LS Weekly Memo Week 40 : June 10-14

Thank you for all you are doing to end the year in a wonderful way with learning celebrations, culminating inquiry projects and special events. A special thank you to the PE Team for ending the year with back to back high notes;  Field Day and Walk for Fun and Fitness for all.

COMMUNITY

First Grade Boys

As of Friday, we expect Cole Taylor to return to school for the last two and a half days.  We have a plan in place for the remaining days.  Look for an email with more details, classroom teachers, specialists and duty people who teach and supervise these children.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let David or Chris know. We want to ensure that these boys have a positive ending to their school year.  Our thanks to all who are supporting these First Grade boys.  

Last Day of School

Pre-K

8:00 - 11:00 am Regular Class Schedule

11:00 am School is dismissed from classroom

Kindergarten & Primary

8:00 - 9:30 am Regular Class Schedule

9:30 - 10:30 am Closing Ceremony

11:00 am School is dismissed from classroom

Grades K - 4

8:00 - 9:05 am Regular Class Schedule

9:05 - 9:20 am Classroom teachers take children to recess

9:30 - 10:30 am Closing Ceremony (be seated before 9:30)

11:00 am School is dismissed from classroom

Grade 5

8:00 - 9:15 am Classrooms (Labyrinth in gym)

9:15 am Line up for Closing ceremony

9:30 - 10:30 am Closing Ceremony

10:30 am 5th Grade Reception in MS Commons

11:00 am 5th Grade dismissed from MS Commons

Extended Care is available beginning at 11:00am for all BS and LS students, including 5th grade.    

Buses will only run at the normal 3:00pm time     

Specialists and Closing Ceremony

Specialists will sit with their classroom buddy class.  Specialists with 5th grade classes will straight to the MS Commons after the ceremony to help supervise the 5th Grade Reception

PROGRAM

Parent Coffees

Thank you for participating in the parent coffees this year.  The parents appreciate hearing about the good work that you do.  Thank you 2nd grade for coordinating their learning celebrations with the parent coffees, simplifying parents scheduling.

End of Year Faculty Meetings

Thursday, June 16

Celebrating the Year

8:30 Light breakfast

9:00 Reflection Time - walk, outdoor labyrinth, yoga, wetlands walks

9:30 Appreciations -

10:00 Professional Practice successes

10:30 Operations Review

11:00 Thank You and Good Luck

11:30 Lunch from Jade

Bring your own lawn chair or picnic blanket if the weather is nice and we will eat in Aardvark Community Park.

Monday, June 17

Look Ahead

10:00 Community

10:30 Program

11:15 Operations

12:00 Lunch

1:30 THA

3:00 End

Tuesday, June 18

11:00 All School Closing Chapel/ Meeting

12:00 All School Closing Luncheon and Service Recognition

OPERATIONS

Report Cards - Due in PCR 6/19 @ 8:00am

Deri Bash needs to have all his PCR work completed by 6/20.  All LS reports will need to be entered into PCR by 8:00 am on 6/19 so Deri has enough time to upload and proof.  My apologies for the change of date.

Room Packing

The custodial crew will begin summer cleaning on 6/19.  If your room is scheduled to be used for the 1st week of summer programs please have your room packed up for summer by the morning of  6/19.

Snack

Please be sure to eat your morning snack.  Shirley found uneaten snacks late in the day that ended up in the trash.  I know there is  a lot going on at the end of the year and sometimes this can happen.  Please be mindful of the waste and the importance of a mid-morning snack.

LS Weekly Memo Week 39 : June 3-7

COMMUNITY

Another great week of events- everything from evening performances, the EC and ASC Talent Show and Barbeque to the Third through Fifth Grades’ Musical Performance. What talent we have in our midst! The Kindergarten and Primary Learning Celebrations were outstanding. Many parents commented on the amazing depth, creativity and learning.

Our thanks to you all.  A lot of time, energy and dedication went into these culminating events.

PROGRAM

End-of-Year Calendar

Below you will find a detailed list of calendar events beginning next week.  Deadlines are written in Italics.

Last three coffees! Specialists, please refer to the Google Doc to see if you are invited to attend. We appreciate your participation!

Monday, June 3rd, 8-9am

Moving Into Fourth Grade Coffee

THA Meeting- Team Leaders- 3:15-5

Tuesday, June 4th, 8-9am

Moving Into Second Grade Coffee

Wednesday, June 5th, 8-9am

Moving Into Third Grade Coffee

Former Trustee Walk-about, 3:00 - 3:45

Tour to build interest in new LS building

Wednesday, June 5th

Fifth Grade Year End Party, 6-8:00pm

Thursday, June 6th

NO FACULTY MEETING- Time for report writing or other EoY tasks

Beginning and Lower School Field Day

Look for a plan early this week from the PE team.

Friday, June 7th

Assembly and Walk-for-Fun and Fitness, Beginning at 8:10

Look for a plan from Kristen and the PE Team this week

Promotion Rehearsal- Fifth Graders, 12:30-2

Monday, June 10th

Last Primary through Fifth Grade Chapel of the Year at 11:55

Tuesday, June 11th

Promotion Rehearsal- Fifth Graders, 12:00-2:30

Wednesday, June 12th

LS Promotion Ceremony, Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, 9:30-10:30

Fifth Grade Promotion Reception, 10:30-11:30

Organize fro report writing. Pack room.

Thursday, June 13th

End-of-Year Faculty Meeting, 8:30-11:30 Agenda to follow

End-of-Year Celebration Luncheon- 11:30-1, BRING YOUR OWN LAWN CHAIR OR PICNIC BLANKET, We’ll eat outside if weather permits!

Afternoon- Write reports

Friday, June 14th

Write reports. No meetings

Monday, June 17th

Look Ahead Faculty Meeting, Agenda to follow

THA Meeting, 1:30-3, All Lower School Faculty

Report writing. Reports due at end of day.

Tuesday, June 18th

Peer review reports

All School Faculty and Staff Chapel and Meeting, 11-12

All School Faculty and Staff Closing Luncheon, 12-2

Peer Review Reports

BS Reports submitted to Jenny for mailing

Pack up room for summer.

Thursday, June 20th

End of Day - All reports loaded on PCR, ready to go out to parents

Primarians at Before School Recess Rest of the Year

Dori will have Primarians start their day on ACP beginning Monday, June 3rd through the close of the year. She wants them to experience what it will be like when they enter First Grade in September. They will line up by the Beginning School gate at 7:50.

OPERATIONS

Bereavement Leave

There are modifications to the Bereavement Leave policy. See Employee Handbook.

Gift in Kind

Should you receive a significant gift in kind Development has a form

Uniform Donation Drop Off

We will be coordinating uniform drop-off this week.

LS Weekly Memo Week 38 : May  27-31

Another great week filled with big events: Pre-K and Kindergarten Moving Into Coffees, Third Grade Overnight, Pre-K Learning Celebration (Oh, I wished you could have seen the art installation in the Wetlands- breath-taking beautiful work!), First Grade Field Trip to Zenger Farm, 4th Grade Spanish Field Trip to Woodburn Family Learning Center, culminating in the raucous Fifth Grade Uniform Parade. Wow, what a week!

Get ready. Next week looks just as busy- Primary and First Grade Coffees, Spanish teacher finalists visit (see below for details), Lifer Lunch and Kindergarten and Primary Learning Celebrations.  Let us know if you have a big upcoming event that you want us to attend.

COMMUNITY

First Grade Boys

Our thanks to all who have worked very hard to make the playground safe for all First Grade boys. We will continue with our safety plan next week. Look for an email update if you supervise or teach the five students we tracked this week.  

Kris Van Auken Retirement

Thursday, May 30th, is the Lower School Spring Concert from 6:30 - 8:00pm. It will be Kris van Auken’s final performance at OES with her 3rd - 5th grade choir.  Kris established the Kodaly method of music instruction here at OES.  She retired from regular teaching a few years ago and kept conducting her choir. Now she has decided that she is ready to retire from her choir conducting position as well. Please join us for a reception after the concert in her honor and in celebration of her 18 years of service to OES.

Specialists and THA

Thank you to all the Specialists who made the time to meet with THA. They are well on their way to putting the puzzle together that will be the LS building.

PROGRAM

Consulting with Ari or Patti

As you begin contemplating reports, both Patti and Ari are available for consultations about students.

Update on Hiring for the Spanish Teaching Position

Two semi-finalists visit next week.  Annie Ericson, on Tues., May 28th and Lissete O’Neil, on Wed., May 29th.  Our thanks to Kirstin, Carole, Erin and Kiah who host the demonstration lesson in their classrooms. We appreciate that this is a very busy time of year to be fitting in a special lesson.  

Annie and Lissete will have full days of interviews and tours.  

Specialists Reports

Consider writing comments that could serve a number of students (something like a template).  Good to have a male and female version for each in my experience (keeping his, him, she, her straight). Have a colleague proof your comments/templates before you actually write the reports and insert students’ names. That cuts down on typos and errors that get repeated multiple times.

Stipend Decision

Stipend Decisions will be coming out this week.

OPERATIONS

All LS Faculty Meeting on Thursday, May 30th, 7:30-8:30

We’ll meet in the DVR to do our “sprint to the finish”  end-of-year planning.

Room 10

Thank you to Karen Meenen for her heroic effort in Room 10 cleaning up Lost and Found and Used Uniforms.  The 5th grade uniform parade added piles of clothes on Friday so be patient as she works her way through. You can do your part by being sure that you neatly store your things in Room 10.

Promotion Ceremony, June 12

Hard to believe it is only 2.5 weeks away.

Specialists, please sit with your buddy class.

5th grade buddy Specialists please help with crowd control as the 5th Graders line up to enter the Chapel.  At the end of the ceremony, 5th grade Specialists, please leave the ceremony promptly and head to the MS Commons to help supervise the 5th Grade Reception in MS Commons.

Book Donations

Sidney Gold, former head of LS, is assisting a book drive for the Children’s Book Bank. If you have extra books you are looking to pass on at the end of the year, The Children's Book Bank  can clean them up and give them to children who would benefit from read-aloud books at home.  You can check their website http://www.childrensbookbank.org    for more info.  Sidney will arrange a pick-up at the end of the year fro any books you are willing to donate.

Last Day of School

Schedule will come out on Tuesday.

LS Weekly Memo Week 37 : May  20-24

Last week the 4th grade International Fair was a huge success. The 5th graders were terrific at Camp Hancock. The 1st graders celebrated their learning with their parents. Jane and her Legoites put on a great show at the zoo.  My thanks to all who made these experiences possible for our students.

This week we look forward to Moving into Coffees, class placement meetings, the 3rd Grade Pioneer Camp, Primary-2nd Grade Discovery Day, PreK learngin Celebration and more.  Keep your eyes on the calendar.

COMMUNITY

Duties

As students sense the approaching end of the school year, they benefit from our diligent supervision to help guide them to making good choices.  When on duty be attentive, walk around and be aware.

Friends with Plans:

Will Trunzo

Will is working hard to manage his physical and verbal impulsivity.  Chris or David should be informed immediately if Will has issues with either.  Thank you to Asha for providing extra structure and care for Will.  

Cole Taylor

Cole has reported to his parents that he has been on the receiving end of significant bullying by other 1st grade boys. We all need to be extra vigilant of Cole to help us understand the social dynamic that is happening.  Chris and Doug have developed extensive plans to manage the issues.  Please inform Chris and me immediately if you see Cole or other 1st grade boys engaging in excessively rough and/ or unkind behavior.

Recess Supervision

Thanks to all who helped support the First Grade boys.  We hope to send out photos early in the week. Look for photos in your box if you supervise these children at lunch or recess.

AP Exams Going On Thursday, May 24th

We need Fourth and Fifth Grade students to enter and exit the dining hall quietly Thursday morning as Upper School students will be taking AP exams.

Please have students walk quietly up and around the Middle School and enter the dining hall through the back door.

PROGRAM

Faculty Meetings

• Team Meetings, Thursday, May 23th
  See Team Leaders for agendas.

• All LS Faculty Meeting, May 30

End of Year review

• LS Faculty Meeting, June 6

Report Card preparations

LSCTF Met Last Week

Topics explored-

• Update on EoY Inquiry Work/Learning Celebrations
• Inquiry Inspiration for Next Year
• The Five Year Plan for Curriculum Renewal
• Materials to Hand Up to Next Year’s Teacher
• EoY Faculty Meeting Planning

This was our first meeting since February. The LSCTF met fewer times this year, shifting curriculum renewal work to Team Leaders and their Team Meetings. Everyone agreed that we need to meet more frequently in this vertical group to tackle these big tasks. We will find a time to meet before the end of the year. This meeting may need to take place over lunch.  Lyn will help us find a date and time that most members can attend.

Summer Stipends

We will meet to review stipend requests in the coming week.  Look for more information in the coming days.  Thank you for submitting your request by the 5/17 deadline.

OPERATIONS

Managing Confidential Information

I received two reports of students being exposed to confidential information: one due to a misspelling of a teacher’s name in the email address line, the other due to confidential information being left on a teacher’s desk.  Take the time to be sure you are being careful with sensitive information.

LSLT Meeting, Monday, May 20th @ 3:15 in Tonya’s Classroom

We’ll meet to wrap up the year and look ahead to the start of next year.

Report Card Forms

Brad Baugher and Debra Thomas are working to ensure the report card forms are available to you for the long weekend.  Do not begin completing forms in PCR until we have communication that the forms are ready for use.

Raised Beds Update

A number of you expressed concerns about watering raised beds over the summer.  We will reinstall timers (the first timers disappeared) and look for alternative methods of watering.  We know that gardening is an important part of the Pre-K through Third Grade science curriculum and want to support that work, but we need to come up with solutions that don’t involve Mark, and Scott as summer landscape support.

Last Week of School for Faculty

6/13  Thursday 8:30 – 12:00 – wrap up of 2012-13 year

6/14  Friday – report writing

        THA – possible meetings, Specialists and Team Leaders

6/17  Monday  - 8:30 – 12:00 - LS Faculty Meeting

        THA meeting with All LS Faculty and Staff  1:30 – 3:00

6/ 18 Tuesday -  8:30 - 11:00 Report proofing and posting

All F/S Meeting              11:00 – 12:00 pm

All F/S Chapel                 12:00 – 12:30 pm

All F/S Lunch                   12:30 – 2:30 pm

Emergencies and Media

When news agencies learned of the arrest of the Bon Appetit employee two weeks ago, some news representatives made their way to campus.  If you find yourself being approached by the news media about school issues, do not offer comments, but direct the media to Marty Jones, Director of Communications.

AP Exams on May 23

Be quiet as enter the US building for lunch.  They will be testing in the Platt Global Classroom as well as other rooms. (I communicated something on this topic above. Take a look)

LS Weekly Memo Week 36 : May 13-17

Thank you to all who helped make MHCSD such a success; from the opening Belltower gathering, to the great variety of projects you took on over the course of the day.  This was one of our best. 

May the 5th graders have a great week at Camp Hancock and the 4th graders enjoy the inaugural International Fair.

COMMUNITY

School Building Work

Thank you for your work with the THA team.  From the observations last Tuesday and the conversations on Thursday, they left campus with a lot of information about us to guide the design process.  They are reviewing what they learned and with whom they would still like to converse.  We will plan a report out meeting with THA and the LS Faculty on June 17 or 18.

School Building Ideas Submitted to David by May 17th

The Team Leaders and Kirstin McAuley, Building Committee Representative, with work with THA about next steps

Last 4.5 Weeks of School

This time of year is that challenging convergence for our students of special activities and projects, excitement about summer, and some fatigue and tired minds.  We have seen a recent increase in accidents and behavior issues. Be aware of the pace, stress and energy of your students.

International Fair

We are full of anticipation, wondering what the first International Fair  will look like. We hope that all of the grades/classes will get a chance to see and experience (on an age-appropriate level) this amazing event. Our thanks to the Fourth Grade Team for their hard work and dedication putting this massive project together.

Camp Hancock

As you all know, the Fifth Grade heads out Monday morning for their 5 day adventure at Camp Hancock.  David will join them from Wednesday through Friday. Chris will be in charge in his absence.   Please check the duty coverage list to see if you can help out with duties. Thanks in advance for your help.

Lego Exhibit at the Zoo

Jane and her Lego devotees will put on another spectacular show at the zoo next Saturday and Sunday (5/18 and 5/19). Come see our amazing Lego designers, builders and engineers in action!

PROGRAM

LSCTF, Monday, May 13th 3:15-4

Our final meeting of the year to talk about:

• Inquiry projects
• End of year meetings
• Agreements on what to hand up to the next year’s teachers
• 5-year curriculum plan for Pre-K through Fifth Grade.

Requests from Mark Henningsen- Raised Beds Gardeners

Mark asked that everyone clean up their raised beds this spring.  Raised garden beds are the first thing you see when you drive up to the main parking lot. Raised garden beds are the first thing families and visitors see when they approach the school from the Loop Road parking lot.  Mark asked that if you plant a summer crop, that you arrange for reliable help with watering.  They can’t take on extra watering jobs.

OPERATIONS

Recess Supervision

In recent weeks we’ve had a spate of broken bones, chipped teeth and excessive roughness. There have been issues in the lunch room too.  It is spring and energy runs high. Please circulate and be vigilant when on duty!

•We need extra supervision for a group of First Grade boys who have been engaging in rough and sometimes, unsafe and unkind play. Most of these boys are in Doug’s class, one is from Marty’s class.  We hope to give them new outlets for recess play with natural building materials. Doug is working on that early next week.  We hope that PE folks could introduce them to the rousing game of kickball, or other fast, active games that have rules and might promote teamwork.  Look for an email early next week identifying who these children are.

We would like one designated person at each recess to keep an eye on their play, be proactive and redirect them when necessary.  Please let Doug and/or Marty know right away if their play goes awry.

•Clarification of what is and is not safe on climbing structures

•Rock Hounds Unsafe Rock Smashing

A group of First Grade boys love to break open rocks to see what is inside. While we can all understand this fascination, it is an eye safety concern.  They are also removing large basalt rocks from WW to smash the rocks. Not good. Please talk to your students about these issues. Folks on duty, please be sure to supervise this area and keep children safe.

•Natural Builders

There is a group of First Grade boys that need positive play choices. It so happens that they love to build with natural materials.  Next week we plan to collect natural materials from around campus to use in their constructions.  They will come up with agreements on how they will use and store these materials in the shed.  

If you have Second or Third Graders who might be interested in this endeavor, please let Chris know. We want this to be an inclusive project. Stay tuned for more details.

Lunch Room- Mix and Mingle with Next Year’s Potential Classmates, First through Fourth Grades

Just a thought...

What if we assigned children to lunch tables, mixing and mingling them, with potential classmates for next year, or something less structured, with children who might not know each other, but could potentially be friends, share affinities.  Grade level teams would need to agree with this, of course.  We thought this might be helpful, especially for some fragile children who are having difficulties with challenging friendships.

Last Day of School Year for Faculty - Tuesday, June 18th

• All F/S Meeting              11:00 – 12:00 pm
• All F/S Chapel                 12:00 – 12:30 pm
• All F/S Lunch                   12:30 – 2:30 pm
• We may need a LS meeting in the morning to work with the architects.