As I mentioned
two weeks ago, the book Quiet by Susan Cain also made me think about three of
the SMASH social curriculum elements that build empathy and pro-social
behaviors in our children.
Anger
diffusion/Conflict Resolution: Cain asserts that, “Studies have shown that
venting does not soothe anger, it fuels it. We’re best off when we don’t allow
ourselves to go to our angry place. (page 233)” I know that anger is a healthy,
normal emotion to experience at times. Cain is suggesting it is not helpful when
we allow ourselves and others to stew in anger. What does this mean for the
ways we adults in the community interact when we feel anger? What does this
mean for the ways we respond to students when they are filled with anger?
Cain’s research supports the cooling off techniques we use at SMASH: taking
space and time to cool down, taking deep breaths, asking your-self whether the
thing that is making you so angry is really that important, or moving around to
release tension. We know adults and children alike are then ready after
recovering from anger to resolve conflicts by expressing needs for future
interactions.
Social
contract creation/Social Cues: Psychologist Dacher Keltner in his book, Born to
be Good, asked people, “What was your last embarrassing experience?” Then he
would watch for lips pressed together, blushing, and averted eyes. Blushing
showed people cared and knew they had violated the social contract. According
to Keltner, embarrassment is a moral emotion. It shows humility and a desire to
make peace (page 144). At SMASH, each Core creates a social contract and we
help each other honor our successes in keeping our agreements to each other. We
also help each other identify mistakes where agreements are broken and need
repair. One of the four agreements the SMASH staff put in our social contract
this year is, “Practice kindness and recognize others’ positive intentions and
qualities.” We adults are trying to model with each other what we expect in
student to student interactions as well.
Collaboration/Continual
Growth: A 2010 University of Michigan study showed that college students today
are 40 percent less empathetic than thirty years ago, with much of the drop
having occurred since 2000. The study’s authors speculate the decline in
empathy is related to the prevalence of social media, reality TV, and hyper
competitiveness (page 141). At SMASH, we de-emphasize competition and
comparisons, and we emphasize an individual’s continu-um, recognizing strengths
and places for growth.
What are the
practices in your household that you think help build peaceful,
problem-solving, empathic, moral family members? What are the practices at
SMASH that you think help build peaceful, problem-solving, empathic, moral
students? I encourage you to share your thoughts with me.
Enthusiastically
yours,
Jessica
***********************
DATE CHANGES FOR CORE 3 AND CORE 4
FORUMS
CORE 3 FORUM HAS CHANGED TO
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
**********************
SMASH STUDENTS!
WE NEED YOUR ARTWORK FOR THIS YEAR’S
- SMASH TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
Bring your artwork to the main office no later than
1:30pm on Friday, September 27.
We will vote on the artwork on Monday, September 30
The artwork should be 8 inches high and 5 inches high
so that it fits on the front of the directory.
***********************
DATES TO
REMEMBER
Mon, Sept 16 -
9:00-10:00am - SMASH school tour
Wed, Sept
18 - 6:00-7:30pm - CORE 4 FORUM - PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE
Fri, Sept 20
to Sun, Sept 22 - SMASH Family Camping at Camp Josepho (details in Friday
Letter)
Wed, Sept
25 - 6:00-7:30pm - CORE 3 FORUM - PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE
Fri, Sept 27 -
8am - SMASH Bash Sale in Small Yard
Wed, Thurs,
Fri, October 2, 3, & 4 - Conferences - 1:30 EARLY DISMISSAL
Sun, Oct 6 -
Santa Monica 5000
Wed, Oct 9 -
6:00pm - SMASH PTSA Mtg.
***********************
From
your SMASHing PTSA Presidents . . . . .
Dear Smashers,
t was great
to be with many of you at Back To School Night! Looking forward to more
SMASHING events with all of you throughout the year! Just a few announcements as we head into the middle of September:
The cost is
$20 for youth under 18 and $35 for adults. People can designate $5 of their
registration to SMASH - you’ll see the option on the registration form.
Sign up by
September 16th and get 10%! Just use this code: Code: SM5000family.
People can
register for the race anytime at www.santamonica50000.com Please join us for our FIRST PTSA Meeting of the year. We will have quite a bit to discuss and we would love your input, suggestions and ideas!
***********************
SMASH COMEDY NIGHT
a PTSA "Adults Only"
Fundraiser
Sunday, November 17 at 7pm
Magicopolis on 4th St. in downtown
Santa Monica
SMASH Dad Jake
Johannsen is hosting this night of laughs - he has appeared on the David
Letterman Show 43 times (more than any other comedian!) and has done specials
for Showtime and HBO. Jake has put together a talented group of comedians and
magicians including Greg Fitzsimmons, Laurie Kilmartin, Owen Smith and Derek
Hughes.
This promises
to be a great night of fun and good times. Tickets are on sale for $40 - a
bargain for this show. There is limited seating at Magicopolis and we expect a
sell-out so get your tickets early.
PLEASE BUY
YOUR TICKETS SOON!
If we do not sell the tickets through our Smash Community we will be promoting
the show on Jake's Podcast, in the Santa Monica Daily Press and with posters
around town. This takes mon-ey and time and can be avoided if we sell the
tickets within the next couple of weeks.
Visit
www.smashcomedynight.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets. Thanks for supporting
SMASH!
Nina Furukawa, SMASH Comedy Night Event Chair
nina@smdp.com 310-922-2060
***********************
WHY JOIN SMASH PTSA?
[Parent Teacher Student Association]
The number-one reason to join
the SMASH PTSA is to benefit your child. In doing so, you also help SMASH. But
there are many more advantages. Here are just a few:
Get Connected. There’s no better way to know what’s happening at SMASH.
Tap into a Network. SMASH PTSA functions provide opportunities to meet other parents and teachers, build rapport and discuss parenting issues that are on your mind.
Watch yourself Grow. By volunteering with our PTSA, you gain valuable
experiences and personal confidence. It’s an opportunity to put your skills and
hobbies to good use for a good cause.
Speak Up. Because PTSA is a forum for exchanging ideas, you are encouraged to make suggestions and more effectively suggest change at our school.
Help Your Child Succeed. PTSA fosters parent involvement. Parent involvement has been proven by three decades of research to be the greatest predictor of student success.
Witness Improvement. By getting involved at SMASH, you’ll be part of the solution, helping to make positive changes. Our PTSA plays an important role in fundraising to provide building improvements, curriculum-based programs, social events, teachers’ aides, classroom supplies – all vital to the success of SMASH and our children.
Be a Role Model. By becoming a PTSA member, you’ll be demonstrating
to your child the importance you place on education.
To join, fill out the white PTSA
envelope that came in your child’s first day packet, or pick up an envelope at
the office. Insert a check for $9 per member, payable to SMASH PTSA. Drop the
envelope off at the office. Any questions, email Snow Lam-Hansen (mother of
Tia/Core 1 and Kim/Core 2) at snowwht@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Snow Lam-Hansen
PTSA Membership V.P.
Jamee Tenzer
David Saltzman
PTSA Co-Presidents
Jessica Rishe
Principal
***********************
Target wants to donate to SMASH!
But, we need your help.
Please visit the Target page on Facebook and click on
"Give with Target" You can vote for SMASH once each day so vote early
and often! The offer ends on September 21!
***********************
CORE 1 NEWS
Building
Community
Core 1
students and teachers have been hard at work developing norms to ensure that we
have a safe, productive, and fun environment to learn in. Based on student
observations, feedback, and reflections, we have honed in on the following Core
1 CARES Guidelines:
C
(ooperation): Include others while working and playing together.
A
(ssertion): Ask for what you need.
R(esponsibility):
Do your job and take care of our things.
E (mpathy):
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
S
(elf-Control): Keep hands, feet, and body to ourselves.
In the coming
week, we will delve deeper into what these guidelines look like, sound like,
and feel like!
Practicing Positive Habits
Your children have also been pushing themselves to develop positive habits that will ensure that they grow throughout the year. Among these habits is building stamina, specifically in reading and writing. To help in this endeavor, we encourage you to ensure that your child is reading, or being read to, every night if possible. Take time to stop periodically to talk about the story or text with your child. Doing so is a great way to increase vocabu-lary, sharpen thinking, and increase stamina. We also encourage you to find opportunities to enjoy writing with your child. This can include storytelling orally or in writing, keeping a journal, or leaving notes around the house (i.e. “Please pick up your toys today” or “I love you!”). Ask your child to leave notes for you too, and to add to your shopping list. Simply getting children into the habit of writing is important.
Drama is
Here!
Drama is in
full swing with Core 1 students enjoying dramatic movement through
storytelling. In this process, students are also making connections between
different emotions and colors that represent them. The drama teachers, (Kristy
and Marni) request that you send in three solid colored t-shirts for an
upcoming performance. The shirts will be painted. They can be purchased at the
99 Cent Store.
With
Sincere Gratitude
We again want
to thank you for your generosity in helping us purchase furniture, rugs, and
electronics for our Core 1. We have left our Wish Board up in Graciela’s room
for those of you who are still interested in viewing our wishes. We also wish
to thank you for generosity and for taking the time to shop for core supplies.
We will be able to fill our supply cabinets with new staples, post-it notes,
tape, staplers, etc. Attendance
A brief reminder that when your child is late for school please tell them to check in with their workshop teacher. This helps us keep track of attendance and the whereabouts of all students.
Have a great weekend!
Chrysta (cpowell@smmusd.org )
Christian (ccarter@smmusd.org ) & Nadja
***********************
CORE 2 NEWS
At the Forum
this week, you heard all about your child’s academic life in Core 2, yet
there is also a lot going on socially and physically at this age.
These changes in their behavior or mood, interests, and friends may leave you
feeling confused. Did you plan a summer activity that received an, “Eh, that
sounds boring!” response? Children at this age can have a range of emotions
from enthusiastic to hypercritical of themselves and those around them,
including friends and adults. All of these attitudes and changes are
developmentally appropriate. Below you will find a chart that explains the social,
physical, and cognitive growth that occurs throughout their time in
Core 2.
|
Age
|
Social Development
|
Physical Development
|
Cognitive Development
|
|
7 years old
|
Students can be moody and
sulky. Friendships can change quickly and students can feel like “nobody
likes me.”
|
Students can do quiet work
for longer periods of time, yet can be more worried about tests and
assignments.
|
Students enjoy working slowly
and finishing what they started, but can be bothered by mistakes they make.
|
|
8 years old
|
Students have a good sense of
humor. They adjust well to change and can bounce back from disappointment.
|
Students like to play hard,
but they can tire easily. They can have a limited attention span and a may
have a growth spurt.
|
Students are ready to work
hard, but they can be impatient and take on more than they can handle. They
can listen well, but may forget what they heard.
|
|
9 years old
|
Students may complain a lot,
often saying “I hate it,” “I can’t,” “It’s boring.” They are competitive and
working in groups is hard because of the tendency to argue.
|
Students can complain about
aches, pains, and injuries. They are also restless and cannot sit for too
long.
|
Students work hard and pay
attention to detail, but interest may change quickly. Students begin to see
the bigger world and the issues of justice and fairness.
|
|
10 years old
|
Students are eager to reach
out to others through community service. They listen well and enjoy talking
and explaining their ideas.
|
Students need lots of outdoor
play and physical challenges, yet also need lots of snacks and rest time.
|
Students are hardworking,
take pride in their schoolwork, and are open to learning problem-solving and
mediation skills.
|
Source: Yardsticks: Children in
the Classroom Ages 4-14 by Chip Wood, published by Northeast Foundation for
Children, Inc.
These stages of development are
fairly predictable, yet children will advance at different rates. They do
not suddenly change on their birthday! The most important thing to remember
is that you should, “Enjoy your child at each age. Each age is unique. Each age
is a wonder” (Chip Wood).
If you have questions,
***********************
CORE
3 NEWS
IMPORTANT NOTICE
OUR CORE 3 FORUM
HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25 AT 6:00PM
We are asking for a
$25 donation (or whatever you can give at this time) for school and art
supplies for the year from
each family. Thank you! This donation helps in making school fun!
Field Trips:
We have only one chaperone signed up for the opera trip. We need more
chaperones!It would be unfortunate
if we had to miss a field trip because we don't have enough chaperones.
9/19-comic opera, 9/23-Pepperdine University, 9/30-SM Public Library
6th gr Math with Erin: This week students focused on
thinking deeply about even and odd numbers. Students worked together to make
conjectures (ask them if they remember this vocabulary) about the result of
operations on odd numbers, on even numbers, and on combination of odd and even
numbers. Later in the weeks students worked on Factor Venn diagrams, helping
them learn to understand how to group certain factors together.
5th gr Math with Genie: In addition to multiples and
factors, we are looking at the order of operations which has been fun! Do you
remember the order of operations? Ask your child—they love to teach especially
to their parents. Khanacademy.org has video clips which are great for practice
and review. Research has shown why the video math clips have been an important
tool to math learning—students feel they can independently and privately review
a concept as many times as they need to and not look 'dumb' because they didn't
get it the first time. So when your child may feel confused, they can log onto
Khan Academy and search 'multiples and factors' or 'order of operations' and
watch clips to get a review.
Visual
Art with Julianna: We have dug into clay to create characters and think about
how we will animate them with stop animation as well as just tinkering with
clay. If your child is more interested in this art form, YouTube stop animation
or armature for clay.
Homework:
5G math:
packet #3. Due 9/20/13RW: read every day for 30-40 minutes (around 100 pages a week)
Nonfiction reading sheet—complete front and back by Wednesday (9/18)
***********************
CORE
4 NEWS
IMPORTANT
NOTICE
CORE
4 FORUM HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED
TO WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 AT 6:00PM
Developmental
Designs Classroom Practices
·
Circle
of Power and Respect: For many years at SMASH, the Developmental Designs
approach is how we integrate the social-emotional needs with the academic
intellectual needs of young adolescents. In the first Friday Letter, we talked
about the evidence-based principles that guide us in meeting the four developmental
needs of middle school students. For the past fifteen days, students in both
their math/science block and humanities block have engaged in meeting
structures called “Circle of Power and Respect (CPR for short)” and “Activity
Plus Advisory” to help build classroom community and social skills. Your child
(or children for families with twins) might have shared some of the activities
that occurred in CPR such as “Is This Seat Taken” or “Count to Ten.” This shows
how the “Power of Play,” as an integral part of CPR, helped grow our new
community. With our plan of having more the mixed groupings, the eighth graders
have been able to practice their leadership skills by modeling to the seventh
graders and helping them understand the routines of Core 4.
·
Goals
& Declarations: At this point, the majority of students have created a
second or third draft of their goals. Creating goals give students practice in
autonomy and reflection while anchoring their learning in a meaningful
commitment to growth. Each goal was evaluated using the SMART Rubric (was the
goal “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely”). When they
finished with at least three goals, we turned them into a public plan of action
called declaration. In other words, each goal that was turned into a statement
that begins with “I will ...” and becomes a public assertion of
what they will do!
·
Social
Contract: Even though the work with our Goals and Declarations is still
ongoing, we had enough background to begin the process of creating a Core 4
Social Contract. These are agreement that the whole community will commit in
order to help everyone achieve their goals. We started with partners generating
some guidelines before consolidating those guidelines when they met in a larger
group of six. Then a representative from each group consolidated the guidelines
for each advisory, followed by representatives from each advisory creating the
guidelines for the whole core. The last step was the announcement and signing
of our Social Contract.
·
Next
week, we will elaborate on Modeling and Practicing, The Loop, Empowering
Language, and Pathways to Self-control.
Reminders
Thursday,
September 19 - Field Trip to The Miles Memorial Playhouse (Volunteers needed!)
Friday,
September 20 - All Core Swimming at the Santa Monica Swim CenterWednesday, September 18- The Core 4 Forum 6:00-7:30pm - PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE
Friday, September 27 - All Core Swimming at the Santa Monica Swim Center
References:
http://www.originsonline.org/developmental-designs
***********************
Sustainable Works One & Only Fall Green Living
Workshop
Did you
know it takes more takes 2,400 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef? You
save more water by not eating a pound of beef than by not showering for 6
months!
Join a FREE
Sustainable Works Green Living Workshop and learn how information like this
will help you save money and positively impact your family, community, and
ultimately the planet!
When:
Six
Tuesday Meetings: October 8, 15, 22, 29and November 5 & 12 - 7pm-8:30pm
Where:
Santa Monica Main Library Multipurpose Room, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. SM
Encourage
your friends to join you for this fun, educational opportunity.
Attend
1 meeting or all 6, whichever fits your schedule.
•Reduce
your Water & Energy usage
•Save $
on Utilities
•Cut
landfill Waste
•Reduce
your Family's Exposure to Toxic Chemicals
•Reduce
your Transportation Impact
•Make
more sustainable Shopping & Food choices
Receive
FREE resource saving tools
Water
saving hose nozzles, Energy saving light bulbs, Reusable shopping bags,
safe cleaning supplies, healthy energy bars, and more
Visit www.sustainableworks.eventbrite.com to
reserve your space at an upcoming workshop.
|
|
DONATIONS to our
GOODWILL FUNDRAISER!
Drop off your
household items, clothes, shoes, knick-knacks, TV’s, etc!
Must be clean and not broken. See back for specifics.
Saturday,
September 28, 2013
12:00 pm to
4:00 pm
Drop-off
anything that didn’t sell at your own yard sale
in observance of the Citywide Yard Sale
Day!
Olympic High School, Independent
Study Program, Off Campus Learning Center, Adult Education Center
721 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica
90405 • 310/392-2494 x66214 • ctangum@smmusd.org
We’re on the corner of Ocean Park
Blvd and Lincoln Blvd • enter our parking lot from Pine Street.
|
**********************
|
ZUMBA DANCE FITNESS FUNDRAISER for SMMUSD VISION for STUDENT SUCCESS
Want to take part in a Zumba Dance Fitness
Fundraiser that donates a% of the proceeds to the SMMUSD Vision for Student Success? If so,
Grant Elementary School is hosting, with Sponsor Lorna Jane and Miss Debi http://www.missdebi.com/
a Zumba dance class for $25 per person on Sat. September 21st from 3-4pm in
the Grant Auditorium. You may purchase tickets online at http://www.grantpta.org/?page_id=5234
|
