COMMUNITY
Giving Chapel Thanks!
Our
thanks to Jenny Cleveland and the Fifth Grade students and parent
volunteers who made Giving Chapel a truly meaningful service learning
experience. I hope you had time to reflect with your students following
this special event.
Open House, Thursday, January 5th
Here’s the plan:
•Dinner served in the dining hall
•Registration in the US lobby- 6-6:30
Entertainment and refreshments in the dining hall
*Welcome and logistics 6:30-7
•Tour Classrooms- Fifth Grade Ambassadors (students and parents) to guide visitors- 7-8
St. Nick’s Chapel- Tracking Student’s at Dismissal
First
through Fifth Grade will attend Chapel. It will begin and end earlier
this year, making dismissal a bit less hectic. Please remind parents
that if they attend and wish to pick their child up early, they need to
let you know.
Winter Coffees
Please
check the calendar for your grade’s coffee. Please confirm which team
member will attend. If you need help finding coverage, let us know. If
you have hot topics to contribute, let us know next week. We are
planning agendas Tuesday morning.
PROGRAM
Fourth and Fifth Grade Spelling Bee a BIG Success
Kudos
to Ari and the Fourth and Fifth Grade teams for launching our first
ever Script’s Spelling Bee. You should all be proud of them- they are
fabulous spellers!
Professional development
There
are a number of valuable and intensive professional development
opportunities coming up this spring and summer. Watch for future
announcements and think about your priorities.
Technology – NCCE and ISTE
Writing – Columbia University writing project with Lucy Caulkins
Character education – Responsive Classroom Trainings
Inquiry based learning – Opal, Cadwell Collaborative
Diversity Work
During
our debrief of the diversity work, a faculty member raised the question
of the confidentiality of your individual results. Let me assure you
that the only person who can view your individual IDI results is Aaron
Kesher, the DeepSee consultant .
Trudy Ludwig Links
Trudy recommended this article on trends in children’s social lives - How to Stop Bullying
Michael Thompson offers insights into student life in independent schools - Understanding the Social Lives of Children
Visit www.trudyludwig.com for more resources.
LS Faculty Meeting – classroom teachers
We
will meet in the Drinkward Center at 7:30 to review online report
forms. Classroom teachers PreK – 5 should attend to review templates for
continuums and checklists.
LSCTF – next meeting 1/19/2012
OPERATIONS
Be On Time for PE Classes!
It
is particularly hard when one or two of the three classes arrive late.
Please be on time so that PE teachers can take full use of their
instructional time with students.
LSLT – 12/8
During LSLT we discussed the following topics:
Lunch and recess transitions
Website updates
Fruit Snacks
Uniform Policy
Winter Parent Coffee Topics
Chapel purpose and time
Our next LSLT Meeting is 1/12/12
Snack
We
have seen a significant increase in the cost of snack this month.
November snack cost us over $3000, $1000 more than October snack. Please
be sure we are not wasting any snack.
New Substitutes
We
have several new substitutes on our roster. In an effort to give them
experience at OES we will be looking to invite them into the classroom
in the coming weeks.
St Nicks Chapel
Chapel begins at 1:15. Please be in the gym and seated at 1:15.
After
St. Nicks please keep track of your students and record who has gone
home with a parent right after the event. At the end of the day we want
to know where everyone went.
Recess Transitions
To
ensure there is always supervision on ACP during lunch recess I would
like the following people to remain on the playground until the next
shift of recess duty teachers arrives.
Monday – Chris O’Toole
Tuesday – Lauren Shaw
Wednesday – David Lowell
Thursday – Stephanie Rankin
Friday – Jenny Cleveland
Let me know if you have a conflict that would make this duty impossible for you.
Lunch transitions – 1st – 3rd Grades
1st
grade has reported concerns about the mob of students heading down to
lunch recess. Lunch duty teachers, dismiss a few tables at a time,
starting with 1st graders at 11:15, to ensure there is not a giant mob
being lead down to recess by one teacher. 3rd graders may be dismissed
at 11:20.
Security
Tna
Meyerhoff, Safety Director, has noted an increase in electronic items
disappearing at school. Please be sure to secure your classroom
equipment when your classroom is not occupied.
Issues with Fourth and Fifth Grade Football and Soccer Players
We’ve
been having difficulties with sportsmanship that end in heated
arguments. Additionally, students continue to play when asked to leave
the field, causing duty teachers to be late for class. Privileges were
taken away on Thursday and Friday. They may return to playing on Monday
with these expectations:
•Duty teachers will give a 2 minute warning before they are to stop playing
•Students are told to stop play, and leave the field a minute or two before the bell rings
(we’d like to try this instead of giving them one last play, teachers observe that this last play can drag on)
•If disputes become heated the game will be shut down, players will be asked to leave the field
Best wishes for a relaxing pre-holiday weekend. Rest up for a busy week ahead!
David and Chris
