is on a deadline FIRST--Snowmen second!
December 18th
- Clubs!!--2:30--Various Rooms
- RTI Data Meetings--Grade Level Planning--Conference Room
- Snowmen Judging begins at Noon
- Half Day
- Fall on face--12:30/1:00ish--Various locations--hopefully after kids leave!
MATH PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITY FOR TEACHING ASSISTANTS
A professional learning session, Understanding Math Strategies - Teaching Assistants, is scheduled on Thursday, January 9 (12:30-2:30) and Friday, January 10 (9:00-11:00) in the Tennessee Room on the third floor of ASC. This session is designed for teaching assistants who support mathematics instruction and would like to better understand the strategies that students may use in the classroom. This session will be helpful for new teaching assistants who like to deepen their understanding of mathematical strategies for computation.. The session is also helpful for veteran assistants who would just like to review the strategies.
Please note the session is optional. The session is offered twice to better accommodate school schedules. Interested teaching assistants should register for one of the sessions by Tuesday, January 7th using this link: