These last few weeks I have been inspired by our students as they created our Gratitude Rock Garden. I watched students come to the basket full of rocks and write what they are grateful for, "Family", "Friends", "Love", "Life", "My Teacher" just to name a few. I have observed Vale, our amazing art teacher, weave social and emotional learning into art by helping students remember what they are grateful for as they decorate these rocks. I have watched as each student presented their rock in front of one another and told what they are grateful for, then carefully placing it in the new garden in our courtyard. I have heard students say, "When I am sad I can come to this garden to remind me of all I have", and "When I think my life isn't that great I can walk by this place and be reminded of all I am grateful for." I have heard students say, "Que lindo!" "I like that one!" "Oohs" and "Ahhs" about the gratitude shared by our learning community. 

I also had the opportunity to work with all the PreK classrooms and saw them draw pictures of angels, birds, frogs, mommies, daddies, flowers, mountains, sisters, brothers, and toys on these rocks. Their gratitude completely blew me away. Even at 3 and 4 years old they could state all they were grateful for and were so eager to place them in the garden. 

This gratitude garden started out as a project and now has become a place in our school for students to think about their feelings of sadness, anger, depression, and more. Most of all it is a place to remind them that there is so much to be grateful for and although it is okay to feel that way, we don't need to stay that way. 


Research tells us that people who show more gratitude experience more happiness. Let's continue what was started these last few weeks and use this garden as a way to help our children reflect when they may be feeling a certain way or even be making poor choices. Maybe make your own gratitude rock basket or create another avenue for students to continue to express their gratitude throughout the year. By continuing to incorporate gratitude in our learning environments we will continue to grow children who are grateful, happier, and more successful in school and in life.


Thank you educators and for all you do to help our students be successful all around the world. I paint my rock now and say, "YOU". I am thankful for you and all you do! 

​In one of my last blog posts I talked about growing our new garden. My family and I had just planted a garden the patio of our new apartment here in Quito, Ecuador. I knew it would be a lot of work to maintain but I was also hopeful of all that would grow in it. I compared this garden to a school. I wrote of the greatness of a diverse group and how when we all work together students grow. Little did I know how hard it would be to maintain and even grow a garden, or should I say “school”.
As a first year administrator, I treasure each of the teachers I work with and learn from each day and especially the students. They are each unique in their own way. I am fortunate to be at a school where there truly is a growth mindset, where students and teachers are open to always learning more and thinking differently. However, even in a garden that is flourishing and growing, weeds creep in. I had been ignoring these weeds for the past weeks in my own garden, as I just didn’t want to deal with them until today.
Today was weeding today. As I picked each weed from the garden I realized that these weeds had probably been sucking the nutrients, the water, the life out of the plants I really wanted to flourish. The lettuce could have had a better start, the carrots may have been bigger, the lime tree possibly would have had more limes…Where had I been? I had been making sure the plants got enough water, but I hadn’t taken away the things in the garden, the weeds, that were actually distracting from the real work, our students. Which brought me to an insight into my role as an administrator. How can I take things that are draining teacher’s energy so that they can truly grow and produce? By produce, I am talking about increase student learning. For we know when teachers have time to learn and truly have deep conversations about teaching and learning, students grow. We must make time for this. As teachers, we have so much to do in order to produce just one blossom or one child, let alone a classroom full. At times, especially in the fall and back to school season it seems the weeds are everywhere. The to-do list just never ends. On top of the regular classroom planning, beginning of the year assessments, back to school nights, parent teacher conferences, holiday parties, we have little time to stop and reflect.
As I picked these weeds today, I made a commitment that this year and every year I find myself in an administrative role, I will be a “Servant Leader” (Greenleaf, 1970), especially during this busy time of year. A servant leader focuses primarily on the growth and well being of the people and the communities they serve. The servant leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps them to develop and perform as highly as possible (Greenleaf, 1970). The weeds must be out of the way! As an administrator, I must weed on a regular basis so that our teachers, the biggest direct impact in a child’s learning at school, can use their energy to grow our students. I will take things off their to-do list as much as I am able, so they can do the hard work of growing our students. Teachers with the right soil, light, water, fertilizer, along with weeds out of their way, are able to grow students and also find time to grow themselves. Growing a garden or “school” is not easy, but truly serving others can be simple when we all keep the ultimate goal in mind. That same vision is to create as many blossoms as possible, as much student growth as possible! Looking forward to the Spring time already!

Learning Workshop
“Let’s Learn in Community”
Last Thursday we had our first learning workshop where parents of Pre-K, Kindergarten, First and Second grade students were invited to learn in community. These learning workshops are called “learning workshops” and not “parent workshops” or “parent education” because in reality we are all learning together in order to help our children succeed. This thoughtful consideration into the title and also the organization of this workshop allows both parents, teachers, and administrators to learn new knowledge, share what is working and not working, and allow each member of the community to walk away ready to apply this new knowledge.
 
In our first learning workshop of the year administrators, teachers, and parents sat around in four small groups. The topic was “Supporting Our Learners at Home” and there were four subtopics at each center. One center lead by our school counselor was focused on “Supporting your Social and Emotional Learner”. Here our counselor Miss Tanya taught us all about the Four Zones of Regulation, which she has began to teach here at school with different grade levels. Parents listened, asked thoughtful questions, and agreed that helping their children at home to identify their emotions and what “zone” they were in so they could help give them strategies that would bring them back to calm and focused and ready to learn would be a useful tool at home as well. Parents shared stories and different ideas they used to help their children regulate themselves. One parent shared how the don’t do time outs at home but sometimes she feels by sending her child to her room it is still the same. The group discussed this and offered different ideas including asking the child if she felt like it might be a good idea to take a break. Another parent shared how she models it by saying “I need to take a break” and “breathe”. All members of the community were sharing and learning from the expert but also from each other, for we all know what works for one child will not work for another. The beauty of learning in community shined through.
 
The other center offered was called, “Supporting Our Passionate Learner”. Here our Early Childhood Principal, Miss Paola, shared how important it is to know our child’s passion and then to support it so our children flourish. She shared with the group a video called, “Caine’s Arcade”. Along with great focus and at the end even tears we watched a parent support his child’s passion of arcade games. If you haven’t seen the video it is a must! So much involved in this short video and as a parent you will be changed forever in how you not only see a cardboard box, but how you can support your own child’s learning so they can create and shine. After the video, parents shared their child’s interests and took away different ways they could help support their child’s passion. One parent shared how hard it was to manage all her child’s arts and crafts and another parent shared how she had ended up creating a special space for her child in the garage where he kept his special collections and creations. Advice on different ways to store art projects with technology and more were shared and parents walked away passionate about their child’s passion and enthusiastic with ideas on how to manage sometimes these pieces in our lives that seem to get out of hand. Instead of our child’s passion being seen as “clutter” and “messes” being made, parents walked away feeling empowered to support these projects full of imagination and creativity.

The next center was based on “Supporting Our Inquirer Learner”. Shannon Farrell, our Primary Years Program (PYP) coordinator lead this group on how we can encourage our children to continue to stay curious and ask hard and deep questions. She led us more to understand our role in how we can support our children. Instead of just answering questions, we can ask them “What do you think?”, when they ask a good question, we can say “that’s a great question, where could we look to find the answer?” She also shared a short video clip. Parents walked away feeling they could support their learner not just in science and social studies, which the Primary Years Program curriculum covers, but as an inquirer and a contributor to the world. These thoughtful questions are children make can turn into action and truly change the world if we support them!
 
The last center focused on “Supporting Our Academic Learner”. This was my station and we discussed ways to support our mathematicians, writers, and readers. We played a quick “Double War” Card game to start and discussed the power of games in teaching mathematic skills such as one to one correspondence, counting forwards, counting backwards, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and more! A deck of cards allows for so many possibilities! As well as board games! We talked about the board games we had in our homes already and shared how we used them. Yahtzee, Candyland, Chutes and Ladder, Sorry, and more came up. There are so many board games that teach us math, but also help us develop our oral language skills and the life skills of winning and losing which is so important as well. Supporting the writer was another hot topic. Research tells us again and again the importance of providing supplies and a space to write. We shared about our writing spaces for our children and talked about how important of just having blank paper, a stapler (to make books with), and pens are in a household to increase writing AND reading skills! If they are making books at school, why aren’t they making books at home? We must help our children become and feel like authors wherever they are! And readers! Parents created bookmarks for their children and wrote on the back THEIR favorite stories when they were young. This was purposeful so that as parents we remember that when we are models ourselves and are joyful about books, our children will be too! When we share books that we loved as children and were special to us, our children feel that love and reading becomes a bonding experience not a “chore”. As parents we are not there to “teach” the reading skills and strategies, but it is our job to create an environment full of books, give time and provide space to read great stories together… to read aloud and never stop! It was fun seeing so many childhood favorites written down! And all this learning should be fun!
 
Through all of these centers it wasn’t just parents learning. Once again our theme of these “Learning Workshops” are “Learn in Community”. We were all learning. I know I learned a ton from other parents about games they liked to play, books they enjoyed, and ways they were supporting their social and emotional, passionate, inquiring, and academic learners. One thing I love about our school is that we truly to look at the “whole child”. There are so many other facets of our children we must support as educators and learners beyond even this list here. We also recognize that parents truly are children’s first and most important teacher and a crucial part of the learning process.

​Hopefully, this coming year as we offer more and more learning workshops and continue to learn in community we will continue to grow as parents and educators, as fellow nurturers, of our unique little individuals we are so grateful to learn from each day. They challenge us, they test us even at times, but in the end they are teaching us so much about ourselves. Thank you for learning in community! See you next time! 

Yesterday, I attended a session lead by a high school teacher at our school on Parent Communication. As someone who has always been passionate about parent/family partnerships I really valued this topic during our PD, especially coming from a high school teacher. The more positive message our families hear, always the better relationships I truly believe! Then when something less positive arises we have that relationship and trust of that family that is key and together we can work to help support that student.


Anyway, it was really great and he said something that struck me... "Imagine if every teacher at our school was writing a Happy Email to a parent each week. Imagine how it would make our parent community feel." This teacher explained how every Friday he chooses one child and writes a "Happy Email" to a parent about that child. He always cc's the principal and counselor (and in high school the student which is super cool). 

So my challenge! Let's imagine this amazing positive parent communication! I challenge you all to send an Happy Email once a week to a child (some of you are most likely already doing this!) 

Thank you for arising to this challenge of writing 1 Happy email a week and in doing so making 1 family and 1 child happy! We have so many children to celebrate in our learning communities for so many reasons. Let's do it and spread happiness! 

One of my all time favorite books about reading aloud to children (besides the Read Aloud Handbook) is Reading Magic by Mem Fox. It is an easy read geared to parents. I have given it to all my friends who have had babies and used it in parenting book clubs. One of the reasons I love it so, is because of the 10 commandments Mem Fox gives parents. They may sound quite formal and much like "rules" but really they are suggestions on HOW to read aloud so that it is a joyful experience for both parent and child.

As we prepare for back to school night parents can become bombarded with so much information. Think carefully about what you want them to "take away". Since research says over and over again about the great impact reading aloud to children has on student reading achievement and school overall success, my "take away" for parents has always been to emphasize the importance of "READING ALOUD" and I repeat it again and again during the night and during the year. I even say, if there is one thing you remember about tonight, "Remember to READ ALOUD!"
 
We want to do the best as parents, but often we are busy, exhausted, and then told this and that to help our child. I believe if there was one thing all parents could do to help their children succeed in school and in life, it is to read aloud- read aloud and never stop, even when their children begin to read. The research is there to support this belief. 

Parents don't have to be "teachers" of reading to make an impact on their children's reading lives. They just have to make it part of their daily lives and full of happiness. It shouldn't be a "chore" at the end of the day. It should be a "We get to read together now!" activity that is special, sacred, and full of joy.

Below is the link to the Read Aloud Commandments. I invite you to share these with your parents and think of how you can integrate them yourselves. Balanced literacy has many components and one of them is just "story time" aka reading aloud. In fact research shows, students who have high growth in reading have a teacher who integrates reading aloud at least four times a day! 

It is a challenge to "fit it all in" but if parents and teachers are working together to foster that love of reading and make it happen throughout the day and through the evening, each and every day… we are bound to grow readers who love it and can't stop! And that is when the real magic begins...
http://memfox.com/for-parents/for-parents-ten-read-aloud-commandments/

These first few weeks of school I am so grateful I had the wonderful opportunity of reading to Pre-K, K, First and Second grade classrooms. I chose "Leo the Late Bloomer" by Robert Kraus to read to the Pre-kinders and Kindergartners and "A Fine, Fine, School" by Sharon Creech, to read to the first and second graders. Both are special books to me for as a Kinder, First, and Second grade teacher myself for many years, these books always played special roles.

With "Leo the Late Bloomer" I often used it at the beginning of the year with my students, especially right before goal setting conferences. It stirred great discussion about how we all are "blooming" or "learning" in our own way in our own time. The message that we all have different strengths and weaknesses and can always learn more helped to create a growth mindset and a respect for one another in our new learning community. Leo's message returned throughout the year as we all needed to continue to hear the message (myself included). And then, I always especially loved reading this book again at the end of year when we revisited our goals and through preparing for student led conferences we could see our growth and together we could truly shout, "I made it!" just like Leo does at the end of the book. I always loved seeing their smiles and pride shine in my student's faces as they shouted those words, for they each had truly bloomed in their own good time in their own way. And because all they had taught me I could truly shout, "I made it!" as well. 
Reading this book as a principal for the first time this year, I am excited to also see how each student, teacher, family, and educator (including myself) blooms this year in our own way in our own time. With the talent, dedication, and love of children I observe already, I can tell we all are going to shout "I made it!" loudly at the end of the year. I can't wait.

"A Fine, Fine, School" is a book I have always invited my principal into my classroom to read during those first few weeks. I have also purchased this book for each of my principal's as a gift because it gives such a good message on creating a balanced life, so important to the whole child, the whole teacher, and whole administrator. The message that if there is no balance and no time for ourselves, there is little learning and most importantly...no joy. When people are working all the time or in this story, children and teachers going to school on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and all summer long...the laughter stops, the relationships strain, the circles under the eyes show from lack of sleep, and the smiles fade. The conversation about the importance of play and time to take care of ourselves always becomes clear to both the students who hear this story and the principal who reads this story.In this book the principal was so proud of the children, the teachers, and all the good learning, but learns that balance is essential to learning. 
This year as I read it as a principal for the first time, the message rang even clearer. We must make sure we ourselves lead balanced lives as educators for our students so that when we are here, we are really here, present, listening, and learning. 

We have a fine, fine school, with fine, fine students, and fine fine teachers. I am so proud. But don't worry, there will be no schools on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or summer. -)


We have special books in our lives that have touched us. I invite you to take time to share these books that are special with you with your students. Good books to the begin the year are key! 

Here's to a fine, fine school year ahead and lots of blooming! 

My family and I planted a garden this weekend and it made me think about how each of us has been planted this year in our own school, wherever we may be around the globe.

 In our garden, each of our plants is so different, so unique, some provide food, while other beautiful colors. Some, like the bamboo need more water than others, while the cacti (Jaws, Spikey, Harry, and Horntail, as named by my two kids) need very little. Some trees are already producing limes and we even have strawberries. Our family must all work together to grow this garden. For even if one plant isn't getting what it needs and begins to wilt, the whole garden will not flourish. 

We want our whole staff at our schools to be successful. In order to do this we must work together  to support one another. How? If we see someone that might need a little extra boost (fertilizer or maybe even sheering-), help out, say an encouraging word, give a compliment, and watch how we all will grow! It is amazing how much sunlight a smile can bring. 

Collaboration and teamwork are keys to success. We have all been part of many groups and the extraordinary ones, research shows, all have certain characteristics in common. Extraordinary groups have a compelling purpose, shared leadership, just enough structure, full engagement, embrace differences, unexpected learning, strong relationships, and great results! (Bellman and Ryan, 2009).

I am excited to watch my new garden at home grow this year, but more importantly I am thrilled to be part of an extraordinary team at a school where each one of us is learning and growing together.

Best wishes to you and to your garden (or school) in which you chose to be part of this year. May you grow abundantly and may you also support others around you in creating a beautiful learning environment for all our students around the world to grow.

Dear Teachers,

Today is the first day of your new year. It will never happen again. Treasure it. Each moment. Each child. Each precious face. 

Today is the first day of your students' new year. They will never be in the same grade or the same age again. Help them to treasure it. Learn and remember their name. Comfort them and make them feel special from the beginning, so they will always remember your precious face. And create that important relationship that is the key to learning.

Today is the first day of a parents' new school year, too. You will always be their child's teacher. They will never have another teacher for their child at this age or in this grade. Smile. Greet them. Communicate from the beginning. Help them to treasure this time. This special memory. Learn and remember their name and yes, maybe even comfort them, too. And create that important relationship.

For everyone in our learning community it is a special time. As a Kinder, First, and Second Grade teacher myself I know first days with the little ones can be chaotic, stressful, crazy, but also full of great learning, caring, and the beginning of building a wonderful community and important relationships.

I wish you all the best as you begin this school year. We could be many other places around the world right now, but we chose to be right here in this school, in this learning community. Let's make the most of this year together learning and growing with each other, our families, and our new little ones! 

 To a great first day! 
Joy


aka Miss Joy, Mrs. Brooke, Dr. Brooke

If you have time, read the poem below, it was in response to a parent who read the letter "Dear Teacher" …You may need tissue-)




Dear Teacher 

I know you're rather busy 
First day back, there's just no time
A whole new class of little ones 
And this one here is mine

I'm sure you have things covered
And have done this lots before
But my boy is very little
He hasn't long turned four 

In his uniform this morning
He looked so tall and steady
But now beside your great big school
I’m not quite sure he’s ready

Do you help them eat their lunch?
Are you quick to soothe their fears?
And if he falls and hurts his knee
Will someone dry his tears?

And what if no-one plays with him?
What if someone’s mean?
What if two kids have a fight 
And he’s caught in between?

You’re right, I have to leave now
It’s time for him to go
I’m sure he’ll learn so much from you
Things that I don’t know

Yes, I’m sure they settle quickly
That he’s fine now without me
I know he has to go to school
It’s just so fast, you see

It seems like just a blink ago
I first held him in my arms
It’s been my job to love, to teach
To keep him safe from harm

So, when I wave goodbye in a moment 
And he turns to walk inside 
Forgive me if I crumple
Into tears of loss and pride

I know as I give him one more kiss
And watch him walk away, 
That he’ll never again be wholly mine
As he was before today.

Emma's words resonated so strongly with so many parents, it soon had over 12k shares on her Facebook page.

And it wasn’t long before teacher Leonie Roberts responded in the comments, with a lovely, reassuring poem of her own:

Dear Parent,

I understand that you are scared
to wave your child goodbye
and leave him in a teacher’s hands
don’t worry if you cry!

I’m used to weeping parents
It’s hard to leave I know. 
But it’s time to share him (just a bit)
To help him learn and grow.

Let me reassure you
That I’ll give your child my best
I’ll wipe his tears, soothe his fears 
And change his dirty vest!

If your darling child is full of cold
I’ll blow their nose all day
Just like you, I’ll care for them
In a special way.

I’ll treat him like I would my own
I’ll catch him from a fall and
If there is ANY problem 
I’ll be sure to tell you all.

It’s true he’ll grow to love us
They’ll talk of school a lot
It doesn’t mean they hate you
And that you should lose the plot!

I’ll tell you a secret..
That when your child is here
They talk to me as much of you
Of this please have no fear.

You’ll always be their mother
Whilst teachers come and go
To them you are their number one
This I truly know.

Soon you’ll see some changes 
In your little girl or boy
They’ll become more independent 
And to see this, it’s a joy!

I’ll teach them all I have to give
To share, climb and to write
But to you they safely will return
To tuck them in at night.

With love from a teacher…

Oh dear, we might just have something in our eye… <sob>