Upcoming Events
Harding High School
will host a
Community Forum
on
Thursday, October 18th
from 5:45 - 8:00 p.m.
in the school cafeteria.
The goal of the Community Forum is to improve Harding High School by strengthening the partnership between teachers, parents/guardians, support staff, and the community.
All are invited to attend.
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Webster School Supports A Day of Caring
Last week, Webster School students participated in the annual United Way Day of Caring at the Trumbull Nature & Arts Center. This year’s United Way Days of Caring were held from October 9-11.
During the Days of Caring, teams of volunteers throughout the community work a morning or afternoon shift during one of the scheduled days. Volunteers participate in a variety of outdoor classrooms and nature related projects. Webster students made scarecrows and birdhouses for the Center, after which they participated in a nature walk. Throughout the day students learned about nature and wildlife. They shared these facts the following day over the Webster school intercom during morning announcements.
All of the volunteer projects were designed to enhance The Trumbull Nature & Arts Center in expectation of the Center’s thousands of visitors this year. According to the United Way website, “the Center's work compliments United Way's education agenda of providing students with the skills and knowledge needed to better position them for success in the future.” To further emphasize the educational theme, the Day of Caring events began with speaker and United Way’s 2007 Campaign Chair Jeffry P. Pino, President of Sikorsky Aircraft, who spoke about the importance of science education.
The United Way Day of Caring has been a local tradition since 1992. In that time, more than 8,000 corporate volunteers have devoted nearly 40,000 hours of community service.
Harding Social Worker Puts Advice Down in Writing
Harding High School Social Worker Renda L. Woods recently put her 26 years experience in writing in her book Family Power – Family Training Manual, which was published this past June. The purpose of the book is to work with both adolescents and their families to provide nontraditional interventions for troubled youth.
Woods has been developing the concept of the book for over 15 years. “This book is a combination of my training, expertise, and practical application of the strategies I have developed,” Woods said. “The goal of the book is to replicate these methods in families as well as to implement more of these strategies in the school environment.”
Woods believes that a child’s progress, both emotionally and academically, will improve if he or she can work together with the family to gain control over his or her own life. According to Woods, the two main principles behind this strategy are empowerment and self control. By means of this publication Woods teaches both children and parents how to use self control to gain empowerment and take back control over their own lives.
The following is an excerpt from the postscript of the Family Power – Family Training Manual:
The goal of this manual is not to create
perfect children; it’s to get harmful behaviors under
control so dealing with the inevitable hurdles of day to
day life is less challenging.
It is to help youth and parents understand how
they fit into the organization that is their family. By
recognizing where their real power lies, families can
learn how to use their power, not against others, but
to control themselves.
Change doesn’t happen overnight,
but it can begin today.
In addition to providing practical council within the home environment, the manual considers aspects of a child’s life that affect education, both positively and negatively. Parents are invited to be active participants in their child’s academic progress in recognition of the fact that both parents and children must work together to achieve improvement. Woods explains that parents need to become partners with the school, not just onlookers of their child’s academic experience.
Woods is already receiving praise and positive feedback for her work. “The most positive feedback I have received has been from teenagers who are reading the book and striving to apply the strategies in their lives,” Woods said. “This book was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it.”
Renda L. Woods, LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) has been a social worker for Bridgeport Public Schools for 22 years. She also has experience in medical social work, home treatment, therapeutic treatment level foster care, and private practice.
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