Hitting the Halfway Point: Some warm thoughts as we enter a frigid February...
While the frigid temperatures over the past few days may not make it feel this way, we have unbelievably already reached the halfway point of the school year! There is still a good way to go before we can say we are out of the winter woods, but it's nice to see the daylight starting to linger a little longer and feel as though we might be starting down the back half of winter.
This month I would like to take some time to wax poetic about four topics: 'Being there', 'being there', 'being there', and 'getting there'. In less cryptic language; our Valentine's event, school attendance, video announcements, and how to get to the full copy of your child's report card online.
First, this coming week marks our annual Valentine's Labor of Love event. On Thursday, February 7th from 6:30 - 8:00 we will gather to socialize and raise both money and awareness of a great cause: Griffin's Guardians. Our format is slightly different this year as we will start a little later, holding an ice cream social in the gym while we auction off staff made pottery pieces, teacher experiences, and other raffle prizes in the cafeteria with all proceeds to benefit this great organization. In addition, look for a flyer to come home with an opportunity for you to either share in raising money for Griffins Guardians even if you can't make the event - and express your own hopes and aspirations for your child, to be posted in the foyer at school.
'Being there' is important, as Labor of Love is an opportunity for us to move the focus of Valentine's Day for our students from commercialized romantic love, to the love of giving to others in need. It is a chance to show them simple ways to love others right in our own back yard who may be less fortunate than ourselves. I hope you will take some time to come out and have some ice cream and bid on a few things for this great charitable cause.
Second, the issue of school attendance has been heavy on my mind over the past two months. Overall, our school has very strong attendance, but when I look more closely this is in part because of a large number of students who have near perfect attendance which skews the average to look higher overall than what the reality is in many cases.
While we all know it sounds obvious that 'being there' affects learning, I feel it is important to pause and take a closer look at just how much, and in what ways. The long range impact of what might appear to even be minimal absences, is surprising. As adults, we may not think it much for a child to be absent only two days each month - but over the course of a school year this adds up to be 10% of the year - 10% of the content at their current grade level that they miss, which can't be replaced or recreated by sending home work.
Now, I'm also a realist, and let me clearly state that I DON'T want students who are clearly ill to be sent in to school against the better judgment of our parents, simply for the sake of a percentage. Common sense should still prevail when making a decision about our children's health. But I would be remiss if I didn't at least pass on some resources and articles for us to take a few minutes to pause and consider, regarding the impact of school attendance on our children. I hope you find some time to peruse any of these articles and find them informative:
10 Facts About School Attendance
The Importance of School Attendance
Absences Add Up:How School Attendance Influences Student Success
Third, how about an opportunity to make 'being there' easier for you as a parent? Well we've found one small way by taping and posting our recently started 'Friday morning video announcements' for you to see from home if you would like.
About a month ago we were able to begin a Video Club with some of our 4th grade students that began as an every other week endeavor and has quickly been bumped up to a weekly highlight! We hope to keep expanding this club, offering the opportunity for some of our students to become more familiar with technology and video production on a small scale before being exposed to greater opportunities in this area at the middle school, junior high, and high school. It also provides a different and exciting start to our day each Friday morning. Enjoy 'being there' with us while sitting at home or work!
And finally - 'getting there'. I want to briefly address accessing our online report cards - how to get there. While I understand that many parents have been frustrated with navigating the process of getting to the full report cards online, I have also grown concerned that after our first full year of this practice, only approximately 35-40% of parents have accessed these documents. This is such important information that our teachers take a great deal of time to put together and share, my hope is that more of you will take a few moments to go in and look over the document at the end of this 2nd marking period, as there will not be conferences where the information will be directly shared until later in the spring.
Some directions/steps for those of you who have gone in, but not been able to view the full document - we have learned from parent phone calls that the 'trick' is to look for a small icon of a printer on the left side of the screen directly below your child's photo. When you first go in, click on the small purple triangle next to your child's name. Then select the grading tab, and when you get to that screen you should see a small printer icon on the left side underneath the student picture. If you click on this icon, it opens the full report card document - not just the partial document - in PDF form. This should be visible and should work on any type of phone, laptop, or home computer. If you have any trouble getting in to your account, finding the icon, or other issues, please don't hesitate to contact the Main Office and either Mrs. See or Mrs. Floyd will be more than happy to either email you a step sheet or help walk you through the process right over the phone.
The heart of winter and the heart of the school year - hitting the halfway point is an interesting time as we simultaneously can't believe we are starting to look ahead to June already, but also feel like September's opening day was so long ago. I hope that these topics are helpful and offer some insight into some of the larger issues, events, and topics related to your child's school experience. While there are many more that could be discussed, I will try to share about those that will be most relevant to your experience and the time of the year. Don't hesitate to let me know if there is something else you would like to know more about - and thank you for taking the time to tune in and allow me to share. Until next month!
-Mr. Lunden
In addition to this information, please feel free to visit the following links for the resources that many of our parents use each month:
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