Dear Raleigh Hills Community,

"It will require equal parts patience and tenacity. This is going to be messy.” These are the words of Jennifer Weiner, an educational leadership professor quoted in The NY Times. She's speaking about the role of parents in the new online learning environment. In the article posted on Edutopia, 7 Guiding Principles for Parents Teaching at Home, the author Lee and Weiner speak about the why behind the teaching practices that you are seeing unfold with your children every day. There are so many useful and practical tips like harnessing passion and play to forward learning. I hope you'll give it a read!

The two critical pieces that were so helpful for me were these:

• Consolidating Learning - there is a misconception that the role of education is to help students retain, or remember, learning. While retention is important, the bigger goal is to have students consolidate learning. This means they are able to retrieve learning and make new meaning of it. One of the ways you can foster this at home is to have students "teach" you what they've learned through the day.
• Productive struggle - I spoke about this at back to school night. It's the way you give students a challenging assignment and also give them the opportunity to wrestle with it. Then it's important to praise their persistence rather than their outcomes. If we build up our students' muscles for digging in, this will serve them well as they approach any challenging task.

Thanks for all you are doing to partner with us as we teach your students this year. Our continued partnership will be critical as the novelty of the beginning of school wears off and the academic demands increase. Stick with it, even when the going gets rough. Your efforts will pay off and I speak for the whole staff when I say they are so appreciated!

We got this,

Jennifer

I'm including the link to last week's newsletter below. It has the recording from Back to School Night in case you missed it. It also has the link to the survey. We need each family to complete the survey. We know that some of the links were not friendly last week. We have fixed those up. Please complete the survey this week.

Survey Link

Social connection is so important in this age of distance everything! If you'd like to share your contact information with your schoolmates, please fill out this form. We'll be putting together a directory so that you can set up playdates and connect with one another.

Click here for the Form

School Schedule Update

Currently students are meeting with classroom and specials teachers for synchronous (live) and asynchronous (pre-recorded or digital) learning on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday's schedule is a little different. It is a day that students receive social and emotional lessons and more asynchronous and applied learning.

During CDL, when there is a shortened week, the regular daily schedule will apply to Wednesdays. For example, Friday, October 9th is a Staff Development Day and will mean no school for students. On Wednesday, October 7th, students will have the same schedule as they would on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of that week with more live learning.

--Here is a special message from the district regarding Wednesdays...

Wednesday Schedule Update

Please note that the District will follow a different student schedule next week. Students will have a regular synchronous learning day on Wednesday, October 7, as opposed to an independent asynchronous learning day. There are no scheduled classes on Friday, October 9.

For your planning purposes, the following Wednesdays also will be traditional synchronous learning days: January 20, February 17 and June 2.

Food boxes are now available on Wednesdays from 12-1 at Beaverton High School! For other free food distribution days and times, click here.

Ms. Moore has compiled a list of really great books that we'd love to have in our school collection. If you are able, please consider buying books off her list and having them shipped to the school care of Erica Moore.

Amazon Book Wish List

BSD will be promoting its first Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Awareness Week (October 12-16) to spread awareness of actions that we can all take to prevent suicide and reduce the stigma related to mental health concerns.

As part of this important campaign, students in the Raleigh Hills Middle School will receive a lesson to promote positive mental health, recognize the warning signs for suicide risk and encourage help-seeking behaviors. Parents and guardians play a critical role in preventing youth suicide. Please see the resource below to learn more information about suicide prevention and steps that you can take to protect yourself, your community, and your children.

https://afsp.org/teens-and-suicide-what-parents-should-know

Join students and families from around the world as you walk or roll in your neighborhood on October 7th. (Please remember to stay 6 feet from those not in your household and wear a mask.) All community members are welcome to participate. Use the link to fill out the google form for each person that joined you on your trip. (BSD students may include name and student ID number for a prize entry). This year students can earn things like flashing safety lights, reflective shoelaces and new bike helmets. Schools with the most participation will also earn a Safe Routes to School book bundle for their school library. Finally, celebrate International Walk + Roll Day with our Beaverton community by visiting our Facebook page @BeavertonSafeRoutes to share a photo of you with a sign telling us why you love to walk, bike, scooter or skate! (Use the hashtag #BSDtogether)

Google Form Link: https://forms.gle/9rBZws7qDdqAj6Ab6

Thanks to our first graders for brightening my day with their insect sculptures. I know you'll agree that these are gorgeous!

October 13 - PTO Meeting @ 6:30 on Zoom Meeting ID: 893 8283 3641 Passcode: RHPTO

Website: https://raleighhills.beaverton.k12.or.us
Location: 5225 Southwest Scholls Ferry Road, Portland, OR, USA
Phone: 503 356-2160
Twitter: @RH_K8