THIS MONTH’S EVENTS
11/2 — Return to Remote Learning
11/3 — NO SCHOOL for students — Professional Development Day
11/4 — Bennie Community Forum 2:00 pm
11/5 — IEP Meetings all day (Zoom)
PTA Meeting 6:30 pm
11/11 — Staff Meeting (RESCHEDULED) 1:30 pm — see note below
Bennie Community Forum 2:00 pm
11/18 — Bennie Community Forum 2:00 pm
11/24 — End of 1st Trimester
11/25-11/27 — NO SCHOOL Thanksgiving Break
BENNIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT
The Bennie School community teaches respect, responsibility, safety, and kindness to develop lifelong learners.
BENNIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISION STATEMENT
Bennie Elementary School is a collaborative learning community where staff and families encourage students to achieve at their highest potential. Students will approach challenges with perseverance and stamina. Academic, social, and emotional growth will be fostered in a safe, supportive, and positive environment through a multi-tiered system of supports. A professional, driven staff with a passion for learning will model the values of kindness, perseverance, and motivation to develop lifelong learners and flexible problem-solvers who are ready to contribute to a global society. All members of the Bennie Elementary School community are committed to continuous improvement.
WELCOME
Please join me in welcoming some new staff members to Bennie in various roles since the last blog post! Some have been with us for a while and some are just joining us. I know that you will continue to welcome them with open arms and warm hearts!
Kay Williams — Long-term sub for Teri Simonds
Julie Clair — Long-term sub for Sara Siegwald
Kim Mattoon — Long-term sub for Maureen Klein
Nathalie Jean — Independence Paraprofessional
Katie Alsobrooks — Lunch Aide
Cassandra Darin — Lunch Aide
Jean Kacher — Lunch Aide
Kelsey Riley — Lunch Aide
Donna Anderson — Lunch Aide
RETURN TO REMOTE LEARNING
I appreciate the flexibility that you have all displayed with the transitions that have been a part of our school life in 2020. As we return to remote learning for the time being, I wanted to include some reminders. Please let me know if you have any questions at any time!
- Attendance must be taken daily in both AM and PM. The expectation is that you will see or interact with each student at both times of day either in Zoom or by assignments that have been turned in. If assignments are completed in the evening, you may go back in and change the attendance to indicate present.
- Please create a predictable schedule for Live and Asynchronous work during the Academic Blocks listed on the schedule. We specifically left the schedule flexible to meet the needs of your students and your team, and expect that your specific schedule will be communicated to your families and posted in your Google Classroom for reference.
- Specials will be daily on M-Tu-Th-F. Please make sure your students know how to access the Specials Google Classroom and find the Zoom links. Students may have asynchronous work time during special classes and may need to log back in after work time.
- Depending on the length of this period of remote learning, a Materials Distribution may be scheduled in the next few weeks.
STAFF MEETINGS
All Staff Meetings that had been scheduled for the 2nd Tuesday of the month have been rescheduled to the Wednesday of the same week at 1:30 pm. This enables us to meet during built-in time and is in accordance with the LOU.
Please plan to attend all upcoming monthly Staff Meetings. View the Google Calendar for all dates.
BENNIE COMMUNITY FORUM
Thank you to those who have been joining us on Wednesdays at 2:00 for the Bennie Community Forum. This open space for asking questions and generating solutions has been a productive experience thus far. Feel free to join us any Wednesday at 2:00 pm. Zoom link is in the calendar! The Community Forum doc is updated after each meeting to reflect the topics discussed and any answers to pending questions: Bennie Community Forum
GROUPME COMMUNICATION
Please join this GroupMe group for communication. This app functions better than others, such as Remind or Band for what we need. You can join by following this link:
https://groupme.com/join_group/61921274/71xXYTXZ
You can set the group notifications as text messages, app notifications, or both.
FALL PICTURE DAY
Fall Picture Day has been rescheduled to Friday, December 11. We are hopeful to be back to in-person learning at that time. If not, we will use our previously scheduled Retake Day as Picture Day on January 26. Stay tuned for updates!
CONFERENCES
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held virtually on December 2nd & 3rd. We will once again use Sign Up Genius to have families sign up for time slots. I know that many teachers have done Student-Led conferences in the past. This is still possible in a virtual environment, however, only one family should be on Zoom at a time. All conference slots will be scheduled for 15 minutes. Please plan to schedule a conference with every student’s family during these times.
PTA UPDATE
Our PTA continues to be an awesome resource for our Bennie staff, students, and families. Please become a member online. You can sign up for a 20/21 Bennie PTA Membership by following this link: https://bennie.memberhub.
Please consider attending at least one PTA Meeting this year. I will send out a sign up for PTA Meetings so our staff are represented with this group that does so much for us.
REMOTE LEARNING PD RESOURCES
Please see the attached for some Remote Learning, no-cost, one-hour, extremely relevant PD sessions coming in the next few weeks!
Remote Learning in Action combination flyer ADA
BRENE BROWN RESOURCES
Enjoy this short video from Brene Brown. Her work is relevant for all of us, and can be applied in both personal and professional settings. How might we use this information to reframe our thinking when things don’t go as planned or expected?
PRO TIP
This article is written for leaders. You are all leaders in your classrooms. You lead your students, their families, and have a leadership role on your teams and in our school. Keep this in mind while reading this powerful article.
BRENÉ BROWN TOP TIP: ASSUME OTHERS ARE DOING THE BEST THEY CAN
Assuming the best in people is a vital skill for leaders
“I know my life is better when I work from the assumption that everyone is doing the best they can.” – Brené Brown, Dare to Lead
Brené Brown asks if you’ve ever experienced one of these?
- Your client doesn’t ring you back, and you think they’re a time-waster.
- Your friend cancels a bike ride, and you’re convinced they take you for granted.
- Your sales manager loses an account, and you view them as hopeless.
- Your colleague asks you to pay the bill, and you assume they’re a tightwad.
Sounds familiar?
Then, it might be time to revisit the value of “assumption of positive intent.”
Dr. Brené Brown, TED top 5 speaker and author of five No. 1 New York Times best-selling books including Dare to Lead, says extending the most generous interpretation possible to the intentions, words, and actions of others sounds straightforward, but it’s a skill set that’s not easy to learn, nor practice.
What is the foundational skill of assuming the best in people? she asks in Dare to Lead.
- Answer: Setting and maintaining boundaries.
What is the fundamental belief underpinning the assumption of positive intent?
- Answer: That people are doing the best they can.
The vulnerability researcher and leadership expert explains why we dig ourselves into a hole here.
She says:
- Most people don’t have the skills to set boundaries;
- Only 50% of people that her team interviewed believed others were doing the best they can.
Dr Brown says the most compassionate and generous people she’d interviewed in her career were the most boundaried.
She writes: “It turns out that we assume the worst about people’s intentions when they’re not respectful of our boundaries: It’s easy to believe that they are trying to disappoint us on purpose.”
Instead, we should set boundaries. And….be kind.
Kindness will reward us because it “scales” says multi-bestselling author, blogger, and TED Talk sensation Seth Godin.
“[Kindness] scales better than competitiveness, frustration, pettiness, regret, revenge …or apathy,” says Seth Godin.
He says kindness ratchets up. It leads to:
- More kindness;
- Trust and openness;
- Truth and enthusiasm
- Patience and possibility.
See also Dangerously Inspiring Quotes from Brene Brown and Seth Godin
It’s not just kindness to assume positive intent, it’s the sign of a good leader.
Dr Brown says daring leaders work from the assumption that people are doing the best they can; whereas leaders struggling with ego, armour, and/or lack of skills, do not make that assumption.
See also: Where Brené Brown and Simon Sinek agree: Our deep-seated need to feel safe at work
She shares an exercise where she asks people to write down the name of someone who fills them with:
- frustration,
- disappointment
- and/or resentment.
and then she proposes the idea that that person is doing the best they can.
“….then…..I’m a total jerk” – was one man’s response on doing this exercise.
He explained to the group: “If he’s doing the best he can, I’m a total jerk, and I need to stop harassing him and start helping him.”
Dr. Brené Brown writes that asking leaders to assume others are doing the best they can moves them from “pushing and grinding on the same issues” to the more difficult task of:
- teaching their team,
- reassessing their skill gaps,
- reassigning them,
- or letting them go.
“It’s a commitment to stop respecting and evaluating people based solely on what we think they should accomplish, and start respecting them for who they are, and holding them accountable for what they’re actually doing,” she says.
Simon Sinek, in his new book The Infinite Game, says building a culture of trust means acting in a way that is worthy of that trust.
“True trusting relationships require both parties to take a risk. Like dating or making friends, though one person has to take a first risk to trust, the other person has to reciprocate at some point if the relationship has any chance of succeeding.”
That might mean taking a risk on assuming others are doing the best they can.
And, becoming trusted friends with ourselves.
When we’re overwhelmed and struggling, turning those positive assumptions towards ourselves means saying:
“I’m doing the very best I can right now.”
The Growth Faculty July 2019 event with Dr Brené Brown, author of five No. 1 New York Times best-selling books; Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, Braving the Wilderness, The Gifts of Imperfection and Dare to Lead was a sellout, and Brené had people singing, and even dancing.
CULTIVATING GENIUS
MINDFULNESS OPPORTUNITY
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GRATITUDE
How Writing Down What You’re Thankful For Can Be Good For Mental and Physical Health
Over this past year, lifestyle blogger Aileen Xu has kept a monthly gratitude list.
Sometimes it was the big stuff: “I’m grateful that my family is so understanding. I’m grateful so many people care.”
And sometimes it was life’s little blessings: “July 2018: I’m grateful for good hair after I shower.”
Xu started making such lists when she was in college, “at a point when I was just not in a very good place in my life.” Now, the 28-year-old lifestyle blogger and YouTuber recommends the practice to her nearly 750,000 subscribers.
It wasn’t a hard sell.
“I think just over the last few years there’s been more of a trend to focus on gratitude,” says psychologist Laurie Santos, who teaches a course on the science of well-being and happiness at Yale.
Gratitude is being endorsed by wellness blogs and magazines. You can buy different kinds of specific gratitude journals, or download apps that remind you to jot down your blessings.
“Those types of products can remind us to take time to be grateful,” Santos says. “But it’s also important to remember that gratitude is free.”
And noting your gratitude seems to pay off: There’s a growing body of research on the benefits of gratitude. Studies have found that giving thanks and counting blessings can help people sleep better, lower stress and improve interpersonal relationships. Earlier this year, a study found that keeping a gratitude journal decreased materialism and bolstered generosity among adolescents.
In another study from August, high school students who were asked to keep gratitude journals also reported healthier eating. There’s also some evidence it could lower your risk of heart disease and lower symptoms of depression for some people.
That’s why gratitude features heavily in Santos’ happiness class. “It’s one of the practices that really wins out from the field of positive psychology,” she says, because it takes very little time, and “the benefits are so powerful.”
Making gratitude lists is one way of accessing those benefits. You could thank God or the universe. You could keep your gratitude private or share it with others. The best way of accessing and expressing gratitude may be different for each person.
Santos’ students, in addition to keeping gratitude journals, are asked to write a thank you letter and then read it out loud to the recipient. “I can show measurable improvements in well-being even a month after you’ve done this,” Santos says.
What works for some people may not work for others. To find your best method, “[r]eally think about what feels right and what feels natural or meaningful to you,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, who studies happiness and gratitude.
Some may find that a daily dose of gratitude in the morning can be transformative. “It helps me feel awake and abundantly joyful,” says Sam Khazai, a 38-year-old actor based in New York, who uses a journal that prompts him to list three things he’s grateful for each day.
“I know it sounds kind of meta,” he says. “But practicing gratitude, it brings me so much gratitude in and of itself.”
There have been times, however, when he has skipped a day or even several days when he’s felt especially down. “Or if I don’t skip those days, I’ve straight up lied to my own gratitude journal … I’ve filled it with things I hoped to be grateful for,” he says — but he didn’t feel grateful, and forcing it felt bad.
“Gratitude is a very rich emotion, but it’s also kind of a complicated one,” notes Lyubomirsky. “Sometimes when you express gratitude, you could also feel humbled or indebted or embarrassed. So it doesn’t always feel pleasant.”
In one study Lyubomirsky and her colleagues found that counting blessings once a week boosted happiness, but doing so three times a week didn’t. “That suggests that for most people, at least on average, three times a week was too much,” she says. “And too much gratitude can sort of backfire.”
There’s also a lack of research on how gratitude exercises affect people with clinical depression, anxiety or suicidal tendencies, Lyubomirsky says. “If you’re depressed, and you’re asked to express gratitude … you might have trouble thinking of what you’re grateful for, or you may feel really guilty you haven’t paid back that person you’re grateful for.”
Indeed, for all the research on the broad benefits of expressing gratitude, there’s also evidence that it isn’t for everyone. And it isn’t a panacea — it can’t make injustice, loss, or pain disappear.
What gratitude can do is give us hope. “The research shows that focusing on the positive, in addition to the negative, can boost our mood more than we expect,” says Santos.
In Oakland, Calif., 31-year-old mental health counselor Zeyda Garcia agrees. During really tough times, like when she’d lost a job and was sleeping on her friend’s mom’s couch — she felt like she was reaching for reasons to be grateful.
But she still tried to find some. “Even if it’s just — I’m grateful for the sun that’s shining or being able to wake up,” she says. It felt hokey, and “kind of fake, a little bit.”
But ultimately, it helped. “It allowed me to ground myself,” she says. “It allowed me to remember what was going well, in a world full of chaos.”
ON THE BALLOT
It’s a great month to be a Bennie Bobcat!
