Green Day!

Did you ever have one of those weeks where you wonder how you will possibly find the energy to go on and it's only Wednesday? This was one of those weeks for me. Fortunately, something wonderful happened on Thursday morning that brought renewal to my spirits and to our campus. Last school year, several of our big trees fell ill and had to be removed due to potential safety issues. This left a void in the Outdoor Commons especially since these trees provided much needed shade. On Thursday, Our City Forest paid us a visit and ,with the help of a great team of students, replaced these trees along with one in the front of the school that had met with similar demise. The City Forest folks were excellent teachers. They provided short bursts of verbal and visual input that provided us with knowledge about trees followed by modeling of procedures that we needed to follow. They provided students with the opportunity for lots of "hands on" experience and supplied all the needed tools. The City Forest crew was not only informative but also patient and caring. All of this provided an ideal learning environment and the students who participated were careful listeners who worked hard to complete their task and took a great deal of pride in their work. They are looking forward to the ongoing responsibility of caring for our new trees. We had a fantastic morning together and the rest of the week felt a whole lot better. Thanks to Our City Forest and to our beautiful Cobras!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

This year middle schools in San Jose Unified are involved in implementing a system for supporting positive social behavior called PBIS (positive behavior interventions and supports). One of the first things each school needs to do is to establish a few very simple behavioral expectations. At Castillero these are: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Engage in Learning. Respect was an easy one for us to come up with and I believe that it has been selected as an expectation by every middle school. I've had a lot of opportunity to ponder the meaning of respect over the past few weeks and, the more I do that, the more I realize that this, by far, will be the most difficult for us to instill in our students. Respect has a variety of interpretations. Being a dedicated "wordie", I went to my trusted dictionary for initial guidance. Words like "esteem", "deference" and "courtesy" came up in association with respect. These fit with the notion of respect that I learned as a child. My parents expected me to display respect for them and for other adults and especially those who spent most of their waking hours trying to make the world a better and safer place for me and for others (teachers, nurses, clergy, police officers, park rangers, etc.). I was to demonstrate respect by listening to what these people had to say and following the directions that they gave me. As I got older my parents acknowledged that adults, even those who cared about me most, weren't perfect; sometimes they made mistakes. If I had a legitimate reason to question what they said, I needed to learn the time, place and appropriate way to do that. The bottom line, though, was that I was to listen and respond unless I was being asked to do something harmful to myself or someone else which I can't recall happening. There were times, especially as a teenager, when I wasn't respectful for whatever reason and I would find myself suffering unpleasant consequences. As it turns out, those adults had good reasons behind the rules and expectations that I was given to follow. This concept of respect may seem "old school" to some but I really have to wonder what will happen if we cease to expect it as adults or if we simply pay it lip service but our walk doesn't follow our talk. We really have to be careful about the message we send kids when we tell them that the rules apply to some but not others, when we question decisions made by other adults in a rude manner in front of them, and when we give them the option to "tune out" someone who cares about their future.

Lunchtime Lessons

The conversation about what happens at lunch is not a new one at Castillero, in Almaden Valley or at any middle school across the country but has recently been given some attention by local media. I'd like to ask my adult readers to take a little walk down memory lane and think about where you sat at lunch during middle school or high school and who you were sitting with. Early adolescence is a time for discovering and creating self-identity. While the family remains the primary source of affiliation (including attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors), children start testing the waters to find a sense of belonging in groups outside of the family and this helps them with self definition. Almost no one enjoys feelings of rejection, least of all teenagers, and so they look for similarities and differences between themselves and others in order to find a comfortable fit. Some factors that are compared are very surface such as physical appearance while others are less obvious such as moral values. Ethnicity, culture and language do come into play as well as academic interests and extracurricular activities. The thing that we need to get clear with ourselves and our kids is that wanting to feel included and accepted is normal (though not especially adventurous) and that feeling excluded hurts. We need to talk to our children about their willingness to extend themselves to others who might be feeling left out. One way of doing this is by searching for some common ground with people who, at first, may seem to be very different and getting to know them. Diversity is a wonderful thing that makes the world a rich place where we can all learn and grow. Talking to kids about this is valuable and it's important to remember that our actions speak volumes. Who will you have lunch with today? Who comes over for a weekend barbecue? Who lives in the house next door? If you want your child to appreciate and value diversity the best thing you can do is live your life like you mean it.

Welcome Back!

Many people think that a career in education is a pretty sweet gig primarily because of ATTO (all that time off). The truth is that a career in education is a pretty sweet gig but there really isn't that much time off. Teachers are consummate learners and summer is a time for revisioning, revising, and refining. The work is never done. In addition to rejuvenating the mind, body and lesson plans, Castillero has seen quite a bit of change to the facilities. Thanks to your Measure F funds, we have all new carpets and flooring and the windows and doors are in the process of being replaced. Everything was picked up and shuffled around in order to accomplish this task and we are still in the process of reorganizing but the campus and staff provide a welcoming environment for students. Opening day went very smoothly and all the smiles and positive energy make our school a wonderful place to be. We are looking forward to a terrific year at Castillero!