Patriot Time Student Survey
In mid October, students took a survey in regards to Patriot Time. A total of 735 students completed the survey. Of those 735 students; 235 were in 6th grade, 236 were in 7th grade and 264 students were in 8th grade. Patriot Time has helped me understand the importance and meaning of Other People Matter was the largest area of strength with 86% of students either agreeing or strongly agreeing. The next area of strength was Patriot Time has helped me understand the importance of developing positive habits and a growth mindset with 79% of students either agreeing or strongly agreeing. An area of improvement, based on the student survey results, is Patriot Time helping students feel better about attending Parker Middle School with 67% of students either agreeing or strongly agreeing. Students also had the option to respond in a short answer form to a question regarding what they like best about Patriot Time and suggestions on ways in which we can continue to improve Patriot Time. Doing more activities and more collaboration times with their Patriot Time Partner classes were the common suggestion on ways to improve Patriot Time. Overall for what students enjoyed most about Patriot Time were the relationships, activities, and learning about the Positivity Project and #OtherPeopleMatter. The following are some of the short answer comments from students on what they like best about Patriot Time.
“I really enjoy starting the day off in a positive, confident-building way, instead of jumping right into classes. I also like how we cover important social (and mental) skills that are important to obtain.”
¨My favorite part of patriot time is putting our personal skills to work!¨
¨Being able to learn about other people matter and to relax and have fun¨
¨My favorite part of patriot time is when we do the activities for the positivity project¨
¨Everything it's honestly so great this years patriot time is going to make me miss Parker Middle School¨
¨My favorite part of patriot time is that we do a lot of activities with our table groups and our fishbowl discussions.¨
¨l like how we all can share things to each other and everyone listens and cares¨
¨My favorite thing in patriot time is learning new things about self.¨
We look forward to using this data to help us in our continuous improvement for Patriot Time. We appreciate the honest and thoughtful feedback of the students.
Positivity Project
This Week: Patriot Times have been focusing on gratitude. Students have viewed videos on individuals seeing and hearing for the first time and discussed things that we may take for granted. Patriot Times have been performing tasks to express gratitude to those in the school, their families, and community. Students made gratitude surprise sticky notes and delivered them to the recipient. Patriot Times followed up the activity with discussions on how it made them feel to express their gratitude to the individual and give them the note.
Upcoming Week:
On Monday, Patriot Time classes will be working to make blankets for Fleece and Thank You. We are very thankful to be able to do this activity. Thank you to all of those who helped fundraise in order to make this possible. If your child has a Positivity Project shirt they are encouraged to wear them on Monday. If they do not have one they are welcome to wear green on Monday for the Positivity Project.
Home Connections:
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Share with your child things that you are grateful for.
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Make a gratitude list together with your child.
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Brainstorm with your child ways that you can show gratitude in your family or community as a family or individually.
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Ask your child what their favorite gratitude activity was this week.
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Have your child explain what Fleece and Thank you is and share with you how they feel about participating in the activity and helping others.
PTO Meeting
The members of the PTO board have been working to find a meeting time that might be more convenient for families. So they are going to offer two meeting times on Monday, November 19th. The morning meeting will be at 9:25-10:10 in the Media Center. The evening meeting will be at 7pm at Block Brewery. We would love to get more parents involved in helping support our students and make Parker better. We hope that you can make one of the meetings.
Support and Service Person of the Year Nominations
The deadline to submit nominations for the Howell Public Schools Support Person of the Year and Service Person of the Year awards is Tuesday, November 20 at 4 p.m. These awards honor the district's outstanding office staff, maintenance employees, computer technicians, special needs aides, general education aides, and hall monitors. You can submit nominations online at https://goo.gl/forms/tmIKmc6faRLSN1DB2.
District Wide Canned Food Drive
The annual Howell Public Schools canned food drive benefiting Gleaners Community Food Bank. The goal for this year’s canned food drive to collect 30,000 canned goods to support those in need in our community. Donation boxes have been placed in our school, and we will be taking donations until Friday, December 7. Additionally, monetary donations can be made online athttp://www.gcfb.org/howell_public_schools.
Community Support
As part of our School Improvement Plan, we are looking for community members who could possibly collaborate with us on some of our units (guest speakers, etc.). We have created a list of possible topics for guest speakers or community involvement, broken down by content area, grade level, and quarter. If you, or someone you know, could collaborate with our teachers and students in any of these topic areas, please contact the main office. We look forward to hearing from you!
Happy Thanksgiving,
Mrs. Poelke