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The Polite Times™
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| A regular newsletter published by The PoliteChild, Inc. | |
| Vol VI, No 2 |
November
2007
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President’s Corner – Voting for Better Education Dear PoliteChild family, supporters, and friends: Elections are coming up all over the country next week. And, on the majority of ballots, some education-related issues are up for vote. Maybe it’s a new school board member or director seeking a term of office. Perhaps there are school bonds or levies. Or, like in our own area, there’s a measure on the ballot intended to make it easier for schools to raise funds. Whatever the specific issue, there’s certainly an opportunity for you to vote for a change affecting our children’s education. While I am a supporter of education and the ability of schools to raise necessary funds, I do NOT feel comfortable saying “yes” to irresponsible increases in educational funding. What do I feel, personally, is “irresponsible?” I have a problem with schools asking for more funding when they don’t stringently examine how their money is being spent – or wasted – at the present time. One of the major sources of wasted educational funding has to do with the amount of time/money/resources spent on school discipline and behavior management. I am concerned when schools continue to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars a year or more because they refuse to deal effectively with the issue of poor social skills in our schools! What does this “cost” us? We can’t keep qualified teachers, already in short supply, because they are sick of dealing with discipline issues in the classrooms from kids who don’t come to school with a baseline set of skills necessary to functioning well in a classroom environment. We can’t keep students in school because they don’t feel safe or valued in class or on the playground. Even only one or two chronically disruptive students in the classroom will ruin the learning opportunity for the rest of the group. School assets such as books, equipment or the buildings themselves are defaced and destroyed because students don’t respect their school or what it represents. So, when school districts start asking for more funds to achieve such mythical goals as “smaller classroom sizes,” “retain more qualified teachers and staff,” “add more security personnel to our schools and playgrounds,” ask first how much money is currently being thrown out the window because of children’s poor social skills and the effects on classroom discipline and what’s being done to recoup that? If we are running short on new, acquired funds, the responsible thing is to examine where we can save on what we are spending current. To estimate what funds your school or district might be currently losing and what it may be able to recoup, take a look at our calculators and plug your own numbers into our on-line calculator at http://www.politechild.com/rss-pubschfin.htm I’d be interested in your viewpoints and welcome your comments. You can always reach me directly at corinneg@politechild.com. Corinne Gregory, President & Founder
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PoliteChild is featured in a few different publications in the immediate
future:
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It’s that time of year where our “Holiday Social Survival Guide” for parents and kids can come in handy. There’s still a chance to get your copy, if you haven’t already done so. Our downloadable versions of the booklets are available directly from our the website. To download a copy of the
guide that is appropriate for your child’s
age, simply go to http://www.politechild.com/store/hsgm.htm and select
the version you’d like. Feel free to share the information about
the guide with friends, family, or anyone you think can benefit! It’s
our way of saying “thank you” to our friends and supporters
and helping you get over an all-too-stressful
time of the year.
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Attention Teachers and Administrators!! Consider a “Classroom Management” course for your next teacher in-service |
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It’s the start of the new school year, and all over the country, teachers are gearing up and getting ready for the onslaught. As your schools begin their planning for teacher development days (frequently called “in service” days), Classroom management is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching, and the lack of discipline and order in the classroom environment is the number-one cited reason for teacher burnout and turnover. The purpose of this program is to provide teachers with the necessary skills to effectively manage their classrooms, increase productive teaching time, improve student learning opportunities, and reduce stress on teachers and students alike. Topics covered in this course include: Classes are interactive and teachers will come away with practical, “hands on” tips and techniques they can use immediately in their classrooms to build a more harmonious, cooperative, and productive learning environment. Our qualified instructors come to your location and work with your teachers, administrators and support staff. This course runs a standard 3-hour session, with breaks, but we can also customize our class to cover additional topics to fit your needs and schedule. For more information or to arrange for a class for your school
or district, contact The PoliteChild at 425.485.4089 or by email
at info@politechild.com. Also, for information on our assemblies,
Parent Information Night programs, and more visit our website
at www.politechild.com.
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| Looking for Qualified Business Associates | |||||||||
Are you eager to get started on one of the hottest child-education
opportunities in the market today? Well, you may be just what PoliteChild
is looking for! • Greater
Los Angeles, CA and Orange County …where we have great
demand from parents, teachers and schools, but need more resources
to fill that growing demand!
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Not a day goes by without someone asking us where they can join a PoliteChild class in their area. The good news is, our regional reach is expanding, but it’s not nearly enough! One option available to parents, community or school leaders, and/or local organizations is to host a PoliteChild class of your own. Yes, we will travel to YOU to provide the best in social skills education to your group! But, you may wonder, how do I do this? It’s easier than you may think. To “host” a class, you are responsible for finding and booking a location and the group to teach. For most classes, we require either a student minimum or, for a custom class, we usually have a set fee that must be met. Locations vary depending on the size of the group, but can include: homes, community or church centers, school classrooms, etc. We schedule the date around when you organize it, and then we arrive on the date(s) and conduct the class, bringing all the necessary materials. As a thank you for organizing the class, we allow you to send one child free for each “minimum threshold” you meet – this may be for a certain number of students (for example, with a “Parent Organizer” specials where you can send one child free for every five additional students you bring in, if we have a local resource in your area)! Most of the time the organizers choose to send their own child, but you can send other kids you designate as a “sponsorship” if you prefer. If travel is involved, we have other programs that host us “workshop style” for a reasonable fee. Again, we make it easy and financially practical for your group, and we can accommodate nearly anyone’s budget. For more information on this or any PoliteChild programs, can reach
us at info@politechild.com or by phone at 866.485.4089.
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The PoliteTimes is continually adding more readers and gaining a broader audience, but we’re continually striving to offer you the right information, news and tips for our newsletters that are interesting and relevant. Do you have something you’d like to see us cover or have a question you’d like us to answer (privately or through our newsletter)? Is there someone you think should have our newsletter but doesn’t currently subscribe? If so, contact us at info@politechild.com or by phone at 866.485.4089! We appreciate all
those folks who have already written us to give us feedback. We do
read
each and every one of your letters and take
your input seriously! If you don’t get a response from us in
48 hours, please email us again. We’re finding that SPAM filters
seem to be overly efficient in blocking out correspondence sometimes,
even the correspondence that’s wanted and welcome!
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more information, click
here to go to PoliteChild.com. Click here to remove yourself from future mailings. |
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