January 14, 2019

Happy New Year, Cobras!!!!

December was a superbly busy month. In place of the canned food drive, myself, and our AMAZING Leadership class worked to put together holiday meals for Cooley families in need. While it was my job to secure turkeys or hams, each 6th period class was responsible for filling a box with all the fixin's to go with it...and then some. This included things like mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, stuffing, gravy, pie crusts, pie fillings, and any other non-perishable goods classes could think of. Many classes got creative and collected things like gingerbread houses or cookie mix and cookie decorations. These thoughtful additions to the boxes made the holidays extra special for many Cooley families. Altogether, we were able to provide holiday meals for 22 families. HUGE shoutout to our local Savemart, Raleys, and Safeway for contributing to the success of the event by donating to the cause. In addition to organizing the holiday meal drive, I spent much of December connecting families in need to resources in the community to help assist with holiday gifts.

This month, my focus is to support students with tips for a successful New Year. My bulletin board's theme this month is "Keys to a Successful New Year" and each key has written in it a tip for success, such as "Try New Things", "Be On Time", and "Be Kind".

Speaking of being kind, this month we are also celebrating the Great Kindness Challenge at Cooley. Again, I have the privilege of working with our incredible Leadership class to make the event successful. Each 6th period class will be given a copy of the Great Kindness Challenge Checklist which contains 50 items. Each class to complete the checklist, will be entered into a drawing to receive a prize. In addition to the friendly competition, we will be hosting Spirit Days that week, having music at lunch, and setting up Kindness Stations for students to come and fill out cards titled "What Kindness Means to Me". These cards will then be posted around the school. The goal of the week is to promote kindness on campus, encourage acts of kindness, and provide students the opportunity to reflect on the role that kindness plays in their lives. To learn more about this movement, please visit https://thegreatkindnesschallenge.com/ . Below I have attached copies of the checklist.

I hope everyone had a safe, healthy, and relaxing holiday break. I'm looking forward to what 2019 has in store!