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January/February 2016
Official News of the Polk County Council PTA Volume 6, Issue 3 of 5
Teaching Children It’s OK to Fail By Dr. Jamie Howard , PhD Article from PTAOurChildren.org/Parents/December 23 2015, originally Published Nov. 30, 2015/parents/expert-tips-advice
All parents want to see their kids suc-ceed, but it’s just as important to teach your children how to fail. Failing can be reframed as trying, practicing, and putting in effort — and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. After all, it’s unrealis-tic to be good at everything on your first pass. Kids who can’t tolerate fail-ure are vulnerable to anxiety and it can lead to bigger problems when they do inevitably fail.
There is so much pressure on kids today to be the best that it’s im-portant
parents let their children know that failing will happen sometimes and that it is totally okay. In fact, it’s brave to try something new, knowing that it might not work out.
Unfortunately we’re seeing plenty of kids today who have received so much help from their parents be it with school projects or just basic life tasks that they become distraught over the most minor misstep. It’s important to remember that genuine self-confidence is created by being good at something,
especially when it requires effort to get good at it. Shielding children from this process can create a fragile sense of self-worth. This is why teaching your child to be resilient and rebound from a failure is so important. The ability to recover from a setback is one of the keys to a happy life. Article continues on page 2.
Florida PTA Legislative Education Conference
January 24-26, 2016
Florida PTA is excited to bring togeth-er a wide-range group of speakers and empower YOU with the tools needed to effectively advocate in our state capital.
This year the conference will be nes-tled between the busy legislative ses-sion and Children's Week at the Capi-tal. There will be thousands of chil-dren, families and other advocacy groups all "Taking Action for Kids". Join the Florida PTA Legislative Com-mittee this year and personally experi-ence how your contribution can make a difference. Hot topics will include dis-cussions of bills on Juvenile Justice, Guns on Campuses, Florida Assess-ments and other health and safety related issues.
Registration $55.00; Registration for students $35.00 (enter access code STU-DENTADV16) register via link on Flor-ida PTA FaceBook or website page.
Legislative Conference Schedule Sunday, January 24, 2016 6:00PM—10:00 PM Tallahassee Conference Center Room 215 W. College Avenue Tallahassee, Florida 32301 (includes dinner)
Monday, January 25, 2016 8:00 AM—5:00 PM Tallahassee Conference Center Room (breakfast and lunch provided)
Tuesday, January 26, 2016 9:00 AM - Tour the Capitol Schedule appointments to meet with your legislators on your own or in small groups.
Contents
PTA Our Children.org…..…..…....2 Advancing Inclusion……….….….2 Founders Day, February 17th…..2 Family Reading Festival..…….....3 Mentoring in Polk Schools….…..3
Unit Leader Information Council Nominations Open…..4 Nominating Committee…….....4 Awards & Recognitions...….....4 Family/Community Award…....4 Sparkplugs……………….……..4 Membership Form…..………...….5 Business Membership ……….….5 National PTA LegCon…………….6 Business Supporters..……….…..6 Mark Your Calendar………….......6 Polk Council Contact Info…..…...6
PAGE 2 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3 OF 5
Teaching Children, Continued from page 1
Being resilient doesn’t necessarily mean thriving in the face of failure; rather, it’s the ability to pick yourself up and put one foot in front of the other. It is not an inborn trait; it’s a combination of behaviors, thoughts, and actions that can be learned and developed. Here are a few tips for helping your children develop resilience:
When you see that your child is struggling or having a hard time, empathize with him. Be sure not to brush off his feelings. Try using lan-guage like “I know you’re really disappointed and that you wanted to do better.”
Explain to your child that everyone fails and offer a story about a time when you yourself failed. You can model for your child how to handle frustration and disappointment. Remember, kids are always watching and taking cues from parents.
Look at failure as a chance to teach your child a lesson about resiliency. Talk through what went wrong and use problem solving skills to come up with a plan for what to do next time.
If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Remind your child that they can try again and use this fail-ure as a learning experience.
Perhaps the most important thing is to step back and let your child stumble. We all want to protect our kids, but it’s important to allow them to fail rather than swooping in and fixing the problem. Failure teaches kids the skills they need—like resiliency—to be suc-cessful adults.
Our Children is an online magazine for parents published by the National PTA. Today’s PTA is dedicated to empowering parnets to make a dif-ference in the education, health, and safety of America’s children. Go to PTAOurChildren.org for:
Tips to help parents best support your child’s academic suc-cess and well-being
Relevant and timely stories about the suc-cesses and chal-lenges of stu-dents, schools and families
Inspiration from everyday heroes who work to make every child’s potential a reality
Advancing Inclusion in Our Schools
In December, Google brought together the Na-tional PTA, the U.S. De-partment of Education and educators for a discussion on how we can make inclusion a core part of our classroom culture via a Google Hangout Webinar. If you were interested and missed it, the Advancing In-clusion in Our Schools webinar that was held on De-cember 16th 2015 has been posted to You Tube.
—February 17th PTA's founders Phoebe Apperson Hearst and Alice
McLellan Birney, and the founder of Georgia's Con-
gress of Colored Parents and Teachers, Selena Sloan
Butler, were women of imagination and courage.
They understood the
power of individual
action, worked beyond
the accepted barriers
of their day, and took
action to literally
change the world.
They had a simple
idea—to improve the
lives and futures of all
of our children.
As much as other conditions in America may have
changed, that idea has not. PTAs keep it alive. To-
day, PTA is the largest volunteer child advocacy or-
ganization in the nation. Our members represent the
ethnic diversity of our nation, and they come from the
ranks of traditional families, single-parent households,
blended families, grandparents, and other caring
adults. Together, we continue to serve as the con-
science of the country for children and youth.
Founders Day is a reminder of the substantial role that PTA has played locally, regionally, and nationally in supporting parent involvement and working on behalf of all children and families. It's also a time to reflect and take pride in our many accomplishments, and to renew our commitment to be: a powerful voice for all children.
Family Reading Festival
Saturday, February 20
Power Up Polk! Family Reading Festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Jim Miles Profes-sional Development Center, 5204 U.S. Highway 98 South in Lakeland. The event is free and open to the public.
There will be activities for a wide range of age groups, including games, speakers, booths, and other fun events. Families are encouraged to read together two books: “Ivan: The True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla” by Katherine Applegate, (K-2) and “The One and Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate, (3-7). Our middle school and high school students are asked to read articles on Animal Conservation and Preserva-tion.
There will be discussions regarding these books which teach a variety of lessons on protecting animal habi-tats, humane treatment of animals and other related topics on animal preservation. Different groups from around Polk County will have booths so families can gain more insight on topics and have fun learning to-gether. All are welcome!!!!
Contact Jacqueline Rose at Library Media Services—Polk County Schools [email protected] for more information or Your School Librarian
Be a Mentor In
Polk County
Schools!
What are Mentors? Adults and older youth that are:
caring, dedicated, trustworthy, active listeners, committed to their assigned child/children, relia-ble, approved by District
What is the goal of this program? Develop mentors that advocate for students need-ing assistance in developing positive self-confidence, goal setting, and trust: provided the necessary ongoing support, guidance and friend-ship to our youth facing these challenges in school.
What is required of Mentors? □ Using the volunteer form from Polk County, apply
and be approved to work with children. □ Attend at least one training and one follow-up ses-
sion during the school year. □ Work within the guidelines and parameters of the
District policies, as set forth in the training for Mentors.
□ Sign in and sign out in the school office each time
you mentor. □ Register your hours on the computer in the school
office so that the school receives credit for your hours.
□ Call the school, in a timely manner, if you cannot
come or if you are running late. □ Dress appropriately.
What are the benefits of being a Mentor? Feeling a sense of accomplishment. Seeing the student smile as he/she walks away
from your session each time. Knowing you are part of the solution for many stu-
dents. Where do I receive additional information?
Go online: www.polk-fl.net KEYWORD: volunteer or call the Department of Public Relations & Strategic Partnerships, Polk County Public Schools at 863-534-0636.
POLK PTA NEWS PAGE 3
Unit Leader
Information:
Call for Council Nominations
Interested in getting involved with PTA at the county level? Now is the time to submit your interest. The council ex-ecutive committee members which include the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary are elected positions and the committee chairs are appointed positions. The committee chair positions vary somewhat from year to year as they traditional repre-sent projects or activities anticipated for the upcoming year.
Those interested in an officer or a committee chair position, have ques-tions or want to nominate someone else to serve on the 2016-2017 Polk Council Board contact Toni Nielson by phone(863) 279-8325 or email [email protected] by March 1st. Elec-tions are scheduled for April 26th 2016 Council Meeting.
Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee is respon-sible for soliciting interest and present-ing a recommended slate of officers to the general membership. This is an important task as they are looking for the next leaders of your local unit! If the Nominating Committees of the past have been able to fulfill a slate of officers fairly easily, keep doing what you’re doing. If not, consider how your unit solicits interest for both the elected and non elected/committee chair posi-tions.
One of the keys to having a successful PTA is to continually bring in or involve new people, if not, sooner or later your left with a skeleton of a PTA board.
Refer to your PTA bylaws for infor-mation on the nominating committee, description of elected positions, terms of office, fulfilling vacancies, etc.
Awards & Recognitions
Many awards are of-fered through Florida PTA. In addi-tion to numerous membership re-lated awards other awards include:
Local Unit Achievement
Friends of the Environment
Outstanding Principal of the Year
Promoting Communications Excel-lence
Program Award
Safety Award
Student Involvement
Student Community Service
Student Advocate
For a complete list of awards, ap-plications and deadlines refer to the Award/Recognition section of the floridapta.org website.
Family and Community Involvement Award
The Family and Community In-volvement Award is sponsored by the Florida Department of Educa-tion, Florida PTA, State Farm and Wells Fargo. Annually schools from around are state are awarded and recognized.
Many schools find innovative ways for recruitment, training and recognition of family and commu-nity involvement practices in their schools; and others have innova-tive ways that their school have gotten involved with the commu-nity. If this sounds like your school, then the Volunteer Coordinator, SAC or PTA should complete and submit the Family and Communi-ty Involvement Award Applica-tion. Obtain an application from your Volunteer Coordinator or
visit the FDOE or Florida PTA websites. Applications are due into the Polk district office by the February 2nd. Entries are ac-cepted in two categories: Elemen-tary School (PreK-5) and Middle/High School (6-12). The Polk Schools Public Relations & Strategic Partnerships depart-ment reviews the applications and selects (within each category) the top two entries from Polk to ad-vance to the state level and for-wards onto FDOE. Then a committee coordinated by FDOE (Florida Department of Ed-ucation) reviews the top applica-tions submitted from each county, to select one award winner per region (five regions, two catego-ries = ten schools recognized as top award winners). Travel, meals and hotel accommo-dations are then provided to two representatives from each of the ten award winning schools where the schools will be recog-nized at the 2016 Flor ida PTA Leadership Convention in July. In addition, all of the application en-tries advancing to the state level are reviewed and used to create the annual Sparkplugs publication. Both the 2014 and the 2015 Sparkplugs publications are avail-able from the Florida PTA website (Family/Community section).
PAGE 4 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3 OF 5
P
POLK PTA NEWS PAGE 5
Polk County PTSA 2015-2016 Membership
If you believe in PTA, and its mission, everychild.one voice then join annually. Add your voice to those working to make a difference
in children’s lives. Memberships are valid until September 30th.
Members are not required to attend meetings or events, but are al-ways welcome!. Every person who joins any PTA/PTSA unit is au-
tomatically a member of both the state and the national PTA.
Consider supporting the Polk County PTSA (Parent Teacher Stu-dent Association) as a member for $5 or as a Business
Supporter for $50. With your $50 business support, your business will receive one individual membership for the Polk County PTSA a
certificate to display in your place of business, recognition in the Polk PTA News and recognition at each council meeting.
Polk County PTSA Member/Supporter
Do you want to receive via email Council newsletters? Yes No Council event notices? Yes No Council meeting notices? Yes No Florida PTA E-newsletter? Yes No Please circle one: Parent / Grandparent / Guardian / Student Teacher or Staff / Business / Other $5 per each individual membership , or $50 Business Supporter (which includes one individual membership) $ ______ enclosed Business (if applicable) _________________________________
Name ____________________________________________ Address __________________________________________ City / Zip _________________________________ E-Mail: ___________________________________ Phone ___________________ Make checks payable to PCC PTA and return to:
Polk County PTSA c/o Janet Lamoureux
1345 Turkey Trail Lakeland Fl 33810
Interested in Being a Business Supporter?
The Polk Council and Polk County PTSA offers
various levels of support.
Business Supporter $50 Event Supporter $200
Event Premium Sponsor $500 Premium Business Supporter
$1,000
Traditionally the funds from the $50 business supporters are used to help the Polk Council participate and pro-vide printed resources at various community events. Last year some of the community events we participat-ed included: Red Ribbon Health & Wellness Fair, Polk County Family Week, Fall Exploration Day for Fami-lies of Students with Disabilities.
Funds from higher levels of business supporter are used to host specific events, provide leadership training and other educational experiences for our members and our community. For more information on business sup-port and upcoming sponsorship events opportunities contact Toni Nielson (863) 937-7793 [email protected] or Janet Lamoureux (863) 899-7301 [email protected] .
Polk County Council has a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit status and can provide IRS determination letter, W-9 and or EIN upon request.
Thank You to Polk PTA Business Supporters!
POLK PTA NEWS PAGE 6
Jan 24-26—Legislative Education Confer-ence, Tallahassee Fl.
Feb 20— Family Reading Festival @ Jim Miles Center 9 a.m.—1 p.m. (Free, open to the public)
March 1 — Polk County Council Meeting/@ Jim Miles Professional Center 6 p.m., Location TBD
April 26 — Polk County Council Elections @ Jim Miles Professional Center 6:30 p.m., Location TBD
May 14— SAVE THE DATE—Get the Scoop on Summer—District wide event (for parents, students and community to ) tentative location Winter Haven Campus of Polk State College. Additional infor-mation available soon!
June 30-July3 —National PTA Convention, Orlando
July 14-17—Florida PTA Leadership/Convention, Palm Harbor Fl.
+ Jim Miles located at 5204 US Hwy 98 South, across from the Highland City Publix
Toni Nielson* President
Annette Rising* Vice President
Courtney Lamoureux* Secretary/Student Representative
Laurie Busey* Treasurer
Eddie Hall Community Outreach Chair [email protected]
Janet Lamoureux Trainer,/Newsletter/Membership
Carol Sherron
Business Relations [email protected]
Liz Norsworthy Community Representative [email protected]
Elsie Nwakakwa Exceptional Child
2015-2016 Executive Board (*) and Committee Chairs
The 2016 National PTA Legislative Conference (LegCon) will feature new content and trainings to provide PTA advocates with the latest skills to shape public policy. Attendees at LegCon will get the opportunity to network with fellow advocates, share best practices, honor grass-roots champions and policy leaders and learn how to:
Advocate for children and families at all levels of government
Build lasting relationships with policy makers
Conduct effective meetings with legislators Visit pta.org for registration and information.
