Happy Holidays!

Dear McCall Parents and Guardians,

Many of you are probably feeling like the following right now.

 

I know I do. Holiday stress is real and can take a toll on all of us. Holiday stress compounded by COVID stress can make everything seem overwhelming. One of the consultants who work with the school’s mental health professionals recently told me that the advice he often offers to his clients when they feel overwhelmed is “decrease the expectations and increase the structure”.  A recent poll conducted by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan found the following:

"One in five parents (20%) believe their child has unrealistic expectations for the holiday season, while 1 in 4 parents (28%) feel they have unrealistic expectations of themselves. Overall, 20% of the parents acknowledge their own stress negatively affects their children’s enjoyment of the holidays." 

During this time when there are so much going on and things are changing so fast, I think it is important for all of us to remember we don’t have to do everything or fix everything to do right by our children and families. It is important for all of us to adjust our expectations so we are focusing on one or two of the most essential things and forgiving ourselves if we don’t get to the others that are not quite as important.

I would also like to remind everyone not to forget about structure during vacation week. Although a break from school means we don’t have to rush in the mornings and pressure ourselves to get homework done, it is a good idea to still have schedules in place so students are getting enough sleep and good nutrition. I understand household rules like those related to screen time may be relaxed during vacation, but I encourage everyone to maintain structures so your children’s access to digital devices are kept to a reasonable amount and their activities on social media are monitored.

I wish everyone a wonderful break that is focused on rest and rejuvenation. The year 2022 will inevitably be filled with many wonderful events as well as big challenges. I am hoping to see everyone prepared and ready to go after the break, so we can enjoy those wonderful things to the fullest and meet all obstacles that may come our way.


Happy holidays!

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

December 12 Update

 Dear McCall Parents and Guardians,

 

I hope this email finds you well.  I am reaching out this week to discuss the topic of student behavior.  After a year of hybrid/fully remote education, we are all excited to have all the students back in the building.  Our school felt incomplete when our hallways, cafeterias, and classrooms were eerily quiet due to the fact that only half of the student body was on campus at a time, and none of the students were able to socialize with each other in ways they were used to doing.  Now that we’ve all returned, McCall staff and I are finding out many students have forgotten how to behave appropriately when they are in a more typical school setting after a year of isolation.  Teachers and staff are spending more time addressing student behaviors that they had to manage seldomly prior to last year including behaviors that disrupt our classrooms and hallways.

 

The faculty and I have decided to address these student behavior issues by conducting “Behavior Reset” Assemblies.  Given that we wanted to avoid a large gathering of students for long periods of time, the assemblies involved me Zooming into the Homerooms to discuss student behavior expectations.  The faculty and I also believe running one assembly during which students are lectured about a laundry list of behaviors would not be effective.  Therefore, we decided to run multiple assemblies to be held throughout the year, and each session will focus on one behavior for improvement during a period of two to three weeks.

 

We held one such assembly this past Tuesday during homeroom, so no class time was impacted.  The behavior we targeted was proper mask usage.  Specifically, I spoke to the students through Zoom about the importance of wearing masks in manners that minimize virus transmission.  In addition, I reminded students about proper disposal of used masks and their associated product (e.g., plastic overs that seals in individual disposable masks). 

 

Lastly, I talked to the students about the disciplinary process that is outlined in our Student Handbook – particularly the Progressive Discipline process we implement to address all problematic behaviors.  The Progressive Discipline process involves the adult who initially observes the behavior addressing the matter with the student.  This step usually includes reminders and may involve adults holding conversations with the students to work out a mutually agreeable plan to address the problematic behavior.  The second step if the behavioral issue continues will involve communication with the students’ parents and caregivers so adults at school and home can all work collaboratively to address the issue.  If the interventions mentioned above do not resolve the problem, we will implement more involved disciplinary measures such as meeting with administrators and/or assignment of detentions.

 

It is important to remember that the school may immediately assign disciplinary consequences that are at a higher level of our progressive disciplinary process if the type of offensive is severe – especially if the behavior impacts the safety of other members of the community. 

 

I would like to end this message by emphasizing the fact that the increase in frequency of these problematic behaviors does not mean our students are no longer the kind and well-meaning people that they were prior to the pandemic.  The behavior issues we are observing are natural consequences of last year’s pandemic schooling and the school closure that occurred the year before.  These problems are being felt by all schools across the country, and they are not impossible to solve.  We will address these behavior issues just as we approach teaching and learning.  That is, we set reasonable goals for our students and take incremental steps toward those goals.  As mentioned previously, our objective for next few weeks is to target behaviors related to appropriate mask wearing.  McCall staff and teachers will spend more time focusing on addressing these types of behaviors with the students.  We are hoping we can count on your support by reminding students to bring multiple clean masks to school, wear them appropriately during the school day, and to dispose of all mask related trash appropriately.

 

Thank you,

 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School