Dear
Incoming McCall Families,
I
hope this message finds you well. As summer vacation approaches its
midpoint, I would like to provide everyone an update of the work the school has
been doing in preparation for the 19-20 school year.
RULER Institute - Thanks to the generosity of WFEE, I, along
with three McCall colleagues, attended the RULER institute conducted by the
Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence last week. Many of you are
familiar with the RULER approach to teaching social emotional learning given
what your students learned during their elementary years. For those of you who are not familiar with
it, RULER stands for Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling,
Expressing, and Regulating one’s emotions. At
the heart of the RULER approach is the understanding that emotions matter, and
they are important pieces of information that play a critical role in our
decision-making process. If we are not able to recognize, understand,
label, express, and regulate our emotions, we will not be able to effectively
make decisions that would lead us to reach our goals.
When
people talk about teaching middle schoolers, they often talk about the
challenge of working with a group of students who are prone to get very moody
and emotional. The approach that many adults who work with adolescents
take is to ignore those expressions of emotions or to teach students to
suppress those feelings. Doing so can
lead the emotions to come out later and drive some very unhealthy and destructive
behaviors. This is why we as educators of adolescents need to know how to
help them learn how to manage their emotions.
This
coming year, all of the McCall staff and teachers will spend time increasing
our learning about emotions and the RULER approach. We will be thinking
about the roles that emotions play in how we interact with the students and
each other and how they are involved in the way we work toward teaching the
whole child.
I
would like to invite you and your students to participate in the following
voluntary activity and practice recognizing and labeling your emotions.
- Invite
your student to find a picture of himself or herself engaging in a summer
activity that made them feel very pleasant and which involved a high
level of energy. Ask your student to name the emotion that was
captured in the photograph. Please name that picture file by using
this format: StudentFirstInitialLastName_Emotion.jpg. Please use
this link
to submit your picture. Attached here is an exemplar. This picture
is of my son “dancing” shortly after last school year concluded. The
emotion he said he felt was “elated”.
The file name is JLin_Elated.jpg.
- Next,
invite your student to find a picture of himself or herself engaging in a
summer activity that made them feel very pleasant and which involved a low
level of energy. Ask your student to name the emotion they were
feeling at that moment in time. Please name that picture file by
using this format: StudentFirstInitialLastName_Emotion.jpg. Please
use the link included above to submit your picture. Attached here is an exemplar. This picture
is of my son and daughter at the summit of Mt. Monadnock. The
emotion my daughter said she felt was “proud”. The file name is JLin_Proud.jpg.
Please
note that the pictures you submit will be compiled into a slideshow which will
be shown to members of the McCall community. The picture files themselves
will not be shared with any other person.
Please remember that this activity is voluntary.
Construction Update - Phase II of the McCall Renovation Project is
proceeding well. The foundation of the new wing continues to be
built. By next week, the walls of the
foundation will be up. The construction company is also working on
converting the storage area in the Basement wing into a new staff
workroom. The framing of the space is almost completed, and when that
happens electrical work will begin.
Attached here are some
pictures for you reference.
Preparing for the Start of School - We are still on track
to release the student schedules and teaming information at around August
15. Don’t forget the School Supplies information are posted on the school website for
those of you who are early planners. I also encourage you to sign up for
the McCall Principal’s Blog if you would like to receive weekly updates during the school
year. I use this method to update everyone on McCall happenings weekly
when the school year starts. In order to prevent flooding your inboxes, I
will only email you directly when I have to share need-to-know information.
Lastly,
I will be away starting this weekend until August 14, so please contact
Assistant Principal Lavoie at jlavoie@winchesterps.org if you have any urgent matter that needs to be
addressed. I wish all of you will continue to have a fun and relaxing
summer vacation, and I am looking forward to seeing all of your summer
pictures!
Sincerely,
James
Lin
Principal
McCall
Middle School
