Food Service Adult Lunch Menu, March

African Well Fundraiser

Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Ahmad and their students are teaming up to do a fundraiser in order to have a well installed in Africa.  This project is one that the students are excited about and helps to address areas of Generosity and Independence in the Circle of Courage.  Please see below for information on what you can do.  The video and Activity is to be completed during 4th hour on Wednesday, March 6. 

Teachers: Please read this to students before showing video.

Did you know that when you brush your teeth with the water running you are wasting 2 gallons of water? When taking a shower, 25 gallons...

The average American family uses more than 300 gallons of water per day at home, which  comes right out of their faucets.

 The African family uses five gallons of water each day, which they obtain by walking for an hour or more and carrying home in a bucket on their heads.

If you had access to only five gallons of water a day, how would you change the way you use water?
Many questions to make you think about the importance of water.

Teacher: Please read after video.

Students at Lincoln Park High School are beginning a fund raising project to fund the construction of a well in Senegal. Please see Mrs. Ahmad (room 140) or Mrs. Anderson ( Room 255) for more information and watch for upcoming projects.

Questions that can be discussed in class to go along with the project: 

Use the video and your background knowledge to answer the following questions: 

a. Approximately how many people live without clean drinking water? 

b. Where is the water crisis occurring?

c. What is impacted by the water crisis?

d. What are some examples of things that women and children miss out on by spending time gathering water?

e. What makes the walk to get water challenging? 

f. What could happen if someone drinks contaminated water?

g. Who is most affected by germs from dirty drinking water? 

h. What are some solutions?

This Week at LPHS, March 4-8

Hello All,

We have very little on the calendar this week and nothing that should disrupt instruction, so it's a great week to work in the small group instruction, student talk, and opportunities to respond that we have been talking about all year.  I look forward to getting in to your classrooms to see this taking place.

Tuesday:

* During 4th hour, you will show the Two Minute Drill for this week.  (I will get it to you tomorrow afternoon)  In that drill will be an update to our attendance incentive for final exams.  It will be as follows:

*Students that miss 3 or fewer classes in your particular hour, have a 75% or higher going in to finals and have not been suspended, will be exempt from taking the final and attending your hour on the scheduled final exam day. 

* I recognize that there are some concerns regarding student growth, tardies, and other areas.  Please know that we are working towards solutions on all of them, but that we need to get something in place to improve our attendance ASAP.  In addition, we will be making changes to enforcing our attendance policies as well. 

* As a reminder to what was discussed at our last staff meeting, you are required to call home for any ODR that is the result of skipping your class or any minor offense.  ODRs that are completed without communication home will not be addressed by administrators until this is completed.  You are the best source of information on events leading to the ODR and communication with our families is key to our success moving forward!

Wednesday:

* African Well Project Video and Activity during 4th hour.

On Thursday I will be visiting all of the co-taught classrooms, following mostly the schedule used with Mrs. Beninghof last week, but also trying to get in to the rooms that we missed.  As a reminder, during this time we will be looking for Specially Designed Instruction and identifying how you are meeting the IEP goals of students in the classroom.  If you have not done so already, please consider making the one page "cheat sheet" for each of your co-taught hours that includes each student with an IEP and their goals on it.

I will work on getting you the screencast of my Small Group Instruction PD from our last PD day this week.  If you have any questions on what we are looking for, I'd love to help out and have that conversation with you.


Saturday:

* Happy Birthday, Courtney West! 

Have a great week!

Trauma Informed Tip of the Week, March 4, 2019

The Benefits of Movement in the Classroom

Scientists have provided a significant amount of evidence that the average learner, regardless of age, needs to briefly move their bodies every 20–30 minutes, and many other students learn the most effectively with movement breaks in 15-minute increments. This enables learners to maintain focus, integrate learning across both of the brain’s hemispheres, enter information into memory, and avoid feeling overwhelmed or information overload.

Here are some specific benefits that movement breaks can provide:

Efficiency in Learning

* The hippocampus needs time to process information because it is partially responsible for short-term memory and navigation
* As students return to the content, the brain is able to refocus
* Movement helps to develop social skills, which are important for connecting to comprehension and critical thinking skills
* Realigning the body/brain connection helps re-energize learning

Stress Relief, Mood Elevation and Social Perks

* If students are uncomfortable or stressed the brain will not retain new information easily, especially when critical thinking skills are being relied upon or the student is needing to connect new information to their personal experiences, prior knowledge or abstract thought
* Student-to-student and student-to-teacher relationships are a key component in successful learning — Research has shown that fun, safe environments where students are kind and supportive of one another equate to more academic success
* There is much less physical movement in modern day life
* Our best ideas often come when we are having a break
* You may reduce feelings of being overwhelmed by the content

Class Cohesion

* Heightens the student’s attendance and participation in class
* Builds relationships and overall concern for the well-being of others
* Develops self-esteem and a sense of belonging
* Boosts listening skills and communication
* Promotes laughter and fun while learning
* Improves self-discipline and motivation

The movements themselves can be very brief and simple. Thirty-seconds to two-minutes is enough time to make all of this magic happen. Some examples of simple breaks are bending over at the waist and touching the toes, marching in place, walking the class around the room, squatting five times, jumping jacks, moving a piece of paper in a figure 8 motion around and between the legs, or clapping loudly and quietly at given intervals. Teachers can pass papers out by playfully throwing the paper in the air so students have to get up and move. Before peer editing work, students can crumple up their work into a ball and the class can have a one minute ‘snowball fight’ and when the teacher says “freeze,” all the students pick up a paper near them, flatten it out and then correct it. The ideas can be functional as well as fun.

In learning environments where movement is integrated, students love being there, they academically perform better, and the information needs less review because students retain the content more efficiently.

Source: Literacy and Language Center