The COnnection
MARSD Central Office Newsletter February/March 2018
A Message from Dr. Majka - Superintendent of Schools
2017-2018 Governor's Educator of the Year
Cambridge Park School:
Elizabeth Carey - Teacher of the Year
Christine D'Angelo - Educational Services Professional
Cliffwood Elementary School:
Gloria Natale - Teacher of the Year
Sharon Collins - Educational Services Professional
Ravine Drive School:
Denise Lepre - Teacher of the Year
Susan Silano - Educational Services Professional
Strathmore Elementary School:
Amy Tomkins - Teacher of the Year
Kathryn Hausmann - Educational Services Professional
Lloyd Road School:
Donna Sakowski - Teacher of the Year
Denise O'Brien - Educational Services Professional
Matawan Aberdeen Middle School:
Brittany Bennett - Teacher of the Year
Melanie Schueller - Educational Services Professional
Matawan Regional High School:
Sam Pickens - Teacher of the Year
Zachary Gross - Educational Services Professional
Parent Workshop Series
Dr. Selbst presented his third parent workshop on January 17, and will conclude the 4 part series on February 21st at 6:30 pm in the Cambridge Park Boardroom. Each workshop is intended to provide parents with concrete information and strategies to increase children's social emotional learning, manage challenging behaviors, and promote generalization across settings.
Preschool Open Enrollment
The Cambridge Park Preschool has opened enrollment for the 2018-19 school year. We’re excited to offer a full day program taught by dually certified teachers. Registration information can be found on our website at https://www.marsd.org/domain/1167.
The Preschool’s HighScope Curriculum is based on the principles of active learning and support of a child's positive interactions with adults and peers. It is a research-based curriculum which uses a comprehensive model to address all areas of development through eight content areas:
Approaches to Learning
Social and Emotional Development
Physical Development and Health
Language, Literacy and Communication
Mathematics
Creative Arts
Science and Technology
Social Studies
While learning in these content areas prepares children for later schooling, HighScope takes the learning process beyond traditional academic subjects by applying methods that promote independence, curiosity, decision making, cooperation, persistence, creativity, and problem solving in young children.
Greeting time is a group gathering where we welcome each other to school. Greeting time prepares the children for their entire day. It is also great time to work on letter recognition, decoding, and math skills.
Small group time allows the teacher a better opportunity observe individual skills of the children. We often work on writing, fine motor, math skills, literacy skills, problem solving, and creative representation during our small groups.
The Plan, Do, & Review process allows the children the freedom to make their own choices and plans, gives them the opportunity to follow through with those plans, and then discuss what they have learned while attending to the task that they posed for themselves.
Dramatic Play helps children creatively express themselves through pretend play. We practice life skills, increase vocabulary, and problem solve.
Art helps children to creatively express themselves. We also further develop fine motor skills, as well as concepts such as shapes, colors, and spatial relationships.
Science activities offer students a chance to use hands on learning to explore the world around them. We observe, investigate, predict, and experiment.
Sensory activities allow our children to experiment with different textures: smooth, rough, squishy, crunchy, etc. These activities also promote the development of other skills such as math, science, and language.
Block play allows our children the opportunity to explore shape, size, spatial awareness, number skills, balance, organization, cause and effect, just to name a few. Vlock play also allows creativity, problem solving, cooperative play, and development of other social skills.
Monmouth University Works with Autism Classes
Monmouth University continued their work with our self contained autism classrooms, expanding from just the elementary levels to all grade PK-12+. Their focus is on coaching staff to improve practice and instructional assistant training. Some parents also participated by providing input regarding programming and communication.
Mark Your Calendar for School Closures
Friday, February 16, 2018 and Monday, February 19, 2018 (District Schools/Offices Closed)
Staff In-Service Day:
Friday, March 9, 2018 (School Closed for Students Only)
Training for Cambridge Park Staff Only:
Friday, March 16, 2018 (Cambridge Park School Closed for Students Only)
Spring Break:
Friday, March 30, 2018 - Friday, April 6, 2018 (District Schools/Offices Closed)