TeamMates

Have you heard of the TeamMates program? It was started by Dr. Tom Osborne many years ago as a way to have football players act as mentors to Lincoln students. The program has grown and covers several states, but is still very active in Lincoln.

This year, I am lucky enough to be the TeamMates facilitator. Basically this means, I am in charge of the paperwork to help coordinate the program at our school. I hope to get several students on the waiting list so that as mentors become available, I can make a match quickly. Student nominations can come from anyone!

The TeamMates program has a challenge this year to recruit more mentors. While the word “mentor” may sound overwhelming, be assured that truly what we need is an adult who can spend some time each week with a student. Often the time is spent playing games or doing a craft. Sometimes it’s just coloring and chatting. Please let me know if you are interested, or know of anyone who is interested, in becoming a mentor!

First Day!

We have officially started the 2019-2020 school year! Walking around during breakfast this morning, it was so good to see so many returning students. I think we’re all a bit tired, but excited!

Quick reminder that students can come for breakfast, and will need to enter through Door 8 (west door). If they do not come from breakfast, they can enter through Door 3 on the east side or the main door, Door 1 on the north side. Adults are only to come in through Door 1, and need to check in with our Security Entrance Monitor.

We’re all excited, and ready to go!

Building Empathy

Hopefully, if you asked your student, they would be able to describe empathy to you, as it is one of the concepts presented in our social-emotional learning curriculum, Second Step. Empathy is the ability to understand how another person is feeling, and share that feeling with them. There was a line of thought about empathy being a fixed trait, but more and more research is showing that we can build empathy in all people, young and old. Part of my job is to help build empathy, so that Everett students are able to understand others’ feelings better. That was why I found this article to be so interesting!

Basically, it says that one way to build empathy is to read fiction books. Nonfiction books are great too, in that they build a lot of reading skills and strategies. However, when reading fiction books we are more likely to think about how a character is feeling, and we go through the book with them sharing their feelings. Therefore, we are building empathy. The empathy, though, doesn’t just stick with that character or for that book, but overall we have an increased level of empathy!

Therefore, while reading to you student was always something I encouraged, now I’m going to add to that with READ FICTION!

 

Come One, Come All!

Come one, come all to our Open House this coming Thursday (the 8th)! You’ll get to meet your teacher, see your classroom, and show off our cool school! This is also a great time for parents to finish registration using the new online system! All the teachers are working hard this week to get ready, and we can’t wait to see you all!

Summers Off, Right?

One misconception is that educators have summers off. We’ve been out of school for three weeks today, but it’s been a busy summer of professional development and learning. Thus far, members of Everett’s staff have attended a workshop about Continuous Improvement, a multi-tiered student support system planning day, and a two day conference about PBiS. Mr. Long and I also attended a meeting for the elementary school counselors and principals. We’ve been able to spend a lot of time together talking about how to best prepare for the year and provide the best school possible for our students! It makes us excited for next year!

A BIG THANK YOU!

I wanted to give a BIG THANK YOU to QP Ace Hardware for their generous donation! As 5th graders get ready to head to middle school, we’ve been practicing opening combination locks (a big worry for them!) QP’s donation of 12 combination locks was so awesome. These will be a huge help as we tackle this skill.

 

School Climate Survey Data

All students in 2nd through 5th grade responded to 11 statements about our school climate. Here is the data:

Grade Level Breakdown

The data is very positive overall. Some of the most positive data is the percentage of students who responded to “My school wants me to do well” as either “Always” 78% or “Often” 13%. Also positive, were the results to “My school has clear rules for behavior”. 74% answered “Always” and 13% answered “Often”. 61% of students responded teacher always treated them with respect, and another said 21% said their teachers often treated them with respect. 68% of students responded there is always an adult at my school who will help them if they need it, and another 19% answered often to the same question.

Overall, the results are very positive regarding our school overall and the adults at our school. The areas to continue to focus on are the interactions between students.

How are First Graders Feeling?

I had students in 2nd through 5th grade answer the climate survey questions from PBiS (the behavior management system LPS is currently using). However, I felt the questions were a bit too difficult for 1st graders to wrap their heads around, so I modified them. Instead of 11 statements, I condensed them down to 4. For each statement, students could select a happy face, “medium” face, or sad/mad face. Here are the results:

71% said they feel happy about school.

82% said they feel happy about the school rules.

85% said they feel happy about the adults at our school.

67% said they feel happy about the other students at our school.

Looking at the data, the lowest percentage was regarding other students. This was true about the upper level grades’ responses too, and something I’ll be thinking about when planning for next year!

Online Kindness Data

A new state standard was added this year regarding online kindness. This was the focus of our lessons in all grade levels in January. As part of my end-of-the-year data collection, I asked fourth and fifth graders what would happen if they took a picture of someone without their permission and posted in online and a tip for communicating online in a kind and safe manner. Here is the data:

*50% of fourth and fifth graders knew the consequence would be an office referral or worse. Several other students listed consequences as they person’s feelings would be hurt, or it would be a problem. Other students also stated just “don’t do it”.

*98% of students identified how to be safe and respectful online including don’t give out personal information, don’t bully, make sure you know who the person is, don’t say bad words, etc.

We will address these objectives again next year.

4th and 5th Grade Data

For my end-of-the-year data collection, I asked fourth graders about ignoring distractions, fixing mistakes, coping with being angry, and coping with being afraid or worried (along with the questions I asked to each grade level including my name, my job, my role in our school, what bullying is, what to do about bullying, and career identification). Here is the data:

*95% of students were able to list a technique to ignore distractions

*65% of students knew the first step in fixing mistakes

*100% of students knew a coping skill they could use if they were feeling angry

*85% of students knew a coping skill they could use if they would feeling worried or afraid

In fifth grade, we discussed how to show you are listening to someone, setting and reaching a goal, and counting to 10 when upset. Here is the data:

*100% of students were able to list a way to show you are listening to someone

*85% of students knew advice they could give to someone (or themselves) having a hard time reaching their goal

*100% of students knew why counting to 10 can be helpful when upset