The Patrick Henry Post

Take a minute (or four) to watch this video, and let the words really sink in. If you're a teacher or staff member watching this, let these voices remind you of the hard work you've put in to make sure kids continued learning during this time of virtual learning. If you're a parent watching this, remember how you have rearranged your work, your family's schedule, and even your furniture to make sure your child is still learning and cared for socially and emotionally. If you're a student watching this, think about how many new skills you've learned over the last two months and how far you've come through your hard work and effort! I am really proud of the way our school community has come together to create a true virtual community of learners. You are the reason this is possible!

Take a look at the things that have happened this week in our amazing school community!

Our young kindergarten students were hard at work on Tuesday afternoon as they followed Ms. Willard's math lesson. It was so inspiring to see them working so hard and independently, even through the toughest part of the lesson! Great job, Kindergarten!

Ms. Ivory's third graders learned a great summarizing trick this week with the Somebody Wanted But So model, where they had to identify the main character, what they wanted in the story, what went wrong, and what they did to move past a roadblock. It was fun listening in to this portion of their conversation where they debated what the main character really struggled with throughout the text.

Ms. Hammock's fourth and fifth graders focused on the math skill of estimation this week. They learned the critical skill of rounding things up or down to make a best estimate of where a sum might end up. It was fun to hear students estimate accurately, and even more fun listening to students work through the process after a few mistakes and getting it right after really thinking it through. Critical thinking skills were alive and well during this lesson!

The World Health Organization (WHO) sponsors a wonderful day of recognition, celebration, and learning around mental health on October 10th. This year, October 10th falls on this Saturday, and I wanted to take a moment to encourage you to really delve into your own mental health during these uncertain times. Take a look at the events sponsored by WHO at the link below, and read about the day below:

"This year’s World Mental Health Day, on 10 October, comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The past months have brought many challenges: for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work fearful of bringing COVID-19 home with them; for students, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends, and anxious about their futures; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened; for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from COVID-19; and for people with mental health conditions, many experiencing even greater social isolation than before. And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye. This is why the goal of this year’s World Mental Health Day campaign is increased investment in mental health. On World Mental Health Day, 10 October, the World Health Organization will, for the first time ever, host a global online advocacy event on mental health. At this event—the Big Event for Mental Health—world leaders, mental health experts and celebrity guests will join WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to tell the world what we can all do to improve our mental health and how we can help make sure that quality mental health care is available to everyone who needs it."

More information on the event: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/10/10/default-calendar/the-big-event-for-mental-health

Mrs. Ayeni's positivity radiated throughout the building this week, and this email reminder really hit home: we are all in this together!