Each month our School Improvement Team meets to discuss the progress we are making towards our goals built into the three-year School Improvement Plan. This year, our focus really has stayed with our work in building a Conscious Discipline community and building our knowledge of our IB PYP practices. The team is a representation of the whole school. It is an incredible time to come together as a team and reflect and make decisions for the future. Most certainly, our goals focus on student achievement. At Joyner, we recognize our student achievement must include other factors. And our students will achieve when we see our community and relationships strong and our instructional practices meaningful and connected.

We spent a majority of our conversation yesterday on our work with Conscious Discipline. We have worked with experts and this year, our teachers have taken on the role of leaders. We have a book club lead by a variety of teachers and with participants of teachers. Our Professional Learning Teams discuss different elements. Staff talk in the hallways and in workrooms coaching and sharing stories of the language that it takes to continue to build our strong school family.

We made some strong decisions to take steps forward yesterday. I am always amazed and grateful for the staff that lead and encourage. I sit in appreciation in the joint decision-making happening before me in these meetings. I am encouraged by the words the team shares with each other.

At the end of our meeting, one member of the team expressed the following thoughts. With so much happening in the world that truly can bring you down, how motivating it is as well. The work that we do at Joyner in teaching children how to communicate with each other, how to navigate conflict, how to be assertive, how to have international mindedness and so on, these focuses are what helps us heal. These focuses allow us to do something positive in this world. Allowing our children to inspire our work, is a gift.

We are able to teach with the tools of our IB PYP magnet theme and Conscious Discipline and truly make an impact. And it is our goal that our children will achieve both in the academic world and in global society starting in their own community.