November 10, 2023
Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. Thank you for your work during in-service on Wednesday. The groups I made it to were having some great discussions.
Trimester 1 ends on November 15. Those grades will need to be finalized by 11/17 and we will send midterms and trimester report cards home at the same time. Midterm for quarter 2 is next week on 11/16. All PASS Plans need to be done by this time. For those really planning ahead, day 1 of semester test will be on December 18. This will be the odd periods. Day 2 is on December 19 and will be the even periods. December 20 is the make up day.
Please continue to make calls home to parents when their student is struggling. If you are seeing classroom behaviors, please let the parents know this as well. The easiest calls to make is to let a parent know how much their child has improved or how well they are doing. These calls make the first type of call home easier when the parents have heard good things about their child.
Have a great weekend!
Mark
Assistant Principal's Happenings
Last week I wrote about how the BT model emphasizes building relationships by:
Being kind
Expressing empathy
Showing concern
Giving dignity, and
Showing respect
I realized this past week that one way to do this is through “Show and Tell”. Let me explain:
I need to show my wife I love her through my actions. I need to tell her that I love her with my words. Both are needed. To show my devotion through actions without words risks that my actions could be misinterpreted. To just say the words that I love her without actions to back it up eventually rings hollow and seems disingenuous. Please understand that my wife must perceive my devotion correctly -- what matters is her perception of this. What matters is not just my efforts, but whether she feels loved or not.
I would like to propose that a similar dynamic happens with our students. As we strive to increase our Conditions for Learning (CFL) score, our students need to know that we care for them. They need to feel cared for. We need to show them this, and to tell them this, or else we risk the message not being delivered accurately. I hereby name this “show and tell”.
How do we show our students that we care? Lots of ways -- our staff is fantastic about this. You are greeting students at the door, striking up conversations about things they are interested in, taking time to laugh together; you also do many things behind the scenes-- grading papers in the evening, putting the extra touches on that lesson plan, collaborating with other teachers to make sure that student’s needs are being met. We also show we care with smiles and positive body language -- all humans can tell when someone is genuinely glad to see them.
But sometimes we can do all these things, and a student still doesn’t feel cared for.
My hypothesis is that we also need to actively tell them how much we care about them.
I’ve had a few conversations with kids where I tell them “Mrs. ___ is worried about you” or “Mr. ____ has been losing sleep because he is afraid you aren’t going to pass his class”. Their expression instantly softens -- to have an adult tell them they care for them -- that means something. Perhaps they have never heard those words before.
I’ve started to become more intentional that when our likely-to-be-absent kids are in the building, I don’t start by reminding them that they owe me detention time (even though they do!). I will catch up with them later to settle that account. Rather, I tell them how glad I am to see them today and that we’ve missed them. I tell them that they belong here. They need to hear this message that we care for them and we are glad to see them -- over -- and over -- and over.
I propose that our most at-risk kids are the kids that need to be both shown and told how much we care about them. Try “show and tell” this week on some of your hardest-to-love kids. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the reaction you receive.
Together --
Adam
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