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Step-Up to Writing

Our 4th and 5th grade American Program teachers attended a workshop called "Step-Up to Writing" on September 17th hosted by the Bullis Charter School in Los Altos. Step-Up to Writing is a collection of effective writing strategies with the goal of increasing writing proficiency across all grade levels. Step-Up to Writing aligns itself with the 6 + 1 traits of writing: Idea Development, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation. However, Step-Up to Writing also offers a variety of techniques and methods to explicitly teach students how to construct well-written expository, narrative, and personal narrative essays. Students are shown how to enhance their writing with important details and they are asked to employ these methods when responding to literature through writing. Some of the techniques proposed use color-coding to make the writing process simple and easy to remember. The teachers are excited to share the Step-Up to Writing program with the students and other staff members, and we will be incorporating some of the elements in the stories and essays the students will be writing during the school year.

CPR Training

Annually, all FASSV faculty and administrative members complete a child CPR course taught by the American Red Cross. Every three years, First Aid training is added to the CPR course. The training takes place at the school, toward the end of August, before the onset of each new school year.
The purpose of the training is to assist participants to "identify and eliminate potentially hazardous conditions in their environment, recognize emergencies and make appropriate decisions for first aid care. It teaches the knowledge and skills that individuals in the workplace need to know to give immediate care to an ill or injured person until more advanced medical care arrives."
The CPR training focuses on three primary areas: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. FASSV personnel are trained in checking an ill or injured child, clearing the airway of a child, practicing Child Rescue Breathing, dealing with a conscious and unconscious choking child, and performing chest compressions on a child.
First Aid training includes instruction on treating soft tissue injuries such as contusions, abrasions, lacerations, punctures, and burns. In addition, there is training on how to splint for injuries to muscles, bones, and joints. Finally, First Aid training provides knowledge on how to identify and care for sudden illness such as a diabetic emergency, seizure, poisoning, and allergic reaction.
FASSV participants receive a certification card with their name, type of training received, date of training completion and term of certificate validity upon having successfully passed the practical and written exams for each category of training received.