Sunday, February 25, 2018

Anxiety About Change

Anxiety about Change

BY MADISYN TAYLOR

When we find ourselves going through any kind of change in our lives, our natural response may be to tense up on the physical, mental, or emotional level. We may not even notice that we have braced ourselves against a shift until we recognize the anxiety, mood swings, or general worried feeling toward the unknown that usually results. There are positive ways to move through change without pushing it away, however, or attempting to deny that it is happening. Since change will occur in almost every aspect of our lives, we can learn to make our response to it an affirmative one of anticipation, welcoming the new while releasing the past with grace. 

One thing we can do is change our perspective by changing the labels we use to identify our feelings. We can reinterpret feelings of anxiety as the anxious butterflies that come with eager expectation. With this shift, we begin to look for the good that is on its way to us. Though we may only be able to imagine the possibilities, when we acknowledge that good is there for us to find, we focus our energy on joyful anticipation and bring it into our experience while allowing the feelings to carry us forward. 

We can also choose to do a ceremony to allow our emotions to process. Every culture has created ceremonies to help people make the transition from one phase of life to the next. We can always create a ceremony too, perhaps by burning written thoughts to watch the smoke carry them away, thereby releasing them, or we can welcome new endeavors by planting flowers or trees. Some ceremonial activities such as a farewell send-off or housewarming party, we may do automatically. Society also has built-in ceremonies, like graduation and weddings, which may satisfy the need we feel. Sometimes the shift from denial to acceptance is all that is needed to ease our anxiety, allowing us to bring our memories with us as we move through nervousness to joyful excitement about the good to come.

Change will occur in almost every aspect of our lives, we can learn to embrace it while releasing the past with grace.

Week at a Glance

Monday - TELPAS Begins
Start of Parent/Teacher Conference Week
Tuesday - 5th Grade Scheduling Conversation - 7:45am - Cafeteria
Black History Program - 8:30am - Gym
Literacy Committee Meeting - 3:45pm - Library
Black History Program - 5:30pm - Gym
Wednesday - Writing Vertical Meeting - 3:30pm - TP Room
Family Engagement Committee Meeting - 4:00pm - Library
Friday - 4th Grade Field Trip

Parent/Teacher Conference Week

Remember, Spring Conferences are not optional. We MUST meet with every single parent. If you can not get a hold of them, please get with us to schedule a home visit.  With the students we serve, we can't take these meetings for granted.

Our other goal should be to make sure not only is the student in the conference, but in reality 1st-5th graders should be leading their own conferences and talking about their own growth in these meetings! Let's keep pushing our kids to own their info!

I will need all sign in/record sheets you have once your meetings are completed to turn in for my Title 1 paperwork!

Black History Program

Mr. H has prepared a Black History Program at 8:30am on Tuesday morning in the gym! And again at 5:30pm also in the Gym.  We hope to see you there!

Literacy Committee Meeting

The literacy team will be meeting on Tuesday at 3:45pm.  All are welcome to join!! We will have a representative here from Scholastic to help us with some of our planning as well!

Family Engagement Committee Meeting

The Family Engagement team will meet on Wednesday at 4pm.  Again, anyone can join! We will be planning Dinner with a Gentleman and an event for the Females in our student's lives.

Birthdays

February 28 - Julie Brooks
February 28 - Sharon Ganske

3rd/4th/5th Grade

I am in the process of planning some things for our 3rd-5th Graders.  I will be hosting once or twice a week "Lunch and Read w/the Principal" where they can come have lunch with me and we'll be reading a book together (and if they come, they'll all be leaving with their own copy of that book).

I will also be starting an after school weekly time (on Fridays) for students in 4th/5th (right now) to stay to learn how to play chess.

I will be coming to speak with grade levels at sometime on Monday and I will get letters out about Friday afternoons.

PLC time

You have this week to meet with Parents during PLC time

Monday - PreK and Kinder
Tuesday - 2nd and 3rd
Wednesday 4th Grade
Thursday - 1st Grade
Friday - 5th Grade

Morning Car Duty

Monday - PreK
Tuesday - 3rd Grade
Wednesday - Kinder
Thursday -  1st Grade (outside) and 4th Grade (inside)
Friday - 2nd (outside) 5th (inside)

Sparks in the Dark

Here is a great conversation we had about a week ago with Jennifer LaGarde.


Blogs/Articles



Thinking Outside the Bin: Why labeling books by reading level disempowers young readers

Teaching is a Creative Profession

In Closing...

I talk all the time about pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, about growing and learning, about changing!  Well one of my T-PESS goals this year is to better understand (and execute) ELAR lessons in all grade levels.  That's why I attended NCTE in the fall, Scholastic this past week, and ILA this upcoming summer.

But I am actually going to be teaching an ELAR lesson in grades K-5 (don't worry PreK I'm getting to you!) I am teaching two lessons in each grade level.  It's absolutely terrifying, as all my actual teaching experience is in Math (and 4th-5th at that!).  This past Friday I did my first two lessons.  One in Ms. McMillian (3rd) and one in Ms Kuehler (1st).  It was a stressful experience planning but I had a blast.  And both Nicole and Kelsey gave me great feedback afterwards on some things I can work on to do better next time.

I don't want anyone at our campus to feel like they aren't valued at what they do.  We have such a large team that I know someone is always bound to feel left out, and I am working my tail off to make sure I get to all of you often to let you know how much I SEE and APPRECIATE the work you do!  This is one more way that I hope I can show you, I see how hard you work and I want to learn along side you.  Because we all can be growing and learning. Do I have a ton of other things I also need to do?? YES! But this is important, you all are important.

Here is a video of me reflecting on the lessons!

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