Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Safe, Respectful and Responsible Choices

Dear Families,

I wanted to write today to update everyone on a conversation I had with my class today. On the way back from lunch, as I entered my room, someone ran up to me to report that a classmate had pushed them in the closet area. This is a complaint that has come up time and time again in the last few weeks. Each time I have addressed it with the class and taken steps to see that it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately it keeps happening. Most often it's some sort of accident caused by students rushing to hang things up.
Today I got quite sharp with them and we had a serious conversation about why it keeps happening. I am now expecting that when an accidental "bumping into" happens, the first thing they need to do is apologize. If they do not realize they've bumped someone, then the person who got bumped needs to make the bumper aware so they can apologize.
My next step is to practice how we use the closet area during their recess time. I am not in favor of doing this, but we are using up way too much learning time processing these incidents and they just keep happening.

Please support me at home by talking to your student about their part in a solution to this problem by reminding them to be patient and wait outside the closet area if it's full and to help solve problems among their peers.

Thank you in advance for your help with this matter.

Beth