Skykomish School District Newsletter
November 22, 22021 Make sure to read Students in Action to the end!
November 2021
Dear Skykomish Community,
November is here already, and I cannot thank you enough for the valuable role you have played in helping us keep our school open and our children healthy. There have been a few challenges and bumps in the road, but you, the Skykomish School District community, continue to make a difference in our children’s lives.
In November 2019 Skykomish, King County Voters passed our District’s Technology Capital Projects Levy. Our District is grateful for the support of our community, and I am happy to inform you that we recently used technology levy funds to purchase and replace outdated electronic whiteboards as promised for our classrooms. These boards provide a 75” display and they are interactive touch panels. Teachers can wirelessly cast their computer screens directly to the interactive touch panel or share their students’ work, or start a presentation, all with the click of a button. The digital whiteboard supports object recognition, recognizes when a user uses their finger, stylus, or palm, and then reacts on the screen as either a marker, thin pen, or eraser.
During this time when we reflect and give thanks, know that I am thankful to be a part of this remarkable Skykomish School District community, and I am thankful that you allow me to lead our District.
Thank you for your tireless support for our District!
Please be sure to take some time for yourself and your family.
Blessings,
Thomas Jay
Superintendent
-November 22 Early Release11:30 Student-led conferences
-November 23 Early Release11:30 Student-led conferences
-November 24-26 Thanksgiving Break
-December 3 KCLS Sponsored Burke Museum Virtual Event
-December 4 Vaccine Clinic #2 at Community Center 10:00 – 11:30 am
-December 6 All school First Aid/CPR with Skykomish Fire Department
-December 15 School Board Meeting at 6:30 p.m.
-December 16 Winter Program tbd
-December 17 Early Release 11:30
-December 20 - 31 Winter Break
Rosemary Mitchell
Prevention Specialist
How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain
With the rise of managed health care, which emphasizes cost-efficiency and brevity, mental health professionals have had to confront this burning question: How can they help clients derive the greatest possible benefit from treatment in the shortest amount of time?
Recent evidence suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results. In our own research, we have zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude. Indeed, many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed.
The problem is that most research studies on gratitude have been conducted with well-functioning people. Is gratitude beneficial for people who struggle with mental health concerns? And, if so, how?
We set out to address these questions in a recent research study involving nearly 300 adults, mostly college students who were seeking mental health counseling at a university. We recruited these participants just before they began their first session of counseling, and, on average, they reported clinically low levels of mental health at the time. The majority of people seeking counseling services at this university in general struggled with issues related to depression and anxiety.
We randomly assigned our study participants into three groups. Although all three groups received counseling services, the first group was also instructed to write one letter of gratitude to another person each week for three weeks, whereas the second group was asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group did not do any writing activity.
What did we find? Compared with the participants who wrote about negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended. This suggests that gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns. In fact, it seems, practicing gratitude on top of receiving psychological counseling carries greater benefits than counseling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief.
And that’s not all. When we dug deeper into our results, we found indications of how gratitude might actually work on our minds and bodies. While not definitive, here are four insights from our research suggesting what might be behind gratitude’s psychological benefits.
1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions
First, by analyzing the words used by participants in each of the two writing groups, we were able to understand the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter writing. We compared the percentage of positive emotion words, negative emotion words, and “we” words (first-person plural words) that participants used in their writing. Not surprisingly, those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and “we” words, and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the other writing group.
However, people who used more positive emotion words and more “we” words in their gratitude letters didn’t necessarily have better mental health later. It was only when people used fewer negative emotion
words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to report better mental health. In fact, it was the lack of negative emotion words—not the abundance of positive words—that explained the mental health gap between the gratitude writing group and the other writing group.
Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing produces better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as resentment and envy. When you write about how grateful you are to others and how much other people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to ruminate on your negative experiences.
2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it
We told participants who were assigned to write gratitude letters that they weren’t required to send their letters to their intended recipient. In fact, only 23 percent of participants who wrote gratitude letters sent them. But those who didn’t send their letters enjoyed the benefits of experiencing gratitude nonetheless. (Because the number of people who sent their letters was so small, it was hard for us to determine whether this group’s mental health was better than those who didn’t send their letter.)
This suggests that the mental health benefits of writing gratitude letters are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to another person.
So, if you’re thinking of writing a letter of gratitude to someone, but you’re unsure whether you want that person to read the letter, we encourage you to write it anyway. You can decide later whether to send it (and we think it’s often a good idea to do so). But the mere act of writing the letter can help you appreciate the people in your life and shift your focus away from negative feelings and thoughts.
3. Gratitude’s benefits take time
It’s important to note that the mental health benefits of gratitude writing in our study did not emerge immediately, but gradually accrued over time. Although the different groups in our study did not differ in mental health levels one week after the end of the writing activities, individuals in the gratitude group reported better mental health than the others four weeks after the writing activities, and this difference in mental health became even larger 12 weeks after the writing activities.
These results are encouraging because many other studies suggest that the mental health benefits of positive activities often decrease rather than increase over time afterward. We don’t really know why this positive snowball effect occurred in our study. Perhaps the gratitude letter writers discussed what they wrote in their letters with their counselors or with others. These conversations may have reinforced the psychological benefits derived from the gratitude writing itself.
For now, the bottom line is this: If you participate in a gratitude writing activity, don’t be too surprised if you don’t feel dramatically better immediately after the writing. Be patient and remember that the benefits of gratitude might take time to kick in.
4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain
About three months after the psychotherapy sessions began, we took some of the people who wrote gratitude letters and compared them with those who didn’t do any writing. We wanted to know if their brains were processing information differently.
We used an fMRI scanner to measure brain activity while people from each group did a “pay it forward” task. In that task, the individuals were regularly given a small amount of money by a nice person, called the “benefactor.” This benefactor only asked that they pass the money on to someone if they felt grateful. Our participants then decided how much of the money, if any, to pass on to a worthy cause (and we did in fact donate that money to a local charity).
We wanted to distinguish donations motivated by gratitude from donations driven by other motivations, like feelings of guilt or obligation. So we asked the participants to rate how grateful they felt toward the benefactor, and how much they wanted to help each charitable cause, as well as how guilty they would feel if they didn’t help. We also gave them questionnaires to measure how grateful they are in their lives in general.
We found that across the participants, when people felt more grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the desire to help a cause. More specifically, we found that when people who are generally more grateful gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude.
Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who didn’t, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.
The GGSC's coverage of gratitude is sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation as part of our Expanding Gratitude project.
Though these are just the first steps in what should be a longer research journey, our research so far not only suggests that writing gratitude letters may be helpful for people seeking counseling services but also explains what’s behind gratitude’s psychological benefits. At a time when many mental health professionals are feeling crunched, we hope that this research can point them—and their clients—toward an effective and beneficial tool.
Regardless of whether you’re facing serious psychological challenges, if you have never written a gratitude letter before, we encourage you to try it. Much of our time and energy is spent pursuing things we currently don’t have. Gratitude reverses our priorities to help us appreciate the people and things we do.
“GRATITUDE CHANGES your ATTITUDE”
Article written by JOSHUA BROWN, JOEL WONG
Submitted by Rosemary Mitchell, Intervention Specialist
Reading Rockets
By DeLana Slone
For the month of October, we have 15 students that met their goal of reading at least 20 minutes on 20 different days. Here are the October reading challenge readers: Gage, Luca L., Benjamin, Luca M., Weston, Marco, Mason, Cora L., Andrea, Sarah-Elizabeth, Gianna, Willow, Jason, and Pete. Great job! Forms are marked off, signed by the parents, and turned on the last school day of the month. Each student who meets their reading goal receives a new book or prize and gets their name in the hat for the end of year prize. Keep on reading, friends!
So long, farewell…
By DeLana Slone
It is with a heavy heart and very mixed emotions that I am sharing with you, that my 18-year journey at Skykomish School will end after Thanksgiving break. It has been such a pleasure watching all the students grow up and blossom into the amazing humans they are. I have gotten to know their families, their personalities, and what brings them joy. We truly are family here at Skykomish School and you all will be missed dearly. Thank you all for the wonderful times we have had. I hope we will continue to have more. I will still be in the area, and I will continue to be a part of the school community when I can.
Allison Luker has accepted the Office Manager position and she will do a fantastic job. Shawna Dudley will be assisting in the office when Allison is working with her PreK kiddos. I can leave my post knowing that everything in the office is in good hands. All correspondence after December 1st will need to be sent directly through the school office phone (360-677-2623 x 100). I would still love to hear from you all, I just won’t be able to assist you with school related issues after December 1st.
To all my favorite Rocket peeps, keep doing your best and keep shining like you do. Go Rockets!!
Dear Parents and Friends,
Great News! Skykomish PTSO is fundraising with Fun Pasta Fundraising!
We are raising money for Skykomish PTSO and we are needing your help in reaching our fundraising goal! We’ll earn 40% profit from every sale. Selling is fun and simple – especially with the new Fun Pasta App!
What is Fun Pasta? Fun Pasta is healthy fun pasta shaped like the holidays, sports, collegiate team logos, and more. The colorful brochure shows a wide variety of products that will appeal to everyone!
How can you help? Join our Fundraiser!
Download the Fun Pasta Fundraising App from the Apple or Google stores.
Log in with the primary email address of the seller (can only use one email per seller name), and input our join code: (NAVBKE)
From your computer, if you’d like to just share a shopping link in an email or Facebook, please copy and paste our group link: https://www.funpastafundraising.com/shop/skykomish-ptso_1634074300288
There is FREE SHIPPING on orders over $55! So please share the fundraiser and help support our fundraising efforts! Thank you! Orders are placed online and delivered directly to the customer’s homes.
MANY THANKS FOR HELPING US REACH OUR GOAL!
If you have any questions, please contact us at: skykomishptso@gmail.com
Our ASB students led a wonderful assembly honoring our Veterans for their service. Students signed cards and delivered them to local Veterans on Veterans Day. Mr. Rowland played the National Anthem for the assembly. It was wonderful to have live music - thank you, Mr. Rowland. The students gathered in the gym for a slide show and a reading and enactment of The White Table, a tribute to POWs. Thank you to all of the members of the ASB for putting together the assembly.