First Trimester
Monday, October 29th, 2007Aloha e nä `ohana: Mahalo for your cooperation over the first two months of the school year. Our haumana have made great strides in all areas of school life and we are very pleased to date. As with any school; however, we have issues we are dealing with which will continue to improve the school environment for everyone.
Back to School Days - The importance of a strong home and school partnership to support our children is crucial for their success. Your presence at Back to School Days was definitely a testament of your dedication to support that partnership. BTSD serves three main objectives. The first and foremost is to orient parents to life as a middle school child at KSH middle school. Second, it offers teachers the opportunity to emphasize key components of their curriculum and establish relationships with the parents. The final objective is to allow students a chance to share their academic goals for the year. Despite the challenges of organizing such a large event, parent, student and teacher survey responses overwhelmingly support Back to School Days. One parent stated, “By attending BTSD it has made me more aware of what is expected from each class so that I can help my child better understand any concerns he has regarding the subject.” Parents also commented on how much they appreciated various aspects of the middle school particularly our built in study hall. It was definitely a long day for many and we appreciate your attendance. It is a huge undertaking and we are grateful to the parents for their support, the students for their motivation and the faculty and staff for their commitment. A-Plus Approach to Parenting - Enclosed is an abbreviated power-point printout from Dr.
Kimo Alamedia’s presentation about parenting teenagers in today’s world. Approximately fifty parents enjoyed this parenting session and have asked for more opportunities. Our Outreach Counselor, Robbie Ann Shimose was responsible for this event and she will be planning future sessions with a variety of topics. Stay tuned.
No Work No Grade – Our revised program produced fewer students with missing work this past Friday. As we work to teach “accountability”, our hope is that students will develop the self-discipline to do their work on time and avoid the in-school suspensions that prevent them from enjoying student activities and vacation days. A reminder of a new piece to the program is “Pä`ina Day”. An afternoon of fun and food as a reward to the majority of our students who complete their work and model “accountability”. Our hope is that the positive reward will entice more students to be accountable; thus, enjoying the reward. Your support on the home front is always an added benefit. Discipline – The number of students involved in disciplinary action has jumped recently. Unfortunately, most of the violations are focused on “dishonesty” as a result of not doing their work or on “integrity” when trying to be “cool”. We will continue to teach “accountability” and “integrity” and eventually these important values will become part of each student’s personal foundation.
Fair Play – A point of emphasis this year continues to be treating each other with respect. All students are encouraged to treat others the way they would like to be treated. Although this happens the majority of the time, we continue to see students hurt by words or actions of others. Our counselors, teachers and educational assistants attempt to keep a watchful eye on our students to make sure all students are comfortable in their own skin and happy to be at school daily. Kahu Apaka – Kahu recently signed on as Assistant Pastor at Haili Christian. He now will split his time between our Middle School and Haili, thus freeing him up to spend more time with our keiki and their `ohana. Congrats, Kahu!
In closing, please enjoy your Fall Recess with your keiki. We look forward to their return on Monday, October 8th.
I mua Kamehameha, John R. ColsonPrincipal, Kula Waena
P.S. Please enjoy the October edition of “Middle Years”