As part of our District’s goal for Social and Emotional Learning, we will be sharing with you some common messages as secondary campuses and elementary campuses. These messages are based on the following schematic and visual representation: The five rings represent the five competencies of Social and Emotional learning for our district. The first skill is resiliency. Resiliency can be defined as “Learning to cope with manageable threats (like failing a test or forgetting one’s lines in a play) to our physical and social well-being and is critical for the development of resilience” (www.challengesuccess.org). Resiliency falls under the heading of self-management and is an area that we hope our students have the necessary skills in so they can cope and manage with college and university life, or any endeavor, as they leave Westlake High School. As we all know, life can be demanding and full of challenges. The idea of the Weekly Reflections is to get you to reflect. Here a few more quotes to get you thinking about how you, as a parent, help your young adult deal with opportunities for growth through resiliency. As part of the National Consortium of High Performing Districts, I attended a conference in Highland Park last week. The Consortium of schools are eight districts/high schools that are from Highland Park-Texas, Palo Alto-California, Manhattan Beach-California, Chicago-Illinois, Edina-Minnesota, and Omaha-Nebraska. The idea of resiliency and how to teach this skill is part of our conversation as we (principals, assistant superintendents, and superintendents) continue to hear from universities stating that some students arrive on their campuses without this skill. We have heard from admission folks at Cal Berkeley, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Harvard and many other schools that a certain percentage of students may lack this specific skill which cannot be measured by a standardized test or proven on a transcript. This information always challenges us to reflect as a campus to make sure that we are preparing students for the next stage of their life. As a parent, it also allows me the chance to gauge where my daughters are in their development as well.
As I watch and interact with our students, there is a high level of resiliency in our students as they deal with family situations, academics, normal teenage life, and in extracurricular events. We have some very talented teachers, directors, coaches, counselors, and administrators who teach this skill at the highest levels. If we can help your child with any issue, please allow our experts to help you and your child to develop one of the most meaningful skills that we can all agree is crucial to success. It's always a great day to be a Chaparral!
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Steve Ramsey: WHS Principal BlogPrincipal's Weekly Reflections Archives
May 2019
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