Ridiculous Writing Contest- Rude Clowns & Evil Unicorns Dominic & Taygen

The Evil Unicorn

Glitterpuff, the evil unicorn walked down the street. “Another day causing mischief in Chicago.” ZAP! All the pedestrians were goats. ZING! All the cars were giant hairy spiders! 

 Before Glitterpuff knew it, a cop exclaimed “Freeze!” Glitterpuff was stunned! Next, cop cars came and started chasing him. 

“Rainbowcycle, go!” He got onto a rainbow-patterned motorcycle. A car chase started quickly. They’re gaining on me! Thought Glitterpuff. He climbed on the back of his vehicle and shouted, “Hope you like frosting!” GLORP! “Ah we’re stuck!” exclaimed the cops. 

“I suppose it’s time for my 9am bank robbery.!” said Glitterpuff. RRRING!

The Rudest Clown

Today was Big Boi’s huge day. He got to perform at the Circus! His performance wasn’t great. This happened since there was a cloud blocking the sunlight. 

“Hey ya big, fat cloudy dude, will ya get out da way?” 

The cloud responded, “Sorry there’s nothin’ I can do about it. The wind takes me wherever I go.” 

The crowd heard what he said and many people from the crowd left. 

“Hey! Where do ya think you’re goin’?” 

The crowd answered, “You are the worst and most rude clown of all time! That’s why we’re leaving!” 

Big Boi learned his lesson.

Permission to Feel

Permission to Feel

Jaclyn Mansfield, Christy Gorman & Glen McKay

We are excited to share some information with you regarding a Hood School Community Book study on a timely topic. In September and October, members of the J. Turner Hood School professional community, as well as parents, joined each other virtually to read and discuss Permission to Feel written by Marc Brackett. This work outlines a practical evidence-based approach to managing our emotions. Brackett, a professor at Yale University’s Child Study Center and the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, makes a persuasive case that our feelings aren’t impediments, but provide important information that can change our lives for the better – when we give ourselves permission to feel them.

Given the school status of our population, we felt that our students, staff and families have all been through alot recently as we grapple with the outcomes from the global pandemic. We wanted to connect this work with the idea that we could all benefit from the work Mr. Brackett has conducted into the roots of emotional well-being and his prescription for healthy children (as well as their parents, teachers, and schools).

As we read through the book we learned of Brackett’s system with the acronym of RULER.  This acronym has been shown to reduce stress and burnout, improve school climate, and enhance academic achievement.

The acronym is made up of five emotional intelligence skills. The first three—Recognizing, Understanding, and Labeling—help us to accurately identify and decode what individuals are feeling. The two remaining skills—Expressing and Regulating—tell us how to manage those emotions to achieve desired goals. Here is a summary each of these skills:

Recognizing emotions in oneself and others. This is not just in the things we think, feel, and say, but our facial expressions, body language, vocal tones, and other nonverbal signals that provide the first clues that something important is happening. We can recognize the occurrence of an emotion by noticing a change in our own thoughts, energy, or body, or in someone else’s facial expression, body language or voice.

Understanding the causes and consequences of emotion. We need to understand those feelings and determine their source. It’s important to remember and identify the cause of emotions and see how they influence our thoughts and decisions. This helps us make better predictions about our own thoughts and more informed choices about our behaviors.

Labeling emotions with precise words. Labeling refers to making connections between an emotional experience and precise, nuanced terms used to describe it. People with a more developed feelings vocabulary can differentiate among related emotions such as pleased, happy, elated, and ecstatic. Labeling emotions accurately increases self-awareness, helps us to communicate emotion more effectively, and reduces misunderstandings in social interactions.

Expressing emotions, taking context and culture into consideration. By expressing our feelings in accordance with cultural norms and social contexts, we can inform and invite empathy from listeners. Being skilled in expressing emotions means knowing how and when to display our emotions, depending on the setting, the people we’re with, and the larger social context. People who are skilled in this area understand unspoken rules for emotional expression (called “display rules") and express what they feel and modify their behavior accordingly.

Regulating emotions effectively to achieve goals and well-being.  It’s important to learn to regulate our emotions rather than let them regulate us. There are practical strategies for dealing with what individuals are feeling. Regulating involves monitoring, tempering, and modifying emotional reactions in helpful ways, in order to reach personal and professional goals. This doesn’t mean ignoring inconvenient emotions but rather learning to accept and deal with them as they come up. People with this skill are able to use these strategies to manage their own emotions and help others with theirs.

We certainly found this work informative and have elected to explore its implementation further. We have selected multiple follow-up steps including the implementation of several recommended strategies inclusive of : The Mood Meter, defining and utilizing Meta-Moments, building a tiered feeling vocabulary, and a site visit to a local district that has implemented the learned strategies as a means to gain a deeper understanding of the RULER approach.

Thank you to everyone that participated in this meaningful activity. 

Hood STEAM Night!

     

November 9th 5:00-7:00

We proudly present our 3rd annual 

Hood STEAM Night!

• This is a fun-filled family event organized by the Hood School.  This event is designed to engage students in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.  Enjoy an evening of building, problem solving and teamwork.    

•  In order to adhere to safety protocols all families will need to pre-register for this event.  

• Use the STEAM Night link in order to register your family for this event.

• All forms must be returned by October 25th. We will not be able to permit families that have not pre-registered.

• We will see how many families are interested and then we will send out times for you to arrive to ensure safe numbers inside the school.  

• Families will also need to fill out the Daily Health Screener prior to attending the event.  

• All attendees must be masked.   

•  We are so lucky to be able to include this again in the Hood School schedule.  We really missed it last year. 

 We hope to see you there!  

Hood School Book Study 2021

Hood School Book Study

 

When: Synchronous Tuesday Nights- September 21st, October 5th, October 16th

Time: 7 PM

 

Live Dates:	Chapters	Topic
September 21	1, 2 & 3	Permission to Feel
October 5	4, 5, 6, 7 & 8	The RULER Skills
October 26	9, 10 & 11	Applying Emotion Skills

 

There will be asynchronous discussions on the alternating weeks.

 

Please join us for a Book Study group on the dynamic book Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive by Marc Brackett. Based on research from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, this course will focus on practical and research-based 5 keys to emotional intelligence and how those impact education and learning.

 

Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. This book combines rigor, science, passion and inspiration in equal parts. Too many children and adults are suffering; they are ashamed of their feelings and emotionally unskilled, but they don’t have to be. Marc Brackett’s life mission is to reverse this course, and this book can show you how.

 

Links to purchase the book:

Paperback- https://amzn.to/3xxZY6f

Audiobook- https://amzn.to/37xJHUu

 

 Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Identify and demonstrate the process of emotion labeling, processing and feeling.

• Recognize, understand, label, express and regulate emotions in both themselves and their students. 
  
• Apply emotional intelligence and agility at home and in the classroom. 
  

• Create a framework for what adults need to learn emotionally in order to support children―and themselves―in achieving academic and life success.

 

 Please Click Here To Sign Up:

https://forms.gle/TVjSYLGiGg5sWW1c7

 

The link will close on September 10, 2021

The Summer Reading Slide

Preventing the Summer Reading Slide

Susan Hegarty, Reading Specialist & Glen S. McKay, Principal  

            Summer vacation, with its days free from the routines of the typical school week, is rapidly approaching. However, educators nation-wide worry that along with relaxing summer days, students will lose the reading gains that they acquired during the preceding school year if they do not continue to consistently engage in literacy activities over the summer. Numerous research studies indicate that an achievement gap in reading develops and widens during the summer months.  According to the “Reading is Fundamental” (RIF) website “experts agree that children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not, often slide backward.”  “Launching Summer Reading” by Donalyn Miller of Scholastic, Inc. wrote in 2016 that “reading research indicates that many children’s reading ability declines between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next because they generally do not read much over the summer. But, by reading just four or five books over the summer break, students can keep up the good work they’ve strived to achieve all year.” A general consensus amongst numerous research studies supports the fact that struggling readers lose more ground over the summer than proficient readers if they do not engage in summer reading, and those losses can create a wider gap between proficient readers and struggling readers. By the time these readers reach middle school, summer reading loss can accumulate to a two year lag in reading achievement!

            Considering the research that supports that reading is the cornerstone of learning, one might ask, “What can caregivers and parents do to minimize the summer reading slide?”  First and foremost, develop summer reading habits at the beginning of the summer with a daily reading routine.  Set a timer for twenty to thirty minutes and designate that as reading time with no external distractions going on in the background. Immerse your entire family in activities that involve literacy activities so that children can view the adults in their lives as “reading and writing role models” firsthand. Encourage your children to keep a writing journal to fill with writing about their summer experiences to the beach, or a neighborhood bike ride, or a family day trip.  Providing a print rich environment, being a reading role model for your children, and promoting a love of reading will lessen the “summer reading slide”, as well as ease the transition back to school in the fall.

            Fortunately, there is a wealth of free resources out there to assist caregivers and parents with nurturing and supporting literacy activities over the summer months.          Here are just a few of the many ways parents can promote rewarding reading habits this upcoming summer.

           

* Enroll your children in your town’s free summer reading program.  This year the North Reading Flint Memorial Library’s free summer reading program is centered around the theme “Build A Better World”.  This theme kicks-off on June 26^th and continues until August 18^th.  Check out the library’s website to discover the reading incentive programs they are offering for various grade levels as well as the enrichment programs they have scheduled over the summer. One popular reading incentive that is being offered again is a free entrance pass to the 2017 Topsfield Fair with a hot dog, drink, and two game tickets for children who read the required number of minutes between June 26^th and August 18th.

            * Enroll your child in the Red Sox Summer Reading Game sponsored by the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association to promote literacy.  Kindergarten through grade 8 Massachusetts children who pledge to read nine books and then submit their pledge cards, will be entered into a drawing to win a family pack of 4 tickets to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.  (Pledge cards will soon be distributed to all North Reading elementary school children.)

            * Another freebie to take advantage of is to sign your children up for Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program where they can read their way to a free book. By going online to BN.COM/summerreading or by visiting your closest Barnes & Noble bookstore, parents can sign their children up for this free reading incentive.  

           

            * A “20 for 20 Family Reading Challenge” is being offered by Scholastic, Inc.   This free online and mobile reading program helps children discover the power and joy of reading during the summer.  Explore Scholastic’s website for a wealth of free family resources and activities that promote reading and writing.

* Visit the National Summer Learning Association website for “Easy Summer Learning Tips for Parents”. www.SummerLearning.org

 

* The popular website, “Pinterest”, has an amazing collection of literacy ideas for families and children of all ages that is bound to keep families immersed in literacy all summer long!

*Start a book club with your children and their friends and parents.  Forming a book club is a fun, social way to encourage summer reading with follow-up conversations and activites for parents and children alike.

            * Create book baskets for the whole family and have them readily available around the house or ready to travel.   Make it fun and include newspapers, comic books, children’s magazines, cookbooks, and crossword puzzles.

           

            Remember, your primary goal is to motivate your children to read throughout the summer to prevent the summer reading slide.  Engaging your entire family in reading activities throughout the summer is bound to promote a lifelong love of reading!

Learning with Sphero

As Around the Schoolyard readers can recall we have recently opened a Maker Space at the J. Turner Hood Elementary School. This space provides our students with a place to engage in hands on learning activities. At the J. Turner Hood School, we work collaboratively to reach our goal of educating and challenging students to their full potential, it is important to focus on meeting the needs of all learning styles including those students that are hands on learners. This learning space enables us to meet the needs of all learners with a focus on hands on learning. For many working in the manufacturing industry, the concept of hands-on learning is a natural way to investigate problems and come up with creative solutions. But for many, hands-on learning has become the exception rather than the rule. Fortunately, the increasing number of Makerspaces provides exciting new opportunities for hands-on learning, problem-solving, and creative experimentation. According to Aristotle “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” 

In this article I would like to focus on a device that I have observed being utilized in our Makerspace to teach programming as well as problem solving. Last year we work hand in hand with our parent’s association to purchase 12 Sphero programmable robotic balls. If you have not seen Sphero, it’s a small hand-sized ball you can program easily to change colors, run a circuit, keep beat with a song, and many other fun ideas.

What is Sphero?

·         Sphero is a robot that interacts with any smart device. 

·         There are two levels to working with Sphero; driving and coding. 

·         Students have to think about how they want Sphero to accomplish a task and then code that into an iPad or another device. 

·         The students then can test and adapt their code based on the results. 

The Sphero devices can be used to teach a plethora of skills including programming and problem solving. Based on my observations, these high-tech devices inspire a lot of creative as well as open-ended play. There are more than two dozen free apps to play with Sphero, these include Tickle and  SPRK which are the programming apps used to control the device. Sphero can also be programmed in BASIC as well as Scratch and several other popular languages. Once the programming is complete, the fun begins as students are challenged to create scenarios or obstacle courses with boxes and tubes from our Makerspace to navigate. Yes, you can have fun with Sphero as an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) and there’s value in that alone, but you can also take it from tech toy, to STEM teaching tool by helping your kids code Sphero. Or in my case, our students helping me develop my computer programming skills.

Benefits of working with Spheros.

·         Learn coding

·         Interact with other students

·         Problem solving skills

·         Planning and designing

·         Math and Science reinforcement

·         Increased enthusiasm about learning

To see an example of our students using this device please visit:

https://youtu.be/JsxyebSAjKE

Maker Updates

Last year I wrote about the J. Turner Hood Schools vision of creating a Makerspace. I am proud to report that this year we will be opening our soon to be named Makerspace.  The design of our Makerspace stems from our schools research on The Maker Movement. The Maker Movement is a technological and creative learning revolution that is underway around the globe. This movement has exciting and vast implications for the world of education. New tools and technology, such as 3D printing, robotics, microprocessors, wearable computing, e-textiles, “smart” materials, and programming languages are being invented at an unprecedented pace. The Maker Movement creates affordable or even free versions of these inventions, while sharing tools and ideas online to create a vibrant, collaborative community of global problem-solvers. Makers are people who like to figure out and fix problems with their hands.  Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager write, in Invent to Learn, that “Maker classrooms are active classrooms. In active classrooms one will find engaged students, often working on multiple projects simultaneously, and teachers unafraid of relinquishing their authoritarian role. The best way to activate your classroom is for your classroom to make something.”

What exactly is a Maker and what happens in the “space?” If you search a thesaurus for the word “make” you will find a plethora of great synonyms: create, cause, assemble, manufacture, achieve, invent, generate, produce, craft, build, construct, or generate. And, that is exactly what happens in a Makerspace. It is an environment where one is only limited by one’s imagination. It is a space that allows for exploration of all of the aspects of STEM–Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math–and sprinkles it with imagination for an exploration of “what if.” In the J. Turner Hood Elementary School, our Makerspace in the Computer Room/Maker Center is set to inspire students to become participatory learners to uncover their talents, needs, and interests by making, producing, solving, creating, collaborating and thinking. In this space, the focus will be "real-world problem solving," The Makerspace will allow students to use a variety of materials to build projects that will relate back to  the content in a specific lesson or unit of instruction.

This space is set to officially open soon thanks to the support of our Parent’s Association who have been crucial in the design, setup and funding of this worthwhile endeavor.  One might ask "what are you going to call this space?" I would have to say that I am not sure yet as our amazing students in true maker fashion will be naming the space and creating the logo. Please stay tuned to the Hood School Twitter account for updates regarding this amazing opportunity for our students and staff!