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@D114Stanton
@D114Lotus
@FLGSD114
#District114proud
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Kudos to Christine Spittler for jumping in and subbing for my classroom on Tuesday when my assigned sub never showed! You're a lifesaver!
- From Jamie McCormick
Hi Heather,
The first grade team would like to give kudos to Matt Peters for being such a great sport with our "candy thief" activity each year! We appreciate his help and his acting skills! 😊
Thanks!!!!
-From the 1st Grade Team
Thanks to Matt, Cari Miller, Erica Bender, and Heather for helping me calm a student and for helping watch my class! You guys were ALL super positive and appropriately stern. Thank you!!
and
Thank you Erica Bender for making the extra effort to stop by my class to give them a compliment! --Both from Sami Harshaw
Thank you to Jessica Lanners and Colleen Robinson for being ALL OVER monitoring our compliance with student immunizations!
-From Heather :)
Thank you to Tom Robinson for helping assemble and hang name plates with a smile!
-From Maureen Koenig
Kudos to Norm,
Thank you for taking the time to help one of my students learn how to correctly fix the project he was working on. When I was frustrated with the student, you took the time to explain why what he was doing wasn't working. and you took the time to show him how to do the work. As always, you are amazing!
and
Kudos to Duke,
We really appreciate how lead the way in helping out one of our recent 8th grade students who was struggling. Your ideas and follow-up on the situation had a huge impact. Thank you for bringing a fresh perspective to our 8th grade team.
-Both from Gizelle Wells
When you have a kudo to share for someone, please just email me and I'll include it here! The goal is to create system celebrations--so your input is truly welcome!
News from the Business Office
Insurance
Your continued communication is greatly appreciated. As of this moment (Sunday at 2:30 PM), I've been assured that every single person's coverage should be 100% accurate and accessible. I also am scheduling a phone conference with Horton Group as well as BCBS to identify the breakdowns in this process, verify that everything is set, and discuss how to ensure that everything goes smoothly from this point forward. If you have any insurance issues at all--including prescriptions--please contact BCBS but also let me know so that I can continue to monitor the situation and follow up.
Shifting Support
In order to continue to improve our processes, I have contracted with Becky Allard, a retired Chief School Business Officer (CSBO) with 30+ years of experience, glowing recommendations from multiple people I trust, and who was the present of IASBO, the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. Becky was in office on Friday and jumped right in with solutions for our payroll wire issues. Staring 10/31, Becky will be with us part time to ensure smooth execution of all tasks but also to help me redesign the business office in order to work in more effective ways. With the add of Becky, we also close our our contract with Diane Spakowski, who I hired for this short window of time until a longer term solution with the CSBO credentials could be found.
I am certain that, working in partnership with Becky, we'll iron out all the kinks that remain and put together a structure that meets our system needs.
Classroom Supplies
Please remember to turn in your receipts for the $200 materials reimbursements! Thanks to all of you who have already done so! Please email me with any questions, and talk to your principals if you have materials needs throughout the year.
FACILITIES UPDATES
Wahooo!!!! Both Lotus and Stanton have working, shiny, new water heaters! Thanks, Don, for all your hard work on these...and for coming in super early and staying late so that the work didn't impact teaching and learning.
When you have pictures or events that you think our community would like to see, please reach out to David/Mike to add them to the website! As you know, a website is only as good as it's content...and making sure that content stays current.
So...show your stuff! If you/your team has great stuff to share, let's post it!!
Also--keep those tweets coming! Our Twitter feed is AWESOME and I've gotten lots of positive feedback on it!!! THANK YOU!
Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates
We'll have our monthly EAFL/Superintendent meeting this week--looking forward to continued partnership and communication!
Upcoming IEA Events:
- IEA Professional Development Conference 12/1-12/2 in Springfield Click Here to Register (Early bird pricing ends 10/15)
Melissa Williams, President
Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff
Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff
Katy Gardner, Treasurer
Betty Cwiak, Secretary
Barb Brown, Region Representative
Matt Shannon, Stanton School Representative
Tiffany Tardio, Lotus School Representative
Questions for thought as you read...
How do you already build in brain breaks for your students?
Given your students this year, what works? What doesn't?
Given the list below...what might you be willing to try?
What are the brain breaks that work best for YOU??? We all take them...so what are yours?
Energy and Calm: Brain Breaks and Focused-Attention Practices
When presented with new material, standards, and complicated topics, we need to be focused and calm as we approach our assignments. We can use brain breaks and focused-attention practices to positively impact our emotional states and learning. They refocus our neural circuitry with either stimulating or quieting practices that generate increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, where problem solving and emotional regulation occur.
Brain Breaks
A brain break is a short period of time when we change up the dull routine of incoming information that arrives via predictable, tedious, well-worn roadways. Our brains are wired for novelty. We know this because we pay attention to every stimulus in our environment that feels threatening or out of the ordinary. This has always been a wonderful advantage. In fact, our survival as a species depended on this aspect of brain development.
When we take a brain break, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to a problem or see a situation through a different lens. During these few minutes, the brain moves away from learning, memorizing, and problem solving. The brain break actually helps to incubate and process new information. Consider trying these activities with your class:
1. The Junk Bag
I always carry a bag of household objects containing markers, scrap paper, and anything that one would find in a junk drawer -- for example, a can opener or a pair of shoelaces. Pick any object out of the junk bag and ask students to come up with two ways this object could be reinvented for other uses. They can write or draw their responses. Once students have drawn or written about an invention, they can walk the room for one minute sharing and comparing.
2. Squiggle Story
On a blank sheet of paper, whiteboard, or Promethean Board, draw one squiggly line. Give students one minute to stand and draw with their opposite hand, turning the line into a picture or design of their choice.
3. Opposite Sides
Movement is critical to learning. Have students stand and blink with the right eye while snapping the fingers of their left hand. Repeat this with the left eye and right hand. Students could also face one another and tap the right foot once, left foot twice, and right foot three times, building speed they alternate toe tapping with their partner.
4. Symbolic Alphabet
Sing the alphabet with names of objects rather than the letters.
5. Other Languages
Teach sign language or make up a spoken language. In pairs, students take turns speaking or interpreting this new language for 30 seconds each.
6. Mental Math
Give a set of three instructions, counting the sequence to a partner for 30 seconds. Example: Count by two until 20, then count by three until 50, finishing with seven until 80. Switch and give the other partner another set of numbers to count.
7. Invisible Pictures
Have a student draw a picture in the air while their partner guesses what it is. You could give them categories such as foods, places, or other ways to narrow the guessing.
8. Story Starters
A student or teacher begins a story for one minute, either individually or with a partner. The students then complete or continue it with a silly ending.
9. Rock Scissors Paper Math
With the traditional game, the last call-out is "math." With that call, students lay out one, two, three, or four fingers in the palm of their hand. The best of three wins.
Focused-Attention Practices
A focused-attention practice is a brain exercise for quieting the thousands of thoughts that distract and frustrate us each day. When the mind is quiet and focused, we are able to be present with a specific sound, sight, or taste. Research repeatedly shows that quieting our minds ignites our parasympathetic nervous system, reducing heart rate and blood pressure while enhancing our coping strategies to effectively handle the day-to-day challenges that keep coming. Our thinking improves and our emotions begin to regulate so that we can approach an experience with variable options.
For the following practices, the goal is to start with 60 to 90 seconds and build to five minutes:
1. Breathing
Use the breath as a focus point. Have students place one hand close to their nose (not touching) and one hand on their belly. As they breathe in, have them feel their bellies expand. As they exhale, they can feel the warm air hit their hand. Students will focus on this breath for only one minute. Let them know that it's OK when thoughts sometimes come into the mind uninvited. Tell them to exhale that thought away.
2. Colors
Visualize colors while focusing on the breath. Inhale a deep green, and exhale a smoky gray. Have the students imagine the colors as swirling and alive with each inhale. If a student is de-escalating from an angry moment, the color red is a great color to exhale.
3. Movement
For younger children, direct students to stand and, as they inhale, lift an arm or leg and wiggle it, exhaling it back to its original position. For younger grades beginning these focused-attention practices, it's good to include an inhale and exhale with any type of movement.
4. The Deep-Dive Breath
We inhale for four counts, hold for four, and exhale slowly for four counts. You can increase the holding of breath by a few seconds once the students find the rhythm of the exercise.
5. Energizing Breath
We pant like a dog with our mouths open and our tongues out for 30 seconds, continuing for another 30 seconds with our mouths closed as we take short belly breaths with one hand on the belly. We typically take three energizing pant breaths per second. After a full minute, the students return to four regular deep inhales and exhales.
6. Sound
The use of sound is very powerful for engaging a calm response. In the three classrooms where I teach, we use rain sticks, bells, chimes, and music. There are many websites that provide music for focus, relaxation, and visualization. Here is one of my favorites.
7. Rise and Fall
As we breathe in and out through our noses, we can lie on the floor and place an object on our stomachs, enhancing our focus by watching the rising and falling of our bellies.
When we are focused and paying attention to our thoughts, feelings and choices, we have a much greater opportunity to change those thoughts and feelings that are not serving us well in life and in school. When we grasp this awareness, we see and feel the difference!
How do you stimulate or quiet your students?
Source: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-breaks-focused-attention-practices-lori-desautels
October 17--Board of Education meeting (7:00 PM at Lotus)
This is Principal Appreciation Week, and Principal Appreciation Day is officially Saturday, October 20. Please take a minute this week to tell our principals how FABULOUS they are! I don't know what we'd do without them, and I'm blessed to call them my collaborative team!
Let's make this an amazing week! I'm so grateful to work with YOU!
Heather
