Lowell School Newsletter

Greetings,

As we celebrate the New Year, I wish everyone success, a healthy long life and a fresh new start. Happy New Year!

In my last newsletter I announced a few changes in our arrival procedures. We typically usher students from the traffic line until 8:20 and hold the doors open until 8:21. However, this seems to have lead to some confusion in official late times. Many parents were unaware their children were officially late at 8:21. This was because the doors were being held open by adults until 8:21 and too many students were coming into school late everyday. After my newsletter on December 20th we experience a dramatic decrease in tardies. The first day alone we went from 61 tardies to 12. We’d like to continue this trend.

A few parents contacted me after I sent the newsletter. They helped highlight some areas where we could make a few minor changes which would help families. Currently we open the door at 8:05. Parents have asked to change the time to 8:00. These few extra minutes would help with the drop off line. Many parents feel uncomfortable dropping their children off before the doors have officially opened. This makes sense. Starting Tuesday, January 2nd we will open the doors at 8:00 AM daily. This will give families a full 15 minutes for morning arrival.

Another idea was brought forward by a couple of teachers. Many of our support teachers are assigned to hallways and doorways before school to help supervise students as they arrive to school and to class on time. Until now the teachers only stayed at their posts until 8:15. Starting Tuesday, teachers will stay at their posts until 8:20. This will help move students along and to stay on time. Many students need words of prompting or encouragement to get into class on time in the morning. Especially, cold mornings.

We are hoping these adjustments will help improve arrival procedures. As always please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with me.

This week the weather is supposed to remain brutally cold therefore, we will be having indoor recess. Sometimes by noon the temperatures warm up enough to go out for a few minutes. Even a few minutes can make a big difference. However, the forecast does not call for any warm up. We will only go out if the temperature gets up to 32 degrees. Please dress your children in warm coats, hats, and mittens this week.

On another note, New Year’s Eve we experienced a minor flood caused by a heating unit coil freezing up. The heating coils broke in room 222 (Ms. McDonough’s room) spilling gallons of water onto her floor which leaked through the ceiling into the guidance office, teacher’s room and extended day office. Thank goodness Wayne, Tony and Linda arrived shortly after the coils burst. They stayed all day Monday, January 1st to clean up the mess. Ms. McDonough’s class has been temporarily moved to the room next door. She will remain there until the end of this week or until the coils are replaced. Some of the rooms are chilly, it’s hard to keep the building evenly heated during this extreme cold. Please send your children to school this week in layers.

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

Stacy  

10 Tips: Keeping Children Safe in Cold Weather Keep your kids safe with these easy to share tips on staying safe during the cold winter! When temperatures drop, children need extra attention to stay warm, safe and healthy. Young children are less likely to recognize when they are cold and more likely to lose body heat quickly due to their smaller size. Here are some tips to protect children when the thermometer dips: Think layers. Put several layers of clothing on your child and make sure their head, neck and hands are covered. Dress babies and young children in one more layer than an adult would wear. Beware clothing hazards. Scarves and hood strings can strangle smaller children so use other clothing to keep them warm. Check in on warmth. Tell children to come inside if they get wet or if they’re cold. Then keep watching them and checking in. They may prefer to continue playing outside even if they are wet or cold. Use sunscreen. Children and adults can still get sunburn in the winter. Sun can reflect off the snow, so apply sunscreen. Install alarms. More household fires happen during the winter so make sure you have smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in your home. Get equipped. Children should always wear helmets when snowboarding, skiing, sledding or playing ice hockey. Any sports equipment should be professionally fitted. Teach technique. It takes time to master fun winter activities like sledding, so make sure children know how to do the activity safely. Prevent nosebleeds. If your child suffers from minor winter nosebleeds, use a cold air humidifier in their room. Saline nose drops can help keep their nose moist. Keep them hydrated. In drier winter air kids lose more water through their breath. Keep them drinking and try giving them warm drinks and soup for extra appeal. Watch for danger signs. Signs of frostbite are pale, grey or blistered skin on the fingers, ears, nose, and toes. If you think your child has frostbite bring the child indoors and put the affected area in warm (not hot) water. Signs of hypothermia are shivering, slurred speech, and unusual clumsiness. If you think your child has hypothermia call 9-1-1 immediately. Sources: Save the Children, American Academy of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Health System

Thursday, January 4th

7:00 - 8:00

Lowell Library

Kingian Nonviolence Training visited Lowell’s 5th Grade on Monday, December 20th

Origin of Curriculum

The curriculum for this course, designed by Dr. Bernard Lafayette, has been taught and implemented in countries around the world, such as Nigeria, Colombia, South Africa, Mexico, and the Middle East. Dr. Lafayette was a close friend and confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Civil Rights Movement activist, and director of the Selma Voting Rights Campaign. He is a minister, educator, co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and co-founder for the Center for Peace and Nonviolence Studies at the University of Rhode Island. He is considered a global authority on the strategy of nonviolent social change and has created this course as a response to Dr. King’s mandate that the next step for his work was the institutionalization and internationalization of nonviolence. In order to become certified to teach the course, adults undergo an intensive 10-day training taught by Level III trainers, and youth undergo an intensive 5-day training taught by Level I,II, or III trainers.

Ms. Levine’s class participating in an activity.

Here are the specific activities and objectives our students participated in.

ACTIVITY 1: Paired Introductions

OBJECTIVES:

*To put ourselves in each other's shoes and see things from other people's perspectives

*To understand that to achieve positive changes sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone

ACTIVITY 2: Values Exercise

OBJECTIVES:

*To identify what values are important to us as individuals

*To develop effective communication strategies in order to identify collective group values

*To understand how refocusing on the values we share can be helpful in solving conflicts about our differences

ACTIVITY 3: Understanding Conflict

OBJECTIVES:

*To understand that conflict is healthy, but needs to be handled well so that we can grow from it instead of escalating it.

*To understand that conflicts have history, whether shared or separate, that can sometimes make simple problems turn more complicated.

*To learn about the four types and three levels of conflict(Types: pathway, mutually exclusive, distributive & values, Levels: normal, pervasive overt)

*To learn strategies for how to best address conflict at each of the 3 levels

*To invite students to share personal experiences towards collective learning

ACTIVITY 4: Conflict Role Plays

*To work together in groups to illustrate conflict types and levels using examples

*To share skits with full group and have audience guess type/level

*To have fun!

Feliz Navidad!!!!

Ms. Altobello’s kindergarten class singing Christmas carols in Spanish, lead by Ms. McCready!

What a lovely Surprise!

Dates: Event: Time/Location:

January 3	Faculty Meeting	2:45-3:45
January 4	Prek Tour	9:00-10:00
January 4	School Council	7:00-8:00
January 9	PTO Meeting	6:30-7:30
January 10	Grade Level Department Meetings	2:45-4:45
January 10	Kindergarten Information Night	6:30-7:30
January 15	Martin Luther King Day Observed	No School
January 16	Professional Development for Teachers	No School
January 17	PLT Meeting	2:45-3:45
January 26	International Night	6:00-8:00

You can now subscribe to the James Russell Lowell Blog, just type in your email address.

READ MORE ON OUR WEBSITE