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Shaw Montessori Newsletter Week of March 23rd
IN THIS ISSUE
- Message From Principal Engdall
- School closure announcement
- Shaw Montessori Facebook Page
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Message From Principal Engdall
Greetings Shaw Montessori!
Former Office Manager and friend Theresa Gerbig oversaw the Scripps Spelling Bee’s at our school for years before her retirement. She always said this to our children prior to the bee, “It is a scientific fact that deep breathing lowers your cortisol—stress levels, therefore we will begin with 3 deep breaths, ready go……
It is a lot to keep our children (and ourselves) emotionally protected during any difficult time. Getting on the same page with your child’s teachers, classmates’ parents, and other family members– even if all connection is virtual right now can go a long way toward helping your child and other children feel universally supported and can also help you as a parent. Please know that the entire teaching staff at Shaw Montessori is committed to supporting you while you are trying to be a parent, teacher and playmate along with all of the other labels/responsibilities that have now affixed themselves to you.
As I write teachers are continuing to work on “home learning opportunities” that are designed to follow the classroom experience as closely as we can without the trained guide, the materials, the community and structure! We plan to continue personalized instruction, interactive lessons which will be coming soon on some levels, structured assignments and may involve some degree of recordings, live connects, and frequent contacts between parents, students and teachers. More specific details will be available through your child’s teacher.
This is an excerpt from “The Owner’s Manual for a Montessori Child written by Donna Bryant Goertz. It is written with the primary child in mind, but I believe as the parent of a 27-year-old that I saw these needs ripple through our shared journey many times:
“We are both so fortunate that within me I have a secret plan for my own way of being like you. I am driven by my secret plan. I am safe and happy following it. It is irresistible to me. If you interfere with my work of unfolding myself according to my secret plan and try to force me to be like you in your own way, in your own time, by your own efforts, I will forget to work on my secret plan and begin to struggle against you. I will decide to wage a war against you and everything you stand for. That’s my nature, it is my way of protecting myself. You could call it integrity.”
So parents/guardians stand back and understand these are natural tendencies that are out of our control and that is alright:
“I know my needs are great and many. I know I’m asking a lot of you, but you are all I’ve really got. I love you and I know you love me beyond reason or measure. If I can’t count on you, who can I count on? But let’s not kid each other. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I’m tough and resilient. I’ll survive and make the best of it. You could make (this journey) a lot more fun for both of us by taking care of me according to my needs. Hey, can we just shoot for meeting 50% of my needs? Okay, okay, I’ll settle for 25%.
We are here for you if you need support.
The” drive through” at school will be open tomorrow from 10-2 if you were not able to pick up the work that teachers left out last week.
Breathe deeply and be well,
Principal Engdall
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Shaw Montessori Facebook
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Contact Us
Email: Susan.Engdall@Phxschools.org
Website: https://phxschools.org/shaw
Location: 123 North 13th Street, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone: 602-257-3914
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1614897512101327/?ref=group_header