First of all, a friend of my and a fellow LPS teacher sent me this link to use with your projectors.  There are some great tools, such as timers, random name picker, classroom volume control….check it out!

https://www.classroomscreen.com/

Then the next thought I have been working on a lot this year is how number of our families who are living in homeless situations have really really grown.  I have spent most of the first 6 weeks of school navigating the social work systems and finding ways to connect our families to resources in the community that will hopefully help them get at least their big toe back under them.  Last year in a leadership class I took, we read this article.  I wanted to share it with you all because chances are you have a family who is either homeless or living doubled up.   This article gives great examples of what families go through in these hard situations.  HOMELESS AND DOUBLED UP

Typically over the summer I get to reading so many murder/psychological thriller books that I don’t have time to read anything for school.  As the school year started, I got to this one.  Shari mentioned that I should read it and talked me into buying it at one of the book fairs last year.  It was an amazing book that completely captured my heart while I was reading it.  I saw so many of our students in the 3 kids who were telling the stories from their perspectives.  I just wanted to share a couple of quotes for you to think about.  And honestly if you are needing a good book to read, you should really try this one!

Page 214 “Mahmoud’s first instinct was to disappear below decks.  To be invisible. Being invisible in Syria had kept him alive.  But now Mahmoud began to wonder if being invisible in Europe might be the death of him and his family.  If no one saw them, no one could help them.  And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here.”  

Think about our students and which ones of them have learned that being invisible is a survival strategy.  How can we help them to feel safe and want to come out of that survival mode while at school?

Page 242 “‘It’ll never work,’ Josef said. He’d seen how many crew there really were on this ship, and what a lot of them below decks really thought about Jews.  They wouldn’t go down without a fight, and they knew this ship better than any passenger. 

Pozner shrugged, ‘What choice do we have? We can’t go back.  Father knew that. That’s why he did what he did.  If we succeed, we’re free. If we fail, at least the world will realize how desperate we are.'”

Think about actually being on the line between dieing and refusing to go back to concentration camps, what would you do?  I honestly hope that I would have enough courage, perseverance and grit that our families have every single day.  It is my mission to help in anyway possible to get these students to access education and to learn the necessary skills to be college and career ready!

Have a great Monday!

So many people have asked me Why Everett?  And I know that each and everyone of us has a very personal reason why we choose to stay  at Everett!  For me it is so simple, the families, staff, support, community are above anything else I have ever worked with before.  I am going to try to blog this year and this will have a wide variety of topics, but mostly I am wanting to support you all who pour your heart and soul into teaching and working at Everett.

I was sent this poem this summer and I am sure many of you have read it.  It is a great reminder to me of “Why Everett”.  So many of our families have stories that match and I just wanted you all to hear it from this perspective as well.

https://upliftconnect.com/home-is-the-barrel-of-a-gun/

Thank you for all you do!