Dear Families,
I can’t believe summer is almost ending and the new school year is
beginning. I have heard from so many students via postcards. My family and I
did a little traveling this summer to Madeira beach in Florida and LEGOLAND. As
you can imagine, Legoland was a hit! Please feel free to check out the Post
Card to the Principal bulletin board when you visit the Shawsheen this year.
All of the staff have been working diligently preparing for the opening of
school. A big thank you to our secretary, Mrs. O’Reilly for her organization
and endless preparation, thank you to our custodians Dan, Justine and Ken for
working tirelessly on preparing all the floors and rooms for teachers and
staff. Another thank you to our staff who I have seen in and out of the
building on their own time preparing new bulletin boards, lessons, setting up
desks and ultimately being ready for a great first day of school. All this hard
work and dedication has not gone unnoticed.
We have so many wonderful things to look forward to this upcoming
school year including some new staff members, the continuation of reader’s
workshop in grades one and three and Fundations program in grade 2. Second
grade will also begin the implementation of reader’s workshop this year. Our
theme this year will focus on Kindness and incorporating our PBIS matrix and
lesson planning that will be intertwined within all school areas. To help
with this message is the book How
Full is Your Bucket, by Tom Rath. Each year a book is selected
and the message within that book is celebrated throughout the school year.
Along with the ongoing theme of Kindness we will be establishing and continuing
on with school wide norms and expectations that will be included in the role
out of PBIS. We have a team of teachers and staff that will help to work on
establishing and finalizing these along with assistance from our students, of
course. More information on this will be filtered out as we proceed through the
Principals Blog and or other forms of communication. In addition, we will
continue on with the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach when working with
students on any unsolved problems. Some staff were very fortunate last year to
be trained by a co-worker of Ross Greene who wrote Lost at School and The
Explosive Child. This year we are going to continue with this approach to
problem solving and teach more staff about this. For more information on the
CPS or PBIS, please see the blog http://shawsheenschool.blogspot.com/. You can
also follow the school on Twitter @shawsheenschool.
I am thrilled to add some new staff to the Shawsheen Elementary
School. We have a new health teacher, a speech and language pathologist and our
behavior interventionist who will now be leading her own classroom to support
students with similar needs. In addition, to Paula Bartalamia continuing in
this manner we have two new aides in her program and welcome them on board.
Mrs. McNamara, our art teacher, has taken a position across town and we are
happy to announce that we are in the process of transferring another great art
teacher from the district. Please check the blog within the next week for
introductions on all the new staff members.
As part of our tradition in the elementary schools we welcome students
and families to visit the school the evening before to view their classroom. We
find that this helps to alleviate stress or anxiety of where their desk is or
how to get to their classrooms. This will take place on August 28th from
5:00-6:00. Teachers are not required to be here, but you will have an
opportunity to meet them during Open House scheduled for September 28th. More
information will be sent out once the date gets closer. We hope to see
families on August 28th.
Reminder that school starts on Tuesday, August 29th and we have no
school on the Friday!
Please note that bus routes are normally posted one week before
school begins on the district website. Also, if your child is going home by a
different means of transportation for the first day we will need a note.
Lastly, I worked with some parents this summer to update the car
rider procedures in both a.m and p.m. Please view the new maps and read over
the procedures if you intend on dropping off or picking up.This is also posted
on blog and I will send a reminder out as school approaches.
As always we look forward to a fantastic year and to see all the
students entering into their new grade. If anyone needs any assistance prior to
school beginning or during the year please feel free to contact the school or
myself.
Enjoy the rest of your summer,
Mrs. King
