The Survey Runs through November 21st
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Lincoln Elementary Wants to Hear from You! We're partnering with YouthTruth to hear what families have to say about their school experience. Help your school understand how to improve! We are excited to be partnering with YouthTruth to gather family feedback! We’re excited to dive into our YouthTruth survey data and incorporate family ideas to improve school. Thank you to all the families who have already taken the survey! LINK
More About YouthTruth: The mission of YouthTruth is to "empower schools to improve by listening to student voice." The nonprofit organization aims to help schools achieve "better academic outcomes and improved well-being" for students. The survey allows schools to hear directly from students in their own words about how adults can create positive change and support their success. You can access more information through this link: YouthTruth.
Hello Lincoln Community,
After a few rainy days, the sun was out and today was a such a nice November day. It was a perfect day for us to practice our November Fire Drill. You can find out more details about today's drill and the emergency drills we practice throughout the year further down in this Newsletter edition.
SMILE to OMSI: This week our SMILE Club took a field trip to OMSI. SMILE is an afterschool club where students learn Science Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE). At their field trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) they got to engage in hands on learning and even had the chance to board a real submarine. Pictures from their field trip are included.
Social Media Presentation: On Wednesday we hosted a parent event in partnership with Liberty House to provide information about social media. Many resources were shared as parents learned about many different apps, time considerations for daily media use, some of the ways to be careful in guiding our children and teenagers, and at what age it's okay to start. Parents came with experience to share and questions too.
The Next Two Weeks: Next week is our final school week of November. It'll be a regular five-day week culminating with several things the final day. On Friday next week we'll have a Spirit Day in which our students and staff can dress up as Super Heroes. We'll also have our November PBIS Assembly for the whole school to enjoy. Then, the week after next we have no school for students. On Monday and Tuesday of that week (11/25 & 11/26), our staff at Lincoln and throughout the District will participate in two-days of professional development. This will be the second year of the annual WSD hosted "Learning Together, Better Together" conference.
Questions: Please feel free to send your questions or feedback to us at teresa.alfaro@woodburnsd.org or pmcdougal@woodburnsd.org. Go Dolphins!
Sincerely,
Teresa Alfaro - Principal
Peter McDougal - Assistant Principal
Until 11/20 - Food Drive
11/18 - Site Council
11/21 - 3rd-5th Grade Community Meeting (every Thursday)
11/22
- Spirit Day - SuperHero Day
- K-2nd Community Meeting (every Friday)
- PBIS Assembly
11/25 & 11/26 - District Professional Development Days - No School
11/27 - 11/29 - Thanksgiving Holiday (11/28) - No School
12/2 - School Resumes
12/4 - Lincoln Choir Performance - 6:00pm
12/10 - Picture Retake Day
12/18 - Winter Fest Family Event - 5:30-7:30
12/20
- PBIS Assembly
- Spirit Day - TBD
12/23 - Winter Break Begins - No School
Today just after 1:00pm we practiced our November Fire Drill. Unlike earlier drills this year, for this one we did not announce it in advance. Instead, it was a surprise drill to remember and practice what to do. Your child may have arrived home today to tell you about it, or perhaps they didn't mention it because it's now become so routine.
Practice Makes Us Better: As we expected, because of all of our earlier practice this year, our Lincoln students and staff did an excellent job at today's Fire Drill. They quickly stopped what they were doing, lined up and exited classrooms in an orderly fashion, and walked through halls to their designated and closest exits. Once outside, students continued to listen carefully to staff directions as they went to their designated lineup spots. Once there, teachers took attendance, and used our system to communicate so we could know when everyone was accounted for. Overall it was an excellent drill and everyone was calm, efficient and gave it the seriousness emergency drills warrant.
Future Drills: We will continue to practice emergency drills throughout the year. Fire Drill practice, for example, gets more complex as we go from announced drills to surprise drills, from all things being normal to eventually practicing with a blocked exit or when some students are at lunch, at recess, or in an assembly. These drills are really helpful so we can be fully prepared should the need ever arise.
Feeling Important
After reviewing our sense of belonging survey, we've noticed that it would be good to help our students better understand how important each of them are here at Lincoln. With that in mind, during a recent leadership meeting, our team discussed what the concept of feeling important may mean for our students. Afterwards, we promoted this sense of importance by reviewing the following questions with them.
- What do you understand by being important?
- What makes you feel important in school?
- Can you share a time when you felt valued by a teacher or classmate?
- What changes would you like to see to help you feel more important here?
We then collected student insights and feedback to inform us as we continue to create and refine the strategies we use to support our students effectively.
Morning Affirmation
Also, after reviewing our data, we identified a strategy to help our students grow in their self-management skills. Starting last Monday, alongside saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we began to incorporate daily affirmations into our routine.
- I am amazing
- I am smart
- I am kind
- I am important
- I am loved
- I will do my best today!
If you would like automatic Woodburn School District notifications related to closures and delays, you can register to receive email or cell text messages by clicking on the link below and following the steps listed.
Registration Instructions:
Create an account.
- Click on link.
- Then enter your email address and click "Subscribe".
- You will be asked to confirm your email address and set a password.
- Then click "Create your Account"
- Portland/Vanc/Salem.
- Marion Co. Schools (3).
- Woodburn Sch. Dist. Then press "Subscribe" button.
- You may add one or two more email or text message addresses. Choose the type of message and enter the address. If it is a cell text address, select the carrier that the phone uses.
- After you have added the addresses, click on "Click here to send validation message".
- The system will send a three letter code to each address (by email or text), which must be entered into the account page to confirm that address is correct. Then click "Update".
- When addresses are validated, you may click "Log Out" at the top right.
Each year throughout the Woodburn School District we distribute the Student-Parent Handbook. This is an important resource that provides information about rights and responsibilities, expectations and accountability, and systems and procedures. It's linked here in English, Spanish, and Russian.
- English: Student-Parent Handbook
- Español: Manual Para Estudiantes y Padres
- Russian: Руководство для учеников и родителей
This year we are continuing to pay close attention to ensuring that children are present at school regularly, because Every Day Matters.
Setting High Goals: We're focusing on attendance because last year 58% of our students were regular attenders (attended more than 90% of the days) and 42% were chronically absent (attended less than 90% of the days). The 58% was an improvement from the previous year when we had 51% of our students who were regular attenders. For the current school year our school leadership has set the goal to improve from 58% up to 70%. WE CAN DO IT!
So Important: There's a very strong correlation between good attendance and student success in school. Please see the visual below for more information.
Safe Oregon. Feel Safe. Be Safe.
Remember, if you see something, say something. If you become aware of a safety concern please report it to our school office at 503-981-2925 or anytime of the day.
You can also report it to SafeOregon.com or call or text 1-844-472-3367 to report it. SafeOregon gives students, parents, schools, and their communities a way to report safety issues or threats confidentially or anonymously with a simple phone call, text, email or by using the web form or mobile app.
