Weekly Communications

Hello PCMS Students and Families! We hope Spring Break was the time to take the ideas from our last newsletter on Social Connectedness and practice having fun through virtual spaces. Hopefully the time was also spent making discoveries about what you like, sharing reading experiences while practicing physical distancing. This week we want to build on previous newsletters and focus on resilience. If you missed it, our last letter can be found here.

Resilience has been described in a few different ways, one example:

“…many counted us as down and out; but we believed in our fans, each other, ourselves and we overcame a lot… “, Russell Wilson, Jan 2017 The News Tribune.

Resilience is a characteristic that we can all build through experience, every time we come back from a difficult experience, like now. Support and trust from those that are important to us, combined with our belief in ourselves empowers us and our children to keep trying again and again, in the face of adversity.

This week we want to share some suggestions on how to build resilience in ourselves and our children. We will be faced with new challenges of remote learning as we continue to fulfill the Stay Home and Stay Healthy order.

The decisions we need to make when we consider building resilience can be separated in two parts: Sense of Purpose and Perseverance.

SENSE OF PURPOSE: Allows your teen to remove some of the unknowns during a time of uncertainty. When we have a plan that takes care of our responsibilities and ourselves we feel more autonomy, and confident about taking action.

· Structure: Sit with your teen and identify the priorities of remote learning, and help them create a schedule of waking up, logging in, studying and turning in the work. This can be reviewed once a week to check-in with its effectiveness. Visual aids can help to identify the plan for the week, and be flexible. (For example, Kanban https://geekdad.com/2018/11/kanban-organization-for-the-whole-family/)

· Free time: Remote learning and the current social environment creates anxiety and fatigue. We know we are working to our best and deserve to take care of ourselves too during this challenging time. Within the structure ensure your teen has included time for breaks, laughing, social connection, and resting.

PERSERVERANCE: Allows your teen to learn to recognize how far they have journeyed and the importance of learning, especially when things don’t work out the way they wanted them to.

· Practice gratitude: Sometimes we can get overwhelmed with all the things that are going wrong. Take the time to stop and remember what experiences make you smile and laugh, how we have grown, what makes us say thank you. Use the Gratitude Journal.

· Forgiveness: Things don’t always work out, we can get upset, sad, angry, defeated or some other emotion. We lose a little faith or patience in ourselves or some-one else, and we begin to feel uncertain and fearful. Stop, and give yourself a hug. You don’t know about tomorrow, today define yourself by showing forgiveness.

Each week, we will be offering a simple mindfulness practice students and families can use to help alleviate stress and increase coping skills. This week we are encouraging you to try a Gratitude Meditation. Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can close your eyes and focus on your breathing and the affirmations. If you prefer a more soothing meditation please try the Nature Sound Meditation, a 3-minute version by Stop, Breathe & Think.

6-Minute Daily Gratitude Affirmations by Epic Central

3-minute Nature Sound Meditation by Stop, Breath & Think

For those that may find a mindfulness practice that requires you to stay still and quiet challenging, please consider a daily 10-minute stress relief yoga practice.

Yoga for Stress Relief by Yoga with Do You Yoga

Remote learning is hard. Hard for students who do not get face time, direct instruction, and immediate feedback from their teachers. Hard for adults who have been thrown into a new role while continuing to juggle work and household jobs.

When students are struggling to stay focused and be resilient learners, our job as adults is even harder. Here are some tips for supporting your reluctant student at home:

The Weekend Doesn’t Begin Until Overdue Assignments Are Done

If your child has uncompleted work, their weekend shouldn’t begin until those assignments are done. In other words, Friday night is a work night if their week’s work is not complete. (Saturday too if needed.) This is a highly effective consequence for students because it creates a great incentive to get their work done. Indeed, each minute they’re doing homework is a minute they could be hanging out with friends or playing video games.

Use Effective Consequences

When assigning consequences, be sure they’re effective consequences. What makes an effective consequence? An effective consequence motivates your child towards good behavior. They put you back in control and teach your child how to problem-solve, giving your child the skills needed to be successful.

• An effective consequence looks like this: “If you fail to turn in your work, you can’ no longer work in your room and must work at the kitchen table until you get and maintain turning in your work”

• Another effective consequence would be the following: “If you choose not to work during the scheduled time, you will lose your electronics for the night. Tomorrow, you’ll get another chance to use them.” And the next day, your child gets to try again to earn the privilege of electronics. Short-term consequences like this are very effective. Just don’t take away this privilege for more than a day as your child will have no incentive to do better the next time.

Allow Your Student Some Choice

While maintaining an at home “school schedule’ allow for some choice and flexibility. During a ‘session’ allow them to choose if they are going to work on algebra or English. They may prefer one over the other and often building some momentum makes it easier to start the more challenging work.

Offer encouragement and positive reinforcement for efforts made. This is new territory for all, and as we all learn to be effective in this situation, we need to remember to offer positive encouragement for efforts towards completion of work. Even if the entire assignment isn't completed. With reluctant learners in the traditional learning environment, we often encourage teachers to express verbal approval for any sign of beginning the assignment, even if the student just picks up the pencil.

Go for a walk in your neighborhood or at a local park and pick up any trash you see along the way. Come prepared! Bring some gloves and your own trash bag so you can be clean while you clean. Try making it a competition between all family members who can pick up the most trash or pick up trash the fastest.

Now that the school closure has been extended through the end of the school year, this will be a time of prolonged adjustment as students and families transition to on-line learning. Transitions and change can be difficult for students, especially during such an unprecedented time in history. Our Swedish School Based Mental Health Counselor, Laura Greening, is available to support students through individual telehealth (online) counseling support. If you are interested in getting your student connected to services, please do not hesitate to reach out to our school based mental health counselor: laura.greening@swedish.org.

Free virtual counseling sessions available for high school students age 13-18 years old. Meet with one of the Garage Counselors while maintaining Social Distancing ! Appointments available Mondays and Tuesdays. Sign up for a private, confidential session here

If you or someone you know needs support urgently, contact the crisis text line by texting "hello," to 741-741. You will be connected to a 24/7 hour live crisis counselor or you can call the Crisis Connections 24hr Crisis Line at 866-4Crisis. You can also use this link to be connected to a crisis counselor https://www.crisistextline.org/get-help/coronavirus. If you think someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

· Crisis Text Line – text START to 741741 www.crisistextline.org

· King County Crisis Connections 206-461-3222

· Trevor Project 1-866-4UTREVOR (488-7386) (specific toward LGBTQ youth)

· National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

· Teen Link 1-866-833-6546 www.teenlink.org

· Children’s Crisis Outreach Response Services (CCORS) through the Crisis Clinic 206-461-3222

As instances of cyberbullying may increase during this time, here are some ways to help at home. Please know that you or your student may email their school counselor (contact information below) as well if they need support.

https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/prevention

Laura Meserole, 6th Grade Counselor

Jessica Morrison, 7th Grade Counselor

Miranda Williams, 8th Grade Counselor

Gurminder Randhawa, 8th Grade Counselor

Tiffany Stephens, Counseling Intern

Laura Greening, Swedish Mental Health Counselor

Amy Butson, PBSES Coach

Website: https://www.issaquah.wednet.edu/pacificcascadems
Location: Pacific Cascade Middle School, Southeast Issaquah-Fall City Road, Issaquah, WA, USA
Phone: 425-837-5900