Dear SGI Families,
Those of you with children at the High School received THIS POST on February 25th regarding a self-regulation program that we are making available to students. In response to the post on Facebook about this program, we also heard parents of our middle school and elementary school students asking about programs at those levels. One parent had a great comment stating, “This is wonderful but feels like the younger you are teaching these skills the more impactful and beneficial it will be! This feels like something that should be started in the elementary and built on at each level.”
I couldn’t agree more!
We want families to know that self-regulation is a concept that we started focusing on as a district beginning this school year and plan to continue focusing on in years to come. It is our belief that if we can better teach students to understand and navigate their emotions in a variety of contexts, they will be more successful both inside and outside of school. As a result, we rolled out the Second Step program in grades PK-5 this fall. This program focuses on developing these essential self-regulation skills through age-appropriate activities in the classroom. The middle school has been using components of Second Step integrated into the health curriculum. We are also investigating other programs and approaches that can supplement this learning at all grade levels.
If you watch the brief video in the post above, you will see our staff and students discussing the importance of self-regulation. While that video is geared towards the high school level, the principles apply regardless of a student’s age. That is why we look forward to continuing to investigate other opportunities to have our students engage in this important learning.
If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
With appreciation for your partnership,
James Bialasik
Superintendent of Schools