Family Wellness Wednesday

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Happy New Year GPISD Families, welcome to the spring semester!

As we kick off the new year, it’s a great time to focus on routines that help our students thrive. Consistent routines at home and school play a significant role in creating a sense of stability and success for your child.

Here are a few tips to help your family transition smoothly back into the school rhythm:

• Prioritize Attendance: Every school day counts! Being present ensures your child doesn’t miss valuable learning experiences and helps build essential habits for the future.
• Stay Connected: If your child is facing challenges or you need academic support, we encourage you to reach out to your child’s teacher. Scheduling a parent-teacher conference is a great way to discuss progress and create a plan for success.
• Celebrate Efforts: Acknowledge your child’s hard work and set small goals for the semester to keep them motivated and focused.

We’re here to support you every step of the way. Let’s work together to make this spring semester a successful one for all our students.

Thank you for being a valued partner in your child’s education and I hope you find the resources in this newsletter helpful.

- Maria Herrera, LCSW

Director of Family & Community Engagement

You deserve to take care of yourself because, well, you deserve it. Each of us has a right to strive towards happiness and to value ourselves. Self-care is an essential part of parenting.

If we thought it was really that easy to gain your commitment to focus on yourselves we could simply end here. Task accomplished. But too many parents have grown to believe that they must sacrifice for their children. For those parents, we remind you that the importance of caring for yourself is among the most important strategies of caring for your children.

Many parents feel conflicted — we are pushed and pulled in so many directions — that we worry we are not doing right by our children. So we sacrifice our own well-being and ultimately judge ourselves by how our kids turn out. If they are successful, we determine our self-sacrifice and choices must have paid off. But setting aside our own well-being in an effort to give more to our children does not help them.

Caring for yourself, with the same faithfulness with which you care about your children is anything but a selfish act. Self-care is a strategic act of good parenting.

• Parents are models of what healthy adults look like.
• Young people learn positive coping strategies from their parents.
• Adolescents care deeply about the well-being of their parents, and feel more secure when they know we are okay.
• Relationships between parents and teens benefit when parents are content with themselves and the choices they’ve made. This helps children know we value them for who they are. They’ll believe we see them as whole human beings, not a set of accomplishments.
• Young people talk to adults who are settled and calm. They often withhold information from parents they think will become overly upset.
• Adolescents whose parents live meaningful lives look forward to growing up.

• It’s important to talk with preteens and teens about how social media affects them, but lectures can backfire.
• These tips can help you start the conversation and keep it going, without having your kid shut down.
• These tips were written especially for parents who are worried about their preteen/teens' social media use.
• You can also use these tips for conversations about any tough topic—and with anyone in your life.

By Reading Rockets

Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyze it, make sense of it, and make it their own.

Strong readers think actively as they read. They use their experiences and knowledge of the world, vocabulary, language structure, and reading strategies to make sense of the text and know how to get the most out of it. They know when they have problems with understanding and what thinking strategies to use to resolve these problems when they pop up.

Please click below to continue reading article from Reading Rockets.

The Grand Family Service Center serves as a one-stop resource center for GPISD families and newcomers to our district.

This facility provides a wide array of essential services, including assistance with student registration, language proficiency assessments, assistance with lunch applications, access to food, clothing, school supplies, and much more.

We also provide many parent events and resources. Below we highlight some upcoming events that are open to all GPISD parents. We invite you and hope to see you there!

1301 E. Coral Way, Door #1 (South Entrance)
Grand Prairie, Texas 75051
972-623-9000

Tuesday January 21, 2025

9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Grand Family Service Center

Do you have a toddler at home? Come visit with us and get ready to shake, rattle and roll as your toddler dances, marches and runs their way to literacy success!

This interactive discovery time gives your child the opportunity to explore their world with new friends as they begin to move about. Free and open to the public.

Click here to see the spanish flyer

Tuesday February 2, 2025

9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Grand Family Service Center

Charlas con un Cafecito es un grupo de apoyo mensual gratuito para madres y cuidadoras de niños o jóvenes con problemas de comportamiento o enfermedades mentales. Las mujeres a menudo ingresan al grupo sintiéndose frustradas y solas en la lucha por la salud de su hijo, y se van sintiéndose apoyadas, alentadas y capacitadas con nueva información y recursos para la salud mental.

Friday February 7, 2025

10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Grand Family Service Center

Visit with Yvette! She is bilingual and will share information on:

* Upcoming Hiring Events

* Training Opportunities

* Job Search Assistance

* Job Readiness Workshops

* GED and ESL Classes

Wednesday February 19, 2025

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Grand Family Service Center

Assistance with Medicaid and Chip applications and renewal assistance.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Registration Required

If interested please complete the following link if you are able to attend evening sessions. Classes to begin in February.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMI6rRY-Qle_CN0J95YNaKj-Xcje-OpJ_rr8ixP3SfuoPrfg/viewform

We will continue to provide monthly workshops to our GPISD families virtually! You can join us from the comfort of your home or when you are out and about doing errands.

The purpose of these sessions is to educate and empower our families with knowledge to support their students at home.

All sessions are from 6- 7:30 p.m. And if you are unable to attend session, don't worry!! You can always watch the recorded session.

Click here to view upcoming workshops. Spring Calendar coming soon.

Click here to view our past recordings.

Come to learn and enjoy fun ways to help your child be ready for school !

PACT is a two-part educational session designed to enhance your parenting skills. During the first half of the session, you'll learn about a specific topic that can benefit your family. Following that, you will have the opportunity to apply what you've learned during the second half, engaging with your children in a practical way.

If you are a parent of a Pre-K or Kinder student, please ask your student's teacher if your school provides PACT sessions. If so, please join our next class....you don't want to miss it! If one is not offered at your school, please ask your teacher on how we can bring PACT to your school.

You may also contact our Family Engagement Specialist, Ruth Minotti at ruth.minotti@gpisd.org for more information.

See photos below from our PACT meetings.

We are excited to share some events and workshops we highly recommend for our parents and guardians of special education students! These opportunities are designed to provide valuable tools, resources and strategies to support your child's growth and development. Please save the dates and we hope you can join!

For additional resources please visit our department page at https://www.gpisd.org/specialeducation

Spanish flyer

We have some additional events and workshops for our parents and guardians of bilingual students. We hope you can join.

For additional supports or resources please visit our department page at https://www.gpisd.org/Bilingual

We are excited to announce our new Call 4 Care initiative, allowing parents to call 972-522-7070 for assistance with mental health, food, clothing, and other essential needs.

The Counseling Center provides support for students facing behavioral or emotional concerns, including depression, anxiety, grief, and self-esteem issues, with services offered both in-person and virtually.

Also, the Social Work Hub offers clothing, uniform support, and food assistance, including monthly food boxes and extra meals during holidays.

We also provide school supplies, hygiene products, and other items to assist families at home.

If your family needs support in any of these areas, please do not hesitate to reach out through Call 4 Care at 972-522-7070 or visit our website www.gpisd.org/Call4Care if your family needs assistance.

Spanish flyer click here.

• in a homeless, domestic, or other similar type shelter
• in a motel or campground due to the lack of an alternative adequate accommodation
• in a car, park, abandoned building, or bus or train station
• doubled-up with other people due to loss of housing or economic hardship

If you answered yes to any of the above, your child might be able to receive help through a federal law called McKinney-Vento Act.

Please click here to provide us with some basic information and someone will reach out to you.

Director of Family & Community Engagement

Email: maria.herrera@gpisd.org
Website: https://www.gpisd.org/FamilyCommunityEngagement
Location: 1301 E Coral Way, Grand Prairie, TX, USA
Phone: 972-522-3196
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GPISDfamilyengagement/