Today our faculty attended our annual ISY Compassion Conference. This conference was an opportunity for our faculty to reflect on our compassionate Mission and Vision and our definition of compassion:

The will and understanding to respect and value the identity, culture, perspective, and experience of others in acting to make a positive difference to their lives.

In addition to hearing from speakers on inclusion, culture and diversity, and service learning (three of our strategic themes), our keynote speaker spoke to us about developing resilience in young people.

Resilience can be taught and our speaker introduced to us a 4 ‘S’ Model to describe how we can all help young people develop resilience in difficult times. This is how I interpreted what he said:

• We can help young people streamline or lessen what they are worried about. Young people can worry a lot as they do not have the experience to put their worries into perspective. We can share our own childhood worries and experiences to help young people put their worries into perspective and prevent ‘small stuff’ becoming ‘big stuff.’ Experience builds resilience (so we should share ours!).
• We can help young people slow down. We all have dreams and long term plans but when things are difficult, we can remind young people to take pride in completing small tasks every day. Pride builds resilience.
• We can help young people salvage something positive from any difficult situation. This might take some compassion and creativity but if young people can identify something positive coming from a difficult situation, they are more likely to work through that difficult situation. Positivity builds resilience.
• We can help young people choose to stand alongside others during difficult times. We are stronger when we have support. We can help young people recognize who they can rely on to support them when they are challenged – that could be us or someone else. Support builds resilience.

This week, we have seen even more students move from our online program to our in-person program. This is very positive news as less students online and more in the classroom benefits students in both programs. 

Our online program is for students who will need to learn online for an extended period of time because they are unable to come to campus but are well enough to study. If your child is sick, we ask that they rest as they normally would instead of joining online classes. 

Thank you for keeping us informed if your family’s needs change and you need to switch back to our online learning program. The earlier we get this information the more effective we can be in adapting to meet every student’s needs. Please email the Elementary School Office (elementaryoffice@isyedu.org) as soon as you know that your child will need to learn online. 

Donations can be made at

https://isyedu.org/life-at-isy/online-ordering/

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