Welcome Back!

 Welcome back to another school year!  I've had all of the classes for Life Skills now and we had a lot of fun reviewing what a school counselor does and how they can help students each day!

Thanks to my counselor friend Ms. Lurndal at River Crest, I learned about an escape room that helped remind them of a school counselor's role.  Students worked together to crack different codes and puzzles to help "rescue" me from an island :)

In 1st and 2nd grade we learned that "Even Superheroes Have Bad Days" and can talk to their school counselor if they need to!  Students colored a shield to show their favorite color, the color of their favorite food and what superpower they would like to have.

Wolfie Goes to Work RETURNS!

 It has been a while since I've been able to deploy our Wolfie Goes to Work wolves!  This year they have been going home with 5th graders so we can all learn more about the different careers out there, types of training, and what our grown ups like about their careers!

Here are a few of the places Wolfie has been!

WELCOME BACK!!! School year 2021-2022

 It is SO great to have everyone back here at Willow for another great school year! We have a lot of fun things happening this year as we are able to do more groups and mix grade levels of students after last year.  

I visit classrooms to deliver Life Skills lessons every other week and will do my best to post photo-worthy activities here for parents to see what we have been up to as well!  I'm also posting my bi-weekly calendar and my *plan* is to update this to maintain a weekly calendar for all to see my schedule!  My blog posts always start with the best of intentions and waned by November, but if I put it out there to y'all I may need to be more accountable! ;)

While we are talking about being held accountable, I'll also share out my student outcome goals for this year.  While data has been tricky to get a hold of the past two years, it is always fun for me to watch students grow and share this out!

2021-2022 Student Outcome Goals

By June 2022, 56% of 4th graders at Willow will score advanced/proficient on the Forward ELA exam, from 49% doing so in 2021.  Willow's Leadership team has set this goal for all 3-5th graders this year, so I throwing my hat in the ring by reinforcing our academic success lessons from last year, creating small groups to support those students who did not reach this (managing test stress, studying strategies, setting goals etc.) and continuing our Literacy Toolbox Book Club program to get books in the hands of all students. 

By June 2022, the percentage of the building's ODRs coming from Kindergarten will decrease by 34% - from 38% of the building's ODRs in 2020-2021 to 25%.  From getting into the Kinder classrooms daily the first month of school to instruct Second Step lessons as they were intended (in past years I've used Second Step as my curriculum and taught lessons every other week - so I'm getting to Fair Ways to Play in May when we have had a full year of conflicts during play!!) to more intentional small groups based on behavioral referrals, I am predicting a front-loading of social skills at the beginning of the year and Tier 2 supports after will help get this number down.  We always expect our Kinders to need the most behavioral coaching, but in the past our K classes have had as high as 38% of our building's ODR's, which is quite a gap compared to our other grades. 

By June 2022, Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs) for male students will decrease by 8%, from 71% of all ODRs to 65%.  While this is a national trend in education, Willow River continues to have a discipline/behavioral gap with our male students vs. female.  I will be offering staff professional development connecting brain science, males, and behavior while also inviting boys from our school who are receiving these ODRs into groups to review and practice peaceful problem solving strategies and leadership skills. 

Here's to year #8 here at my beautiful little elementary building!!!!!!  

Mrs. Flier Finally Proves Growth Mindset is a REAL THING!!

 I've been telling 2nd graders for a while now that I am going to show scientific proof that growth mindset is a real thing and not something I just made up!  We have been talking about parts of the brain so we can understand the basics, and our last lesson we talked about neuroplasticity.  Yes.  Second graders can pronounce that!! 

I demonstrated using pipe cleaners between three "neurons" and how when we first try something, the "pathway" for this activity is a thin connection.  If we push through the challenge and continue to practice, the pathway gets thicker - thus, the activity gets easier. We talk about if we were to give up and have a fixed mindset about something hard, that neural pathway would remain rather weak... but if we continue to practice, the pathway for that activity (math, reading, riding a bike, shooting a basketball) becomes stronger and you don't even have to think about it because your brain has such a thick neural pathway for that! 

Next time your 2nd grader is saying "I just can't do this!!", remind them that they need to strengthen the neural pathway for it ;)

Kindergarten Learns Protective Behaviors!

 Kindergarten has wrapped up the three Protective Behaviors lessons in Life skills.  We have talked about 8 common rules ("Never Never Rules") how to stay safe by "Reconizing, Reporting, and Refusing" and how to be assertive in saying no to things that are unsafe or that make us feel uncomfortable. 

It's not all serious business though - we always had time to DANCE to the 8 Never Never Song.  Be warned - it is very catchy and will be stuck in your head :)

Success with Sensory Paths!

We have been very fortunate to use Sensory Paths in our building for the past few years!  See the transformation below - from our original sensory path to our more permanent one, and even a new one this year on our catwalk!

Willow River Original Sensory Path

Sensory Path with New Nature Theme

Catwalk Sensory Path

BRAINS in 2nd grade!

If your 2nd grader said "hippocampus" or "pre-frontal cortex" or "amygdala" around the dinner table, you can be proud of them for becoming little neuroscientists!  We have been learning about the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset this year, but we are to the point where I finally get to "prove" to them why its a real thing and not just something I made up.  

Learning how the brain functions allows kids to understand what is going on when they feel certain ways.  As we dig deeper into the brains, we will be talking about neuroplasticity - how our neurons wire together to learn new things.  Which explains why when we do something for the first time, it is hard!  The wiring isn't solid yet.  But the more we practice, the stronger that connection gets, and that same new skills or task becomes easier and easier because it takes less brainpower to pull it off. 

I tricked the kids into thinking I had brought in a real brain.... as realistic as this was, don't worry - it was just jello :)  Still, the reactions were priceless!