CCS Newsletter
September 28, 2018
ADMINISTRATION UPDATE
Dear CCS Friends and Families,
Today marks the last Friday in September and we are closing in on the “six-week mark”. CCS teachers, with our full encouragement, are still well within The First Six Weeks - a time period in which schools focus on relationships and routines. The relationships must come first. Without relationships, routines are not going to be as consistent and relevant as they should be. Based on a great deal of experience and well-supported by a plethora of research, we know that a positive student-teacher relationship has a significant impact on student achievement. A well-known educational study conducted by and written about in Visible Learning by John Hattie, examined the effect of many variables on achievement. It concluded that strong student-teacher relationships are more than likely to have “above average effects on student achievement” (Hattie, 2009).
This is the time of year when families will be coming into CCS for Parent-Teacher Conferences. The district set aside October 19th for conferences. Your child(ren)s’ teachers will soon be reaching out to you to either schedule a conference on the 19th or share other dates and times during which they will hold conferences. Some of you may have already come in for a conference. One of the most important influences on a student-teacher relationship is the parent/guardian-teacher relationship! Children take the lead of the adults that they spend time with and being part of a strong, child-centered relationship between home and school is critical to a child’s love of learning and achievement at school.
We believe that there are a few essential strategies that can be utilized by both school personnel and caregivers that support a strong working relationship. At CCS, we strive to embody these strategies:
Communicate respectfully, honestly and proactively;
Communicate from a strengths-based perspective - focusing on what a child is doing well and can do provides a foundation to build upon;
Offer solutions when there is a concern;
Assume good intentions, and
When in doubt, ask!
Our administrative team is embedded in the daily and weekly work of teaching with our teachers and paraprofessionals. We are so inspired by how well faculty and staff know their students and how eagerly students are engaging in classes. We know that it will not always be smooth sailing and that there are sometimes some serious conversations that must happen to best serve a student. If we are entering those conversations with a foundation of trust and good intentions, we are truly better together!
We look forward to seeing you come in for conferences, as well as visits and volunteer opportunities!
Warm Regards,
Stephanie, Jen and Cassandra
COLLABORATIVE 4TH GRADE ARTWORK
HAPPY KIDS ON THE AM PURPLE BUS
PURPLE BUS DRIVER, BRIAN DALMER, & HIS CREW
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
Friday, September 28th
Dance! MPR, grades 6-8, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Tuesday, October 2nd
Early Release, 1:55pm
Friday, October 5th
Field Trip - Architects to Shelburne Museum, 9:30am - 2:30pm
Monday, October 8
Field Trip - Adventurers to Whitcomb's Land of Pumpkins, 8:30am - 11:15am
Tuesday, October 9th
Early Release, 1:55pm
Wednesday, October 10th
CVSD Team Spelling Bee, WCS, 8:00am - 12:00pm
Field Trip - Navigators to Maritime Museum, 9:15am - 1:45pm
Tuesday, October 16th
Early Release, 1:55pm
CVSD School Board Meeting, CVU Rm 160, 6:00pm
Thursday, October 18th
Field Trip - Alpha 6 to Flynn Theater, 9:15am
Field Trip - Omega 7/8 to Flynn Theater, 9:15am
Friday, October 19th
NO SCHOOL - Parent / Teacher Conferences
Tuesday, October 23rd
Early Release, 1:55pm
Thursday, October 25th
Field Trip - Navigators to Shelburne Museum, 8:30am - 1:00pm
Friday, October 26th
Staff Appreciation Luncheon, Staff Room, 11:00am - 1:00pm - Sponsored by the PTO
CELEBRATIONS FOR THE WEEK:
Last week’s Golden Paintbrush Award for exemplary behavior and class performance in Art went to 7A.
This week’s Gold Tray Award (for exemplary conduct in the cafeteria) goes to Omega (grades 7-8).
Tonight is the first CCS Middle School dance for students in grades 6-8.
- It is always nice to hear that our students are being “good when no one is watching.” We hear that often and heard it again when the driver of the bus delivering soccer students to an away game this week told coach John Gallagher that the students were perfect on the ride to the field.
SARAH PIERSON, CCS WORLD LANGUAGE TEACHER - UVM TEACHER OF THE YEAR
Each year, the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont, together with Vermont supervisory unions and school districts, the Vermont Agency of Education, and the Vermont NEA, join to honor the accomplishments of our state’s outstanding educators. On Monday, October 1, CCS World Language Teacher Sarah Pierson will be recognized as one of UVM’s Teacher of the Year. Madame Pierson has been an integral part of our CCS teaching staff for almost 30 years. Sarah taught French for many years and also pursued and received an endorsement to teach Spanish. Emulating characteristics of a life-long learner, Sarah’s pursuit of Spanish proficiency included self-directed learning in Oaxaca as well as a hike along Spain’s Camino de Santiago trail. Sarah has had a key influence on the lives of countless CCS students, both as a World Language Teacher and a middle-school advisor!
CCS LIBRARY NEWS
Students in grades K-4 are getting ready to participate in the Global Readaloud during the month of October! Founded by educator Pernille Ripp, the Global Readaloud reaches over 1 million students world-wide and provides Mrs. Huestis with the opportunity to integrate the teaching of literacy and digital citizenship skills with her students.
Check out the Global Readaloud website for more information about the stories we will share together and visit our library blog at booksliveon.wordpress.com for updates during the month of October.
"Global collaboration is necessary to show students that they are part of something bigger than them. That the world needs to be protected and that we need to care for all people. You can show them pictures of kids in other countries but why not have them speak to each other? Then the caring can begin." - Pernille Ripp
WANTED - HAND TOOL DONATIONS FOR MAKER/BREAKERSPACE
Do you have any handtools that are gathering dust in your garage or basement? If so - it would be fantastic if you would consider a donation to CCS so that we can put them in student’s hands this year as they begin to experience our new Maker/BreakerSpace in Room 310.
The goal of this space is to provide students with the resources to learn about principles of design - by taking things apart (aka “breaking”) and putting other things together (aka “making”). In order to do this - we are striving to develop a collection of screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, wrenches, clamps, etc. as well as a few simple power tools such as battery powered drills and screwdrivers. As you can see - our tool wall is just a little empty right now - with plenty of room to grow!
Our seventh and eighth graders are just designing their fall personal interest projects, and we already have students interested in exploring bicycle repair, computer components, lego robotics, and stringed instrument creation - so likely any donation will immediately be put to good use. Here are a couple pictures of the exciting hands-on work we hope will soon be living in our new space.
Donations can be left with Cindy at the CCS front desk labeled for Allan Miller, CCS Digital Learning Leader. If you would like a receipt for the donation, please leave your name and contact information (address or email) and we will send it to you.
If you have any questions please reach out to Allan at akmiller@cvsdvt.org.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF TECHNOLOGY AT CCS
One of our goals at CCS is to help students come to recognize the amazing power of technology to support and enhance their learning. We are so fortunate to have a great collection of iPads, Chromebooks and laptops for our students, and in a walk-around this Thursday there were three great examples of how this technology is being utilized by our students and staff.
One example was a Middle School Spanish class where I found students using a program called Quizlet to practice and test their vocabulary. The classroom was just a buzz of energy as students worked in small groups listening and reading on these interactive lessons Senora Reina had created. In Madame Pierson’s French classes, I’ve also seen students using IPads and Wevideo to record and edit their own French videos modeling real life scenarios such as ordering in a restaurant.
Another example was in second grade, where this picture shows students using a program called Lexia for individual literacy and phonics. In the space of just two weeks in both Ms. Filardi’s and Ms. Lubic’s classes, students have gone from not knowing how to log onto their Chromebook or navigate to a website to being able to independently dive right into their lessons on spelling, sight words and sentence structure. Hearing “are we done already” at the end of a focused 25 minutes of language arts is evidence that this is a great reinforcement to the instruction both teachers are giving every day in their lessons.
In first grade, Mrs. Gerson and Mrs. Spellman ended their day by introducing a new iPad app called Seesaw. It’s an exciting new program that has the potential to really open up the door for students to share their work and thinking both with their teachers as well as their families. Students were learning how to use the program to take a picture, add text or drawings, and even record a voice-over describing their work. We are really looking forward to being able to use this so that students might share their thinking from a math lesson, or read aloud a piece of their writing so that parents will be able to hear and experience the great learning that is happening everyday in our classrooms. In this picture Mrs. Gerson was helping to add some pink and a cute title to “pirate selfie” - you can bet it was awesome, but stay tuned as we are just getting warmed up with this new platform!
QUIZLET IN MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH CLASS
LEXIA IN GRADE 2 CLASSROOMS
SEESAW IN GRADE 1 CLASSROOMS
SPORTS SCHEDULES
FOUR WINDS LOOKING FOR PARENT VOLUNTEERS
Do you like science experiments? Interested in sharing your knowledge of nature? Want to learn more about our local environment? Looking for a way to be present in your child's classroom?
Four Winds is a hands-on science and nature program for K-4 taught by parent volunteers. There are training workshops at the beginning of the month (for parents that are unable to attend the workshops at CCS, the material is also available online), and then volunteers teach the lesson to their child's class.
Our first Four Winds workshop will be on Wednesday, October 3 at 8:15 a.m. in the cafeteria.
Questions? Contact ccs4winds@gmail.com
OCTOBER LUNCH MENU
CHARLOTTE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Check out our website.