Hello EMS Families and Community! Welcome to December!
Can you believe it? The days are getting darker, and with so much challenge in our world right now, I want to share some of the initiatives underway at EMS aimed at increasing the light.First and foremost, we have music upon us! On Tuesday of this week, EMS will be hosting our local Youth Opera Company for a free, in-school performance of "From Spain With Love." This will primarily be viewed byl students enrolled in our performance music and foreign language classes. Some of the singers are former EMS students, and we are so excited to have this wonderful work in our school!
Then coming up, mark your calendars for the EMS Orchestra Concert on the evening of December 14th, and the EMS Chorus Concert on the evening of December 19th. There is nothing quite like the magnificent alchemy of students producing music to lift and enlighten us, especially in the cold and dark of winter. I hope to see you there!
Secondly, I want to highlight the enormous momentum for building a healthy community and modeling positive personal choices currently being led by our EMS “Be Above” Crew, facilitated by Edmunds Student Assistance Program Counselor Angela Halstead. “Be Above” supports healthy choices and educates around substance use prevention and intervention. This year’s robust and engaged “Be Above” crew are hosting Red Ribbon Week this week at EMS for drug and alcohol prevention.
Every day this week students and staff will dress according to a theme to show their support for a substance-free community. They will sponsor Community Time activities on Wednesday dedicated to natural highs. And they will be coming to us over the airwaves with a “Name That Tune” competition where each classroom can try to guess songs played over the loudspeaker after hearing just the first few seconds. The grand prize is a selection of socks for the whole class as a part of Be Above’s “Sock it to Drugs” campaign! All of this is student-led and supported, guided by the absolutely indispensable Angela Halstead, an incredible asset and credit to our school and community. EMS is so lucky to have her and these students doing this work to support community health.
Lastly, I am excited to welcome Amie Koontz, MS, CMHC, LMT, an integrative clinical mental health counselor working with trauma and marginalized individuals and communities in the state of Vermont, to our school this month for the first in a series of professional development opportunities for our faculty and staff which are scheduled to stretch over the next 4-5 months.
It is clear that the impacts of the pandemic have accelerated what was already an incredibly challenging time for the mental health and wellbeing of adolescents in our country, in our state, and in our city. Nervous systems are easily overwhelmed. Pain and harm are begetting pain and harm. We see it in the news. We see it in our classes and hallways. The goal of these trainings is to help our educators develop the knowledges and tools to best respond to the needs presenting in the moment, and to help us guide students toward building a more connected, positive, resilient culture at Edmunds for all. This will take time, and this work here is merely one piece of that larger initiative, but it is an important piece, and I am happy to share it with you all.
Thanks very much for reading, and for all you do for EMS and our community.
See you at the concerts!
John
