Principal's Message October Edition 2011

Dear JHS 13 Community,

Happy belated Halloween! This school year has really blasted off with great momentum. In other words, we are firing on all cylinders, playing at our best, and driving it home. This is on all areas of the community. Parents are reaching out and showing the importance of being involved. Teachers are teaching and building a culture of success. The main office is working diligently to make sure all student information is accurate and up-to-date. The student management office is supporting both parents and teachers in providing the best education for our students. The counseling team is being relentless about making sure each child gets the support they need to be successful. Finally, the administrative team is keeping the goals clear to everyone and driving the school to achieve 100% of those goals.

We have our parent teacher conferences coming up on November 17th from 1pm to 3pm and from 6pm to 8pm. It is one of the best opportunities for all members of the community to really connect on making sure all of our students are getting ready for the state exams and doing what it takes to be a strong reader, remarkable writer, and excellent critical thinker. All parents will get the opportunity to meet with teachers with administrators, with students, and even counselors. In addition, the school will be hosting a pot luck and open house for prospective students. We are encouraging all parents to bring your best dish to share with staff and other families. It is not only going to be an informative evening, it is going to be a festive occasion for all of us to give thanks for the strong community we are building. I can't wait to see you there.

On another note, through my observations and conversations with students, I have noticed a pattern of results that I cannot sit back and watch. My vision is a world where everyone is empowered to live in contribution and create joy for all. One important ability that all members of our community must have to create this world is the ability to communicate how we each feel. I see this important skill lacking with our students. The unfortunate part is it's resulting in situations that could have been easily diffused. When a child or even an adult struggles to communicate their feelings and solves their conflicts or situations with actions, relationships are broken and opportunities for friendships are destroyed. Most of the time when we choose action, we forget to use one of the most important gifts we were all given, our brains (the other being our hearts).

One of the initiatives we are launching this month is a conflict resolution lessons throughout an18 week duration of time. The core of the 9 lessons works with our children on productively communicating their feelings and issues. By getting students to move towards words rather than actions we are developing their critical thinking and, most importantly, teaching them how to work out their issues where we can create a win-win situation. Actions result in one winner and one loser. Many of our students believe this is the only way it can happen. What we will be working on is through communication we can achieve a result that both parties can walk away feeling good about a productive adult conversation. We hope parents at home can reiterate this message. As an entire community, it is essential we model this at all times so students can learn from our actions.

Communicating feelings can be as basic as, "when you bumped into me, you made me feel like I was invisible." This drives a response, "sorry about that. I didn't mean to bump into you." Instead of one student threatening or making remarks about the other child when he or she gets bumped into, we get a conversation as a result. As adults, especially on a bad day, we have an inclination to respond with actions. The question we need to ask ourselves is how do we want our children to handle these situations and then proceed in that fashion. Our goal is to live today but build toward a better tomorrow. By encouraging our children to talk out their conflicts, we are building a much better tomorrow. Imagine if we could eliminate violence and war? It starts with us showing our children how we can be better people so they can in turn teach others. It's truly what we make of those little opportunities that become huge waves that affect our future. It starts with you. When you come to parent-teacher conferences, we can share more information of what we are going over with the students.

Ideally, it is to get our students comfortable with expressing themselves especially with their learning. If we can get each of our students to let us know when they do not understand words, when they are truly confused, when they are intimidated by a subject, or when they do not feel comfortable going to a teacher for help. Self-expression is the key to the success of a child. Working together as an entire community, we can build a school full of students who know how to articulate themselves. We just have to commit ourselves to creating this culture. I share this because I know it is achievable. We just have to work together.

Finally, we have recently seen a large increase on candy intake. This is no coincidence since Halloween has just passed. Kids are not eating nutritious breakfasts and lunches. This is impacting their participation in school especially when their sugar high runs out and they become irritable and lack the focus. Please support their education by making sure they are getting the proper vitamins and eating real food rather than Snickers, Swedish Fish (This is a frequent one since they only cost 25 cents), lollipops, etc… Even as the year continues, we need to make sure our children are feeding their bodies nourishment.

As we continue this year, please ask our children what they are reading in school and continue to ask for them to explain and write as often as possible. These are daily small tasks that can ensure every child succeeds on the state exam. Two tests! One Dream! To be the best, we must be a team! DESTINATION: EXCELLENCE!

See you all at Parent-Teacher Conferences!

Sincerely,


Jacob T. Michelman
Principal