January 27

January 27

A “no excuses”mentality means that even if you believe it should be your student’s job to be engaged, you accept that it’s YOUR JOB TO ENGAGE THEM!!

While reading progress reports over the weekend I thought about what message are we giving students when we give them F’s? Many of the progress reports I read the message was consistently lack of motivation, does not turn in assignments, and does not return homework. As a No Excuses School we take data and put it into action, AND that is what we did!!! During our academic conferences this week we took the time to research practices that will help assist our students to be successful. How can we motivate them? How can we get them to turn their assignments in? How can we help them feel successful? I am very excited about the plans we put in place and look forward to hearing how the plans have helped students. It was so nice to work as a team and collaborate and take a team approach to help our students. We need to teach them the skills they need to be successful. We need to teach them how to study, how to be organized, how to manage their time, do frequent check ins, hold them accountable, build relationships, have lunch with them, let them know that you care and believe in them, let them know that you will not let them fail and most of all THAT YOU ARE HERE FOR THEM!!!  

What's your focus?  Do you need to adjust it?  Are we still focused on all students achieving, staying positive, coming to SV with our students best interest in our hearts?  About this time, I need to re-center myself and remind myself of my focus: student achievement, student engagement, supporting our staff, and always making decisions in the best interest of our students and staff.  What's YOUR re-center moment? Next week I will be visiting classrooms and looking for academic discourse. 

Thank you Kristen Cherry for the following:

Sean Anchor argues that happiness inspires us to be more productive!  The more kindness you sow, your mindset will shift to live and lead a happier life.  That's his Ted Talk above =)

 #kindnessmatters Did you know that a smile, a kind word, a helping hand or a simple note of thanks on a sticky note can truly make someone's day?  These are SIMPLE acts of kindness that can be LIFE CHANGING for many on our staff/students.  Happiness researcher (yes, it's a real thing), found that if you perform random acts of kindness for two minutes a day for twenty-one days, you can actually retrain your brain to be more positive. 

Observable Fish Moments at SV:

Be There:  Thank you for doing an AMAZING job during our fire drill today. It was PERFECTLY done!! Kids were quiet, in a line, etc.!!

Play:  Have fun with your students.

Choose your attitude: Have you said anything positive about your students today? A colleague? If you did, let them know :)

Make Their Day:   Thank you for the random kinds notes from students and staff. It made my day :)

THROUGH THE FISH PHILOSOPHY, WE BUILD STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE PEOPLE WE WORK WITH, THE STUDENTS WE TEACH AND THE PEOPLE WE LOVE.