Passport Training

The fourth grade classrooms had guests visit this morning to review our school expectations.

 For Ms. Leom's classroom, assistant principal, Mr. Meyer visited first. He talked about the basic school expectations and named issues that could be concerns for students. It isn't always comfortable to talk about these details in schools, so Mr. Meyer was very clear. Mr. Meyer talked about different weapons: play guns, drills, pocket knives, leather man, even an arrowhead on a necklace is a concern. We shouldn't pretend to shoot people using our finger. We shouldn't say, "I could kill you." We also shouldn't bring in cigarettes, chewing tobacco, or adult beverages. Lastly he talked about our school dress code. Wearing spaghetti straps or tank tops were not ok. Clothing should have sleeves.

Mrs. Jenson arrived next. She talked about bathroom expectations. We should respect privacy, do our job, and be focused (no messing around with examples of what that might include). We should be a voice level zero. If there are problems, we should tell a teacher. There should be no writing on the walls.

Travis from the bus company came to talk to us next. He talked about finding your bus, by the picture on the wind. The buses are lined up in alphabetical order A-S. He talked about crossing the road and waiting for the hand signal from the bus driver. He reviewed where to sit, keeping your head and body in the bus, paying attention to your stop, and staying seated until the bus stopped.

Mrs. Stupar, one of our social workers stopped by next. She review playground safety. She gave us reminders for playing in the snow, save and fun activities we can play, a reminder to listen, and she took some time to talk about bullying.

Mr. Wedin, our curriculum director, spoke to us about breakfast and lunch next. We should go immediately to the lunch room. We do not have food fights. We use an inside voice level of a 1-2. We keep our hands to ourselves. We do not share food. We walk. We sit at our class assigned tables.

Our principal, Mr. Voshell visited last. He talked to us about the updates in our building. We have new floors, a new mural, our lockers were painted, there are new sinks at the bathrooms, and more. He said we need to "take care of what is ours". Our community invested in these improvements, and we need to do our best to take care of our school. Our doors are still being replaced. Some of the classrooms have open spaces above the doors, so sound travels easily. Our hallways have to be a "zero" zone for sound this year out of respect for those learners.

In between each speaker, students were encouraged to share stories and talk about what the speaker was sharing with our class. After everyone left, Ms. Leom reviewed our guests and the expectations that they shared with us. She asked us to think of three expectations that we would focus on this year. We were going to share with the people at our table.

Research says that students learn when they have a chance to connect to what they are learning about and talk about it. There are times to be a respectful listener, when a guest is speaking, and times when we can share our own thinking. There is time for both in our classroom learning community!

Students will be taking a quiz on the topics discussed this morning. The quizzes are filed in the office. If there are concerns during the year, individual student quizzes will be pulled to go over with the student. We want Milaca Elementary to be a safe place to learn. We know it helps when our students know the exact expectations throughout our school. We call this process our "Passport Training".