This Week at LPHS, January 21-25

Hello All,

Thank you for participating in a wonderful day of learning at LPHS, especially to those of you that volunteered and presented.  Your work is so valuable and together, you are making a huge difference in our schools.  This week is a busy one as we wrap up the end of Semester 1.  Please take the time to read below as well as the PBIS Tickets update.  There will be no Mindfulness activity this week, or Trauma Informed Article.  Thank you and have a great week!

Monday:

* No School for Students, MLK Day

Tuesday:

* Early Release and Staff Meeting - We will start this meeting in the library at 1:55.  During a portion of this meeting, we will be reviewing, but not completing the upcoming PSP process. 

Wednesday:

* Half Day for Final Exams, Periods 1 and 2

Thursday:

* Half Day for Final Exams, Periods 3 and 4

* Happy Birthday, Terry Cady! 

Friday:

* Half Day for Final Exams, Periods 5 and 6

Saturday:

* Happy Birthday, Maggie Schermesser!

Sunday:

* Happy Birthday, Candy Plogh!
* Happy Birthday, Holly Freeman!

PBIS Raffle Update

PBIS Rewards & Acknowledgments Update

As the first semester comes to an end, and we wait excitedly for the second semester to begin, here are some reminders and new information regarding the PBIS raffle tickets:

* Teachers/staff will receive more raffle tickets in their mailboxes sometime this week. Anytime you are in need of more tickets, contact Sarah Jasso. If you do not have a mailbox in the main office, contact Sarah Jasso for tickets.

* While there is no magic number, continue to reward students with raffle tickets as much and as often as possible. These tickets serve a dual purpose: to acknowledge desirable student behavior and to provide data to support our efforts in maintaining that 4:1 ratio (4 positives to one negative).

* Drawings will continue to be held on Wednesdays. As you reward them, remind students to take their tickets to the box in the main office.

* Remember that the tickets should always be used to uplift students, and never to shame or embarrass. Also, try to convey to the students that the raffle is not about the “stuff” they could win; it is about the feeling of pride or satisfaction that comes with being recognized by a teacher or other staff member.

Thank you for all you do in support of our PBIS initiative at LPHS. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

LPHS Tier 1 Standards

Hello,

Thank you for your participation in yesterday's staff/PSP meeting.  I am in the process of getting feedback to you in regards to those PSPs. 

I wanted to follow up on the expectations and also make sure you are aware of where you can find the resources that were passed out during the meeting.  While I firmly believe that we do quality work here with our students at LPHS, I also told you at my first meeting with you that I am always looking for ways that we can improve.  The district's initiative with MiExcel's Blueprint model is geared towards establishing consistent systems throughout our schools.  The standards that we discussed yesterday are things that the majority of our staff does the majority of the time.  Making it consistent across the board, and thus a complete system of expectations, will make our success rates increase drastically.  If you do have any questions or concerns with these standards, please come and talk to me in person.  As a reminder, these standards will be observed and commented on if necessary during each observation in your classroom. 

Again, none of this should be taken as a slight to the work that we do.  It is merely an opportunity for us to focus on what makes us better and more efficient.  I truly appreciate the work that you do. 

This Week at LPHS, January 14-18

Hello,

As we approach the end of the semester, I wanted to address a few items as it relates to High Expectations and Urgency, specifically as it relates to our curriculum.  As we know, there is a lot to get through in our curriculum.  Due to this fact, using too much time for review can often get in the way of meeting these requirements.  As we visit classrooms this week, we will need to see students still engaged in the curriculum, and not reviewing for final exams for the entire week.

Tuesday: 

* PSP Meeting in LPHS Media Center - Please use common assessments with your teaching partner(s).  We will start the meeting in the Media Center at 2:55

* Happy Birthday Christina Kovach! 

Wednesday:

* Happy Birthday Erin Scafone! 

Thursday:

* BTN Meeting, 7:10 - Media Center Conference Room

* Staff Bowling Event at Skore Lanes in Taylor.  Bowling is free but food and drink are on your own.  We would love to see you all there!

Mindfulness Activity: To be completed before the end of next week.


Welcome to Mindfulness Monday!  You should have received a stack of pink sheets with a white sheet of directions in your mailbox on Friday afternoon.  These sheets are for this week's Mindfulness Monday.  Our Mindful Mission today is to make an old-fashioned fortune teller game and give the students (and you) simple strategies that will help things stay calm and focused during the next two weeks of work for our final exams.  Here is a possible way to execute this mission!

1.  Hand out one pink sheet to each student.  Keep the white sheet for you and your document camera. 
2.  Read over the directions with your students on how to make the fortune tellers.  There are written directions on your white sheet.  Place the sheet of directions under your document reader to begin to assemble the fortune tellers.  You can also open another window and go directly to the link with the directions:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Q7cyTZ_P0DU2tkT0JSM1RZN3d5c2dLVWdaQnJqY1ZmeVA4/view?usp=sharing  The directions mention scissors.  Don't panic if you don't have a classroom set of scissors.  You can also use the "Spit method" found in this youtube video:  https://youtu.be/byRyZhg3pTE
3.  Once your students have created their Mindfulness Fortune Teller, read the directions on how to play to them and give them time to work with a partner.
4.  Please remind your students that: 
     - as with anything new, it takes time to get comfortable with things that we aren't used to doing.  It's ok to feel uncomfortable because we all do!  If an activity is very uncomfortable, try breaking it down into smaller parts.  For example, if you don't feel comfortable taking 3 deep breaths, maybe try for one to start.  The goal isn't for you to be perfect; it is for you to begin.
     - there is no right or wrong way to do Mindfulness.  The most important part is finding coping skills that help us calm down and focus when we are stressed.  We are all going to be stressed this week and next!
5.  Keep this fortune teller with you so that you can pull it out and find an activity to do when you feel overwhelmed. 
6.  Have fun!

For you, the teacher:
This activity is also for you to help you take care of yourself during these next 2 weeks.  Pick an activity and run with it when you need it! 
Please recycle any paper that you don't use.  Feel free to put them in Tre's mailbox if you don't have a recycle bin at your disposal!


Thank you and have a great week!

Stress Responses: Teaching Resilience for Trauma and Everyday Crises

By Jennifer Gunn

Many of the challenging behaviors we see in classrooms stem from stress or trauma in our students’ lives. Explicitly teaching our students about stress responses and resilience can help them better recognize their emotions, cope with stress, and reach out for help before they act out. Social-emotional learning tools can have a profound and long-term impact on our students and the classroom. Here’s how to get started.

Exploring stress

The first step toward building a critical awareness is teaching students about the ways that stress can manifest in emotions, behaviors, and physical symptoms. According to the American Psychological Association, “Your body’s stress warning signs tell you that something isn’t right. Much like the glowing orange ‘check engine’ light on your car’s dashboard, if you neglect the alerts sent out by your body, you could have a major engine malfunction.” In the classroom, we witness “engine malfunctions” often. However, if we teach students to become aware of the ways stress can present itself, they become better at managing it.

As educators, we see students reacting to stress in negative ways like these every day:

acting out/short temper

aggressive behavior/fighting

inability to focus in class

fatigue/irritability

getting sick often

stomach aches

giving up on assignments in frustration

crying/yelling in anger

shutting down

fidgeting/jitters

Often when students exhibit these behaviors, they don’t realize that the behaviors are actually symptomatic of underlying stresses. If we teach students the warning signs of stress, we make them mindful of what’s really happening when they feel these emotions or engage in these behaviors. Remember, kids and young adults aren’t always able to accurately label their emotions. Educators can do a lot of good through building emotional intelligence.

Ideas for teaching about stress: 

Create a cut out of a person and have students label the ways stress can affect the body. Have a circle talk and show students the list above, asking them to describe times they’ve felt these emotions and how stress may have been a factor. Have students make a mindmap of what makes them feel stressed.

Introducing mindfulness

Once students know the signs of stress, they can begin to practice mindfulness. Research shows that mindfulness helps students with attention, emotional regulation, compassion, and calming. When a student is feeling stressed, mindfulness teaches them how to pause and thoughtfully gauge their mood. They learn to self-assess and purposefully decide how to cope with their emotions. Perhaps the student is hungry, confused, tired, or in need of some deep breaths. Instead of lashing out, the student learns to pause, recognize, and cope.

Resilience

Teaching students about building resilience empowers learners to understand that emotional regulation is primarily a self-driven endeavor.  Resilience is not a denial of emotional weight, nor does it mean that we must always deal with our woes independently. Rather, resilience is the notion that through awareness, mindfulness, and practice, we can arm ourselves with coping skills to better survive life’s challenges.

Some ideas for teaching resilience: 

Give students examples of life challenges and ask them to brainstorm pieces of advice they would give to someone experiencing that challenge. Or, ask students to identify some life challenges (big and small) and then create emotional action plans for coping with those situations.

Triggers

Another important component of building resiliency is teaching students to identify their emotional triggers. What frustrates them? What stresses them out? What makes them sad? Exercises where students explore the things that produce negative emotions can build an awareness of situations that require more mindfulness. An important distinction to pass along to young learners is that triggers explain emotional responses, but they do not necessarily excuse them. One can’t merely excuse troubling behavior by saying, “Oh well, I was triggered.” That’s where mindfulness comes in, and the skill of asking for help when emotions become overwhelming.

Some ideas for teaching about triggers:

 Have students identify a list of times when they felt mad, frustrated, stressed, or sad. Discuss what students believe triggered their negative emotions. Have students create emotional trigger action plans that incorporate mindfulness techniques: “When I Feel…I Can…” Be sure to provide avenues for counseling or emotional support for times when students need assistance. Another option is to create a safe space in your classroom so students can learn to cope with different triggers and emotions in healthy ways.

Asking for help

In cases of trauma or when life becomes generally overwhelming, students need to know there is help. Again, resiliency doesn’t mean we have to go it alone. Part of healthy resilience is recognizing when we need help and reaching out for it. Teachers should continually make students aware of the options available for counseling and encourage them to reach out when needed.

Security Door and Two-Minute Drill

Hello All,

Thanks for a great first day back.  I appreciate your patience with our students as they transition back to going to school! 

If you did not get the chance to today, please make sure you see one of the secretaries in the main office for your new ID.  These will access the printers and allow you to gain entrance through the security door outside of the office.  You will not need it to go from the main hallway towards the office, but to go in the other direction, you will need to swipe your card.  This goes in to effect Tuesday, January 8 at 8:00 am.  This door will be open in the mornings and immediately after dismissal, but at all other times it will be closed.  Please explain this to your second hour classes when you show the video below.  Student IDs do not work on the door so they will need to be buzzed through by either the secretaries in the main office or in the counseling office. 

During your second hour on Tuesday, please show the video below to all of your classes.  It is just over two minutes long.  This will be a recurring video, and shortly after you show students, it will be posted to twitter and facebook.  Please let students know that they can find it there.  I will also get out a robo call.  Thanks and have a great day!

This Week at LPHS, January 7 - 11, 2019

Hello and Welcome Back!

I hope that you all had a truly restful and enjoyable break.  Hopefully you were able to spend some time with those that you love and celebrate the holiday season!  As hard as it is to come back after 16 days, I am looking forward to seeing you and our students and continuing the awesome work that we do.  Please read below for the details of the week ahead:

Monday:

* SST Meeting, 1:00 in the Media Center Conference Room

Tuesday:

* All four admin at BOE, 9:00-12:00

* I will get a Mindset video out to all of you to share with your second hour classes on Tuesday, in lieu of Mindfulness Mondays this week. 

Thursday:

* LPHS Choir Concert, LPHS Auditorium, 7:00 pm


* As the first semester comes to a close, please remember to fulfill your two after school events.  Basketball season is especially busy as we have home events every Tuesday and Friday and we are hosting the Orange and Blue Classic for wrestling on January 19.  Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Have a great week!

Trauma Informed Tip of the Week, January 7, 2019

Welcome back! The article provided this week is intended as a refresher for how important it is to take a trauma-informed approach with all of our students. Please keep applying these strategies in your daily interaction with your students: they are working!

10 Things About Childhood Trauma Every Teacher Needs to Know

Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children, a program of the Starr Global Learning Network, Caelan Kuban Soma offers these tips for understanding kids who have been through trauma plus strategies for helping them.

1. Kids who have experienced trauma aren’t trying to push your buttons.
If a child is having trouble with transitions or turning in a folder at the beginning of the day, remember that children may be distracted because of a situation at home that is causing them to worry.

2. Kids who have been through trauma worry about what’s going to happen next.
A daily routine in the classroom can be calming, so try to provide structure and predictability whenever possible.

3. Even if the situation doesn’t seem that bad to you, it’s how the child feels that matters.
Try not to judge the trauma. As caring teachers, we may unintentionally project that a situation isn’t really that bad, but how the child feels about the stress is what matters most.

4. Trauma isn’t always associated with violence.
Trauma is often associated with violence, but kids can also suffer trauma from a variety of situations—like divorce, a move, or being overscheduled or bullied.

5. You don’t need to know exactly what caused the trauma to be able to help.
Instead of focusing on the specifics of a traumatic situation, concentrate on the support you can give children who are suffering. “Stick with what you are seeing now—the hurt, the anger, the worry,” Soma says, rather than getting every detail of the child’s story.

6. Kids who experience trauma need to feel they’re good at something and can influence the world.
Find opportunities that allow kids to set and achieve goals, and they’ll feel a sense of mastery and control, suggests Soma. Assign them jobs in the classroom that they can do well or let them be a peer helper to someone else.

7. There’s a direct connection between stress and learning.
When kids are stressed, it’s tough for them to learn. Create a safe, accepting environment in your classroom by letting children know you understand their situation and support them.

8. Self-regulation can be a major challenge for students suffering from trauma.
Some kids with trauma are growing up with emotionally unavailable parents and haven’t learned to self-soothe, so they may develop distracting behaviors and have trouble staying focused for long periods. To help them cope, schedule regular brain breaks.

9. It’s OK to ask kids point-blank what you can do to help them make it through the day.
For all students with trauma, you can ask them directly what you can do to help. They may ask to listen to music with headphones or put their head on their desk for a few minutes.

10. You can support kids with trauma even when they’re outside your classroom.
Loop in the larger school. Share trauma-informed strategies with all staff, from bus drivers to parent volunteers to crossing guards. Remind everyone: “The child is not his or her behavior,” says Soma. “Typically there is something underneath that driving that to happen, so be sensitive.

Source: We Are Teachers.com