Hi Everyone,
I had a great meeting last Thursday after school with about twenty of our teachers who are participating in a discussion group focusing on “The Behavior Code”, a book by Jessica Minahan. Jessica is a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) and consultant who specializes in training educators to work more effectively with students who struggle with a continuum of challenges, including anxiety disorders and a range of other social and emotional needs. Recent studies have found that 30% of kids ages 13 to 18 have been diagnosed with anxiety disorders, and 11% suffer from depression. These statistics are not surprising to those of us in Acton Boxborough given the shifts and trends we have observed within our own student population. Our teachers are facing new and more frequent situations where anxiety is a significant factor in the learning profiles and needs of students in their classrooms, and where more traditional behavioral and motivational strategies are not effective. With that in mind, the Junior High is dedicating almost half of its professional learning time this year to training that improves our shared understanding around the different ways anxiety can shape a student’s school experience, and develop teaching strategies that can improve engagement, comfort, and improved learning in all of our classrooms. It’s an ambitious and important goal that we’ve set, and will require our attention and commitment beyond this year. What is exciting about our work this year is that it’s aided by Jessica Minahan herself. We’ve arranged for Jessica to work with our entire staff (teachers, classroom assistants, administrators, counselors, etc.) in both the Fall and Spring, and with a smaller group of specialized staff over the course of the year. I already see ways that conversations amongst teachers and teams are gradually shifting, and looking forward to our school’s collective skill set in this area evolving over time. I wanted to highlight this feature of our school’s professional learning goals because I know many families, including my own, also find themselves at home devoting a fair bit of energy and planning to supporting their kids around anxiety and its impact on different facets of their daily living. For those who might be attending a team meeting this year, you may hear ideas and questions that reflect these efforts, and strategies that we’re working on. While The Behavior Code is written with an educator audience in mind, parents and guardians who are invested in the topic may find it interesting. However, please don’t feel like you need order this text right away - while I’m excited that she’s working with us, I’m not trying to peddle her book. Instead, there are several articles, blog entries from the Huffington Post, and audio recordings of Jessica Minahan from radio interviews that you can access from her website. I’ve read several of them, and they offer plenty of ideas and strategies to consider, and the language and concepts that we’re learning at RJ Grey. These articles can offer you a snapshot of the conversations we are having at RJ Grey, and ideas for you to consider at home.
Here’s some updates and reminders for the next few weeks:
The Fall Trimester closes on Wednesday, November 20th. There will likely be end-of-trimester assignments and assessments this week and next, so you might want to check in with your child(ren) about what is on their plates between now and the Thanksgiving Break.
7 Red’s annual Coat Drive continues, so if you have any coats (for adults or children), they can be dropped off in our Lobby.
For the Thanksgiving Break, we have a half-day of school on Wednesday, November 27 with dismissal at 11:10, and then we return to school the following Monday, December 2nd.
Winter sports will begin shortly after the Thanksgiving Break. Our winter sports program includes Boys and Girls Basketball teams (with separate teams for 7th and 8th grade), and Cheerleading. The tryout schedule is NOW POSTED on the RJ Grey Athletics page with start dates planned for shortly after the Thanksgiving Break. You can view the tryout schedule and review the registration process on the Athletics page of our website.
The Green Team Club is hosting a Terracycle recycling program for used hygiene products such as deodorant, floss and mouthwash containers, toothpaste tubes and toothbrushes. The recycling box will be located outside the 7th grade office starting on November 12. Would you please help us keep these plastics out of landfills and oceans? For more info and more products you can bring and drop of, check the Green Team website.
FYI - our Food Services Department is running a friendly competition this Wednesday. Students who purchase a school lunch will be able to submit a guess for how many steps it takes to burn off a hamburger? A Fitbit Alta HR will be awarded to the student with the winning answer.
Last week all families should have received an email with instructions on how to sign up for the annual parent-teacher conferences. As I mentioned last week, one of the three conferences will be scheduled in the evening (January 9 from 5-8pm) and those slots will be filled on a first come-first served basis. We know that this means that not all families who prefer the evening conference can be scheduled for those options, and we hope that you’ll still be able to identify times that are possible for you. A friendly reminder that parents/guardians are not required to participate in these conferences, and many families who have attended team meetings elect not to sign up. We appreciate everyone’s patience as our Main Office staff begin processing the many requests that are being submitted over the next few weeks.
The annual RJ Grey musical is just around the corner! The students are working hard on this year’s production of James and the Giant Peach and we’re looking forward to another performance that showcases our students’ talents. Five performances are scheduled for the week of December 3rd, specifically on Thursday, December 5 (7pm), Friday,
December 6 (7pm), Saturday, December 7 (2pm and 7pm), and Sunday, December 8 (2pm). Tickets are $15 and will be available in the Junior High Main Office starting Monday, November 18. ABSAF holders are entitled to two free tickets and must pick up their tickets from the Main Office. This is always a great family-friendly event and we hope to see many A-B families there. As we begin to prepare for our annual school musical, I want to again share a link to one of my favorite episodes of the radio show This American Life. Entitled, “Fiasco!” this episode highlights a small-town production of Peter Pan that involved the use of flying apparatuses. Unlike our High School’s production of Mary Poppins a few years ago, their efforts involving the flying apparatus didn’t exactly go as planned, along with a few other mishaps that turned the show into a full-fledged fiasco. If you’ve got twenty minutes to spare, I encourage you to listen to this piece that apparently required Ira Glass to turn off his microphone during recording because of how hard he was laughing.
Finally, I don’t want to finish this edition of Grey Matters without acknowledging Veteran’s Day which is this Monday. So I end with a thank you and a note of gratitude to members of our community who have or are still serving in our military, as well as their families who support them.
Have a great week, everyone.
Cheers,
