One of my favorite aspects about being at Mountain View everyday is seeing the joy that students experience as they learn new things. Yesterday I was in PE with a kindergarten class and a student fell down on the gym floor. In Spanish I asked her if she was ok- she nodded that she was- and another student exclaimed, “You know how to talk Spanish, Mr. Miller! I wish I knew how to do that!”
As a lifelong educator and parent of three older boys, seeing the passion for learning wane as kids get older can be pretty discouraging. Let’s work together to fan that youthful spark into a flame as our kids reach middle and high school! Last week you should have received a newsletter from your child’s grade level team that included what kids are currently learning/ working on. Please use that information along with SeeSaw (and other classroom specific information) to guide conversations you have with your kids about school. Rather than asking them, “How was school today?” and getting the predictable “Fine,” ask them why they think it’s important to learn fractions, what a noun or hypothesis is, etc. When they were in elementary school, I also liked to ask my sons questions about how they spent recess and with whom did they play; what is a situation they could use help with; and who is a student that could really benefit from having them as a friend.
Thanks for carving out a few precious minutes of each day to talk with your kids about school!
Lockdown Drill Follow Up
As you know, yesterday (Thursday) we completed our state-mandated September lockdown drill. We sent out a Schoolmessenger text that stated the DRILL had been completed around 10:12am (9/8). If you did not receive that text, please call the school so we can help you sign up to receive future text messages. Because drills of this nature can potentially be more traumatizing than helpful, we take extra care in how we present this to our students. Our goal is to teach the skills that students need to be safe in a trauma-informed way. As a result, we use the term “lockdown” instead of “active shooter” or “intruder.” We do not make any attempts at making this drill more realistic (no role playing, no simulations, etc). Just like we do not light part of the school on fire when we practice a fire drill! Our preK and kindergarten students do not participate at all. For the younger students who are required by law to participate, teachers often tell them that they are going to practice if someone came to school that was not supposed to and that the class is going to shut the door, turn off the lights, and be silent (very similar to playing “hide and seek”). Keeping our lockdown drills simple and straightforward will always be our practice here as we do everything we can to keep our kids safe: physically
and emotionally.
