The year is starting off new for both students and staff. There are four new classroom teachers, and their routines are beginning to fall into place.
Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Cook, believes that children's mental health is important to focus on. She says, "I like to do a lot of yoga. We do a lot of breathing exercises and i just like to make it a nice, calm, soothing environment while we still have fun. It’s not so meditative that we’re falling asleep in here, but I do like to take a lot of brain breaks because I feel like the little ones especially need to get up, move around and figure out how to self-regulate, how to calm themselves down and how to make that switch in their brain. They need to learn how to do that so they can take care of their mental health too. [I think] Social and emotional health is huge."
These teachers are focusing on the best ways to make their students feel great, while also succeed. Ms. Rhonda Ferguson has a behavior reward system every week for her first graders, and loves to see them encourage one another.
She explains, "They’re not crying on their desk [because] they didn’t get one, but everyone is cheering each other on. I’m really hoping we come together as a unit and encourage each other all year long."
Encouragement and support are needed for students' success. The students succeed because of their teachers, and the teachers love watching them do so.
“I love when you have a student who’s struggling and can’t figure out what’s going on and then all of a sudden they have that aha moment and they get so excited when they learn something new.” Miss Jenny Lindholm said about her third graders. Teachers can influence students to make a difference, and these four new teachers are going to do amazing things.
First grade teacher Miss Brianna Mamelson says, “I really wanted to work with kids and make a difference.”