A Note on Social Emotional Learning Day
A Note on Social Emotional Learning Day

A note on Social Emotional Learning Day, Today: 

This is Social Emotional Learning Week and today is the fourth annual international day set aside to celebrate the importance of this work.  The theme this year is Uplifting Hearts, Connecting Minds.  You can find more information, including a video, at https://selday.org/

It was several years ago that a coalition of our high school students, from Albemarle, Monticello and Western, addressed our School Board and the General Assembly in Richmond, to urge more resources to support student mental health and wellness.  They and many of their colleagues had a profound impact.  The state legislature approved changes in the public schools curriculum to add more emphasis on mental health.  In our division, we expanded counseling services in all of our schools, added safety coaches in our secondary schools and are partnering with outside agencies to improve therapeutic services for students and families. I salute all of you who have given up your spare time to attend mental health first aid training so you can better support your students and colleagues. 

Today the realization about how vital social emotional support and mental health services to our communities is not far from us.  News reports regularly are filled with the tragic stories of young lives and families torn apart by senseless violence and hopelessness often bred in isolation.

On this day, it is important to reflect on our own responsibilities to each other.  School people model how best to uplift hearts and connect minds through the promotion of cooperation, assertion, respect and responsibility, empathy and self-control in our relationships with one another.   

On this day, when tragic stories hit far too close to home, it is a priority at every opportunity, to access and provide services that can change a life, to have confidence in our own potential for goodness to reach out, care about and comfort one another, and in doing so, to know that we are making the future better and brighter for everyone.

 

It was a great day at Greer Elementary School on Monday, when Rivanna and Jack Jouett district school board representatives Judy Le, Kate Acuff and I had a wonderful visit at the home of the Mary Carr Greer Elementary School Geckos. Assistant Principal Wendy Eckerle  and I had several classroom visits together, and Judy and Steve toured the school as well.

Wendy and I sat in on Lori Alridge’s fifth grade; Alison Soubra and Claudette Patterson’s Bright Stars, Madison Nguyen and Beth Cox’s first grade; Ashley Miller and Christine Smiley’s first grade; Caitlin Culberson, Katie McLaughlin, and Maria Wayne’s kindergarten classes. Ms. Alridge’s students were learning the process of estimation and computation using a number line: impressive work. Students were working on personal whiteboards, and Ms. Alridge called volunteers to the classroom display board to show their work and think out loud. I sat at Ms.Soubra’s table with her students as they learned multiple expressions of the number eight. Very bright children! 

 

Ms. Nguyen’s students were getting ready to write a second draft of their biographies, and Ms. Nguyen demonstrated how to translate correction marks into finished sentences with her own work, using a document camera with the classroom display board. She asked students pointed questions about her decisions, “Why did I make this mark?’ Ms. Miller was also working on biography writing with her students. While writing about her family, she asked them who she should include in her family. The students said, “Ms. Smiley!”

Ms. Culbertson’s kindergartners were learning about A, B, C, repeating patterns using a daily weather forecast format. Then they actually created a prediction for Tuesday’s weather, and a student whose job it is to check the weather went to the class windows and did so and reported back to the class. As I entered the room, one of the kindergartners jogged up to me with his hand out, greeted me, and asked my name. I said, “Matthew.” When I left, he called out kindly, “Goodbye, Matthew,” and soon there were several Goodbye Matthew’s following after.

So friendly, and that is a word I would use to describe my whole visit: friendly. I would also say rigorous because every place Wendy and I visited was a learning environment on academic content facilitated through attention to care for one another. In every class, students were learning and demonstrating what they can do; I am inspired.  

I thank all of Greer’s staff and students for a wonderful visit. Thank you for welcoming Ms. Le, Dr. Acuff and me on Monday! 

 

Media Links for You! 

The Blue Ridge Food Bank's annual school food drive is underway and runs through two weeks from today, ending on March 24.  Last year, the drive collected nearly 8,400 pounds of food, enough for nearly 7,000 meals.  Two of our high school students, Emily Warren and Lily Stendig, from Albemarle High School, head up this year's campaign:

 

Blue Ridge Area Food Bank School Food Drive Underway

AHS Student Food Drive Gathers 30 Participating Schools

 

Western's Luke Kielbasa is one of five selected by the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame as its student athlete of the year:

Western Albemarle's Luke Kielbasa Honored by Virginia Sports Hall of Fame

 

Crozet Gazette's latest issue includes an in-depth summary of our 2023-24 funding request:

Schools Budget Stays the Course

 

Also, a profile of Henley's Saurish Srimath Tirumala, our middle school Spelling Bee champion, who is among six students representing our division tomorrow in the regional beeSaurish Srimath Tirumala

Henley Speller Advances to Regional Spelling Bee

 

And, finally, a very interesting historical article on many of the earliest public schools in the western feeder pattern:

Secrets of the Blue Ridge One Room Schools: Where Did They Go?

 

Albemarle High School's Peer Tutoring Program is celebrating its 10th year and over that time, student-tutors have served thousands of students.  Hannah Baran, who has overseen the program since its beginning, recently talked about its contributions to the school community in a NBC-29 interview:

NBC 29 Community Conversation 

 

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