Peaceable Possibilities September 2005
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Peaceable Possibilities 2005-2006
Welcoming a New Year!
Welcome back from a wonderful summer break! Hopefully you took advantage of the warm, summer sun (and the cool rains)of the season and vacationed from your school responsibilities a bit.
Peaceable Schools enthusiastically welcomes three new schools to our ranks: Hobble Creek, Canyon, and Larsen, as we continue with our other ten schools: Grandview, Sage Creek, Rees, Park, Parkview, Barnett, Spanish Oaks, Mt. Loafer, Santaquin, and Goshen. We are eager to continue to work with your committees and school staff to strengthen the schoolwide component in each school. In addition, we will identify a few schools in which to pilot the second level of Peaceable Schools.
As we continue to expand our numbers, we are thrilled to have new people join our project so that we can effectively partner with your school teams in providing services that make a difference in the lives of your students. So, we extend a huge welcome to Allen Guerney who will serve as the District Coordinator and be associated with all of our sites. Allen brings extensive experience in working with schools and students who are identified as at-risk. We also welcome three new site coordinators. Sue Womack, a veteran teacher from California, will work with Park View, Spanish Oaks, Park, Westside, and Canyon. Mike Adams, a former probationary officer from Provo, is assigned to Goshen, Hobble Creek, and Grandview. A familiar face, but one whose position has changed somewhat, is Adam Fisher who will render service to Santaquin, Barnett, Canyon, and Grandview. We are fortunate that Lynnette Christensen has chosen to continue with Peaceable Schools. Her role consists of assisting the new coordinators as well as providing support to Sage Creek, Larsen, Rees, and Mt. Loafer. We are excited for you to collaborate with such an experienced and dynamic team.
We are eager to work with each school and their committees to continue to strengthen the social and emotional skills of all children within your communities. Together we look forward to building Peaceable Schools!
Michelle Marchant Peaceable Schools Project Director
Social Skills for the Nebo School District- 2005-2006 This year, the social skills for the Peaceable Schools program have been unified throughout the Nebo School District. Each school was still given the option of which social skills to use, but now the steps for all of the schools are the same throughout the district. The following is a list of the social skills for this year.
Social Skills Videos This summer, Peaceable Schools employees worked on a producing some DVDs that can be used as a supplement in the further teaching of social skills after they are originally taught. These DVDs were made to aide both students and teachers in the learning and teaching of the social skills. They are, hopefully, entertaining to watch and provide some contextual examplesof when, where, why, and how students can use the social skills. The DVDs are organized such that each social skill is introduced, the steps are reviewed, and then two examples and one non-example of using the social skill are provided. Thesevideos were filmed at Grandview Elementary in Provo and involved the help of nine wonderful Grandview students (who were very patient during the filming process). The filming took about two weeks long to finish and was a fun time for all involved. We hope that these DVDs will be of benefit to you as you set out to teach the social skills that your school has chosen for this year. They were definitely fun to make!
Springville Jr. High Welcomes Rick Robins Springville Jr. High welcomes Rick Robins as a new administrator. Rick has been chosen to serve as the Vice-principal. The principal, Everett Kelepolo, has given Rick the responsibility for student discipline. As Rick has become more aware of the Peaceable Schools project and its tie to student discipline, he requested that he be the Peaceable Schools coordinator for this coming year. He feels this will be the best way to fully understand how Peaceable Schools can be implemented and positively affect students. Rick is impressed with the philosophy of Administrative Intervention and asked that the administrative staff be trained in this concept. Gregory Cox Peaceable Schools Project Coordinator Payson Middle School Allen Gurney was hired by the Nebo School District as the Peaceable School District Coordinator. As he sat listening to professional learning committees in Goshen Elementary discuss student academic issues, he thought that the best way to fully integrate the Peaceable School issues/concepts/implementation into a school would be for the professional learning committees to address those issues/concepts as a part of their academic improvement discussions. He recognized that the only way to accelerate and accomplish the ultimate achievement of academic excellence for ALL students is through the students’ mastering of such social skills as: listening, following instructions, etc. Following discussions about this concept, Principal Barbara Quackenbush of Payson Middle School, agreed and has begun to reorganize the Peaceable Schools Committee to have representation from each Professional Learning Committee (department.) It is going to be an exciting year as the middle school examines the effect of this change. Gregory Cox Peaceable Schools Project Coordinator Peaceable Schools Welcomes Allen Gurney Allen Gurney is a highly-respected, long-time employee of Nebo School District. He has tried to retire so he can spend time fishing but his expertise continues to be relied upon. This past summer he was hired by the Nebo School District as the Peaceable School District Coordinator in addition to continuing his part-time service to Goshen Elementary in Speech Pathology.
Early in the school year as Al listened to professional learning committees in Goshen Elementary discuss student academic issues, he thought that the best way to fully integrate the Peaceable School issues/concepts/implementation into a school would be for the professional learning committees to address those issues/concepts as a part of their academic improvement discussions. He recognized that the only way to accelerate and accomplish the ultimate achievement of academic excellence for ALL students is through the student’s mastering social skills such as: listening, following instructions, etc. Gregory Cox Peaceable Schools Project Coordinator Upcoming Newsletter (What to look forward to!) Get to know our new staff members Highlights of our new schools Peaceable Schools new location |
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. 
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being. 
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. 
People need loving the most when they deserve it the least. 
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