Student Services Updates

October 11th, 2023

Monthly Theme Update

Celebrating Diversity in October!

Every month at CEPS we will focus on a school-wide monthly theme. The purpose of this is to provide a consistent focus while building our school community and increasing the social emotional skills of all our students.

Our monthly focus for October is celebrating diversity!

Teaching our students diversity, or the idea that everyone is different, helps our children to appreciate differences rather than fear them. Learning to respect differences in others is a lifelong social skill that can also help build a positive sense of self. When children respect themselves and others, they feel good about who they are. Teaching children to accept differences at a young age is also a beginning step in the prevention of bullying and negative behaviors towards peers.

Nationally, the month of October is recognized as bullying prevention month. Students at CEPS will learn about bullying prevention during Life Skills. We work to teach our students the definition of bullying and build understanding that bullying goes beyond just having a “mean moment” and is a bit different than a conflict. Bullying is defined as hurting someone on purpose, over and over again even though they’ve been asked to stop.

While it is important to teach our students what bullying is, we truly want to focus the most on being kind and accepting of everyone. On October 18th at CEPS we will celebrate Unity Day. Unity Day began in 2011 by Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center as a call to action to prevent bullying and unify in inclusion and acceptance. Students and staff are invited to wear Orange on Wednesday October 18th. Orange is the color worn on Unity day because it is bright, warm and associated with safety. Find any bit of orange to wear, such as orange socks, an orange headband, or even an orange hat. No worries if you don’t have any orange attire at home! We will provide orange stickers for all our students to be included. We look forward to seeing our students and staff uniting in orange for inclusion and acceptance!

Life Skills Update

Dear Families,

I hope that your family has settled into the school routine and that your student has enjoyed getting to know new classmates and teachers. I wanted to take this time to provide you with a snapshot of what your student has been working on in Life Skills class. Like many of the other classes that your child participates in, I have spent the first few weeks of Life Skills establishing expectations and teaching your child “Skills for Learning.”

In Life Skills, I expect students to use eyes watching, ears listening, mouths quiet and bodies in control to convey being responsible and ready to learn. These expectations align with our school PBIS expectations. In addition to learning expectations, your student has been learning skills to aid them in the classroom as well. We have discussed the importance of keeping focused attention and following directions. Your student should be familiar with the phrase use your “atten-to-scope” to help them focus their attention. They have also been taught to use “self-talk” as a strategy to help them remember directions and also as a strategy to ignore distractions and remain focused on the work. Finally, your child has been taught the meaning of using an assertive tone of voice and body to garner the help they may need. Our next unit will focus on feelings/emotions identification in ourselves and others.

If you have any questions about the Second Step program or Life Skills class, please do not hesitate to contact me for more information. Thank you for supporting your child in learning the skills that lead to success in school and in life.

Sincerely,

Keri Bockenhauer

Program Support Teacher

bockenk@mcfsd.org

838-3146 ext. 4929