As we shift our attention from the start up activities of the new school year, we are now preparing to launch our new Soul Shoppe Program for students in grades K-5. Soul Shoppe comes to us highly recommended by many of our local schools as a program that has truly made a big impact on students and the whole school environment. Through the generosity of our school families, funds from the PFC have been allocated in order to give our students another opportunity for learning many of the life skills and deepening their character development. We have amazing children and families at Bancroft School and the efforts to give our students every opportunity to learn is the cornerstone of our vision and work together.  Thank you.

Soul Shoppe has many character education workshops and peace assemblies for creating big-hearted and bully-free schools. For the 2014-2015 school year we are introducing and implementing "Tools of the Heart" and starting the Peacemaker Program. Through these Soul Shoppe components, our children will learn how to use effective communication tools to help eliminate fighting, misunderstanding and bullying. Our children will know and recognize each other's worth in order to eliminate the picking on and teasing each other that can create low self-esteem and low academic performance.  Students will learn effective communication tools (I Message, Clean-up, Stop and Breathe, the Balloon). We will add to our lifeskill program: teaching character traits, addressing the real issues students are facing, optimizing learning environments, and supporting the entire community.

Soul Shoppe will present three assemblies for students on October 7. The students will attend one assembly provided for their specific grade level. The students in grades 4-5 will receive an additional workshop presentation in their classrooms after their assembly. The teachers and staff were trained on September 24 and we will be hosting an evening to educate our parents on the program. This will be on Tuesday, October 21 from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Multi Use Room. We hope many of you can attend this informational evening to better prepare you in support of our children for the skills and the common language we will be using as we learn the "Tools of the Heart."

After the assembly and workshops, 30-35 students in grades 3-5 will be selected by their teachers to become Bancroft Peacemakers. These students will be receiving additional training over several mornings this month, which will help them be effective Peacemakers in all areas of life. They will be using the Soul Shoppe Peace Path, a 7-step process for students to resolve problems (students are trained to support their peers through the Peace Path which is a 54" X 108' path to be painted on our playground). In the Peacemaker Program students will take leadership and responsibility, resolve their own conflicts, support Bancroft School, and have a language to step up and help others.

On October 17, our students will not be attending school; however our teachers will be attending a full day of professional development in the area of writing. We are using the "Being a Writer" materials and program along with a writer's workshop model to support student development in writing. Opinion writing will be our area of focus.  

In the last Principal's Message, I shared that our students were learning and using Thinking Maps. They have now learned about Circle Maps, Bubble Maps, Double Bubble Maps, Tree Maps, and Brace Maps.  In the next several weeks the students will be learning Flow Maps, Multi-Flow Maps and Bridge Maps. On October 29 our teachers will work together once again, on a follow-up training around Thinking Maps. We will have implemented each map type at that point and this opportunity to add more to our practices will be beneficial.

I am enjoying watching our children flourish each day as they are challenged to think and apply their knowledge into their conversations, writings, and discoveries. I am marveling at the growth of our children as they become more responsible and sure of themselves. We are always finding new and supportive ways of making sure our students feel supported, connected, and safe at Bancroft School.

I want to acknowledge and thank our teachers for their dedication as we bring the elements of the Common Core Standards into instruction and learning.

As I wrap up the October Message, I want to acknowledge our parents who give to our community in so many ways to make sure that each day counts. It does "Take a Village to Raise a Child." The Bancroft Village is a very special one because of the care and love each of us brings for one another. 

Warmest Regards,

Linda Schuler, Principal