A Brand New Kind of Welcome

Many years ago we began to orient our new teachers each year with a two to three day seminar with one whole day devoted to an Introduction to CCE. This includes our history, traditions, expectations, etc. It was a perfect way to get our newest community members up to speed about what makes our learning community so unique. Until now it had never even occurred to us to do this with students! Aside from about 200 new Kindergartners each year we usually get between 100-150 new first - fifth grade Creekers a year. Liz Duncan, our behavior specialist, began to see that a lot of the "disruptions" we were seeing were coming from those they may not have a full understanding of what our expectations are or were struggling trying to fit in at a new school. She quickly enlisted the help of our Book Fairy, KK Cherney, our Character Ed teacher, Nikki Hall, and our Guidance Counselor, Betsy McCall and they created an awesome "welcome party" for all our new students. They were oriented to all the faces and places they need to navigate our big school, they talked about academic and behavior expectations, they were encouraged to get to know each other and most importantly they were made to feel like they belonged and were cared about very, very much. This dynamic group turned it into the perfect "pep rally" to get kids excited about being part of their special new community. Without a doubt this has turned in to the next NEW tradition for the NEW to CCE!



Risk...Care...Dream...Expect...