Helping Our High School Students Prepare for College

As we complete another year of primarily remote learning, our high school students continue to thrive. Many of our graduating seniors have been accepted to four-year colleges with a full year of early learning college credits. These students showcase their talents by participating in college and career events at the school as they interview with board members for future careers and college goals.

Celebrate Achievement

This celebration of achievements prepares our students for the essential skills and educational requirements they will need to complete their college and career goals. As we consider next steps with all of our middle and high school students, we are striving to fully engage them in student led parent-teacher conferences throughout their school years.

Engage Student Learning

To achieve student engagement, we will be adapting the SOAR model of student owned learning (i.e. see Student-Engaged Assessment by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke) per the following steps:

We will consider what an engaged learner looks like per various definitions of student engagement. Examples may include that the learner is a problem-solver with a variety of solutions, an explorer, or supports community services and an equitable global economy.
Students will apply the SOAR model of learning where a Student Owns their Learning with Achievable Results.
First, the student is ready to learn with sufficient sleep, diet, homework completion, and motivation.
Second, the student understands how he or she learns best (i.e. linguistically, logically, musically, visually, or kinesthetically) and applies this learning style to challenging new lessons. The student learns to modify leaning styles to be more flexible in achieving results.
Third, the student will work with the teacher to determine how she or he will demonstrate learning and apply these strategies to document performance.
Fourth, the student will reflect on what worked and what he or she needs to change in being able to complete the assignment.
Finally, after building a portfolio of lesson completions, the student will meet with her or his teachers to determine final grades and how this documentation will be presented to parents in an upcoming conference.

Students Own Learning

The goal is that the student will be better prepared to understand how he or she can best achieve academic successes and overcome challenges. When feeling challenged, the student will be able to successfully advocate for her or himself in daily life and while attending college.

Much success as we help prepare our kids to self-advocate for their academic and personal growth goals!

Yvette

Building Resilliency Skills for Kids

Building Resiliency Skills for Kids

This past year our students have been learning remotely in Goggle classrooms. Each morning, our second graders spend an hour focusing on their social-emotional needs. Our school has adopted the FranklinCovey’s K-12 Leader in Me (see www.TheLeaderInMe.org) curriculum so support students’ personal growth based on Stephen R. Covey’s The Leader in Me book. The seven habits that we focus on with a variety of reflective activities include:

Be proactive by taking responsibility for personal choices and behaviors.
Begin with the end in mind by setting goals.
Put first things first by achieving the most important things first.
Think win-win so that everyone can win.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood by learning to listen first and talk second.
Synergize by having folks work together to achieve a better solution.
Sharpen the saw to achieve balance in life.

Stress Reduction Strategies

Additionally, our students learn to overcome failure in various learning situations through stress reduction strategies. These may include:

Learning to say positive messages to themselves when they feel they are failing or getting frustrated with a situation. Three videos that we use in class to overcome this negative mindset and help our students persevere include https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOaFwwLyTRo,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ampy3IFt6k, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su7gegYKDy4

Using basic relaxation strategies used in meditation, yoga, and deep breathing exercises
Practicing effective visualization exercises to view how they may overcome challenges
Writing a mantra or motto to say to themselves when they are feeling fearful or anxious about a situation
Taking brain breaks to relax and refocus during a very challenging lesson or for essential breaks from remote learning

Much success as you explore and practice these resiliency skills at home with your children and families!

Danielle

Friends, Silence Makes Us Complicit

Friends, Silence Makes Us Complicit

In May 2020, George Floyd was killed while in police custody. And while this senseless, callous act was committed between a police officer against a human being, to my great horror, another equally ugly and grievous act was being committed – an Asian police officer stood by and did nothing to stop George Floyd’s death. In response to this act, my cousin rightly pointed out that “it is not ok to stand silently by in quiet solidarity. Friends, silence makes us complicit.” Boy, oh boy, did that last statement hit me like a ton of bricks! It made me realize that for far too long, I had been silent. But as an Asian American, where do I start finding my voice as an ally? How should I start leaning into anti-racism?

Acknowledgement

First, I had to acknowledge and confess some truths about myself. As I reflected on my experience concerning racism, I discovered that I am sometimes both victim and offender. As an Asian American, I experienced my fair share of racism – sometimes subtle, sometimes overt – but nothing like the recent aggressive attacks on elderly Asians across the country (a topic for another blog post!). However, the expectation to fit into the “model minority” role also enabled me to assimilate and be a recipient of privilege. This dichotomy made me feel uneasy and regretful, and perhaps it now continues to serve as the driving force for learning how to speak up against racial injustice.

Awareness

Realizing that I do not know enough about the Black American experience, I started reading books and watching videos so that I could gain an awareness of racism in America, but also how I could celebrate diversity and promote reconciliation. Here are a few of the resources that have made a big impact on how I am becoming more aware of racism in America:

How to Be an Antiracist, book by Ibram X. Kendi

I Am Not Your Negro, documentary by Raoul Peck

Just Mercy, movie directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, book written by Bryan Stevenson

Multiethnic Conversations, book by Mark DeMaz and Oneya Fennel Okuwobi

Roadmap to Reconciliation, book by Brenda Salter McNeil

Selma, movie directed by Ava DuVernay, book written by Paul Webb

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, book by Jason Reynolds

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, book by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Action

One of the vignettes described in Roadmap to Reconciliation was about a white woman who visited a museum documenting brutal and horrific lynchings. Her response to this experience resonated with me. She said, “I don’t know what to do with what I just saw. I can’t fix your pain, and I can’t take it away, but I can see it. And I will work the rest of my life to fight for you and for your children so they won’t experience it.”

Like this woman, I too, feel the pain of what has happened in the past, including present day racial injustices. I want to contribute to and promote a more anti-racist society. My first step of action was to seek accountability in my personal journey to keep learning about racism in America, so I joined a discussion group. We have been meeting each week to share what we have been learning. At first, we reported different sources of information but eventually the format of our meetings morphed into a book club where we all read and discussed the same book. Our last project together was to organize a community viewing and panel discussion of “’54,” a documentary about Sunnyhills, the first planned integrated community in America. On a professional level, I helped organize parent workshops and found presenters to speak about how to raise anti-racist kids.

Change

These are just small steps in the larger anti-racism movement, but I am no longer silent.

Friends, what books or resources would you recommend as we continue leaning into anti-racism? What actions would you suggest so we can stand in solidarity against racial injustice?

My very best,

Jaime

How We Help Our K-12 Children Manage Money

It is a new year with opportunities for growth and understanding for all. Many families redefine chore responsibilities with the start of each new year. Families also discuss the relevance of an allowance to help their children learn how to save for treasured purchases. Some families provide a weekly allowance for being a family member while others tie the allowance to a list of household chores. Many families also encourage their children to take on significant household responsibilities that may include weekly grocery shopping, yard work, painting, and housecleaning to earn extra money for specific needs they may include hobbies, sports camps, sporting equipment, school sponsored club trips, and clothing purchases. For example, some students start making crafts for crafts fairs or sell their products on online websites.

Middle School Student Money Management

Middle school students can expand their financial literacy by:

Managing an annual clothes allowance with agreed budgetary items or requirements
Learning to manage a cell phone plan and allowance
Managing a savings account for college that may include learning about various savings investments (e.g. certificates of deposit, U.S. Savings Bonds, and mutual fund investments)
Supporting neighbors and friends by babysitting, dog walking, selling baked goods, and providing computer support services

High School Student Money Management

High school students can also support the family by:

Supporting the use of a family car by paying for gas, car maintenance expenses, and the increased premium for auto insurance
Getting a summer or after school job to save for college and pay for added clothing, entertainment, hobbies, and sporting activities
Research the cost for various college and career preparation programs and contribute to their college and career savings plan when earning money
Managing the family’s weekly food budget
Planning and budgeting for various family outings and trips
Learning how to write a grant and apply for funding for a school or community service need
Explore various investment options to contribute to the college and career fund
Working with their parents to understand the family daily, weekly, and monthly household budget to prepare for an independent college and career life after high school with clear expectations of what is costs to go to various colleges and live away from home

Self-Reliant Children

As we partner with our children to manage money and guide them in the process, they will become self-reliant and resilient when overcoming various financial setbacks and challenges. Our goal as parents can be to help our children become capable money managers by the time they are 18 years old. This means they have reasonable expectations of what daily life costs are and how they can manage and support their family with these costs when they start an independent college and career life away from home.

Much success teaching your kids about money management!

Mary Ann

How to Help Our Elementary Children Learn Online and Write Stories

Many parents and students continue to struggle with remote learning. As a substitute teacher/tutor for second grade students using the Google classroom platform, I provide literacy writing units for students and tutor them in reading and writing. I also help students understand how to use their preferred learning styles when tackling difficult subjects. For example, one of our students loves to sing her math solutions. Other students love to calculate math solutions. Still others write and describe the steps to solving math problems as they complete the computations. When teaching students how to write about a topic, we provide students with options on how they can complete their assignments.

Writing Tips for Students

Here is an example on how students can own their writing successes on learning about the Air Quality Index (AQI) based on our newly published Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies for All Learners book:

The teacher lists the reading and writing learning intentions and academic standards that are being used for a writing activity on how to use the Air Quality Index in their daily lives.
Students read and discuss a story about the assigned topic. They can learn about extreme weather and how thunder and lightening storms can create fires and smoky air that is hazardous to their health. They can also learn how to create an evacuation plan for their family and how to read the Air Quality Index each day before going outside to play.
Three options are provided on how students can create a reflective five sentence paragraph about the story. They can (1) draw a picture and then write a story, or (2) draw a series of pictures that illustrate the story and then write a sentence under each picture to complete their paragraph, or (3) use the voice dictation feature on their computer and then edit the story.
Students will write a reflective paragraph that can include the following sentences:
1. A sentence that introduces the topic
2. A sentence that describes how they can use the Air Quality Index in their daily life
3. An example of what they can do outside with the knowledge that the air is safe
4. A second example of how they can use the Air Quality Index for outside activities
5. A concluding sentence about they learned and the importance of the Air Quality Index in their daily lives
Students review an example paragraph or write as a class an example paragraph that includes the #4 sentence prompts.
After students write their own paragraphs, they can read them to the class and reflect on these questions:
1. What did you learn today?
2. What worked for you when completing this activity?
3. What did not work for you?
4. How will you use this activity for other learning assignments?
5. How can you use this activity in daily life?

Much success as you support your children’s writing successes!

Mary Ann