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The 2005-06 calendar is now posted on our website
and is also available on the credenza in the front office.
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Welcome to ISM's weekly newsletter for the week of
March 6 - 10, 2006! Please note that the ISM news brief is now available
to ISM families during regular school weeks via our website no later than 7:30 p.m. each Monday (Tuesday, if Monday is a holiday), unless otherwise noted. To request hardcopy notification, please contact Business Administrator / news brief editor Lisa Griffin Burns
at lburns@ismonterey.org
or call at 583-2165.
Please note: Past newsletters can be found
here.
A. WELCOME NEW ADDITION: Last Friday at 9:30 a.m., "Baby Sewell", Alexander Jacob Sewell to be exact, joined proud parents Mike and Teresa and sibling Michaela (Gr. 1, Basu) as a resident of Monterey County and our newest ISM community member! Weighing in at 8 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches in length, Alexander is more than prepared to handle all the hugs and kisses he will be getting from family and friends. Congratulations to the Sewell family and we cannot wait to see Alexander on campus!
B. NEW STUDENT JOINS ISM: Please join me in welcoming Damon Sullivan to Miss Kim's Kindergarten class, as of last Tuesday, 2/28/06! Damon joins our program at this time of year as we will be losing a wonderful family, The Sanghavi family (Aditi, Gr. 2, Amol, Gr. K, and parents Shefaali and Swapnesh), in mid-March as they will be relocating to the San Jose area to start a restaurant (more details to follow). We are happy to say that Damon and his family are thrilled to be here at ISM and we look forward to getting to know them better over the months ahead!
: Just a reminder that Grades 4 and 7 will be participating in the STAR writing test tomorrow morning, 3/7/06. As a result, specialist classes scheduled for the morning for these two grades will be pre-empted by this testing schedule. This is in advance of the week long testing coming up the first week of May, May 1 - 5, 2006 for Grades 2 - 8 (with make-up testing planned for the following week of May 8 - 12, 2006). See Dr. Carber for more information.
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A. ISM TAEKWONDO CHAMPION: ISM second grader Fionna Jensen won two medals at a taekwondo tournament last Friday! Coached by ISM's Taekwondo instructor, Master Daniel Rogers, Fionna competed in her first ever tournament on March 3rd. The World Taekwondo Federation Invitational was held upstate in San Pablo. Bravely, Fionna was the only ISM representative amongst hundreds of students from northern and central California. She competed in two events, forms and sparring, and won silver and bronze medals for her fantastic performances, and absolutely thrilled her family, coach and school! Congratulations, Fionna and Master Rogers!
B. WORLD BOOK DAY SUCCESS: We were thrilled with the outcome of Thursday morning's World Book Day, organized by parent volunteer Janice Barker, in which 12 visitors, in addition to Executive Director Chrissie Jahn and Dr. Carber, visited each of our classrooms and read items of personal interest to the students. The campus visitors included local literary and artistic talent, such as author, Byron Merritt, singer, Marylee Sunseri, and animator and huge supporter of ISM, Ron Dias, and his partner, Howard Blair. Rudy Rosales, a tribal leader of the Esselen nation, also returned to share his wisdom with Sally Burns' 5th graders, even staying longer to assist six students currently working on a Native American project. We were thrilled that four parents also participated in this world reading event, including board member, Paul Gaucher, Elinda Hardy, Kate McKenna, and Elissa McLaurin. Once again, it is events such as this one that make ISM a unique learning environment and we could not produce them without the dedication of amazing parent volunteers like Janice Barker, Rebecca Barrymore, Ellen Gaucher, and Barbara Okamura who provided organizational, photographic, and set up/break down support, in addition to the parent "readers" listed above. Thank you to you all!
C. BIG SUR 5K PARTICIPATION: With a very tight window to round up a "hearty group" of 5K participants, ISM community members once again displayed that they are a group that knows how to rally when it counts. Thanks to the enthusiasm of parent volunteers Aimee and Jeff Cuda, Elissa McLaurin, Lynn Richardson, and Venus Watson....not to mention those of you who committed yourself to participating in the Big Sur 5K on Sunday, April 30th at the early hour of 7:45 a.m., we are now a team of 192 members strong! Buzz Joseph, the 5K rep with the County Office of Ed, commented last Thursday as we were burning the "midnight oil" to submit our team documents that we were certainly in contention again this year for one of the participation awards. That is phenomenal, given the mere days we had to create an ISM team. I want to extend a special thanks to Elissa McLaurin for committing the time and energy to entering all the registration forms in a database last Wednesday and Thursday and staying with me until the bitter end Thursday evening. You are the best!
D. K-2 MOVIE NIGHT: The K-2 movie night on Friday night was a success with 55 K-2 students viewing the film, "Spongebob", and parents taking the opportunity to enjoy a date night out and about. This Student Government fundraiser yielded $275 of which $220 was spent on food and supplies. The $55 profit will be put towards the purchase of speakers used on Movie Night, as well as many more future movie night events. A big thanks to all the K-2 teachers and assistants and Karen Kushel for distributing and collecting the movie night registration forms. The event was supervised by Grade 8 instructor, Mr. David Brandau, and his wife, Instructional Aide (Gr. 1) Laetitia Brandau. Thanks so much to Laetitia for making this event possible with her tireless efforts to stay late on a Friday night to help coordinate the 17 student government volunteers, listed here:
1) Iljin Cho (5-8 President), 2) Adrien Melac (5-8 Vice President, 3) Josephine Ordaz-Hoang (5-8 2nd Vice-President), 4) Nick Evans (Student Government Member), 5) Spiro Pettas (Student Government Member), 6) Kirk Worley (Student Government Member), and Student volunteers 7) Aiden Casey, 8) Sarah Livingston-Reed, 9) Brian Dela Rosa, 10) Bianca Arellano, 11) Cassandra Curatolo, 12) Catrina Fuentes, 13) Erik Ruediger, 14) Alyssa Seva'aetasi, 15) Robin Trumble, 16) Sohee Cho, and 17) Anna Welsh. Thank you to all of you!
: The following commentary was forwarded to us from one of our concerned parents who was almost hit last week at morning drop-off time. He notes that "as I was returning to my car after dropping off my daughter, I was almost hit by a parent in a hurry to drop off his child at school. After talking to my wife who normally drops off our daughter, she said that she had frequently observed many parents driving way too fast around the school because they are in a hurry to drop off their children prior to 8:20 a.m." Obviously, these parents are concerned that the potential exists that either a child or adult may get hurt due to speedy or reckless driving, due to wanting to make sure that your child is not late to school or parents are not late to work. Let's all remember that extra care, awareness, and attention is needed when approaching the campus as children are not always aware of their environment and we need to be hyper-aware to ensure their safety. Yes, ISM has a tardy policy, but it never pre-empts the need for safety. Take your time!
: As Music instructor Natalie Sarrazin will be traveling abroad later this week, we are pleased that Art instructor, Karen Welch, will be starting the Art program early beginning this Wed., 3/8/06 and continuing after the Spring Break throughout Quarter 4. She will be forwarding a letter home to parents later this week describing the focus of the Art program for the quarter and to reiterate classroom expectations for her classroom. Anyone interested in contributing needed art materials or helping to underwrite the art curriculum is invited to contact Karen directly. Thank you to Karen for her willingness to begin instruction prior to the Spring Break.
: At this writing, we are still planning on having the Saturday Work Day for March take place this coming Saturday, March 11th prior to the Spring Break hiatus. Whether we keep this date or end up rescheduling will depend on the feedback from parent volunteers as to whether we will have a significant participation level to hold the workday, especially given its proximity to the recess. On the docket, we still have outstanding the painting of lines on the lower level blacktop, some much-needed sprucing that is also a pre-requisite to managing a pest issue on campus. We have been working with a local business, Gopher Busters, to assist us in ridding the campus of unwanted mice that have been spotted in the library, staff lounge, and several classrooms. Live traps, meaning the mice are kept alive and relocated elsewhere, will be placed this week and hopefully we will see a reduction in the numbers. To aid in this process, extra cardboard, Styrofoam, and available food sources (from student lunches, waste not thrown properly in receptacles, etc.) needs to also be removed. Parent volunteers on the workday will be given a list of "removables" and we will scour the campus cleaning up and removing the listed items. Please contact Business Administrator Lisa Griffin Burns if you are able to help on Saturday.
: The two camps scheduled for the Spring Break are officially a "go" with more than 15 registrants in each session. At this writing, no further registrations will be taken as the deadline was last Friday at 5 p.m.
Session 1: Spring Fling will be offered daily from March 13th - 17th from 8 a.m. until 5:15 p.m.. Fresh Lunch and Afterschool Program Coordinator Lisa Wichael-Loomis will join with Miss Sarah, our Drama instructor, to provide the first week of springtime fun with arts and crafts, games, and activities sure to entertain! The week will wrap up with a beach picnic and egg hunt special event (weather permitting). Participants will travel by public transportation to the beach - always a unique feature of Miss Lisa's camp program.
Session 2: Kidlympics will be from March 20th - 24th at the same times as listed above. Program providers for this week will be Miss Barbara (Gr. 5 and 6 Instructional Aide / Afterschool staffer), Miss Kristin (Afterschool staffer), and Miss Jessica (Student teacher intern for Gr. 5). They will be combining their talents to offer an exciting week of team games using coordination, imagination, skill, and teamwork. For further information, please contact Lisa Wichael-Loomis at lwloomis@ismonterey.org)
: The next session of taiko will start the Monday that we return from Spring break. The costs for the remaining sessions are as follows:
Session 6 ($50) : March 27, April 3, 10, 17, 24 (5 weeks)
Session 7 ($40) : May 1, 8, 15, 22 (4 weeks)
Please also let Denise Hasegawa know if you are planning to sign yourself or your child up for these sessions... or if you would like to be off of her mailing list. Anyone who has previously been in the class is on the list. Also, is anyone interested in buying a practice drum? The taiko instructor may have one for sale.
Two previous Fridays, ISM concluded round three of its Schoolwide Enrichment Model workshops with a literal "bang," as the model rocketry group launched several vessels from the school yard! Meanwhile, a group of future marine scientists remotely-operated a robotic submarine off of Point Lobos under the supervision of a CSUMB faculty member. Other students became expert jewelry artisans with our resident Swiss jeweler from Carmel, and the guitar club added "Dust in the Wind" to its repertoire of "Blackbird" and "Guitar Boogie."
The next and final round of SEM for this school year begins Friday, April 7th. If you are interested in leading a 6-week Friday afternoon SEM, please fill out and
return the office-provided SEM form by Monday, March 27th, which is the Monday immediately following our upcoming Spring Break. A hearty thanks goes out to all of our amazing SEM volunteers, and to everyone who
supports ISM's aforementioned one-of-a-kind offerings!
This week, we complete the last of the Seven Resources of Exceptionally Capable Students, as taken from Stephen Glenn and Michael Brocks' book, 7 Strategies for Developing Capable Students.
"Judgment is the most abstract and uniquely human of the seven essential resources and is supported by the development of the other six areas (see prior newsletters). Mature human judgment is an acquired characteristic, heavily influenced by psychological development and learning. There are several stages of cognitive development, given a child's age and levels of readiness to make effective, appropriate, and ethical judgments that take into account the wants and needs of others, as well as their own. Studying the process of cognitive development and learning what is reasonable to expect of children at different stages is helpful. Children acquire wisdom of judgment skills when they are given the opportunities to gain experience and explore concepts, principles, and relationships as they encounter them.
As a recap from the 7 Strategies for Developing Capable Students, the Significant Seven are:
1) Strong Perceptions of Personal Capabilities
2) Strong Perceptions of Personal Significance
3) Strong Perceptions of Personal Influence
4) Strong Intrapersonal Skills
5) Strong Interpersonal Skills
6) Strong Systemic Skills
7) Strong Judgment Skills
Developing strength in the Significant Seven will set a foundation for effective living and learning . . . whether the learning takes place at school or elsewhere in life.
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A. GRADE 4 / ST. GERMAIN: FIELDTRIP TO MOVIE THEATER AT DEL MONTE MALL: FRIDAY, MARCH 10th - 11:30 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. As a reward for good classroom conduct, Mrs. St. Germain's class will be taking a carpool trip to the Century Theater at Del Monte Mall to see the "Shaggy Dog" movie with Tim Allen. Parent permission forms were distributed last week and are required for student participation.
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A. ISM MIDDLE SCHOOL (GR. 5 - 8) SCIENCE FAIR CELEBRATION & DESSERT POTLUCK - Wednesday, March 8th from 6 - 8 p.m.: This event will feature long-term science projects completed by 6th through 8th graders in ISM's multiuse room. Participating families are encouraged to contribute a tasty dessert to the event. Contact Mr. Spedding (tspedding@ismonterey.org) or Mr. Brandau (dbrandau@ismonterey.org) for further information.
B. ISM BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING - Wednesday, March 8th: The monthly ISM Board meeting is held the second Wednesday of each month in the library. The public comment portion of the meeting generally starts at 7:30 - 7:45 p.m. following "closed session". Parents and staff welcome.
C. GRADE 5 - 8 SPECIAL ASSEMBLY - Thursday, March 9th, 9:30 - 10:10 a.m.: Freedom Fields USA will on hand Thursday morning to present themselves to our middle-schoolers. This organization is the focus of 5th graders Aaron Shaffer and Will Perkins' very successful History Day project. Founded on hope, this organization consists of a group of "concerned Americans who have made it [their] mission to help in the humanitarian demining of war torn countries" and contribute in a real way to their global community. Join us during this informative morning assembly.
D. VISIT BY CHAMBER MUSIC MONTEREY BAY - Friday, March 10th, 11:00 - 12 Noon, ISM Library The Chamber Music Monterey Bay - and a visiting troupe from New York -- will be stopping by the ISM campus Friday morning to perform for the two 4th grade classes as well as students participating in our Instrument Music/strings program. We are thrilled to host this group of musicians.
E. S.E.M. PROVIDER FORMS DUE FOR FINAL SEM SESSION - Monday, March 27th: The final round of Schoolwide Enrichment Model classes commences on Friday, April 7th - May 12th from 2 - 3:20 p.m. We are, once again, interested in parent and community volunteers who can make the six week commitment to present a workshop in their personal area of expertise, hobby, or passion. Providers need to be fingerprinted prior to the start date of the SEM and to submit a program proposal and SEM form directly to Curriculum Coordinator Steve Carber. All proposals will be reviewed to ensure that workshop contents represent ISM in a positive and appropriate manner. The date these forms are due is Monday, March 27th. Thank you!
F. G.A.T.E. TESTING FOR 2006-07 scheduled for Tuesday, March 28th: This testing is designed for rising 4th and 5th grade students who have been nominated by their classroom teachers for the Gifted and Talented Education (G.A.T.E.) program offered through the Monterey school district. Coordinator Bud Cook (899-7177) plans to meet the nominated students here at ISM and check them onto the bus prior to the testing. The exact pickup time is still being finalized.
G. ISM CHARTER RENEWAL PUBLIC HEARING - Monday, April 3rd, 7:00 p.m.: We will be giving a presentation in support of our charter renewal application to the MPUSD Board at their board meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Show your support of our program and charter renewal petition by being present this evening! If you have not done so already, the petition, which will accompany the renewal application, is still available for parent signatures in a binder in the front admin office.
H. DUAL DATES FOR SPRING ARTS CONCERT - Thursday, April 20th, 6:30 p.m. and Thursday, April 27th, 6:30 p.m.: Due to the size of the student base this year, we have decided to offer two Spring concerts this year, with the earlier date highlighting the Instrumental music program and student drama and music performances by K-4 students, while the later date will feature 5th - 8th graders. The evening's entertainment is being coordinated by staffers Miss Sarah Benbow (Drama) and Miss Natalie Sarrazin (Music) who have whipped up an array of musical pieces and drama skits unlike what we have seen to date. Please mark your calendars for one or both of these concert dates, depending on the grade of your child or children.
I. ISM STAR TESTING SCHEDULE (GRADES 2 - 8): Monday, May 1st - Friday, May 5th: Please mark your calendars for this week and do not, if possible, plan family vacations, medical appointments, and the like, wherein students will be absent from school, increasing the need to follow-up with make-up testing. Youngsters also have a better chance at performing to their highest potential on standardized testing when they are well nourished and have adequate sleep, so we highly encourage stable home and extracurricular schedules during this time. Thank you!
: Listed below are a few things desired by community members:
1) INTERESTED IN A TIMESHARE?: Just in Time for Spring Vacation and Summer! For sale, flexible points program Timeshare. With the flexible points program you can stay all over the world, as well as use the points for Airline Tickets, Rental Cars, and at Restaurants. Contact Miss Sarah, ISM's Drama Instructor / Gr. 4 Instructional Aide at 240-5054 if interested.
2) Recycling of Printer Cartridges Yields Payoff: In a fairly short amount of time, community member contributions of inkjet printer cartridges for recycling have yielded a $165.00 payoff from Empties4Cash. We are enthusiastic to continue this program, so please spread the word to family members, colleagues, etc and forward your used cartridges to the admin office. The empty cartridges that we - as a community - typically throw away can be recycled and remanufactured. ISM will then benefit by getting paid up to $4.00 for each empty inkjet cartridge that has a print head. Acceptable brands include HP, Lexmark, Xerox, Compaq, Brother, Dell, Canon, and Apple; however, Epson print cartridges cannot be accepted as they are produced without a print head. If possible, please submit cartridges either in their original packaging or a Ziploc bag to keep it safe from damages and spills. Thank you! If anyone is interested in heading this project as the volunteer coordinator, please contact Lisa Griffin Burns.
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