March Newsletter

As I was watching the news a week ago and the reporter mentioned “coronavirus”, my 10 year old made an exasperated “ugh”.  She followed that up with, “Coronavirus, that’s all we hear about”. And that was before the school shutdown. You can imagine how she feels now, no school, no friends, no volleyball, no birthday party…
     This is a crazy time, and we can’t yet begin to fathom how this is going to impact us as individuals, a school, or a community.  In schools a few years ago, the buzzword was “Grit”. We now get to model Grit to our students. How can we model Grit in our current situation?

1.  Be willing to learn.  Understand that this is a fluid situation, there is something new coming out at least hourly.  My email hasn’t stopped. When something changes from what you thought you understood, be flexible.  Chalk it up to learning.  
   

1.  Be creative.  Many experts now believe the most important skill a student can come out of school with, is creativity.  Rote memorization of facts is becoming more and more obsolete with our 24/7 access to the internet. The application of said facts, is becoming more important.  Staying home and having down time is the perfect opportunity to foster creativity. Put away the screens and spend the time with your kids playing board games, building puzzles, reading books, and playing.  
   

1. Teach coping.  For now, it’s only a 2 week shutdown but one of the anxiety causers is that we aren’t certain how long this may go on.  But, even in those two weeks we as parents are likely to witness some frustration from our students. What a great time to teach some appropriate coping mechanisms such as mindfulness, meditation, or refocusing.  Here is a link to mindfulness, a practice many Gardiner teachers already use: https://www.gonoodle.com/  Also there are many apps available such as Calm, and Mind Yeti.
   

     Another thing to do while trying to build Grit is to be aware of our conversations around children.  Although we want to build Grit in our kids, exposing them to all of our worries and our adult situations does not build their Grit.  
     In our family we call things like this “forced family fun”.  So far we have worn out a deck of Uno Attack cards, cleaned the playroom, done art projects, and are working on Girl Scout badges and 4H projects.  And yes, we as parents are both still working.  
     Learning to deal with things that are out of our control, and how we show that to our children is very important.  But, they aren’t the only ones that may need support before this whole thing is over. We need to be conscious of others even with our own desire to take care of ourselves and our own.  As a school we are preparing for a multitude of uncertainties. And, as always we will be doing our best to serve the community of Gardiner however it is we are called to do so. 
Reminder of Current Status:

• School is closed until March 30th
  
• There are no MHSA activities including practices until April 13th
  
• Facility use forms for the school are cancelled through March 30th
  
• Prom has been postponed
  
• Missoula Children’s Theater has been cancelled
  
• ACT test date has been changed
  
• There will be no instruction the week of March 23rd
  
• Staff will use the week of the 23rd to plan for a prolonged closure should it occur
  
  ****Please be diligent in checking your messages.  Communications are going out via Infinite Campus to parents and by school email to staff, so please turn on your alerts.****--
  

Mike Baer
Superintendent/Principal, Gardiner Public Schools