Partnering with Parents

 

It is hard to believe that fall conferences are just a couple weeks away!  Partnerships between home and school are critical, and conferences are an opportunity to sit down and come together with families in an effort of furthering student success. How can we get ready for these upcoming conversations?

Research shows that there are significant benefits to establishing strong parent-teacher relationships.

1.  Students are more invested in school

When parents and teachers have positive connections, students develop a trust in their teachers.  They see the connections between home and school, and students work more intentionally to reach their academic goals. Parents and students connect about things happening in the classroom because communicaiton is clear and consistent   Students grow excited about about their parents' involveement, and look forward to moments when they can share their successes.

2. Problem Solving Happens Efficiently

It's easier to have conversations about tough topics when relationships are strong.  Students are less worried about facing challenges because they have faith that they can overcome obstacles with their teacher and parents by their side. The team is able to work more effectively towards finding a solution because trust has been established.

Students learn best when their parent or guardian is involved in their education. There are a variety of ways families are involved in their child's education - but an open line of communication between school and home is key. Our families are busy, but setting the stage early in your partnership between home and school can front load this relationship. Prior to needing to reach out to parents regarding classroom concerns, or even conferences, many have found it helpful to make personal connections to home. These conversations may take the form of a note home, an end of the day conversation during pick up, a personal email or maybe even a quick phone call. These conversations are essential for building relationships with both students and their families, and proactive deposits will make it easier when there are difficult conversations to have.

Think about any "seeds you want to plant" before conferences, which will be here before you know it.  And please let me know if there are any conversations you'd like help or support with.  It is my goal to be building these new relationships with families as well.

Have a great week-

Sue

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Work-Life Balance

 

                                         

One of the areas the Hudson School District is focusing on this year is supporting a healthy work environment.  Spending time with extended family this weekend reminded me of the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, in order to refresh and be ready for another week! Here are some tips to help you to find a manageable work-life balance.

Work smarter, not harder

Identify and eliminate those nonessential tasks. One way to do this is to apply the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, to your workday. Vilfredo Pareto was an economist who theorized that we get 80% of the results from 20% of the work we do. Educator Dave Stewart Jr. breaks the 80/20 rule as, "80% of student achievement flow from 20% of the work we do with students."  Steward recommends consolidating the time spent responding to emails, doing minimal paperwork, and not worrying about creating elaborate bulletin boards, as ways to cut down on nonessential tasks.

Make friends

Close relationships at work increase your job satisfaction and engagement. Remember you're not the only one who feels stressed at work.  Talking with colleagues whom you can vent with, ask for help from, or share a laugh with can do wonders for your well-being. A Gallup study found close relationships at work boosts employee satisfaction by 50%.

Celebrate accomplishments

Take time to savor your success in a way that's meaningful to you.  Teachers who merely leap from task to task without recognizing the value of their achievements can become burnt out and find their work unrewarding. These rewards can be as simple as ice cream or a movie after work.

Draw a line between work and home

Set boundaries at home - both physical and mental.  If you do need to bring work home, make sure you have an office or designated working area that you can close the door on. Don't check your email after a certain hour to ensure that you have uninterrupted time with your family/friends.  And have one day a week where you are completely off-line in order to disconnect from stress.

Cultivate a life outside the classroom

Hobbies are a fun way to decompress from the day. Start or reconnect with a favorite hobby, like gardening, photography, knitting, hiking, or salsa dancing!  It doesn't matter what it is as long as it's an activity that lets you forget about the classroom and remember who you are as an individual.  

Schedule time to do nothing!

This is a tough one! Doing nothing when you have a lot to do may seem counterintuitive, but it works! This may be especially difficult when you feel overwhemled with planning lessons and grading papers. Most of us feel guilty when we aren't doing something, even on the weekends.  So we check our Facebook feed or our email, or jump on Pinterest for a few hours.  Researchers say distraction-inducing behavior, such as checking our phones, simulates dopomine production and it feels good.  The downside is that we lose connections with ourselves.  So if you absolutely have to do something, practice mindfulness meditation.

Get your ZZZZs

Lack of sleep is detrimental to your health, well-being, and productivity.  Make sure you get enough sleep each night.  Aside from the health benefits, getting sufficient sleep protects you from reaching job burnout.  Sleep helps you to better recover from stress, and improves your working memory, which affects your ability to problem-solve and make decisions.  The more stressed you are, the more sleep you need each night to adequately recover.  

taken from Resilient Educator, July 2020

Kids These Days

 

In preparation for this week's staff meeting....

This week's ALL STAFF meeting will be a follow up on the importance of building relationships with our students.  Now that you've started to get to know your students, we will talk about some strategies to support the wide variety of needs.  We know it's important - but here's the research to back it up.  We'll talk more on Tuesday!

Why are strong relationships important?

Strong relationships provide a foundation for student engagement, belonging, and ultimately learning. The more high-quality time students have with their educators, the better their engagement in school.

How can schools strengthen relationships among students and staff

The most important thing schools can do to foster these relationships is to have a culture that explicitly values adults nuturing relationships with students and providing teachers and school staff with the time, space, and occassions to interact repeatedly with individual students, specifically those that seem less engaged.

Which adult relationshipos are most impactful?

All in-school adults should strive for strong relationships with students.  When students have strong relationships with their teachers and other staff in the school, in-class motivation increases the most.  In these instances, students are motivated by staff's high expectations as well as their own.

How should schools group students to foster relationships between adults and students?

Smaller groups are most effective for fostering relationships, and one-on-one interactions allow for the greatest opportunity for individual attention and support.  But any type of interaction is beneficial!

What tasks will foster strong relationships in individual or group settings?

Activities are most effective when they are based on students' interests or goals.  What makes the student tick?

(taken from Education Trust, 2021)

 

PBIS Review

As we review and implement Willow's PBIS system these first few days, I thought a little review might be helpful, especially for new staff.  School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions Supports (PBIS) is a sresearch based framework for establishing the social culture and behavioral supports for students to achieve both social and academic success. PBIS defines core elements that can be achieveed through strategies such as clearly defining and teaching behavioral expectations, a reward system for appropriate behaviors,  clearly defined consequences for problem behaviors, tiers of differentiated instruction for behavior, and continuous collection and use of data to inform decision making.  PBIS is used in over 9,000 schools across the U.S. 

In order for PBIS to be most effective, these things must occur:

• Clear Expectations are developed, taught and modeled
• Commitment by the staff to the PBIS goals
• Consistent and reliable rewards and consequences
• Data is collected and utilized to determine next steps

Kick Off

Thank you to our PBIS committee members who helped with the PBIS Kick Off on Wednesday.  Please refer to the PBIS tab on the blog to rewatch any of the videos for review.

Blue Tickets

A reminder to staff to reward positive behaviors with blue tickets.  Each teacher should have a place to collect the tickets (with names on back) for classroom drawings and random ticket drawings.  Sarah and I are going to try to have a random ticket drawing sometime this week!!

Willow WOWs

We have switched up the Willow WOWs this year where only staff submit them for students.  Blue half-sheets were in mailboxes last week, and there are extras in the work room.  Please complete them and put them in my mail basket (on the counter in the office).  These will be announced on the Raider Report, I will get the student(s) to make a good news phone call home, the blue note will be sent home, and the student's picture will be on the screens in the office and entryway (rather than the polaroid).  I will explain the process on the Raider Report this week.  Please let me know if you have any questions - and let's get these Willow WOWs started! =)

Reteaching Slips/Documentation

We will continue a fluency/practice period for students to learn/review the expectations, and the reteaching slips will begin October 11th.

Golden Prizes

The class/grade level GOLDEN PRIZES will be announced at our first all-school meeting, on September 24th.

Please let me, Sarah, or anyone else on the PBIS team know if you have any questions!

Have a great week -
Sue