It's November and it's starting to finally feel like fall is in the air. Our Pyle Panthers are making us proud as they continue to work hard each day.

This past month, we gave classroom presentations on the topic of Bullying to our Panthers in theme with National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, commemorated in October each year. We hope they took the tools we taught them and are able to recognize bullying, stand up to bullying, and prevent bullying when they see it happening around them.

We were also able to commemorate Filipino American History Month this month. As some of you may know, Filipinos love singing and karaoke. Beyond the melodies of everyday life, singing is also a way in Filipino culture to celebrate, to mourn, and, through their hymns and anthems, to express their love for their faith and their country. Music also figured in their healing traditions; the babaylan use chants and songs to cure people. They express their joy through music, and find in music a refuge and strength amid their day-to-day problems. As Fr. Horacio de la Costa said, music is one of the jewels of their people. We celebrated on Friday, October 27th at lunch time by opening the lunch bunch room up for karaoke to all students at their lunch recess.

- performed 8 restorative circles/conflict mediations,

- held 42 small social-emotional learning group sessions,

- held 29 individual counseling sessions,

- performed 26 check-ins with or observations of students,

- performed 14 consultations with teachers on how to best support students in class,

- presented classroom lessons to 9 classrooms,

- offered 6 lunch bunch activities during the students' lunch recess times,

- organized 1 lunch with a professional to learn about careers in culinary arts,

- and organized activities to commemorate 2 important awareness month themes.

Our theme for this month's social emotional learning topic is Mindfulness and Gratitude. During the holiday season, families may put an emphasis on expressing gratitude and thankfulness for the good things in their lives. When time is spent with loved ones, eating wonderful meals and exchanging gifts, it’s common to see people expressing gratitude. The holiday season can also be a challenging one for some people if celebrations look different from others or what they think it “should” be. One way to increase enjoyment of the season or improve your experience during difficult times, is practicing gratitude.

Here are some articles to help you understand the benefits of incorporating gratitude into your home and routines:

At Ernie Pyle, we follow the acronym PAWS:

P: Be Proactive.

A: Act Respectfully and Responsibly.

W: Make Wise Choices.

S: Be Safe.

In November, we are focusing on Being Safe. Some examples of what this looks like is walking and having a calm body, washing hands with soap and water, and alerting an adult when someone is injured.

PBIS can also be a handy tool to use for correcting behaviors at home. Here is a guide that we created to help support your students at home. It provides examples of routines and structures to promote positive behavior and that can be implemented at home. Here they are in English and Spanish for your use: