What's JOY Got to Do With It?
#VBHasJoy Monthly Newsletter, November 2018
In This Issue:
One Small Thing: 3 Minutes of Silence & Snowball Toss
Joyful Reads: The Zen Teacher Book Study
ONE SMALL THING
Elementary Focus
What is one small thing you can do to build emotional and social literacy for students?
Check out this quick 4 minute clip from The Teaching Channel that introduces three practices teachers can build into their instructional routines to support students to do their best learning.
Three Minutes of Silence
Mood Meter
Journaling
*Note: While the children in this video are in primary grades, these strategies can be adapted to be more developmentally appropriate for older students.
Secondary Focus
What is one small thing you can do to open up a dialogue about stress in school?
What if you could better support students to cope with the stressors they face? Check out this 60-second strategy from Eduptopia that involves empathy development, kinesthetic movement, and community building.
JOYFUL READS
Each month we will share reading that has the ability to increase our empathy, strengthen our knowledge base, and grow our JOY.
The Zen Teacher Book Study
Are you interested in cultivating mindful practices that can increase your focus, peace, and tranquility? Would you like to learn alongside the #VBHasJoy community? Sign up for The Zen Teacher book study this winter.
The Zen Teacher Book Study will run from November-January and can earn up to 8 license renewal points. The book is available on the Virtual Reference Library (internal link). This course if full of opportunities that will inspire and empower you to design intentional moments of Zen into your day and classroom.
Sign up today in Frontline! If you have questions, please email Angelyn.Nichols@vbschools.com.
A MINDFUL PRACTICE
When your day is jammed packed and you feel like you cannot take on one more thing...just S.T.O.P.
November can be a "hit the wall" kind of month for many of us in education. The semester is coming to a close, the grading and data input reaches a critical mass, and the oh so important day-to-day routines we put in place in September can feel like a thing of the past. On the days when our to-do list seems longer than we can manage, it is nice to have a mindful practice that can help us to gain clarity and move forward with purpose.
Dr. Elisha Goldstein, the co-founder of the Center for Mindful Living, walks us through the S.T.O.P Practice as a way to connect to the present moment and bring clarity and focus to our lives in just minutes.
Give yourself permission to try it out right now!
CULTIVATING A JOYFUL CULTURE
SEL is not just for kids!
In last month's newsletter, I shared an article from Edutopia on the basics of social-emotional learning (SEL). This month I encourage you to take a few minutes to read about the relationship between SEL and the climate of a school.
In an article titled, “Leading Together/ SEL for Adults” Jill Harrison Berg states, “A strong social-emotional learning climate for faculty doesn’t just happen.” Just as creating a climate of safety and trust is necessary to maximize student learning and achievement, the same is true for the adults who work in schools. This article would be a quick and meaningful read for an Instructional Leadership Team; we used the Three Levels of Text Protocol in our office and the conversations led to some great "aha" moments.
How do we begin to create a strong SEL climate for the adults? The author has 3 suggestions:
Establish relation-building routines.
Design for collaboration.
Engage each other as resources in problem solving.
Check out these VBCPS examples that showcase each of the 3 suggestions:
Relation-Building Routines
Design & Collaborate
Engage Each Other
JOYFUL LEARNING
Mindfulness Programs
Are you interested in learning more about mindfulness? Log in to your Virgin Pulse account to sign-up. Looking to join? Click here to learn more about the Be Well programs offered by Virginia Beach City Public Schools.
PRACTICING JOY: #VBHASJOY
Joy is in the Air!
This fall teachers across the division were making mindful choices to bring joy to life in their classrooms and in our community. Here are three examples of #JoyLeaders in action. Follow these #transformazing educators on Twitter to see joy in action!
Gerry Brooks
A group of Joy Ambassadors traveled to see Mr. Gerry Brooks last month and took a little Virginia Beach joy along with them. If you are looking for a good laugh, check out @gerrybrooksprin.
Lisa Riley
Bettie F Williams Elementary
Yoga Anyone?
Arrowhead Elementary school uses the Morning Meeting structure to integrate social and emotional learning into the classroom each day. First graders in Julie Finucan’s class came up with their own yoga poses and had a blast! Thanks Kellee Kraft for sharing this!
Kellee Kraft & Julie Finucan
Arrowhead Elementary
VBCPS Teacher Hero
It is not everyday that a VBCPS teacher gets surprised by the Channel 3 news with a People Taking Action award during a meeting! Read the story here about Kelly's amazing example of giving to a North Carolina community after Hurricane Michael.
Kelly Hoggard #champforkids
Indian Lakes Elementary
NOVEMBER ACTION CALENDAR
Visit http://www.actionforhappiness.org/new-things-november to learn more!