Principal's Message from Feb. 4
What a great start to 2021!
As a staff we wanted to say Thank You to our parent community for all your kind words and gifts to celebrate the Christmas season. We truly feel appreciated by all of you and rest assured, these gestures mean a great deal to all of us.
This week I met with all classes to celebrate that we made it through half of the school year. As a staff, we wanted to have some time for student and staff reflection as this first half is like no school year any of us have experienced before.
We had students discuss in their class the following:
- What has gone well for you this school year?
- What is something that has made you happy?
- What have you missed this year?
- What are you looking forward to?
- How do you show calmness in school and at recess and lunch?
- How can you be kind to others?
- How can you show you are being safe?
We also went through and encouraged students to use the “Helping Hands” rule when dealing with difficult situations. We encouraged students to keep “small things small” and also to ensure that they were talking to adults when “things” were beyond them solving it on their own.
Another thought I wanted to discuss is how we as adults can role model positive thinking and problem solving for our children. During Covid-19, I have found myself arriving at home wanting to talk with my family about the challenges I faced during the workday. I think this is somewhat natural as we look forward to “getting rid of” all the tough things that happened so we can move on to our evening. However, this tone doesn’t start off the evening or the family dinner in a trajectory that makes anyone feel good. I am working on this along with my wife and two high school daughters. We are trying to always start with: What are two great things that happened for you today? What are two hopes for tomorrow? What did I wish didn’t happen today? Or…What was a challenge I had today? Starting off on a positive just puts everyone in a great frame of mind and allows everyone to keep a balanced perspective. This balanced perspective makes us realize while there are challenges and things to be worked through, there also things to be happy about and celebrate!
Wishing you a wonderful February! We will send out one more newsletter before Spring Break!
Be Kind Be Calm Be Safe
Mr. Colbert