Thank you
Friday
was an amazing day; starting off with an excellent parent meeting with a
representative from the Dougy Center, followed by an incredble student
performance during the Spelling Bee, with labyrinth walks through out
the day, an memorable visit from Dan Rawley, Sarah Rawley and Bodie, and
ending with a beautiful chapel and the creation of Jeannie’s
Remembrance Table.
I
am particularly appreciative of all that Patti Beyer, Jenny Cleveland
and Chris O’Toole did this past week to support us. I am also
incredibly thankful for the good work that Whitney McManus has done in
Jeannie’s classroom. She has been a critical source of consistency and
support for Jeannie’s students. Paula was a remarkable presence, calm,
focused and ensuring the 3rd grade program continued as we all adjusted
to Jeannie’s loss.
Student Support
Jenny
and Patti will be available to support students and visit with classes
as needed this week. Look for an email from them about whether or not
regular chaplain and counselor classes will meet.
Update on Jeannie’s Class
See email I sent you that is a copy of what I sent to Jeannie’s parents.
Schedule Tom Handel
Don’t
forget that you can schedule time with Tom Handel, our experiential
education director. He is a great resource for community building
through cooperative games and outdoor experiences
Next Year’s Plans
We
will begin the search process for new teachers next week, so please do
let me know if you are considering options beyond OES. I would also be
interested to know if you are interested in changing grade levels.
Shelley Stoffer
has decided that she will retire at the end of this year. Margaret
Synan - Russel will be teaching studio art for 1st - 5th grades. We
will hire a new art teacher for Beginning School whose function will be
more similar to an atilierista , collaborating with the classroom
teachers to integrate the visual arts into the Beginning School project
work.
I am 80% sure we will be hiring a Math Specialist
for next year. This position will be 50% Math Specialist and 50 % math
teacher. Part of the function of this of this position will be to
teach math in the classrooms of the Build Group Leaders, a 25% position I am working on creating, one for Grades 1st - 3rd and one for 4th and 5th.
Grade Level Teams Invited to CORE
Thank
you Ari for organizing grade level CORE visits. This sessions should
be very helpful on the verge of reports and conferences.
Thursday Faculty Meeting and LSLT
Patti
Beyer is looking into the possibility of having Joan Schweizer Hoff
from the Dougy Center come and speak with us about children, grieving
and how we can best support our students. I would like to do this
Thursday afternoon from 3:15 - 4:15. If this is scheduled for the
afternoon there will not be a Lower School Faculty meeting in the
morning and LSLT will meet from 7:30 - 8:30 am. Look for confirmation
from Patti Beyer early this week.
PROGRAM
Master Campus Plan
Please note that there is an all school meeting on Tuesday from 3:15 - 4:15 to
provide us with the opportunity to review the draft of the Master
Campus Plan with the SLAM Collaborative consultants. Attendance is
required for all faculty. You should know there are significant
conversations about the location and structure of the Lower School in
which I want your participation.
First Fourth through Eighth Grade Spelling Bee a Huge Success
Our
thanks to Ari and the Middle School team for putting this together. I
wish you could all have been there to see this exciting 4th through 8th
Grade spelling bee! It was an amazing show down...imagine 100 plus
students and their teachers on the edge of their seats for 90 minutes!
In the end, Amaya Smole, former LS student, now a 6th Grader, won!
Fifth Grader Simon Hatcher came in as Second Place. It was a close
call, and Simon persevered. Yeah, Simon!
This is an accomplishment we should all be proud of...clearly these students received excellent instruction.
Trudy Ludwig Rescheduled- Social Lives of Children- Friday, March 2nd
We are finalizing details, but it looks like Trudy will come the first Friday in March. More details to follow.
OPERATIONS
Specialists and Classroom Teacher Task Force
Before
break a number of issues came up regarding specialists and their
schedules. Later in the month we will meet with a task force committee
consisting of classroom and specialist teachers to discuss ways to deal
with our challenging schedule.
LSLT - see updated agenda
We will check in, review the January calendar, check in on online reports and paretn cffees.
Grade Level Parent Coffees
The
parent coffees begin with Kindergarten this Thursday and continue on
through the month. The PreK coffee was originally scheduled for this
Tuesday, but we have rescheduled it for Monday, January 23. Let Chris
or me know if you have topics you want to be put on the agenda. Please
be sure to have your classes date on your web site calendar. Encourage
parents to attend. David and Chris will stop by your planning meeting
next week to review agenda items.
On-Line PCR Progress Report Training
Angela,
what a trooper, sent out via Google docs the First through Fifth Grade
progress report templates. Let Angela and/or Debra know if you are
having any problems using these templates. Unless PCR has a
breakthrough this week, Beginning School progress reports will remain
paper based.
Online Report Cards – Classroom Teachers
Again, my great thanks to Angela, Deri and Brad for their work on the reports.
1. Angela has sent you the report card forms as Google docs.
2. Look for an email from Angela about a final editing process for the forms themselves
3. PCR report forms to be ready by January 16
4.
The afternoon faculty meeting on Monday, 1/30 and the morning
meeting on 2/2 will be dedicated to report proof-reading by faculty.
Grade level teams will read each others. Specialist will read within
departments and with support of CORE members. Teachers may request a
CORE member to review a particular student’s report.
Admissions Season is Upon Us
We will talk more about who will help out on the 4th and the 11th.
Saturday, Feb. 4th- Pre-K Candidates
Friday, Feb. 10th- Kindergarten-5th Grade Candidates Visit- No School for Students and Assistant Teachers
All Classroom Teachers and Specialists Assist with Admissions,
Saturday- Feb. 11th Kindergarten Candidates Visit
Buddies Going to the Office and Other Errands
When
you need to send a student to the office be sure to send students in
pairs. If a student isn’t well, or hurt, and needs to spend time in the
office, be sure to send that student with two classmates. We don’t want
students walking solo from building to building.
