Carnival pictures- last ones!

Last round of pictures from Carnival!  Enjoy!

(Non)Taxing times!

Clarification:  Per our Mixed Bag Designs rep, we don't have to collect tax for this fundraiser, so please disregard that misinformation posted yesterday.

Our fundraising is almost in the bag!

Have you checked out the Mixed Bag Designs catalogue and shared it with friends and family yet?  There is a nice variety of products at many different price points.  Think Mother's Day, birthdays, Swim team or beach outings, graduation gifts (the  Hold Everything tote would be a great laundry bag for a college bound graduate!).

One nice feature of the bags is that they do not contain vinyl or PVCs, so you can breathe easier knowing that these bags, made of partially recycled polywoven material, are truly greener products.

A few reminders: When you take orders, remember to add in tax (7.75%) and  (Sorry for this wrong info!) have checks made out to you personally.  When you turn in your orders, submit ONE check made out to Sunview PTA that includes all of the amounts of the orders you've collected.

Orders need to be in by Friday March 9th and will be delivered after we return from Spring Break.

Talking to kids about Chardon

Wondering how to talk to your kids about what happened yesterday in Chardon?  Personally, I wasn't going to say anything to my 1st grader specifically, but he mentioned that he had been told at school, so a (short) conversation ensued.

Unfortunately, tragic events like the one that played out yesterday happen all to frequently and its good to arm yourself with knowldge about how best to discuss this issue with your kids.  Check out this article provided by Sunview's own Dr. Boyle about how to talk to your kids about not only this tragic event, but also other violent events that may occur.

Also, here is some guidance from Dr. Shelly Senders, area pediatrician:

Within minutes, the shooting at Chardon High School was broadcast on Twitter and Facebook.  We all saw the pictures of the alleged shooter and his victims.  We saw the pictures of the guns and read the note on Wikipedia.  And throughout the day, students and parents all over the country but particularly here in the Greater Cleveland area, tried to make sense of what can only be described as a senseless act. 

 There will be a lot of emotions spent over what exactly happened at Chardon High School.  We may not really know the truth for months or years.  So how do we use this tragedy as a springboard for learning more about the causes of school violence and how do we prevent similar such tragedies in the future? Part of the answer can be culled from looking at what scientific research has uncovered about such incidents in the past.  The first, a book, is directed at what we as parents and loved ones, can do to identify problems in our own children.  The second, a scholarly article, helps teachers and school administrators figure out when things are going wrong.  The data is not sensational, it is not emotionally driven but it will give us a lot of insight about what we can really do to prevent school massacres down the road.

In his book, Why Kids Kill (MacMillan, 2009), author Peter Langman details the 10 lessons that can be learned from studying school massacres over the past two decades. 

1) There are limits to privacy - Parents of teenagers are usually very respectful of their privacy.  But if you discover bombs or disturbing notes or links to The Anarchist's Cookbook in your child's room, privacy rules no longer apply.  Parents of angry children often don't know how far to go to explore the depths of their child's rage.  The answer is that professional help should be sought for such children from us, your pediatricians or from competent mental health authorities. 

2) Don't lie to protect your child.  Don't deny a family history of mental illness if there is a strong history.  Don't lie to authorities about guns in the house or about the depth of your child's anger.  And don't let a potential family scandal color your view of your child's activities. 

3) Follow through with due process no matter who is involved.  In many previous massacres, the perpetrator was treated differently because his parents were teachers or because he came from a family of privilege.  It is imperative for parents and school officials to follow the rules, no matter whose child is involved. 

4)  If the school is concerned about your child, pay attention.  In the months before Columbine, Dylan Klebold wrote a story about a mass murder that so disturbed the teacher that she called the family in to discuss the story.  Teachers read thousands of essays, many of which are very disturbing.  If they call you about something that is an outlier even for them, listen carefully and take them seriously. 

5) Eliminate easy access to guns.  This is not a Bill of Rights issue.  It is plain and simple, a safety issue.  If your child knows how to get at a gun or a cache of guns, then you have just as well placed them in his or her hands. 

6) Assume threats are serious until proven otherwise.  In 2007, Asa Coon, a name known to all of us in Cleveland, threatened to come to school and kill everyone.  Many of his friends heard him.  A few days later, he came to school and went on a rampage.  Empower your child to report threats.  We live in a world of social networking and kids are often on the cutting edge of death threats.  If they see bizarre things posted on Facebook, Twitter or any other platform, empower them to tell a responsible adult. 

7) It just takes one person to stop a school shooting.  There are many examples of arms dealers, friends and even people who found a disturbing notebook in a parking lot who were successfully able to prevent a shooting.  There is a beautiful Jewish story about why there was only one person created first.  The reason offered is that each person should view him or herself as the person for whom the world was created. Each person has the power to change the world by him or herself and the life and death of each person is equivalent to the life and death of all of creation.

8) Recognize possible rehearsals of attacks.  In some ways, this is easier to notice today because of YouTube and Facebook. Everyone posts videos, including potential mass murders.  If you see lots of guns and lots of shooting, tell someone in a position to do something about it and encourage your children to do so as well. 

9) Punishment is not prevention.  In fact, suspension from school often makes things worse for people already on shaky ground.  Langman details the story of Kip Kinkel who was suspended from school for carrying a gun.  Later that day, he killed his parents and the next day, he came back to school and killed another 27 people.  The point is not that suspension is not an appropriate response.  But suspension without monitoring or treatment often makes things worse for kids who are in crisis. 

10) There are limits to physical security.  Often the response to a shooting is to increase means of identification and install metal detectors.  In Columbine, there were cameras and in Red Lake, there were cameras and metal detectors.  Most school massacres are perpetrated by students, not outsiders so ID badges are not helpful.  And most are bent on inflicting the greatest amount of harm so they will shoot guards and blow out cameras.  By the time a student is walking up the driveway, it is too late.

So how about teachers and school administrators?  What can they do to prevent an attack?  The answer is to know as much as possible about the profiles of school homicides.  An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December, 2001, tells us what to look for.  It reviewed 220 events resulting in 253 deaths.  202 involved a single death while 18 involved multiple deaths.  Students accounted for 68% of the deaths and the vast majority were homicides.  50% occurred while official school activities were in progress with 17.8% occurring near the start of school, 17.8% during lunchtime and 21.3% occurring near the end of the school day.  Over half were preceded by some action that indicated potential for such an event (like a suicide note, a video posting or a poem).  Homicide perpetrators were nearly 7 times more likely to have expressed suicidal thoughts, 3 times more likely to have had a history of criminal charges, 3 times more likely to have been a gang member, twice as likely to have associated with high-risk peers, or been considered a loner and twice as likely to have used alcohol or drugs on a weekly basis.  Finally, homicide perpetrators were twice as likely to have been bullied by peers, more likely to have been reported to the principal's office for disobeying an authority figure and less likely to have participated in extracurricular affairs.

The study revealed a number of findings that should guide violence prevention activities in the future. 

1) Since most events occurred during transitions, it is essential to reduce crowding, increase supervision and have protocols for handling disputes that occur during such transition times (school entry or close and lunchtime). 

2) Since over half were preceded by a note, threat or journal entry, it is important to empower students to report such threats and to encourage school officials to take such threats seriously.  

3) Since suicidal thinking is so common amongst perpetrators and suicidal thinking may be occurring in up to 20% of all high school students, it is important to focus on risk factors for suicidal behavior in our schools. 

4) Finally, since so many perpetrators have been described as having been bullied by their peers, it is important to develop programs that sensitize teachers to recognize and respond to bullying incidents between students.

Finally, here is a site recommended by Dr. Boyle with links to many good resources on this topic.

Carnival 2012- WOW!

This year's Carnival was a HUGE success!  So many families came for fun and fun was had.  We're still sorting out receipts, but it looks like this year's efforts raised five times as much as last year!  That's incredible!

Thank you to not only to the families who came and "volunteered" their wallets, but also to the parents, students and staff who also gave of their time to pull this fantastic day off!  There are lots of pictures to share, so enjoy the first round!

Sunview Stars: February 23rd

Blogger was uncooperative, so the Sunview Star for February 23rd had to be posted separately, so here they are!

Student	Nominated by	Reason
Carley W.	Mrs. Bell	Always taking the time to help a classmate tie his or her shoes
Sam B.	Mrs. Ambrose	Strong problem solving
Madison H.	Mrs. Ambrose	Asking a classmae to join game
Mason A.	Mrs. Ambrose	On task and focused
Kylie G.	Ms. Meyer	Working quietly at centers
Bryan G.	Ms. Meyer	Working quietly at centers
Antonio I.	Ms. Meyer	Working quietly at centers
Anthony C.	Ms. Meyer	Working quietly at centers
Aidan B.	Ms. Meyer	Working quietly at centers
Lawrence H.	Mrs. Pollack	Having a great two days in class
Mia T.	Mrs. Pompeani	Good participation and effort
AJ K.	Mrs. Pompeani	Good participation and effort
Kailey G.	Mrs. Argo	Following directions
Makenzie J.	Mrs. Argo	Following directions
Nasie T.	Mrs. Argo	Good cooperation
Dominic O.	Mrs. Argo	Multiplication master
Pj T.	Mrs. Erwin	Always giving 110%
Terrell R.	Mrs. Erwin	Working hard in all subjects
Rown B.	Mrs. Erwin	Working hard in class
Noah M.	Ms. Johnson	Studying so very hard and doing an excellent jon on his science assessment
Ashley W.	Ms. Johnson	Working hard all week long
Paul M.	Ms. Johnson	Helping Ms. Johnson put up chairs a the end of the day
Brittni B.	Mr. Stahl	Helpful to guest teacher
Isy H.	Mr. Stahl	Working hard to resolve a problem
Mason H.	Ms. Wilson	Being a great listener
Charlie G.	Ms. Wilson	Getting all green on his behavior chart
Mimi L.	Ms. Jordan	Bus line role model
Lawrence H.	Ms. Jordan	Bus line role model
Nick D.	Ms. Jordan	Bus line role model
Tim D.	Ms. Jordan	Helping a younger student find something she lost and returning it to her
Iyan T.	Ms. Jordan	Helping a younger student find something she lost and returning it to her

Sunview Stars: February 16th

Today's a two-fer for announcing who the most recent Sunview Stars for the past two weeks!  We've been busy getting ready for Saturday's Carnival (which is going to be so much fun!), so here are the Sunview Stars from not only February 16th, but also February 23rd!

February 16th:

Student	Nominated by	Reason
Alex C.	Mrs. Groudle	Participating so much in class
Ben H.	Mrs. Groudle	Helping to clean out the wooden cubbies
Vincent C.	Mrs. Groudle	Helping Team 2 stay focused
Bryce G.	Mrs. Groudle	Helping another student with her morning work
Kaye F.	Ms. Jordan	Peer role model for all in bus line
Heather L.	Ms. Jordan	Always willing to help others
Natalie S.	Mrs. Pollack	Working so hard
Jeovanni M.	Mrs. Pollack	Improved reading
Angelo F.	Mrs. Pollack	Improved class participation
Antonya S.	Mrs. Argo	Giving a compliment
Chris C.	Mrs. Argo	Following traffic rules
Catelyn C.	Mrs. Argo	Following traffic rules
Heather L.	Mrs. Argo	Following traffic rules
Kaley J.	Mrs. Argo	Following traffic rules
Valerie B.	Mrs. Pomeani	Remembering to raise her hands during class discussions
Alfred M.	Mrs. Pomeani	Shwoing kindness and respect to his classmates and teachers
Monti Y.	Mrs. Pomeani	Good self control
Noah G.	Ms. Meyer	Completing centerwork quietly
Taylar L.	Ms. Meyer	Completing centerwork quietly
Gabby P.	Ms. Meyer	Completing centerwork quietly
Zoey L.	Ms. Meyer	Completing centerwork quietly
Antonio M.	Ms. Meyer	Completing centerwork quietly
Dominick C.	Mrs. Zawacki	Always doing the right thing
Mu'Tazz L.	Mrs. Zawacki	Always saying than you and being polite
Caleb T.	Mrs. Burkholder	Putting forth best effort in reading
Julius J.	Mrs. Burkholder	Always willing to help out friends and in the classroom
Kara S.	Mrs. Burkholder	Gives helpful reminders in order to help teacher and friends
Allison D.	Mrs. Burkholder	Always on task to get work done
Rebecca S.	Mrs. Burkholder	Coming in every morning and getting right to work
Victor F.	Mrs. Tierney	Good cooperation during the terrarium lesson
Hannah D.	Mrs. Tierney	Good cooperation during the terrarium lesson
Jayden W.	Mrs. Tierney	Good cooperation during the terrarium lesson
John D.	Mrs. Tierney	Good cooperation during the terrarium lesson
Kendall T.	Mrs. Tierney	Good cooperation during the terrarium lesson
Cidney W.	Mrs. Tierney	Good cooperation during the terrarium lesson
Rebecca S.	Ms. Jordan	Student role model
Kendall T.	Ms. Jordan	Student role model
Braydon C.	Mrs. Bell	Being excellent role models in the classroom
Asonte S.	Mrs. Bell	Being excellent role models in the classroom
Natalie S.	Ms. Jordan	School hallway role model, every day and always!
Connor B.	Mrs. Grist	Always raising his hand and waiting for the teacher to call on him
Gianna S.	Ms. Johnson	Exemplary behaviour during weekly restroom breaks and for helping to keep our restrooms clean
Ashely W.	Ms. Johnson	Exemplary behaviour during weekly restroom breaks and for helping to keep our restrooms clean
Ja'Dyn H.	Ms. Johnson	Exemplary behaviour during weekly restroom breaks and for helping to keep our restrooms clean
Kyle L.	Ms. Johnson	Exemplary behaviour during weekly restroom breaks and for helping to keep our restrooms clean