This is my newsletter to my team this week.

Hi Team,

Upcoming Calendar Events:
Today at 3:40, in the library, the new superintendent will be here to discuss what you want in a new principal. Please plan to attend.

This Friday, there is a dance, and we need chaperones. Please let Dianne know if you are willing and available.

For the regular board meeting in April, we are scheduled to present a volunteer of the Month. If you know of someone, please hit reply and let me know who and why they should be recognized.

PEAKS testing will be on April 11, 12, 13 starting first thing in the morning each day. Proctor training, which everyone should attend will be on April 7, during early release. If you can’t make it that day, please attend with the high school this Friday, in room D121.

Resources
Here are four resources about Social Emotional Learning:

Part 1: Characteristics of effective SEL programs
Part 2: Implementation strategies and state and district policies that support SEL programming;
Part 3: Teacher and classroom strategies that contribute to social and emotional learning; and
Part 4: Outcomes of social and emotional learning among different student populations and settings.

Read the reports here

Teachers have dealt with the impact of trauma on students for years, and research suggests that educators can moderate the effects of trauma by forging strong relationships with traumatized children and providing a safe and supportive learning environment. Education Northwest has published a free resource, “A Practitioner’s Guide to Educating Traumatized Children,” that provides insights drawn from the latest research, as well as a set of trauma-informed classroom practices for educators.

This article, Standards Based Grading Made My Kid Average gives some good insight into how to teach others about why we use standards-based instruction rather than traditional grading.

Sometimes, we need to relearn things as adults. This video clip is fascinating relating to how to relearn something as engrained as riding a bike, and how that can really take a long time.