EMS Newsletter

Hello EMS Families!

Welcome to November! Can you believe we are already a quarter of the way done with the school year? Time is absolutely cruising. November is a short month with our week-long Thanksgiving break, but there are a number of exciting things coming up to which I wish to draw your attention.

First, teachers will have student report cards and comments in by the end of this week, and these will be sent out to you shortly after. If you have any questions regarding how your student has been assessed or how you might support their learning, please do not hesitate to be in touch.

Secondly, on November 10th, you will receive an email from your child’s Community Time teacher, who will be hosting your child’s Student-Led Conference. The majority of conferences will be held on Monday, November 20th and Tuesday, November 21st. There are a few changes to conferences this year, and the email from the Community Time teacher will outline some of these changes. You will receive a follow-up email from me on November 11th with further details. Additionally, you will receive instructions on how to sign up for conferences via our PTCFast conference sign-up platform. Your students have been reflecting on their learning from the first quarter, and I am excited for them to be able to share these reflections with you!

Thirdly, we are having an All-School Dance on Friday 11/17! This is a change from the original date of 11/10. Thank you to the EngageEMS PTO for hosting this dance and to all the teachers and parents who have already volunteered to chaperone! There will be no basketball practices on 11/17. This is both because we have student athletes who wish to attend the dance, and because basketball and the dance both occur in the gym and doing them at the same time, while perhaps somewhat fun in theory, would probably get awkward :).

Lastly, as just referenced, WINTER SPORTS are beginning! Please see the announcements below from our Athletic Dept for more information! Don’t miss the “Meet the Coaches” Meeting this Tuesday 11/7 from 3:15-3:45 in the EMS gym!

A Closing Thought: As I walk through my days in our beautiful building full of beautiful humans, bouncing between all the different needs, desires, wants, challenges to be addressed, and triumphs to be celebrated, I’ve been trying to stay grounded, keep a lightness to it all, and also remain tethered to the serious purpose of our time together with these young people every day, to meet them where they are at and to aid them in their journeys forward.

To that end, I find myself daily employing a framework known as PACE. PACE stands for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy. You can read more about it here: PACE RESOURCES. This framework reminds me that, while I can’t control what the students bring every day, the thing I have the most influence on is how I show up.

Playfulness brings the lightness that this work, especially with this age, really needs. And I don’t mean sarcasm or cynical humor, but imagination, silliness, the disarming air that allows permission for everyone to be whoever they are. Feeling stuck? Try playing!

Acceptance allows us to notice and be present without evaluation, mindfully. By accepting what is and working from there toward what we wish to see, we are released from the tyranny of “should” that can drain us emotionally and communicate to young people that they are not right, are not enough, that they are a problem.

Curiosity helps me to approach situations with students without bringing all my assumptions with me. This saves me from many time-consuming errors that compromise the efficiency of my work with them. It can also be a paradoxical intervention. When a young person is expecting you to react in a certain way, to fulfill your half of a script, and instead you respond with curiosity in a way that breaks the script, what you’ve done is to generate cognitive dissonance. These are the most important windows for change! The moments when a student goes “What?” or “Huh?” or just kind of tilts their head in that “I’m not sure what’s happening” kind of way – THOSE ARE THE MOMENTS!!! Those are the times when we can write a new script with them about what is possible. We learn more when we are curious than we do when we walk in thinking we already have all the answers.

Empathy speaks for itself. Everything happens in relationship. Empathy is the basis of all relationship. Attunement is the backbone of our work. A poet named Dean Young (whose work I don’t particularly like, but whose writing about poetry I love, which is funny, because I usually can’t stand writing about writing) says in his book The Art of Recklessness: “Imagination is the highest accomplishment of human consciousness, and Empathy is the highest accomplishment of imagination.” BOOM! Empathy helps us to feel seen, heard, and valued by each other. We are social beings, and particularly for those in our community who have been harmed and who externalize that harm in symptoms that negatively impact others, to experience a lack of empathy and compassion is devasting, compounding all the hurt in a positive feedback loop of pain. Empathy is the intervention.

I find PACE to be incredibly helpful on the daily, not just in my work but in life. Perhaps you might as well. I recently shared this frame with the teaching staff at EMS, and I share it with all of you now in the hope that it might prove useful. Thanks for reading, and for being the wonderful, caring, community you are. Onward into November!

John

October began the 6th grade Suicide Prevention Lessons. This curriculum teaches young people and staff the facts of suicide, how to tell when someone is at risk and how and where to access help.

The curriculum has four goals:

• To increase help-seeking behavior

• To increase staff and student abilities to identify someone who is becoming at-risk for suicide

• To respond appropriately when a student shares suicidal thinking or intentionality

• To actively get help for an at-risk student, even if confidentiality has to be compromised

Please reach out to Ms. Brady, 6th Grade School Counselor, klozier@bsdvt.org if you have any questions or concerns.

Breaking Bread & Building Bridges Black Parent Group: The Office of Equity is hosting a dinner, presentation and discussion with Black Parents on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, at Contois Auditorium from 5:30-7:00 pm. Do you know of families that would be interested? Please share this form to RSVP and attend the event.

"Meet The Coaches" meeting at Edmunds is this coming Tuesday 11/7 from 3:15-3:45 in the EMS gym!

Fall Coaches Evaluations have been emailed to Fall Athletes! Please support them in providing this vital feedback!

WINTER SPORTS:

Caretakers,

Winter sports are right around the corner and this year we are offering Basketball and Nordic Skiing at the middle school level. Signing your child up for a sport is done by visiting BurlingtonAthletics.com and selecting 'registration' at the top right of the home page. Students must be signed up by their parents or caretakers, this should not be done by themselves. After you have selected 'registration' you will then need to create an account and input your students' information. After that, there are three tasks that need to be completed.

1.) Emergency Card

2.) Physical Upload Form (If you have submitted one this year or in the past two years, you are all set. Moving forward, this will need to be completed yearly.)

3.) Athletics Participant Form (This is where you select the sport that your student-athlete wants to join)

After you upload the physical form it will say "Pending Approval." This means that our Athletic Training Team is reviewing and will turn to "Approved" once it is reviewed.

Important Dates:

Meet the Coaches Meeting

(School Gymnasium)

Hunt, Monday 11/6 3:15-4:45

Edmunds, Tuesday 11/7 3:15-4:45

Evaluations/First Week of Practice

Monday, November 13 to Friday, November 17. Students will find out what team they are on following practice on 11/17. We are still operating under our "no cuts" policy. Depending on numbers, we may be looking for help with coaching our C Teams. Please reach out to Ryan Hayes if you are interested in coaching one of our C Teams!

Hunt Girls Basketball

6th Graders 4:15-5:15

7/8th Graders 5:15-6:15

Hunt Boys Basketball

6th Graders 6:15-7:15

7/8th Graders 7:15-8:15

Edmunds Girls Basketball

6th Graders 3:15-4:30

7/8th Graders 4:30-5:45

Edmunds Boys Basketball

6th Graders 5:45-7:00

7/8th Graders 7:00-8:15

There are no athletics during our November school break. Sports will resume on Monday 11/27. During the week of evaluations, parents can expect to hear from coaches in regards to the season ahead. We will be going over this at our "Meet the Coaches" meeting along with important information surrounding our blue/red form process, transportation to games and what it means to be a student athlete.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the All-Sports Kickoff this past Fall. The families in attendance provided positive feedback, and many families who were unable to attend confirmed that the virtual version was also helpful. Below is a link to the virtual meeting, please review this if you have any questions. If you are unable to find the answer to your questions, please reach out.

BSD 2023-2024 All-Sports Virtual Kickoff