Respect for the Holidays

Every December, I find myself reflecting back on the past 11 months and thinking to myself, how can it already be December? Life moves too fast and I feel like I don’t always take advantage of it! The switch to a new calendar year brings lots of reflection and anticipation of what the new year may bring. As a kid, I used to love the new year… It meant a “fresh start”, new opportunities/experiences, and another year closer to achieving the goals I had set for myself. As an adult, I feel that a new calendar year means more memories created and challenges overcome, but it also means that my kids get a little bit older and reminds me that time moves too quickly! My girls are still too young to understand the concept of a new year, but I do enjoy asking our students about their reflections/resolutions. Their answers are entertaining, but always insightful. Overall, middle school says 2024 was, “pretty sigma”.

So on the theme of reflection, I want to highlight one of the 4 Lifeskills that our students excelled at in 2024. Respect. Respect is a word that we hear A LOT at Oakhill. From the first day of school, we focused on teaching our students that our expectation, and the Oakhill Way, is to be respectful. But like all new skills/ideas, our students have to understand what it means in order to excel in that skill. What is respect? What does it look like? Sound like? Feel like? We talk about this in class, the hall, specials, everywhere. And then our students see it in action. Our staff model respect between one another, with parents, but most importantly, with them. By teaching and modeling respect, our goal is for our students to apply this beyond the walls of Oakhill.

While we know that conversations about respect happen are happening at home, I want to emphasize that it’s important to continue the conversation as they age, learn, grow, and have to apply it in new situations and settings. I have referenced a resource in past Acorns called, “Big Life Journal”. A parent-focused character education program that covers all topics related to parenting. I wanted to share some information from their most recent one-pager on teaching respect. 

Respect is about showing we care about:

• The feelings and needs of people
• The rules and order of places
• The protection and importance of things 

They also explain how to replace the word “respect” with “care about” to help teach kids what respect really means. For example, “I want you to respect my feelings” can also be, “I want you to care about my feelings.” What a simple way to reframe the impact and meaning of respect. Big Life also emphasizes that you must take time to talk as a family about, Who and What each of you respect (why do you respect these people and these things) and 2. What feeling respected means (example: I feel respected when people listen when I am talking to them). By answering these as a family, you are defining your expectations for respect. Set these rules and expectations as a family, and as a team! 

I hope that you enjoy the chaos of the holidays and take advantage of the time spent with family. Embrace it and recharge. We can’t wait to see you in 2025! 

Mrs. P