Recess Rocks!
Recess Rocks!
Over the past two weeks, a team of educators from Winsor has participated in the Recess Rocks prgram. This program, founded in best practices, has improved outcomes for students at recess in schools across the state. Research demonstrates a correlation between student academic performance and physical activity; the more happy and healthy students are, the better they perform in the classroom. The Recess Rocks program has provided our staff with the increased capacity to facilitate fun games that bring students together, increase our sense of community, and ensure that all students are physically active during recess. More information will be coming soon. In addition, we will be asking for interested volunteer parents and families to bring this program to life as the weather improves, so please stay tuned!
Growth Mindset
As a group, we have spent much time talking about how to ensure our students persist through difficult or challenging tasks. Aside from delivering content, perhaps our greatest responsibility is to instill the value of hard work, communicating to students that persistence is an essential skill that leads to positive outcomes, both in the short and long term. We do this through our curricular areas, be it FCAs from Collins Writing, to showing our problem solving process in Math. Students are expected to make their thinking visible and persist through challenging tasks. For some, sticking with a concept that is difficult can require some extra effort on our part. If we understand the power of a Growth Mindset and can effectively communicate this to our students, they will rise to meet the high bar we set for them. Those demonstrating a Growth Mindset will achieve more in the long term than those with a fixed mindset, as explained here:
https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/Impact
Our next Town Meeting, scheduled for February 22nd, will recognize students demonstrating persistence and effort. We want to continue to build and raise capacity for effort and progress. We will also be showing some videos at Morning Meeting in the coming days to encourage students to demonstrate a Growth Mindset. Please continue to reinforce the value of persistence at home, as we want our students to become the best possible versions of themselves!
School Improvement Update
Our School Improvement Team (SIT) met recently to discuss progress towards completing the three major goals in our School Improvement Plan: The Adoption of a Responsive Classroom approach in selected classrooms, the school wide use of the Collins Writing Approach, and the implementation of a pilot program using instructional materials from the American Reading Program (ARC). I am pleased to report that all three objectives are on track as of early February and that we anticipate successful completion of the plan in June. Even if you have been unable to join our previous meetings, all are welcome. Please join us for our next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, March 20th at 3:30pm in the Winsor library. Your feedback is vital as we continuously strive to provide the best possible experience for all of our students.
School Play Update
Please see the special note from our alumni directors, Abby, Tori, and Dana:
We wanted to thank all those who came out and auditioned on Monday. You all did a wonderful job!!! We understand how scary auditions can seem and how much courage it takes to get up on stage in front of all of your peers. Theatre and performances are a great booster in confidence and public speaking skills, which we guarantee will help you all later in life.
That being said, because so many of you showed up, we were not able to get through all of the parts and some kids were not able to read. For this, we apologize. As we are high school students and this being our first production, we needed a day to get our things together and get in the groove of how these rehearsals were going to run. Now that we have a good idea, we will be even more organized for February 25, when we will finish the casting. Please remember that play auditions remain open for all 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.
Jump Rope for Heart
Thank you for your kind donations! We appreciate the continued generosity of our school and community. Final donations should be sent in with students by Friday, February 22nd.
PTO Meeting
Please be advised that the PTO meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 20th has been postponed. A new date will be forthcoming.
Please be reminded that there is no school on Monday, February 18th and Tuesday, February 19th. We look forward to the return of our students on Wednesday, February 20th. May these two vacation days bring some time for rest and renewed health.