Bridge School: Principal's News
Meg Colella
Monthly Highlights/Thank You
~The Bridge Afterschool Enrichment Program (BAE) is off to a great start. Thank you to the PTA for organizing these after school programs and for the countless volunteers who are helping to ensure it is run smoothly.
~Thank you to the Bridge and Lexington Community for coming out for the Quinn Amsler Memorial 5K. It was a huge success. Over 400 participated in the run and countless volunteers helped to organize. The Amsler family is greatly appreciative of the support they have received over the past year as well as the continued support and donations to the Quinn Amsler Memorial Scholarship Fund. Last year alone, the scholarship foundation received over $36,000 in donations. The 2017 LHS recipient was at the starting line thanking runners for their donations.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Bridge School staff members are looking forward to Parent Teacher Conferences. Parent Teacher Conferences will take place the last week of October and first week of November. The conversations that occur during Parent/Teacher Conferences focus on each student and provide time for parents/guardians and teachers to share important information about each child’s education and well-being.
Conferences are most satisfying for all parties when both teachers and parents prepare by taking time to reflect on the current strengths and to formulate educational goals for individual children. Parents/guardians and teachers come to the conference with different perspectives but a similar goal: to share information that will promote growth in academic, social and emotional spheres for the child.
Teachers work to make conferences valuable by following these guidelines:
· Contact parents in advance of the conference if there are significant concerns – academic or social.
· Provide a snapshot of current strengths and areas in need of attention and focus.
· Set school goals for the next few months.
· Describe the child at school; hear from the parent about the child at home.
· Respect the allotted time scheduled for each family.
Parents/guardians, too have a responsibility when planning for conferences. They provide important information about the child’s life outside of school. Here are several guidelines for parents:
· Get in touch with the teacher prior to the conference if you have significant concerns. The teacher can then respond thoughtfully when you meet.
· Share your perspective regarding your child and listen to the teacher’s description of how your child presents at school.
· Follow-up with the teacher afterwards if you leave with unanswered questions.
· Try to avoid cancellations or last minute changes – scheduling conferences is a juggling act that teachers organize well in advance.
As you know, Bridge School has many specialists that may work with your child; special educators, ELL teachers, mathematics coaches, literacy specialists, and more. Some of these staff members may attend your child’s conference. If you specifically would like to meet with a staff member who works directly with your child, please contact the classroom teacher in advance so that she/he can work to invite and schedule that specialist to attend the conference.
We look forward to having the opportunity to share the wonderful work and successes your child(ren) are experiencing here at Bridge School.
What is a Bridge Patriot?
What is a Bridge Patriot?
At Bridge we feel it is very important to recognize students for their hard work and perseverance, and we do so through our Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). You may have heard about being a Bridge Patriot, or perhaps your student has even come home wearing a Bridge Patriot sticker. We use the Bridge Patriot stickers to recognize students for demonstrating one of the ABCs of Bridge School. The “A” represents a positive attitude. The “B” represents good behavior. The “C” represents character. When a student earns a sticker, it is an immediate way to recognize him/her for something positive. There are many ways to earn a sticker; some examples include helping a friend, working through a difficult problem without giving up, or modeling good behavior. The students wear these stickers with pride, so be sure to acknowledge your child when s/he comes home wearing one!
In addition to earning stickers as an individual, classes work to earn tickets for working together as a class. Classes work hard each week to be recognized for good behavior in the halls, coming in from recess, in the cafeteria and during specialists. Each class can earn tickets for when they are caught demonstrating the ABCs of Bridge School. Some way to earn tickets include walking quietly in the hall so other classes are not interrupted in their learning; using the quiet signal when prompted; pausing silently for any announcements on the loudspeaker; and working together as a class. Each week the class with the most tickets earns a 15-minute bonus that can include extra recess, lunch with a teacher, class dance party, etc. We are also excited to continue our weekly goals to see how many tickets we can earn collectively as a school. Each time we reach our school goal, we will celebrate the success of working together as an entire school!
Everyone at Bridge shows up to his or her best and our PBIS system is designed to provide positive reinforcement for students who are practicing to be better everyday.
Choosing the Winner
Be a Bridge Patriot
B: Behavior
C: Character
Thermometer
Lending Library
Bridge Lending Library
Thank you to the 2017 5th grade class for their gift of the Bridge Lending Library. A Little Free Library is a community book exchange where anyone passing by can take a book to read or leave a book for someone else to find. Please visit the Bridge Lending Library near the Teaching Gardens - Take a Book & Leave a Book!
Traffic/Parking
1. Live Pick Up opens at 3:00pm. Cars will be asked to leave if they enter prior to this time.
2. Stay in your car during Live Pick Up. Staff will assist students as needed.
3. In order for busses to access, and if needed, emergency vehicles, there is no parking in the blue lined spaces in the front circle during drop off and pick up.
4. Please do not create spaces or idle in the front circle.
5. PTA and staff members will be outside during drop off and pick up to help with traffic flow. Please thank them for volunteering for this duty!