NewsNotes 2/25/2018

Welcome back from the February break! The Nardelli family spent some quality time together...we took a road trip to Montreal and spent a couple of days there (in the rain) trying to speak French (poorly), visiting museums, ice skating, and teasing Habs fans.  Vincent (2) loved the Biodome and riding the Metro, Alora (7) loved everything, and my two teenagers just wondered when we would hit the next wifi-spot (upset that I wouldn't extend their cell service beyond the US border :-).  I won't say it was a relaxing trip, but we did have some fun and got to get away from our packed weekly schedules.  I hope you all had some family time together as well.

Parent Workshop Follow Up - Thank you to all of the people who responded to our survey on family workshop topics.  We had close to 50 responses and there was strong interest in each of the four topics (with digital literacy holding the strongest interest, but not by much).  To that end, I am scheduling a couple of events:

• Digital Literacy: I will hold a digital literacy workshop on two dates.  The goal of the sessions will be to open up discussion about screen time, to talk about how to make a family contract, and to look at some resources that can help with device management.
  • Dates:  
    • Wednesday, April 4th from 2-3pm (I’m trying out a new time option for parents)
    • Thursday, April 5th from 8:30-9:30 am

• Rethinking Read Alouds: Combining the ideas of equity, diversity, inclusion and literacy, we will gather a collection of read alouds that focus on characters and stories that offer varied perspectives and experiences. At the workshop, we will ask teachers ( or a parent who is comfortable) to read one of the selected stories aloud to a group of 8-10 parents.  This will be followed by a discussion on how to talk about the themes in the books.  Our plan is to allow parents to attend two book talks (roughly 45 minutes each). There are a few goals associated with this idea:
  • To provide families with tools and advice on how to talk about potentially difficult topics with their children.  
  • To open caregivers up to the idea that talking about issues is an important consideration in raising our children in a diverse society (vs. taking a colorblind approach, which is how I started with my own kids). 
  • To connect parents to one another and give them a chance to discuss perspectives about a variety of issues.
  • Date: Wednesday, March 14th.  We will offer childcare and pizza and will run the actual workshop event from 6:15-7:45pm on that night.

February Assembly - Just prior to the break, we assembled as a school and focused on the topic - "Making Mistakes”.  In all aspects of our work in school, students are learning…they are learning how to treat one another with kindness, how to solve math problems in a new way, how to write to inform or persuade an audience, how to convert one type of energy into another, etc.  For many students, failure, or making mistakes, can be a huge deterrent to learning and trying new things.  We are trying to flip that thinking. At the assembly, we focused on the idea that the brain is like a muscle, and that failure and mistakes are an essential part of learning.  When we fall off a bicycle, we gradually learn to adjust our balance; when we hurt someone's feelings, we can learn about another person's perspective; when we play the wrong note on the violin, we can practice until our brain helps our muscles to fine tune our movements.  The same goes for a math problem or beating a tough level in a video game. The key is accept the idea that the brain actually benefits from mistakes, failures, and challenges.  Each time we fail, we learn.  Each time we make a mistake, we learn. Gradually, as we learn to overcome those challenges, our brain becomes "stronger" and better able to handle future obstacles. Over the next month, we will be focusing on the benefits of making mistakes.  If you’d like to help out at home, here’s an article that has some effective stories and some simple strategies:

• http://micheleborba.com/helping-kids-learn-from-mistakes/

Annual PTO/School Committee/Superintendent Visit - Each year, Superintendent David Fleishman and members of the School Committee visit each school, inviting parents in to hear important district updates as well as a chance to ask questions.  We will also be talking about the Carr school move.
This year’s event will be in the evening on Tuesday, February 27th at 6:30 pm in our music/afterschool space.  All are welcome.

School Safety - In light of the heightened concerns we all feel around school safety,  I wanted to devote some space to sharing with you some details about our current safety plans, and also to share some resources.
First, each school has a safety team, which meets regularly to talk about emergency scenarios, to practice using the defibrillator, to plan for regularly scheduled drills, and to reflect on how we could do things more effectively.
Second, here is a summary of the drills we run at all of our schools in Newton:

1. Evacuation drill - These drills are the typical drills we all had growing up.  The fire alarm sounds and we evacuate the building to a safe distance. Examples of when we might use this procedure could include a fire or a leak of some kind. We have also arranged with the Boys and Girls club and Day Middle School to evacuate to another site if we need to be out of the building for more than a few minutes.  
2. Shelter-in-place - For these drills, we confirm that all of the entrances are locked, and we keep children inside the building. An example of when we might use this procedure is when there is police activity in the neighborhood.  Last week’s criminal activity in Auburndale/West Newton was a recent instance of when this procedure would be called for.  For events such as the one that occurred last week, I alert teachers to what is going on, but we do not tell children.  All activity within the school appears to be completely normal.
3. Lockdown - For this procedure, we initiate a process over the intercom whereby all students and staff are required to move immediately into a locked classroom space.  We make use of a newly installed radio system to alert emergency personnel, who know to respond to an imminent threat within the school building.  Because of the frightening nature of this drill, we practice these procedures with staff more often that we do with students (which is only once per year).   

After events like the most recent attack in Florida, I know that we all worry (as parents, as school employees, and as citizens) about our level of preparation, about the effectiveness of our procedures, and of course, about the broader conversation regarding gun violence and safety in schools and other public places.  I know that many high school students nationwide are becoming more active in urging adults to come up with some solutions, and I know there are events scheduled that call for school participation.  I don’t know what role (if any) our school should play in this, but I will be raising the topic at our administrative meetings, which meet virtually every week. I will keep you posted. 
Finally, if you questions about how to talk to children about these issues, here are a couple of resources:

• https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/02/18/586447438/how-to-talk-with-kids-about-terrible-things
• https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/15/04/when-bad-things-happen

Feel free to let me know if you have questions.

Sincerely,

Mark Nardelli
Principal