When I was a building principal, we had a group of boys who were consistently getting office referrals during lunch for aggressive and disruptive behaviors. In the past, these behaviors had led to increasingly severe consequences that did not reduce the negative behaviors (and caused some students to be sent home and to miss instruction). I sat down with the group and we worked together to come up with a plan on what to do during lunch. One of the boys asked if we could start a knitting club, since his Auntie had recently taught him how to knit. Since he was a leader of the group, the other boys agreed. I asked them to come back tomorrow with some ideas of what to knit. The next day one of the boys said that he wanted to knit little hats for the preemies at the hospital, since his little cousin was there and that a nurse mentioned that they had run out of the little hats. The boys knitted daily and we delivered the hats to the hospital. We received many heartfelt thank you notes from families, nurses and doctors (and even an in-person visit with a personal thank you and cookies from a newborn's mom). This group continued to grow as did our ability to create knitted hats for preemies. This became a huge success for the participating students. There was significant improvement in the students’ behavior, attitude, achievement, and attendance. It is so important to think outside of the box for “win-win” solutions. It really isn’t the WHAT you do that is important, it is the WHY you are doing it! Our knitting group become a team, family, and community.
#maslowbeforebloom
NBD! Our favorite memory of #JJsRealImpact will always be in this video:) Our Twitter campaign #NeffReads4JJ brought him to Neff on a random day to read to our students. No media, no entourage! An amazing moment captured in this video! What’s your top @jjwatt moment?
@AracelisOrteg14 @Neff_ES@Mrs_Umana@MonicaDiaz9899 @JohnsonEgoeyns All of our lovely ladies in the office are the best!!! Thanks for all that you do for Neff.
Enjoyed celebrating HISD principals of the year at the Region 4 principals recognition ceremony. Congratulations principal Amanda Wingard and principal Keoshya Dunn!
Congrats to our Beginning Teacher of the Year: Ms. Petersen, 2nd Grade:) She has really worked hard this year to support and improve her teaching practices. She is a joy to work with everyday!
Check out this PreK student, Jackson, in Ms. Villoutreix’s class! He already knows his multiplication facts. Wow!!! @KaitlinVill123 And the noise you hear are the rest of the crew actively engaged in centers.