Superflex and Rockbrain

Rockbrain

As we continue to learn about and practice self control, we will introduce two new characters in Peace Class in the month of February: Superflex and Rockbrain. Both of these characters are from the wonderful curriculum of Stephanie Madrigal and Michelle Garcia Winner that teaches young children cognitive-behavioral strategies for thinking about and managing their own behaviors. We will be learning all about the words "flexible" and "inflexible" (for more on that, see my previous blog post), and how to apply these concepts to our thoughts and actions. We will learn how Superflex uses his flexible thinking strategies to defeat Rockbrain, his nemesis who likes to invade brains and get them stuck on ideas, and how they can practice the same strategies when getting "stuck" cognitively at

Superflex

school or home. Do you have a child who refuses to turn off the video games when it's time for homework? Who only wants to eat plain pasta night after night? Who has to sit in the same spot to watch TV and gets upset if someone else "takes it?" That's Rockbrain at work! As the month goes on, look out for strategies and phrases you can use to help your child "defeat" Rockbrain and be super flexible all the time. They will be coming home with your child as we learn about these concepts in school. As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns!
-Jillian

Response to Intervention (RTI): A Primer for Parents

Greetings Parents...Welcome to 2015.  The first semester is over and we are entering into the second half of the 2014-2015 school year.  The Lafayette staff is here to help you if you have any questions.  We are part of the resources available to help your child succeed in school.  Harriet

Mary Beth Klotz, PhD, NCSP, and Andrea Canter, PhD, NCSP of the National Association of School Psychologists stated that a major concern for parents as well as teachers is how to help children who experience difficulty in school. All parents want to see their child excel, and it can be very frustrating when a child falls behind in either learning to read, achieving as expected in math and other subjects, or getting along socially with peers and teachers. Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-step approach to providing services and interventions to struggling learners at increasing levels of intensity. RTI allows for early intervention by providing academic and behavioral supports rather than waiting for a child to fail before offering help. Some new federal laws have directed schools to focus more on helping all children learn by addressing problems earlier, before the child is so far behind that a referral to special education services is warranted. These laws include the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004.  Both laws underscore the importance of providing high quality, scientifically-based instruction and interventions, and hold schools accountable for the progress of all students in terms of meeting state grade level standards. RTI is a process designed to help schools focus on these high quality interventions while carefully monitoring student progress. The information gained from an RTI process is used by school personnel and parents to adapt instruction and to determine the educational needs of the child

 What Are the Essential Components of RTI?

“Response to Intervention” refers to a process that emphasizes how well students respond to changes in instruction. The essential elements of an RTI approach are: providing scientific, research-based instruction and interventions in general education; monitoring and measuring student progress in response to the instruction and interventions; and using these measures of student progress to shape instruction and make educational decisions. A number of leading national organizations and coalition groups, including the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities and the 14 organizations forming the 2004 Learning Disabilities (LD) Roundtable coalition, have outlined the core features of an RTI process as follows:

• High quality, research-based instruction and behavioral support in general education.

• Universal (school-wide or district-wide) screening of academics and behavior in order to determine which students need closer monitoring or additional interventions.

• Multiple tiers of increasingly intense scientific, research-based interventions that are matched to student need.

• Use of a collaborative approach by school staff for development, implementation, and monitoring of the intervention process.

• Continuous monitoring of student progress during the interventions, using objective information to determine if students are meeting goals.

• Follow-up measures providing information that the intervention was implemented as intended and with appropriate consistency.

• Documentation of parent involvement throughout the process.

• Documentation that any special education evaluation timelines specified in IDEA 2004 and in the state regulations are followed unless both the parents and the school team agree to an extension.

Perhaps the most commonly cited benefit of an RTI approach is that it eliminates a “wait to fail” situation because students get help promptly within the general education setting.  Secondly, an RTI approach has the potential to reduce the number of students referred for special education services while increasing the number of students who are successful within regular education. Since an RTI approach helps distinguish between those students whose achievement problems are due to a learning disability and those students whose achievement problems are due to other issues such as lack of prior instruction, referrals for special education evaluations are often reduced. RTI techniques have been favored for reducing the likelihood that students from diverse racial, cultural or linguistic backgrounds are incorrectly identified as having a disability. Finally, parents and school teams alike find that the student progress monitoring techniques utilized in an RTI approach provide more instructionally relevant information than traditional assessments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mindfulness transforms a school community

From Fight School to Peace School

This is a powerful video segment about the dramatic effects of a mindfulness program in a San Francisco middle school.  The principal of what was once called "Fight School" was so desperate that he finally agreed to try mindfulness.  He even agreed to add 30 minutes on to the school day so that every single student had a chance to practice mindfulness for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at the end of the day.  The results are miraculous.  Check it out:

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/san-francisco-schools-transformed-power-meditation-n276301

- Linda

Mindfulness at the Super Bowl?!

Mindfulness at the Super Bowl?

This week my students were pretty surprised to hear me talk about football since it's not exactly the most peaceful of sports.  But it turns out that the kids at Lafayette have something major in common with the Seattle Seahawks:  they all practice mindfulness!  As you may know, the Seahawks have not always been the best team but they won the Super Bowl last year and are going to the Super Bowl again this year.  Most commentators attribute their recent success to Coach Pete Carroll's emphasis on Mindfulness Meditation.  Coach Carroll believes that mindfulness helps his players focus, block out distractions, deal with anger, anxiety and stress, and create a more cohesive team.  Check out these articles to find out more about Coach Carroll's philosophy.  If mindfulness can help professional football players play better, just imagine what it can do for our little leaguers, or soccer players, or ballet dancers, or violin players!

- Linda

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/seattle-seahawks-ohm-team-advantage/story?id=21614481&page=2

http://bebrainfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/russell-wilson-200x300.jpg


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soren-gordhamer/mindfulness-the-seattle-s_b_4815477.html

Topic for January: Self Control

 

 

Hello and welcome back to school! I'm sure parents are as excited about this time of year as we are; it's nice to be back in our routine. This month we are kicking off our Peace classes with the topic of Self-Control for students in grades Pre-K and K. We will be watching some of the Cookie Monster videos on self-control, whole body listening, and following directions and then putting those terms into practice with games and activities in the classroom. You can follow along by checking out the videos at home (if you're a Star Wars fan, you'll especially enjoy "Star S'Mores") and asking your child to tell you what they know about the topic. 

We will also continue practicing mindfulness at the beginning of each class. The kids are getting very good at belly breathing (also called "flowers and candles") to help self-calm. Today one little girl told me she used belly breathing over the break when she got mad at her mom and it helped her not feel so angry. That's why we practice every week, and you can encourage your child to use this and other self-control methods at home such as counting to ten, thinking about something else, or going to a calm-down spot in the house. Research has proven that as kids get a little older and more mature, these self-regulation skills learned early on will help them face increased challenges and make better decisions when it's most important...something we all want for our kids! For more information on that reserach, check out this review of the Cookie Monster series.

Happy New Year,
Jillian

Peace Heroes

Have you seen our Peace Heroes Board?  It's in the Great Hall near the Nurse's office.  Every month you will find it loaded up with messages mostly from one child to another.  The children are recognizing others for showing kindness.  Sometimes a child will thank another for playing with them when they were lonely, or helping them pick up their spilled crayons, or cheering them up when they were sad, or simply being a good friend.  At the end of each month a group of fifth graders take them all down and hand out the certificates to the Peace Heroes.  We used to do monthly parties and hand out little trinkets but we found that the kids were just as happy without these things. Knowing that someone caught them being kind seems to be reward enough!

- Linda Ryden

How To Deal With Feelings At Holiday Time

Greetings Parents!  As the holidays and winter vacation approach, we enter into a very exciting time of year.  Both adults and children alike feel the joy and elation of the celebrations, but sometimes the excitement of the season may bubble over and result in meltdowns.  Below are some tips to help you get through the winter months with your sanity intact.  Enjoy.

                                                                      -Harriet Kuhn, Lafayette Psychologist

Temper Tantrums: Guidelines for Parents

By Robert G. Harrington, PhD
University of Kansas
Every teacher of young children and every new parent can expect to witness some temper tantrums in children from age 1–4 years. On average, temper tantrums are equally common in boys and girls, and more than half of young children will have one or more per week.  At home, there are predictable situations that can be expected to trigger temper tantrums, such as bedtime, suppertime, getting up, getting dressed, bath time, watching TV, parent talking on the phone, visitors at the house, family visiting another house, car rides, public places, family activities involving siblings, interactions with peers, and playtime. Other settings include transitions between activities, on the school bus, getting ready to work, interactions with other children, directives from the teacher, group activities, answering questions in class, individual seat work, and the playground.

We said "Thank you!" in Peace Class!

Last week in Peace Class we made cards to thank members of the Lafayette staff who are sometimes overlooked.  We thanked the front office staff, the custodians, the cafeteria workers, and many others who make Lafayette such a wonderful place.  The children love this project every year.  It is such fun to watch them think about just the right thing to say.  Some lucky ones got to deliver their cards in person and got to experience first hand the joy of making someone else happy.  Staff tell me that getting these cards is a highlight of their year.  I've had people hug me hard when I deliver the cards and some have even shed a tear or two of happiness.  I've added a few pictures of some of the amazing cards and the wonderful artists who created them.   - Linda

Building an "Attitude of Gratitude" in our Children

Our Peace Classes in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Grade this week have been focused on the words gratitude, feeling grateful and being thankful. While many children know what it means to be thankful, less have been familiar with the word grateful. Even less have recognized the word gratitude. At this age, it's a perfect time to have this important vocabulary lesson. But moving beyond vocabulary, we've read stories and had discussions around these words and how to live them. The kids have made gratitude leaf garlands (kindergarten), thankful picture frames (pre-k), and written in their Peace Journals about feeling grateful (first grade). In each class we have talked about how these feelings are so important to have each day. We've talked a bit about another gr- word that we DON'T want to be: greedy. 

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, this holiday is a good reminder for us of all we have to be thankful for. As parents, we can help our children in this regard by having regular discussions of all that we are thankful for. Do you regularly model an attitude of gratitude for your little ones? Do your children write thank-you notes to others? Do your kids understand that other children, even in this very same city, do not live the lives we do? The more we can remind our children of their good fortune, show them examples of helping others less fortunate, and talk about our gratitude, the more they will develop their own attitudes of gratitude and the less greedy they will become.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your families!
-Jillian

National School Psychology Awareness Week: November 10-14, 2014

National School Psychology Awareness Week: November 10-14, 2014

Helping Staff and Families Support Students to Thrive in School and Beyond

As parents and educators, we share the goal to help our children thrive in school, at home, and in life. This includes ensuring their safety and well-being, helping them build positive relationships, providing opportunities to gain new knowledge and skills, and encouraging them to take on challenges and persevere when things get tough. Working together, we can promote their competence, achievement, and resiliency.