Happy TGIF to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week back after the spring break - I know the week just zoomed by (even for me and my first ever experience with pink eye - it stinks) and before we know it, we will be kicking off our ABC Countdown! Before that happens though, I would like to begin by wishing everyone who is celebrating a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY on Sunday! I hope each of our Cantiague moms (and moms to be) has an awesome day and weekend because you all deserve to be celebrated and honored for all that you do each and every day—both here at school and at home. I am seriously in awe of each of you because somehow you manage to fill the roles of teacher, parent, psychologist, caregiver and advocate all day at school and then go home to your own children/families and fill these roles (& more) with grace and patience—you are all an incredible inspiration. As a single dad I have even more respect for all that you do for our kids and your kids. Thank you for sharing so much of yourselves each and every day!
It seems rather appropriate that Teacher Appreciation Week leads up to Mother's Day! I hope everyone enjoyed the week and the mini celebrations that unfolded throughout the week. Feel free to send a thank you note to our PTA because I know they really enjoyed celebrating each of you. I know I have said this before but it bares repeating... It is an honor and privilege to learn from and work with each of you on a daily basis. Your dedication, incredible work ethic and positivity makes this a space where all learners - children and adults - can thrive and prosper.
Finally, I want to thank you all for your love, kindness, support and understanding over the last couple of weeks with this upcoming change in positions. Making the decision to even consider another job was an incredibly difficult one for me because I have never been happier on a professional (or personal) level yet I knew I had nothing to lose by engaging in some discussions about a new job... after all, what were the chances that I would even be the right fit for the job? Well, I can assure you that this decision became nearly impossible when the job was tentatively offered to me. On one hand I couldn't even fathom leaving Cantiague (my home) while on the other hand, I couldn't imagine passing up this incredible opportunity to learn, grow and further develop my skills. Although it was a difficult decision that involved some sleepless nights, emotional drives to and from work, and a lot of conversations with Felix, my dad and a couple of close friends, in the end, I felt it was the right time to take this next step in my professional journey. The possibility to impact an entire district of children and use my passions and skills to enhance their educational experience seemed like the logical thing to do at this point in my journey.
Clearly, I would not have been ready to even take this next step if it wasn't for each of you and our amazing Cantiague kids and community. I have learned so much over the last 8 years from you and have loved watching us become even better versions of ourselves many times along the way. We took risks, we tried new things, we abandoned things that weren't best for our kids, we successfully navigated some difficult times in education and all along the way, we kept it positive, productive and had a whole lot of fun. Well, the only reason that was even possible is because of the culture that exists in our building and community. It is a culture of yes! It is a culture of love! It is a culture of support! It is a culture of camaraderie! It is a culture of learning! It is a culture of putting kids first! The culture in this building is deep rooted in the foundation and anchored in powerful beliefs, norms and traditions. The culture of this building is sustainable and that is the other reason I knew I could move on to a new position. Nothing will change here at Cantiague because of the culture that we have all solidified together over the last 8 years. Your strength, passion and perseverance will maintain and nurture that culture no matter who is sitting in the principal's office because it is only a matter of time before they understand and embrace the culture too. Thank you for letting me be part of this amazing journey and for supporting me in what was the most difficult professional decision I have ever made. I love you all from the depths of my heart and soul and will always be a proud member of the #Cantiague family.
#EDUWINS for the week included...
- Watching the kids in Ally's room preview and prepare their shared reading poem and in that time the children were able to identify so many words in the poem. It was impressive to watch them come up to the SMARTBoard and point to the words they recognized or words they noticed were repeating and do it with such confidence and certainty - WOW! Their growth from September is pretty impressive.
- Spending time in Callie's room while the children were discussing how to construct the "story mountain" for their own stories was impressive! They identified the problem at the base of the mountain and then climbed up the mountain by outlining how the character in the story would attempt to solve the problem and came down the other side of the mountain during the solution. It was so awesome to watch!
- Spending time in Allison and Marissa's room while they introduced the fantasy novel and facilitated a conversation about what the children might encounter in a fantasy book. It was such a powerful share because the children were clearly ready to tackle any fantasy book because they had a clear understanding of the themes that generally present themselves in all fantasy books. It was impressive to listen to the class discussion!
Tech Tip of the Week...
Check out this site that features a bunch of different Digital "Puzzles" and challenges - seems interesting... DigiPuzzle!
And for fun, watch this...
Blogs Worth Reading...
My Biggest Fear As a Teacher by A.J. Juliani
The Real Fight To Learn by Krissy Venosdale
5 Reasons to Read for Reluctant Readers by Edutopia
Staff Reflection/Blog...
Our latest post comes from Jessica & her kids about their initial experiences with the Mindful Life resources...
How has Mindful Life Impacted Us...
“Mindfulness means paying attention... to the present... with kindness”
Below I asked the students to share their thoughts about the Mindful Life program in one sentence…
Brandon: What I learned is that mindful breathing can help me to relax when I’m feeling angry.
Oliver: Mindful life is very helpful in many ways. In the morning I am very annoyed that I have to wake up at 7:00 but mindful life helps me get through the day with a smile on my face.
Sarah: Mindful Life has helped me so far in the beginning of the day to calm down and get all my jitters out for the day.
Jack: Mindful breathing has helped me when I am scared, it calms me down.
Max: Mindful life makes me relaxed.
John: Mindful life helps me to relax and focus if I’m angry or out of control.
Lucas: Mindful life has had an impact on me by helping me concentrate when I have a lot of things on my mind.
Avani: Mindful life helped me to concentrate during the state test because I got worried about it until I took a few deep breaths and I felt less worried.
Abigail: Mindful Life has helped me feel relaxed and it is a very fun way to concentrate on being mindful, like when we had the State Test It really calmed me and I didn’t feel nervous anymore!
Anagha: Recently, we started Mindful Life. It help me when I am stressed or nervous. It calms me.
Dylan: In mindful life we become more relaxed.
Austin: Recently, we started Mindful Life. Mindful life has helped me in sports, going to sleep, and in school.
Ari: Mindful life calms you down when you are having a hard time.
Elana: Mindful life has helped me calm down outside of school too. For example, at dance competitions and at soccer games when we lose.
Taliyah: Mindful life has been helpful because it helps me through hard times!
Anica: Mindful life has helped me when I am nervous or stressed. I can calm down and then I do better with mindful breathing.
Aahana: In mindful life we learned how to be better at “reading” our friends body language with an activity called mirroring. Mirroring is when one person does something and the other person copies what they are doing!
Ashka: In mindful life we learned how to gather our thoughts and just breathe so we can focus better. For example, during the state test I was a little stressed out ( especially the last day of the ELA ) Mrs. Rouse told the class to use mindful breathing during the test if we were feeling frustrated and not to worry!
Ava: Mindful life is something we recently started doing in the classroom. Mindful life means paying attention to the present with kindness and has helped me to focus and pay attention.
Allie: Mindful life has helped me get relaxed so I can go to sleep. Last night I couldn't go to sleep and I took some deep breaths and I fell asleep.
James: Mindful life can help me calm down if I’m feeling mad.
“Mindfulness means paying attention... to the present... with kindness”
In the past I taught a self-contained class of students with Autism. I worked to improve their social skills during a period we would call “Social Smarties”. Some of these social skills worked on improving their peer to peer interactions, reciprocating questions during conversations, empathy and identifying feelings. I have since learned that these are skills that most kids need to practice regardless of their intellectual ability or age. I continue to have a period of Social Smarties with my class each week. We sit together and students share, discuss and practice how they can improve social skills in their everyday lives.
Recently, MaryAnn shared a program with me called Mindful Life. Mindful Life has been embedded into my Social Smarties period seamlessly. Mindful Life has taught me daily classroom routines that I am finding very calming for my students, especially after a hectic recess or a long vacation. Each morning and every day when the class returns from recess we practice mindful listening (1 minute), mindful breathing (1 minute) and one activity that gets the kids bodies moving (2 minutes). The purpose of these brief routines are to “calm down our amygdalas and get our prefrontal cortex’s ready for learning” (all things I learned from the program).
These are routines that I would facilitate, however I have now incorporated choosing students who are showing me that they take Mindful Life seriously, to run these routines each day. This has been so amazing to see and it makes them feel very special. In addition to these new routines, I teach a Mindful Life lesson twice a week about being mindful that doesn't take longer than 10 minutes.
Some of the lessons I have enjoyed teaching the most were called “Seeds of Peace” where the class visualized seeds that represented both positive and negative feelings in their minds. Then we discussed what happens when we nurture the positive feelings like we would any garden and would happen if we let those negative feelings grow...they would be weeds that could take over our positive and happy thoughts! Also, I’m sure we can all agree that kids have trouble with the skill of empathy. With their noses often buried in their devices, many kids have trouble identifying feelings of others and sometimes even themselves. During the lesson on “identifying feelings” we discussed and shared how meaningful eye contact is and how we can “read” body language in order to be more empathetic to our peers.
If you would like to come in and see how any of these routines have been incorporated into our classroom, feel free to pop in and see how Mindful Life has impacted us! Do the students sometimes get silly and laugh when we practice the exercises suggested? OF COURSE, but I feel that the overall routines we have incorporated into our daily practices and the discussions we have has a class that come from each lesson, has been very meaningful!
Below I asked the students to share their thoughts about the Mindful Life program in one sentence…
Brandon: What I learned is that mindful breathing can help me to relax when I’m feeling angry.
Oliver: Mindful life is very helpful in many ways. In the morning I am very annoyed that I have to wake up at 7:00 but mindful life helps me get through the day with a smile on my face.
Sarah: Mindful Life has helped me so far in the beginning of the day to calm down and get all my jitters out for the day.
Jack: Mindful breathing has helped me when I am scared, it calms me down.
Max: Mindful life makes me relaxed.
John: Mindful life helps me to relax and focus if I’m angry or out of control.
Lucas: Mindful life has had an impact on me by helping me concentrate when I have a lot of things on my mind.
Avani: Mindful life helped me to concentrate during the state test because I got worried about it until I took a few deep breaths and I felt less worried.
Abigail: Mindful Life has helped me feel relaxed and it is a very fun way to concentrate on being mindful, like when we had the State Test It really calmed me and I didn’t feel nervous anymore!
Anagha: Recently, we started Mindful Life. It help me when I am stressed or nervous. It calms me.
Dylan: In mindful life we become more relaxed.
Austin: Recently, we started Mindful Life. Mindful life has helped me in sports, going to sleep, and in school.
Ari: Mindful life calms you down when you are having a hard time.
Elana: Mindful life has helped me calm down outside of school too. For example, at dance competitions and at soccer games when we lose.
Taliyah: Mindful life has been helpful because it helps me through hard times!
Anica: Mindful life has helped me when I am nervous or stressed. I can calm down and then I do better with mindful breathing.
Aahana: In mindful life we learned how to be better at “reading” our friends body language with an activity called mirroring. Mirroring is when one person does something and the other person copies what they are doing!
Ashka: In mindful life we learned how to gather our thoughts and just breathe so we can focus better. For example, during the state test I was a little stressed out ( especially the last day of the ELA ) Mrs. Rouse told the class to use mindful breathing during the test if we were feeling frustrated and not to worry!
Ava: Mindful life is something we recently started doing in the classroom. Mindful life means paying attention to the present with kindness and has helped me to focus and pay attention.
Allie: Mindful life has helped me get relaxed so I can go to sleep. Last night I couldn't go to sleep and I took some deep breaths and I fell asleep.
James: Mindful life can help me calm down if I’m feeling mad.
Monday, May 9
"B" Week
Happy Monday!
Tuesday, May 10
"B" Week
Happy Monday!
Tuesday, May 10
No FEO this week!
Gr. 5 Literacy Check-In Meeting @ 11am
Gr. 4 Literacy Check-In Meeting @ 2:10pm
Gr. 5 Literacy Check-In Meeting @ 11am
Gr. 4 Literacy Check-In Meeting @ 2:10pm
Wednesday, May 11
Incoming Kindergarten Orientation all morning! The children will be working in Mandy's classroom
Gr. 3 Literacy Check-In Meeting @ 2:10pm
Shared Decision Making Team Meeting @ 3pm
Gr. 3 Literacy Check-In Meeting @ 2:10pm
Shared Decision Making Team Meeting @ 3pm
Thursday, May 12
Ice Cream Sale
CST @ 1:20pm
Minecraft Recess Club
Spring Concerts (see Clare for in-school performance schedule)- Evening performance schedule...
Friday, May 13
CST @ 1:20pm
Minecraft Recess Club
Spring Concerts (see Clare for in-school performance schedule)- Evening performance schedule...
- Gr. 3 at 6pm
- Gr. 4 at 6:45pm
- Gr. 5 at 8pm
Friday, May 13
Happy TGIF!
Gr. K & 3 are on trips today!
Gr. K & 3 are on trips today!
Reminders...
- Don't forget to implement lessons from our Digital Citizenship Curriculum... access it here!
- Our next whole staff FEO will be Tues. May 17th - featuring time to plan for Innovation Day!
- Innovation Day is coming on May 19th! Click here to check out the plan from last year... feel free to use the same plan or change it up!
Wow, that is fantastic Jessica! I love that your kids are actually using the Mindful Life strategies to help relax when they have anxiety during testing and even to help them to go to sleep! Those are skills they will use throughout their lives!
ReplyDeleteTony, you made me laugh when you sent me a picture of Carly in her yoga pants getting a chair massage! :) It is so nice to be back and see everyone! I really did miss you guys!
ReplyDelete