School and Community Summer 2023

Loving Weller, Building Scholars: Our “Why”

A uthor and speaker Simon Sinek said, “It all starts with WHY. People don’t care what you do or how you do something, until they understand WHY you do something.” Loving Weller, Building Scholars is not just the mission and vision of Weller Elementary School in Springfield, but Loving Weller, Building Scholars is our WHY. Weller Elementary is a school with a free and reduced lunch rate of 83% and an ELD population of 16%, making it one of the most diverse schools in Springfield. For years, Weller has been a school with high expectations for learning and behavior. Long-time systems, such as our P.R.I.D.E. Panthers (students who show Politeness, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Effort) and PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support), have been in place at Weller to help us meet the needs of our students. As our team began to really believe our “Why,” and the aftershock of the COVID-19 virus occurred, we began to seek ways to do more.

Last year, we took a team from Weller to visit the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. This inspired us to create some new systems at Weller which have allowed us to build upon our “Why” of Loving Weller, Building Scholars . One of the ideas we have begun to implement since this visit is the use of a house system. All of our students and staff have been split into one of four houses. They are intermixed by gender, grade and ability… something like Hogwarts and a fraternity or sorority. “PACK Time,” as we call it, occurs every Friday afternoon and is a time of celebration, fun and connection. This block of time is set aside so that we can be intentional about building connections with students and staff outside of our assigned classroom, grade level or role. We often connect our PBIS or Conscious Discipline lesson to this block of time, but in a nontraditional way. As the year has progressed, we have begun to have monthly house challenges as well. In November, we held

BY NICOLE PARKE, SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

20 | SUMMER 2023 S&C