J-HAWK JOURNAL

Parents- I am excited to share news about how we have started the school year supporting our students in a new way. Our student engagement goals focus on meeting all students’ social-emotional needs, recognizing each student as an individual, and making sure we know every child well. We are utilizing the Responsive Classroom approach to achieve this goal and we’re very excited about how it’s going! I thought I’d take this opportunity to explain Responsive Classroom so that when you hear students talking about new things we’re doing, you will have a clear perspective.

What is the Responsive Classroom approach?

It is a way of teaching that creates a safe, challenging, and joyful classroom and schoolwide climate for all students. Valerius teachers who use the Responsive Classroom approach understand that all of students’ needs—academic, social, emotional, and physical—are important. Our teachers create an environment that responds to all of those needs so that your child can do his or her best learning.

The Responsive Classroom approach develops teachers’ competencies in four key areas:

• Engaging Academics—Teachers create learning tasks that are active, interactive, appropriately challenging, purposeful, and connected to students’ interests.

• Positive Community—Teachers nurture a sense of belonging, significance, and emotional safety so that students feel comfortable taking risks and working with a variety of peers.

• Effective Management—Teachers create a calm, orderly environment that promotes autonomy and allows students to focus on learning.

• Developmentally Responsive Teaching—Teachers use knowledge of child development, along with observations of students, to create a developmentally appropriate learning environment.

How might the Responsive Classroom approach look and sound in my child’s classroom?

The Responsive Classroom approach offers practical strategies for teaching. Teachers adapt the strategies as needed to address their students’ needs, so things may look a bit different in each classroom. But you’ll usually see and hear teachers:

• Leading a daily Morning Meeting. These routines set a positive tone and build a sense of community and belonging while giving students practice in key academic and social skills.

• Teaching students the specific skills they need to participate successfully, from how to respond to a signal for quiet to how to respectfully disagree with a classmate.

• Treating mistakes in a positive way. Teachers see mistakes (in academics and in behavior) as important steps in learning. They encourage students to learn from their mistakes and “try again.” They offer support and reteach as needed. At the same time, teachers provide clear expectations for behavior and stop misbehavior quickly so that students can focus on learning.

• Using positive language. Teachers choose words and tone that encourage students to work hard, enjoy learning, and persist through difficulties.

• Teaching in ways that build excitement about learning. Teachers give students some choices in their learning. They also plan active lessons (ones that get students up and moving) and interactive lessons (ones that encourage students to share their information, ideas, and questions).

• Giving students opportunities to reflect on their learning. Teachers ask students to think about what they’ve learned, both individually and as a group, because doing so helps students learn more and builds community.

• Reaching out to parents. Teachers communicate often with parents and welcome them as partners in their child’s education.

What social skills do teachers focus on?

Students learn academics most easily when they have strong social skills that let them take a positive role in classroom life. For example, the social skill of listening respectfully helps students learn from classmates’ oral reports, get information from their teacher about how to solve a math problem, and enjoy a book the teacher reads aloud to the class. Here are some of the specific social skills that teachers focus on throughout the year, with special emphasis during the early weeks of school:

• Cooperation (working smoothly with others)

• Assertiveness (confidently putting forth your ideas and opinions)

• Responsibility (taking charge of yourself and working hard at your learning)

• Self-control (thinking before acting)

• Empathy (listening to others and understanding how they might respond to your words or actions)

How can I learn more about the Responsive Classroom approach?

• Visit the Responsive Classroom website: www.responsiveclassroom.org

• Sign up on the website for the free monthly email newsletter that features articles from the Information Library

• Follow Responsive Classroom on Facebook or Twitter

Happy Fall Everyone! With the fall weather bringing lots of rain, we are having many opportunities for indoor recess as well as opportunities to practice solving problems with friends. The past two weeks in guidance we have been focusing on identifying the size of a problem and then matching our reaction to the size of the problem.

Small Problems can either be ignored or solved quickly with little help.

Medium Problems take longer to solve (more than a few minutes) and may take the help of an adult or two to solve.

Big Problems may take several days to solve and are EMERGENCIES like tornadoes, car accidents, broken bones or bullying situations.

Most problems we have at school are SMALL PROBLEMS.

The most important thing we learned is how we should match the size of our reaction to the size of the problem. In easier terms, don’t make a big deal out of a little deal. PROBLEM = REACTION

If there is a small problem, then we can either ignore it or react in a small way. Say to yourself, “This isn’t a big deal!”

Medium problems may cause us to start getting upset so we learned that we can use a coping strategy to control the size of our reaction. Coping strategies we practiced include taking deep breaths, counting to 10, listening to music, playing with a pet, drawing or coloring, exercising or using a stress ball. When you calm yourself down, it’s much easier to solve a problem.

Big problems would cause us to have very strong feelings and we would need to get help immediately.

You can practice these strategies at home by asking your child, “How big is this problem?” If they are having a big reaction to a little problem, you can remind them that kids expect small reactions to small problems.

(Example: If you get out in kickball, that is a small problem and we expect you to go to the end of the line and wait your turn. Crying and stomping around or leaving the playground would not match the size of the problem and would cause other kids around us to have uncomfortable thoughts like, “Why is that kid acting like that?”

Problems are more easily solved when we match the size of our reaction to the size of the problem. Thank you for helping your children practice this skill at home!

Second great is off to a super start! Every day we start off with a Morning Meeting and the students have loved this component. This has been a time for the kids to learn social skills, build confidence, get to know each other, and build a strong community. We want to thank all of the parents and grandparents who joined 2nd grade in our Morning Meeting last week. It was a special experience that we hope you enjoyed!

Science has been a huge hit with all of the second graders, too! We have been studying earth materials, including rocks, clay, silt, water, and various landforms. We will continue our geology learning by making pet rocks in the classroom. This will add a writing connection by composing narratives about these pet rocks. Later in the school year our science units will include solids & liquids and insects & plants. We hope to have our next Parents as Partners activity be science based. Keep an eye out for that date!

Greetings Everyone! As the season changes needs may arise for families such as food assistance. The Urbandale Food Pantry provides free “nutritionally-balanced 3 day supply of food based on family size, once per calendar month.” There are bread and fresh produce daily when these items are available. The pantry also provides free personal care items for families such as toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant just to name a few.

The pantry requires you bring certain identification in order to utilize the monthly food assistance. If you have a need or have questions please feel free to contact the Urbandale Food Pantry directly at (515)251-6688. The Urbandale Food Pantry is located on 7611 Douglas Ave. Suite 34/35 in Urbandale Iowa 50322. Their hours are Monday-Thursday 9:30am-6:30pm closed on Fridays and certain holidays. The pantry is also open on Saturdays from 8:00am-12:00pm. Don’t miss out on this great service in the community.