Message from the Principal

Dear Covington Families,

As you may know, we have done a great deal of work in implementing The Coyote Way - which is our positive climate initiative that was launched last year.  The Coyote Way describes the ways in which we wish to see our children interact throughout their day at Covington.  We often remind the students that the creation of The Coyote Way came from input from teachers, parents, and the students themselves.  In other words, The Coyote Way is something we ALL want.  

Instead of giving students a long list of learning and social behaviors we expect, we boiled down the ideals into 4 buckets: Responsibility, Respect, Kind Mind, and Empathy.   This year we will add mindfulness to the area of Kind Mind, teaching our students strategies and tools to stay present in the moment and calming the mind.  

However, it’s one thing to say to a child, be empathetic or use a kind mind.  We also need to show them what these characteristics look like.  And, we need to give students opportunities to practice.   We recently created a graphic to help explain to students what it looks like when we are following The Coyote Way.  Our Project Cornerstone docents can use this tool when they work with our students on their lessons.  Our teachers can utilize the tool to support the social/emotional learning of their students.   I want to share it with you, as you might find it useful at home.  I’d also welcome any feedback you might have on this graphic. Special thanks to Jing Wu who has updated the artwork!

You can view the graphic, The Coyote Way - What does it look like? by clicking the link below:

https://covingtonschool.org/files/user/238/file/Coyote-Way-What-it-Looks-Like.pdf

We will continue to work with our students on The Coyote Way.  We also know that children follow our adult models very closely, so it’s important to model the behaviors we wish to instill in them.     

Have a wonderful weekend,

Wade Spenader- Principal