Hawk Highlights Newsletter

The season of lasting daylight, rising temperatures, and beckoning breaks has become one of discomfort and uncertainty for all of us. Even though school is currently closed, the health and wellness of our school community remains of utmost importance to me.

This season's newsletter focuses on helping families cope with school (and other) closures while maintaining a sense of calm and hope for brighter days ahead.

In addition to focusing on overall health, we also share important student and alumni celebrations and provide updates on literacy instruction. Finally, we clarify expectations regarding learning from home during this unforeseen situation.

In total, we identify 10 ways we are persevering through this challenge, and we are asking you to join us.

Please enjoy the newsletter, take care of yourselves and each other and - as always - reach out if you need me!

March is the nationally-designated month for investing in our health and wellness.

Click on the infographic to the right to see three quick tips to implement now.

I understand that in light of what is happening worldwide, some of you may be feeling scared, anxious, and a bunch of other things. Below I have placed some suggestions to help you get through:

· What you see/read on social media may not be true. It is important to rely on reputable news sources and to avoid believing everything that you see on social media. With that in mind, it is also very important not to repost things that you have not first determined to be factual. Since we are supposed to be keeping to ourselves (social distancing) in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, use social media instead as a way to stay connected with your friends.

· Avoid watching constant news coverage of COVID-19. While it is important to be aware of what is happening, watching constant news coverage can cause increased feelings of stress and panic. Limit yourself to no more than 20-30 minutes of news coverage each day.

· Find healthy ways to cope and unwind. There are plenty of things that you can do besides being on social media! Exercise, play board games and/or card games, draw/color, or dust off that book that you’ve been wanting to read. Also, try to avoid staying in pajamas all day – when you feel good, it improves your mood as well.

· Be open and honest about how you are feeling. Talk to your friends/family about how you are feeling. It is ok to be afraid, but it is important to get those feelings out and not keep them bottled inside. Support one another! Below I have placed the names of some apps that you may also find useful as you try to cope with your feelings:

• Headspace: Meditation & Sleep
• Yuva Yoga: Wellness for Teens
• The Breathing App
• Oak – Meditation & Breathing
• Balance Art Class: Coloring Book for Teens
  
  

This information was developed by Tenika Jean-Paul, St. Georges School Psychologist

Beginning March 17, several teachers posted learning opportunities on Schoology, so please have your student check-in. This is not mandatory for teachers or students.

Here are a few points to consider:

• The purpose of these online learning opportunities is to engage student thinking while being out for an extended period of time.
• We are not making this mandatory for students or teachers due to the following reasons: inconsistent access to Schoology, minimal experience with using Schoology, personal situations (illness, not in own home due to other reasons and have no access to the Internet), co-oping to make more money (although that may be cut short based on the industry).
• Teachers may not post lessons for the same reasons as students: family situations, on leave, access to Schoology, knowledge of Schoology, etc. Our teachers care about our students but the Coronavirus is impacting people in different ways that we might not be aware of, and we want to be mindful of that reality and be flexible with all of our stakeholders.

We believe our school's overall wellness is founded upon our core values. Please review them with your student(s) and ask how he/she/they are living the core.

1. Be kind (always)
2. Be positive (even in the face of adversity)
3. Be supportive (of each other, our students, and our parents)
4. Challenge one another (to take risks and grow professionally)
5. Be leaders with integrity

The March 21 Freshman Welcome Day has been postponed, but as this supplemental welcome video demonstrates, our enthusiasm for having our new students here is as present as ever! The St. Georges family is comprised of diverse people with diverse interests from all over the state, and we are looking forward to having our new students join our ever-growing community soon!

UPDATE: Registration Deadline Extended to March 30

The Admissions Registration deadline has been extended from March 16 to March 30 for eighth-grade students who have been offered an assignment to an NCC Vo-Tech High School next school year.

Congratulations to the 28 SkillsUSA medal winners from St. Georges who together earned 10 gold, 13 silver, and 5 bronze awards. Unfortunately, the SkillsUSA ceremony scheduled for Thursday, March 19th was canceled, but we want our students and their parents to know how exceptionally proud we are of their accomplishments: WAY TO SOAR, HAWKS! We will have a breakfast and medal ceremony when we return to school. In the meantime, please see the list of winners below.

We also congratulate our seven (7) first and second place winners in the Educators Rising competition and our 10 culinary arts students who placed 3rd in ProStart's Culinary Arts and Management competitions: St. Georges was the only school to place in the top three in both categories. Well done, young professionals!

Additionally, we recognize the prospective HOSA participants who were unable to compete due to state cancellations. Our HOSA students work hard and intentionally prepare to compete every year in the State HOSA competitions. The state is exploring creative possibilities to enable at least some of the competitions to occur although this is not a certainty. The news was hard for our students to accept. To all our HOSA students, we empathize with your situation, we are proud of you, and we hope that you will have an opportunity to showcase your skills and talents in some way very soon! Thank you to teachers for emailing words of encouragement to these students.

Think back to your school days. What did writing instruction look like in the classroom of your adolescence? Are your memories a collage of laborious essays, tedious grammar, or perfect penmanship? Did you enjoy writing, or was it a chore? What type of writer do you consider yourself to be today and why?

Every StG teacher was asked these questions in the fall as an introduction to our year-long teacher training aimed at improving student writing. Most likely, many teachers had answers similar to yours.

Yet, in the all-encompassing technological age in which we live, the writing instruction your child receives is bound to be much different from what you experienced. For instance, anything today's students write has the potential to be read by a real-time audience, rather it peers in the classroom or strangers across the globe, whereas a student's audience in the past was primarily the teacher.

Despite this revolutionary shift from pen and paper to keyboard and screen, the components of quality writing remain the same: anything someone writes must appeal to a certain audience, fulfill a specific purpose, provide the appropriate content, follow a tailored organization, and use the most precise language.

Increasing our students' abilities to meet these expectations in the age of immediacy and the Internet will take hard work, but we are committed, and the new skills and strategies teachers have developed in the first part of the year are already taking root in classrooms.

We would love to hear from you regarding your student's writing instruction, should you have feedback. In the meantime, there is a list below of ways you can support us.

1. Explain the types of writing required by you as an adult in your day-to-day life.
2. Share your writing pet peeves and why they bother you.
3. Discuss your writing process and the parts that come easiest or hardest to you.
4. Ask to read something written by your student. This could be something of which she/he is most proud, believes needs work, or has produced for school.

For the week of March 16th-27th, school and district offices are closed.

Whenever new information about the Coronavirus school closure is updated on our website, you will receive a message from the school district. The school will send weekly reminders/updates to remain in contact with students and families. Please follow state and national health officials’ recommendations and please stay informed. This is an unprecedented health emergency, and we appreciate your continued partnership in all that we do.

Email: shanta.reynolds@nccvt.k12.de.us
Website: stgeorges.nccvt.k12.de.us
Location: 555 Hyett's Corner Road, Middletown, DE, USA
Phone: (302) 449-3600
Facebook: facebook.com/stgeorgestech/
Twitter: @HawksSG