Good afternoon and happy Monday. It
is hard to believe how fast the school year goes by. Conferences start tonight
and it feels like we just started school. We look forward to seeing you this
week. And enjoy the long weekend if you can.
Here at the Upper Campus we have
many things going on. About forty of our students (student council and
volunteers) went to WE day last week. They were inspired by what they learned
and came back with many new ideas. One of their ideas is to participate in the We Scare Hunger food drive.
They brought this idea to the new student council, which just started their new
year this week. As soon as a decision is made about the drive we will let the
community know.
Student mediators are also starting
to assemble. They are led by Julie Hirsch our school psychologist and Carolyn
Evans, a Parent Volunteer. They are scheduled to start thei training very soon.
I met with a few students who had experienced the process last year and they
all said that it usually helped the situation, but it also helped the mediators
develop leadership skills and collaboritive problem solving skills. We
brainstormed ways we could bring these skills to all students. Some of the
ideas included visiting the lower school or 4th grade classrooms, making
videos/commercials to share with other classes, or creating a group of students
who could include positive relationship messages in morning announcements.
Of course there are many, many exciting things happening here. I
have seen the chess players, the Girls on the Run, the Gems and Gise students,
the Spanish classes before school, heard the band through the walls, and
watched the hundreds of bikes leaving campus after school. It has been a
wonderful start to the school year.
90 Day Plan update:
I have now had the opporunity to talk to Bill Smith, the Principal
at Southwest, several times. We are in agreement that Lake Harriet and
Southwest should be communicating as much as possible. He was kind enough to
offer up some of his performing arts groups for potential Lake Harriet
Fundraisers and we have already started planning to have planning meetings with
math teachers from Southwest to make sure our advanced math pathway will work
well in the High Schools.
Enrollment
Update:
I
attended the enrollment meeting last week along with several Lake Harriet
parents. The plan doesn't have a direct impact on Lake Harriet upper, but does
include the proposal of full-day Kindergarten for all at the lower campus.
There is also a proposal for an addition to Southwest High, so our students
will be impacted eventuallyl. If you are interested in learning more, follow
this link.
