Principal ponderings...
This Wednesday, September 15th-ish, is International Dot Day! It's a day (or week) of celebrating creativity, courage and collaboration. As we talk about our students being seen and heard, this is a perfect day to start helping our students find the courage to make their mark, to be creative, to share who they are.
I learned about this song which I thought went well with the message of Dot Day. It's by Alex Sampson and it's called "Cannonball."
The line that says..."don't shy away from who you are, jump right in and do a cannonball...", that's the message that Peter Reynolds shares in his book The Dot. You have to not be afraid to make your mark. We want our students to know that "everyone else is taken, just be you!" As we continue to talk about identity, who we are, what we each have to share, I hope we can encourage all our students to do a cannonball...just jump right in! Start with a dot and see where it takes you.
What will you "C" in your students? What will they "C" in you?
Creativity?
Collaboration?
Courage?
Connection?
Cannonballs!
Currently reading:
I listened to a great book right before school started called Chop Wood, Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great. It was a short listen, but had lots life lesson nuggets in it. It's the story of a young boy who is training to be a samurai warrior, but his biggest battle he must face throughout the story is the man in the mirror.
Events this week:
Monday - 6 feet starts in lunch again, 30 desks in the gym and 2 to a table in the cafeteria, no assigned seating, we are also starting to serve snacks in 4th and 5th grade this week
Tuesday - Bus evacuation canceled for today, will be rescheduled
Wednesday - Dot Day!
Thursday - Liz meeting virtually with the Commissioner at 10:00
Great things I noticed:
- The gaga pits are here!!! Huge thank you to the PTA and parent volunteers for making this happen.
- Mrs. Desruisseaux's class brainstormed many words associated with choosing to be nice and then when they put those words into wordle word art...look what happened!
- It was so great to come together as a staff during our first staff meeting of the year. Excited to start our work of making sure every student in our school has an adult to connect to.
- So far I have met with 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade to launch our Choose to
Be Nice campaign. Excited to head into 1st and K classrooms over the next two weeks. Once I have everyone's signature, we will find the best spot to hang our banner!
Check it out:
We will be discussing pronouns and identity more, but I wanted to share some articles and posts for you to start reading about and thinking about this important discussion:
https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/educators-playbook/erin-cross-pronouns-gender-identity
https://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-pronouns-myths/
Also, I subscribe to a quarterly box distribution company called Little Justice Leaders. Each box contains a book, along with activities, information about organizations, and a focus on social justice topics such as hunger, mindfulness, race, etc. I will be keeping the boxes in my office, but please feel free to stop by and look through them and borrow anything you want from them.
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