Eagle Ridge Academy School of Grammar Blog: Working together...

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

Next week are the October Parent/Teacher conferences. While we do have two scheduled sets of Parent/Teacher conferences each year, these are not your only opportunities to connect with your child’s teachers. I have stressed in the past the importance of the home/school learning team for children and want parents to meet and chat with teachers whenever needed to keep the team together and everyone moving in the right direction for the achievement of your child.

Harvard’s Family Research Project has put together some principles for helping to have successful conferences between parents and teachers. They used the acronym “BE HEARD” to help us all remember.

B- Best intentions assumed

· It is helpful when parents and teachers come together to realize that everyone has the best of intentions and wants what is best for the students/children involved.

E- Emphasis on learning

· Keep the focus on the learning of the children (academic, social/emotional, and behavioral).

H- Home/school collaboration

· Find ways to connect to keep the collaboration between home and school going throughout the school year.

E- Example and evidence

· When talking about specific items bring up examples or provide evidence or samples to help each other understand.

A- Active listening

· Often when we are listening to others we are forming the response to what they are saying in our heads and not really listening to the words being said. It is okay to take a moment to gather your thoughts to respond after listening to each other. Clarity is important and rushing to respond often causes clarity to suffer.

R- Respect for all

· Respect each other and the position you each hold in the life of the child. Show respect in your interactions and in how you talk about each other when not together (particularly in front of the children).

D- Dedication to follow-up

· Make a plan for following up on any needed items before you leave a conference. Having everyone on the same page for the future shows dedication and willingness to work together.

The third grade students took a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo last week. The weather did not cooperate, but the students had a nice time and learned a lot, regardless. To connect their field trip to their current learning, students were asked to design a zoo (using their animal and map skills knowledge). Below are a few pictures of their zoo designs.

Last week we drew the first five Pillar tickets for the 2014-15 school year. The five lucky winners took a fall walk around the school grounds with Mrs. Baier. We talked about leaves, trees, and our favorite things about fall. Below is a picture of the winners who enjoyed the day and checked out the leaves with Mrs. Baier. Congratulations to Alexandra C., Ekansh D., Ashfaq H, Sathvik V., and Jackson S. for demonstrating the Pillars!

Speaking of fall…Mr. Anderson brought a bunch of beautiful fall leaves to the Lower School Office. 1^st graders have been learning about painting and how to draw still life pictures. Mr. Anderson had them combine their knowledge in these two areas to create the leaves you see in the pictures below.