5SOS

While doing classroom walk-throughs last week I noticed that one student had written "5SOS" in large highlighted letters on the bottom of her paper. If you have middle school age daughters you are probably familiar with the "code." I was not. I went over to the student and quietly asked if that was a way to let her teacher know she needed help with that homework problem. After an eye roll, the likes of which only a middle school girl can pull off, she politely said, "No, Mr. Tanis, it has nothing to do with homework; that stands for my favorite group, 5 Seconds of Summer." Trying to salvage what little middle school street credit I had left, I said, "Oh, I knew that, I just didn't see the '5.'" I quickly made my way to the next class.

I am sure parents, teachers, and students alike will think of this band's name, though, as word of the start date for the 2016-2017 school year spreads. As you will see in this week's newsletter, our start date for students next year is August 10th. For many, the summer will feel only 5 seconds long. At Christ the King, we are in slightly better shape than others. While many surrounding schools end June 10th this year, we anticipated an earlier 2016-2017 school calendar and were able to adjust this year's calendar to make June 3rd our last day of school. Therefore, rather than a 5 second summer, we will only miss 5 days of summer (71 days last summer vs 66 days this upcoming summer).

Regardless of our thoughts about summer, here are a few thoughts on how an earlier start date can benefit our students:

1) Aligned calendars - While some schools have yet to set calendars for the 16-17 school year, the surrounding county public school systems, Tampa Catholic, and the Academy of the Holy Names have published calendars with August 10th as the start. Calendar alignment helps our families with students in multiple schools plan for child care and important family time over the summer and throughout the school year.

2) Wednesday start date - this provides a natural calendar break to review classroom procedures, communicate expectations, and build a classroom culture these first few days. There is an overwhelming amount of brain research that cites these practices as critical for learning to take place in a classroom. Students must feel safe in order to take risks academically and for learning to occur.

3) Balanced quarters - beginning school on August 10th allows each quarter to be the same length of time, so that quarter grades more consistently reflect student learning throughout the school year. It also provides an equal amount of time each semester for our students to prepare for semester exams and even more instructional time before high school placement tests in November or Iowa Assessments in March.

While there will probably be an adjustment period, the teachers and I feel the calendar shift will benefit our students and families. Although we won't be able to start the school year with a Labor Day Weekend party, we will be able to end it with Memorial Day Weekend.  Here are dates for your planning purposes:

CKS 2016-2017 Preliminary Dates

 

August 10 - First day for Grades 1-8

August 11 - First day for Kindergarten

August 12 - First day for EC4

 

Thanksgiving Break

November 21-25
 

Christmas Break

Dec. 16 (early dismissal) - January 2

 

Classes resume

January 3, 2017

 

Last day of school

May 26

 

**additional dates including Spring Break, etc. to follow soon

 

 

Strike Hunger

St. John Bosco started his priesthood working in prisons, not schools. However, as he went from prison to prison, he was astounded by the number of young boys in the cells. He wondered if ministering to them in prison was the best solution. After prayer, he realized the solution was to minister to them before they even entered the system. As he looked around Italy, he saw boys that were without food, without work, and without God. He slowly began his movement to start oratories (schools) where the boys could be fed physically, mentally, and spiritually.

St. John Bosco saw a problem and came up with a solution to address the cause (hunger) and not one of  the symptoms (boys in prison). I think about all the problems in our world today and the solutions offered to solve them. Perhaps we are looking at symptoms and not the root cause. Statistics show that one out of five children in America go hungry everyday; that means 16 million children.  I don't know about you, but when I am hungry, I become angry. I am sure the term "hangry" has been used once or twice to describe my mood!

This month as part of Catholic Schools Week, our students are going to help fight hunger, by partnering with the organization Feeding Children Everywhere. In February, our students will prepare and package meals that will go to hungry children all over the world. Our goal is to package 30,000 meals. Each meal costs $.25, so we are asking students to deposit any spare change into receptacles placed throughout the school. I think making meals and using change for change is a great way to show our students how to Be Like Bosco and "Serve with a Smile." 

Here is a video we showed our students to kick off the event at school:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwIuOVJAn-0

Serve with a Smile

With the conclusion of the Christmas break, we are slowly starting to slide back into our school routines. I hope everyone had a restful break and is ready to get back to work and being like Bosco. This quarter our guiding action is to Serve with a Smile. If you are still hunting for a New Year's Resolution, this might be the one for you: to serve others and do so with a smile on your face. Actually completing acts of service can be difficult to schedule into your life--almost as hard as keeping resolutions that last past January (just notice how much the Y clears out in February!).

Think of these three tips so that your service -- and your resolutions -- just might stick:

1) Keep It Small--keeping the end goal in mind is important, but you have to start the journey to reach the destination. Plan those first steps and milestones along the way. 

2) Keep It Swift--I am not suggesting that you recklessly make decisions or speed through a project to get finished. Rather, I am suggesting you make a plan and swiftly take action. 

3) Keep Your Smile--Numerous studies have shone that the simple act of smiling releases chemicals in our brains that relieve stress and anxiety. There is also a Swedish study in the attached article which found that people rated pictures of those who smiled as more attractive than pictures of people who didn't.  Now you know why I try to smile so much in the car line; I need every advantage I can get.  Finally, another study showed that seeing someone else smile triggers a response in our brains to return the smile. Therefore, if you smile at someone you are helping your health and that of another person. 

 

That seems like a simple, small, and swift New Year's Resolution. Forget the no-carb diet, the cardiac crossfit class, and the marathon you signed up for to motivate you off the couch. See how much you can improve your health and that of others this year by just giving a few smiles a day.

Happy New Year!

Be Like Bennett!

Saturday morning I was driving to Barnes & Noble to do some Christmas shopping. As I was waiting at the intersection of Kennedy and Dale Mabry, I saw a man holding a sign (it was not the guy with the viking hat, encouraging me with his spinning air guitar to turn in for the lowest prices on mattresses!)  Instead, this man was holding a sign that simply read, "Just Hungry." Usually this would present a dilemma for me since I never really know what the right thing is to do --I hesitate to just hand out money (which usually isn't a problem since I rarely carry cash); I never have food in the car; and I feel there is always more I can do than just pray. This Saturday, I did not have any of those issues, though. I reached under my seat and gave the man a Bosco Bag.

Bosco Bags were the idea of CKS 8th grader Bennett Andersen and his mother, Dana. Each bag contains a water bottle, several snacks, and a card with resources on one side and the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-16) on the other. Bennett is on the Executive Committee of our middle school service organization, the Sean Devereux Club. He brought the idea to the committee and they spent hours before and after school putting together these bags for adults to have in their cars and distribute as needed.

As we close the first semester and head into Christmas break, I can think of no better example of what a CKS student can accomplish. My hope for all of our students is that they see a need in the world, look for possible solutions, and when found, organize others to take action. I am proud of all our CKS students and their accomplishments this semester. I look forward to next semester and continuing to Be Like Bosco with our school community.

Merry Christmas!

Rescue Me

Leading education research on student success is currently focused on mindsets, grit, and toughness. To oversimplify, the theory is that a child's attitude about his/her ability to succeed and the capacity to persevere through a challenge are among the most important indicators of future success. 

To help foster resiliency and toughness, some schools have gone as far as instituting a "No Rescue Policy" which asks parents NOT to bring forgotten items from home to school in order to teach students about consequences, responsibility, and resilience.  These policies have less to do with cognitive skills (academics) and more to do with non-cognitive skills (responsibility). They also have everything to do with us, as parents, and how we "support" our children when they struggle (i.e. struggle to remember something for school). 

I have seen the numerous return trips to the office in the morning, and I have unlocked the front doors after school for many of you making the return trip in the evening. I understand that a policy like this can be hard to digest, but I have a confession. During the month of October we did some tallying of all the forgotten items brought to school by our parents for students. Here's what we found:

62 forgotten lunches/snacks
17 forgotten bags of PE clothes
45 forgotten Chromebooks, notebooks, and book bags
1 forgotten pair of socks
125 return trips to school for parents

We did not even count the return trips after school for forgotten books, folders, or lunch boxes. We only have 550 students in the school, so 125 trips means approximately 23% of our students forgot items in October. While I know that some of the items represent the same students, they also represent 125 different disruptions to class for teachers and assistants to distribute these items.

As parents, I know we want to support our children and that means making sure they have the items they need to be successful. However, we also need to think about the long term effects of our immediate decisions. So what should you do when your child has left for school and you discover the lunch box is still sitting on the kitchen counter?

1. Take a deep breath--seeing the forgotten item just reminds you how many times you reminded your child to grab it before leaving. Irritation sets-in and few of us make good decisions when we are irritated. Taking a deep breath keeps us calm. 
2. Trust us--the school is not going to let your child starve (we give out emergency lunches every day); we are not going to resort to cruel and unusual punishments if they left a notebook at home; and they can still participate in PE without gym clothes. 
3. Think about consequences--while many of the forgotten items will pose an inconvenience to children, none of them, aside from necessary medications, will keep them from going on with their school day. 

As educators, we want all of our children to succeed, and sometimes success comes later from consequences experienced today. While I don't see us instituting a "No Rescue Policy" yet, I do think as parents it is worth thinking about leaving the next forgotten item where it lies. Supporting children to accept the consequence may be a greater factor in their future success than supporting them by bringing them the item. 

Hands On!

Charlotte Danielson, a leading educational researcher, has identified four domains of effective teaching. Her philosophy is to observe a teacher's effectiveness based on what the students are doing in the classroom as a result of the teacher's actions. She points out that the best activities for learning are both "hands-on" AND "minds-on." While there is definitely a place for repetitive practice (think math fact sheets) to reinforce learning and there is a place for projects for the sake of projects (think hand turkey), the most effective activities force students to think while also producing tangible evidence of what they learned.

As we begin our journey towards Christmas with Advent, it is a great time to find ways to make our service to others more "hands-on" AND "minds-on." While there are places --and a very real need-- for service that only requires a donation (food drives, toy drives, etc.), I believe we are called to deepen our service commitment to our community.

Here are three opportunities supported through ministries at Christ the King where you can make your service hands-on and minds-on:

1) St. Vincent DePaul Society--In addition to collecting food (we contributed over 6,000 pounds in our school/parish drive), this ministry needs volunteers to work in the SVDP Food Pantry and Thrift Store, collect goods, enter data, and provide seasonal outreach. Email svdphdc@gmail.com if you are interested.

2) Home Makers of Hope-- Besides donating your old furniture, this group needs volunteers to drive its box truck and make home visits to determine furnishing needs for families in our parish community. For more information and to schedule furniture pick-ups, contact Connie Hayden-McPeak at dcmcpeak01@yahoo.com.

3) Trinity Cafe--Serving a hot meal for hundreds of people daily, Trinity Cafe's mission is to help their guests dine with dignity. If you volunteer you serve as a table host bringing your guests drinks, food, and conversation. Our faculty volunteered here this summer and found it to be a very rewarding experience.  Check out their website for volunteer information:  http://www.trinitycafe.org.

These are just a few ways to enhance your Advent in preparation for Christmas. They also provide our children an opportunity to "Observe God in All Things," specifically a hands-on and minds-on example of serving those in need in our community.

Observing God in All Things

“I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily, but when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”   --Luke 18:8 from last Saturday's daily Mass. 

After the chilling events that took place in Paris this past weekend, I think Jesus would definitely find the faith of many shaken. It's a challenge to teach our children to "Be Like Bosco" and “Observe God in All Things,” and try to observe Him in events like these. 

The simple answer is God does not cause these actions—people do. People who have allowed the devil and sin to break their relationship with the true God and kill in the name of a false one.

Now contrast those events with a local story from last week's Tampa Tribune which can be found here. The story describes how a Plant City cross country runner saw another runner (from Plant High School, coincidentally) collapse near the final stretch of the state championship meet. The runner from Plant City did not think twice: he stopped and picked up his fallen competitor, helping him cross the finish line.

This young man ignored the impulse to compete and win a race he had been training for since last June. He ignored the impulse that caused dozens of other runners to keep moving past the fallen runner. Instead he listened to his heart, observed God in his competitor and picked him up to help him finish the race.

While we may seem helpless to prevent attacks like the ones that happened in Paris, and we are scared of others like it happening again, there are two things we can do: we can pray to God, and we can act with the same courage displayed by the Plant City student. If we do these two things on a local level, we can have an impact on global level.