It has now been almost five months since I made the journey across the country to our beautiful Vermont. I have been thinking a lot about what makes a place a home. Is it buying a house in a new place? Perhaps home is where your family is? Maybe it's where you happen to land a job? What exactly makes home home? I have come to the conclusion that home is far from being a physical thing, but it is an emotional connection and sense of belonging that is truly at the heart of "home". Home is not so much about the place but about the people you forge connections with. I have discovered that although I miss my friends and family back in California, there are wonderful, kind, thoughtful, and compassionate people that I am once again blessed to know right here in Vermont. My neighbors in Killington bring us warm muffins on cool weekend mornings and come over just to chat and check to make sure we are well. I spend most daylight hours at home at Cavendish Elementary School. The students greet me each day with smiles and open hearts. The teachers and staff are ready to do their best and help me learn the ways of Vermont: places that have the best Thai food, places NOT to go during leaf peeping season, people to call upon when I need more wood chips, and exactly who to call if I need advice about tractors or how many cords of wood I need to make it through winter. When I stop in to Singeltons for a quick sandwich at lunch or make a stop into the Dunkin Donuts in Ludlow, there is a friendly face to meet me and ask how the school is doing. When I have worked too much on long days at school and light turns into darkness, there are wise ones that tell me it's time to go and guide me out the door... So, as we approach fall and a time of Thanksgiving, thank you all for helping me find my way home.

With thanks,

Amy Bohren

Cavendish Elementary School Principal

“I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.” – Calvin Coolidge

CTES prides itself in creating a learning environment for all students that feels safe and where students know they have a caring adult available to help them navigate both academic and socio-emotional challenges. Did you know that we have an anti-bullying coordinator? Our coordinator is our school counselor, Maureen Stevens. She works closely with Mrs. Bohren to ensure state and federal policies and recommended protocols are followed regarding the reporting of bullying at school or on social media.

Resources for Parents

Communicating With Schools

GreatSchool's "Making Your Child’s School Safe and Supportive" details specific questions parents can ask principals or other school leaders about how a school handles issues like social and emotional learning; teaching respect; and preventing bullying, harassment, and exclusion. The "10 Facts Parents, Educators, and Students Need to Know" from Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center contains "Notifying the School About Bullying — Using a Template Letter" for parents needing to communicate with schools about bullying incidents, including templates for parents of children with special needs.

Cyberbullying

What are some ways you can initiate conversations with your children about cyberbullying?

Common Sense Media's Cyberbullying Topic Center provides comprehensive parent guides on everything parents need to know, organized developmentally by age and stage. If you are a parent of a teen, you may also want to review their "17 Sites and Apps Kids Are Heading to After Facebook," newly updated for 2016. In addition, the downloadable tip sheet, "Technology and Youth: Protecting Your Child From Electronic Aggression," from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the "Prevent Cyberbullying" page from StopBullying.gov include advice on specific actions parents and caregivers can take.

For more ways to take action against cyberbullying, take a look at these resources from Edutopia:

• Online Pressures and Unhappy Children, by Amy Williams (2016)
• 4 Digital Safety Tips for Summer Break, by Josh Work (2015)
• What Bullying Looks Like in the Digital Age and How to Prevent It, by Amy Williams (2014)

We need volunteers to make our Greven Field Trunk or Treat even more exciting by being a part of our Spooky Parade! Please email Steve Perani sp@theweekend.biz right away if you can help with any of these needed tasks:

people requests

people to support the bride, or be in the bridal party

adults, or responsible parties to be funny aliens in costumes (hazmat suit with goggles, funny headwear)

folks to sit in staged areas (no walking necessary), stir dry ice pots and help with monster buckets

equipment requests:

long exterior extension cords

helium tank

dry ice

this week from home

help putting together funny alien zombie costumes (have hazmat suits, hats and goggles need some detailing)

tasks immediately before the walk

setting up path (a couple of hours)

putting up spider webbing (have some, but could use more)

setting up spooky curtains (have them, just need help)

setting up blind pots full of monster guts (5 gallon buckets with pasta and grapes)

tasks during the walk minding existing equipment:

generator

fog machine

low impact strobe light

sound

ICE CREAM FRIDAYS start again on November 4th. Ice cream will be sold during lunches for $1.50 by the 6th grade class. Lunch must be eaten before students can purchase the ice cream bars and only one per student is allowed. All profits from the ice cream sales go towards the Keewaydin Environmental Camp fund for 6th graders in the spring.

Please enjoy reading this article in the Vermont Journal about our CTES night enjoying a meal as a community and raising funds for Bob! (click on title above to read article!)

Hearing and Vision Screening for Students

The Lion’s club will be coming on Thursday 11/3/22 to do Vision screening for all students. I will be doing hearing screenings for all of the students throughout the school year as I am able. You will only receive information from me if the screening is abnormal and follow up is needed. Feel free to contact me if you have specific concerns about your child’s hearing or vision.

Upcoming Flu/COVID bivalent booster clinics provided by Rescue Inc mobile unit

GMUHS will be hosting a clinic on Tuesday, October 25th. The clinic will be open to school staff and students from 2:00- 3:30 and then open to the public 3:30-6.

There will be a clinic at Ludlow Elementary school on Tuesday 11/1/22 that will be open to the public from 4-6pm. There will also be a clinic for ONLY staff and students at CTES on Friday 11/4 from 12-2p. You are welcome to accompany your child. You will need to complete the attached consent form for them to receive the vaccines.

***Please fill out this survey if interested in getting a vaccine for yourself or your child at these locations so Rescue Inc. knows how much vaccine supply to bring***

https://hipaa.jotform.com/222823755075055

See attached links for vaccine clinic forms. Feel free to call or email if you have any questions.

Thank You,

Andria Donohue, RN (802-875-7703)

andria.donohue@trsu.org

Immunization Consent Form https://docs.google.com/document/d/13pYO9M_oJaa2tzcrRjsrmQ0DAhy-0s8o/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117785994622583571450&rtpof=true&sd=true

Green Mountain Vaccine Clinic

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bPrXW6aCCX2tRF5zum_zheAH-q7yvZK_/view?usp=sharing

Ludlow Elementary School Clinic

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fWSY7CE0tR7Kr9qJCHOoDueGPbvuoPLF/view?usp=sharing

Cavendish Elementary Vaccine Clinic

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x1eCZEY52SF-1xeDYTx-T53XPcY7dclW/view?usp=sharing

Pfizer Statement (age 12 and older)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M0P7qYIQ5w1xbKEhvCBZ1C-NgIchcDFA/view?usp=sharing

Pfizer Statement (age 5-11)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iY8VWbzU4ohtSBHvqCFxj-AZvED34mWN/view?usp=sharingS statement

Moderna Statement

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I1CDei0u9h5FcZol9Sz4JStWYyBCDJw0/view?usp=sharing

Flu Statement

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aqsWldVOYtjm1z9yrev_nrHtxtkYTnp_/view?usp=sharing

https://vermontjournal.com/health/ctes-fundraises-for-local-bus-driver/

The 4th and 5th graders took an amazing field trip to Castleton University where they each got to work as archaeologists for the day. We began our day with meeting the Enu Abenaki Chief Roger Longtoe Sheehan. He taught us about the many tools that the Abenaki used, sang songs to us and told us a story about Gluskabe and the Moose. We had a tour of the Granger House where we looked at the work that the Castleton University archaeology students have completed a 3D video of what they believe the Granger Homestead looked like based on the artifacts they have found so far. We scraped soil, filled pails, dumped pails, screened dirt, looked for artifacts, counted artifacts, weighed artifacts and bagged artifacts. Thank you to the Cavendish Historical Society for arranging this amazing experience. We definitely have some future archaeologists in our school.

It was so wonderful seeing everyone at the Open House & Ice Cream Social! Many classes experienced 100% of families attending! Thank you to the wonderful volunteers from the Proctorsville Fire Department and Cavendish Historical Society who came to serve the ice cream sundaes!

Students are using special magnifiers to look closely at old maps to determine what each map is about and what the cartographer had intended the use of the map to be. Students engage in a lot of inference work as these history detectives share their thinking with their partner!