With only a month a half left in the school year, we are going to blink and the year will be done! Over this period of time we have many larger functions that not only involve students, but friends and family, also. Some of these include Elementary Fun Day, end of the year academic awards, 6th and 9th grade orientation, Senior Class Night, graduation, and prom. With the constantly changing world of Covid, it makes these important traditional celebrations even more difficult than normal to plan for. We would love to be able to tell you right now if we can continue to have these and what they look like. We are optimistically preparing for these to happen, but are waiting as long as we can to finalize them in order to minimize last minute changes, although many of these are inevitable and beyond our control. There are certain activities, like prom, which require more advanced notice and involvement, which also means more likelihood for change. A plan for prom will be coming soon which accounts for mandates on social distancing, masking, food, and location (inside and outside). Our goal is to provide as many “regular” functions as possible while abiding by government guidelines and providing for the safety of everyone involved.

On the topic of safety, thank you to everyone in the afternoon who picks up their children from school and is doing their part to keep our kids safe. One of the biggest attributes you can exhibit to keep our kids safe is patience. Utilizing crosswalk areas and proper safety lanes also helps to keep traffic moving efficiently and safely. As a reminder, below are the proper pick up areas:

K/1- On Court Street in front of the Elementary

2/3- The covered entrance on the south side of the parking lot

4/5- The south end of the glass hallway

6-8- North end of the glass hallway or on Michigan Ave. across from the Cauffee House

9-12- Entrance to the Events Lobby or on Michigan Ave. across from the Cauffee House

There are never too many resources available to help support our students and families. OK2SAY is a student safety program that allows students to confidentially report tips on potential harm or criminal activities directed at school students, school employees, and schools. OK2SAY is a nationally recognized program giving students the tools to set up and speak out when they are concerned about their safety or the safety of another.

The current pandemic has impacted the way students are interacting with each other as they use their electronic devices to pass time in the era of physical isolation. Based upon the increased time and activity online, OK2SAY has noted a surge in the number of cyberbullying tips. Since some students are not physically present in school, educators may not be able to see any visual cues or have meaningful, connective conversations with a student.

OK2SAY has some advice for students who may be facing problems with cyberbullying.

1. It is important to know that if you are a victim of cyberbullying, you are not alone, and help is available.

2. Talk to a trusted adult. You deserve all the support you can get. There is no reason to suffer when you are the target of cyberbullying. It is always good to talk to a parent, but if you cannot - a school counselor or even your teacher will usually be able to help. It is also helpful to talk to friends when you are feeling upset by hurtful comments.

3. Report your concerns to OK2SAY.

4. Do not respond or retaliate. Two wrongs do not make a right.

5. Block the person who is cyberbullying.

6. Save the evidence. Keep copies or screenshots of text messages, emails, and online conversations, including relevant dates and times. It is a good idea to print out copies.

7. Set your privacy settings and limit your social interactions with people you know offline.

8. Get help for bullying, harassment, threats, and other forms of misuse by reporting bullies to the website administrator. Use the “Report Cyberbullying” link (https://cyberbullying.org/report) for social media apps, gaming networks, and related companies.

9. Treat others as you would like to be treated so pause before you post.

10. If cyberbullying involves threats of violence, consider filing a report with law enforcement.

For more information, go to the following OK2SAY website:

https://www.michigan.gov/ok2say/0,5413,7-366-86296---,00.html

April and May are always incredibly busy times of the year, and that remains true even during a pandemic. Having most of our technology pieces deployed to all students K-12, it makes our testing sessions a bit different than usual as far as the preparation piece. We will need to rely heavily on students making sure that their chromebooks are prepared each day for whatever academic activity is taking place, testing or otherwise. I wanted to reshare the technology expectations that I sent out at the start of the year as a reminder of the important responsibilities that come with bringing Chromebooks back and forth to school.

Technology Procedures

For those attending face-to-face instruction, we will need students to bring the following items in their backpacks EVERY DAY!

• Chromebooks - fully charged each morning (2nd-12th Grade ONLY)

• Chromebook chargers (2nd-12th Grade ONLY)

• OneTab in protective case with charger (K-1 only unless teacher specifies otherwise)

• Headphones

• Writing utensils

• At least 1 clean mask (must be worn on bus and when entering the school building)

I cannot express enough the importance of students charging their Chromebooks at night and bringing a fully charged Chromebook each day!!! Aside from the fact that we do not have enough outlets in a classroom to facilitate every student charging their Chromebook, we also have the issue of seating charts. Seating Charts are an incredibly important tool right now that we are utilizing to help with contract tracing. Teachers have turned in seating charts so that we can determine where students are located in a class in case we do have to complete tracing. If students have to move around the room to access outlets, this makes the contact tracing more difficult because the charts would not be accurate. Therefore, we ask that you please support our efforts to keep the school open and our students engaged in face-to-face instruction by ensuring that students are following these guidelines to be prepared for class each day. Using technology not only allows for us to reduce the amount of paper being passed back and forth, but it also is a necessary tool in testing.

For our virtual students, whether you are virtual for the rest of the marking period or temporarily virtual due to COVID protocols, I wanted to also reshare my tips from earlier this year on successful virtual learning. Learning virtually can be a challenge, but our teachers and staff continue to be eager to make connections and help in any way possible. Here are my original virtual tips:

Mrs. Socha’s Remote Learning Tips and Tricks

1. Always start your day in Google Classroom. This is where your teacher will post your directions and assignments for the day. Don’t forget to check Google Classroom and your email on a regular basis!!

2. Are you stuck? Please reach out!! Please contact your teachers – they really want to help you! Please be sure to reach out to teachers and respond to their invites for Google Meets, emails, and Google Classroom posts.

3. Take brain breaks! Get up and move around or break up your daily work into pieces. Put on a song and dance for a few minutes! It is fun, and it releases energy.

These items are crucial in order for students to have a successful school day where they can engage with daily activities. We also still have the Learning Resources Page available on our website, that includes videos that support some of the technology pieces.

Finally, just a reminder that I have created a helpful guide for M-STEP testing. You can access this information by clicking here.

Troubled by upsetting thoughts? Dwelling on the negative? Finding it hard to see things positively? If you feel this way, you are not alone. Over the past few weeks I have shared some common “thinking traps” that hold people back from reaching their potential. This week I would like to share more on overcoming thinking traps and embracing healthy thinking.

What is healthy thinking? Healthy thinking does NOT mean positive thinking! No one can look at things positively all the time. Sometimes bad things happen, like getting fired at work, having an argument with a friend or losing someone you love. It’s normal and healthy to feel upset and have negative thoughts when these things happen. Healthy thinking means looking at the entire situation—the positive, the negative and the neutral parts—and then coming to a conclusion. In other words, healthy thinking means looking at life and the world in a balanced way, not through rose-coloured glasses.

Did you know that your thoughts have a big influence on your mental health? That’s because what you tell yourself about a situation affects how you feel and what you do. Sometimes your interpretation of a situation can get distorted and you only focus on the negative aspects—this is normal and expected. However, when you interpret situations too negatively, you might feel worse. You’re also more likely to respond to the situation in ways that are unhelpful in the long term. Fortunately, there are specific coping strategies to help manage difficult thoughts.

1. Try to separate your thoughts from actual events. Ask yourself the following questions when something upsetting happens:

•What is the situation: What actually happened? Only include the “facts” of the situation that everyone would agree on.

•What are your thoughts: What are you telling yourself?

•What are your emotions: How do you feel?

•What are your behaviours: How are you reacting and what are you doing to cope?

2. Identify the ‘thinking traps’. Take a look at the thoughts you’ve listed. Are you using any of the thinking traps and falling into distorted thinking patterns? It’s common to fall into more than one thinking trap. Go back to the thinking trap list (All-or-Nothing Thinking, Jumping to Conclusions, Ignoring the Good, Catastrophizing, and Should Statements) and identify which ones apply to you and your current situation.

3. Challenge the thinking traps. The best way to break a thinking trap is to look at your thoughts like a scientist and consider the hard facts. Use the evidence you’ve collected to challenge your thinking traps. Here are some ways to do that:

Examine the evidence: Try to find evidence against the thought. If you make a mistake at work, you might automatically think, “I can’t do anything right! I must be a terrible student” When this thought comes up, you might challenge it by asking, “Is there any evidence to support this though? Is there any evidence to disprove this thought?” You might quickly realize that your teacher has complimented your work recently, which doesn’t support the idea that you’re a bad student.

Double-standard: Ask yourself, “Would I judge other people if they did the same thing? Am I being harder on myself than I am on other people?” This is a great method for challenging thinking traps that involve harsh self-criticism.

Survey Method: Find out whether other people you trust agree with your thoughts. For example, you might have trouble with one of your friends and think, “Good friends wouldn’t have this kind of problem.” To challenge this though, you can ask other students if they’ve ever have any problems with their friends.

Conduct an experiment: Test your beliefs in person. For example, if you think you think that your friends don’t care about you, call a few friends and make plans to have an online meet up. If you assumed that they will all say no, you may be pleasantly surprised to hear that they do want to spend time with you.

Healthy thinking does not make negative thoughts go away, but it will help you keep them in perspective so they do not dominate your thoughts. Healthy thinking may take practice and time to develop, but keep working at it. See the good in yourself and keep an open mind. You may find that difficult times are when you grow and develop your thinking the most to become a better you.