Dear Parents,
Happy Spring! I wanted to communicate some exciting updates!
In order to support students, we have been focusing on calm, quiet and safe routines and transitions. Teachers and administrators have been on posts throughout the school “catching students being good” and also enforcing logical consequences when the opportunity presents itself Many of us have participated in Crew conversations about building our culture and community as we engage in reflection about the ways that we carry ourselves. I have personally been excited to see how students have been rising to the occasion when we give them the structured forum to have these dialogues!
We have also added more structured “Do Now” expectations to our morning arrival routine which includes journaling, skill-building, and sustained silent reading. Students in the middle school have expressed enthusiasm for their journals, ” Can we take them home and write in them even when we are not in school?” I am delighted that the spirit is growing! We will continue to bring creative ideas to our morning routines.
Given that we are focusing on in-class management and logical consequences, we will only use the Alt Room for acute situations or detentions. Students will continue to have restorative conversations that include reset and reflection within the classroom unless there are outstanding circumstances where they need to be removed from the classroom
In other news, middle school is in the midst of starting a Student Government that will host a community meeting as well as some other fun small events. A handful of our teachers will be trained by Kim Marshall on his Sex Education curriculum that has been updated recently. We are also in process of organizing an opportunity for the 1st graders to visit the Dorchester site so that they can preview the excitement of 2nd grade.
Finally, we will be hosting a few more parent coffees for the end of the year– we will have Parent Coffees from 7:15a-8:15a on the 3rd Thursday of the month. The first Parent Coffee will be held on Thursday, March 24th at the Dorchester Campus. All parents welcome to informally discuss questions or concerns.
Thank you for your support,
Nicole