Curriculum/teaming Benchmarking: Middle school benchmarking visits are complete. Sharon Sturm and ADL staff members visited Shelburne Community School, Browns River Middle School, and Edmunds Middle School, and ADL was visited by representatives of Main Street Middle School. Notes about these visits were shared at a faculty meeting. ADL is working with a middle school consultant to detail pros and cons identified during these visits, with a goal of developing the most effective teaming structure possible.
We have a large 7th grade population bubble, which will be followed by many years of fairly uniform class numbers. Changes resulting from the benchmarking effort will wait until the current 7th graders move on to the High School. One exception is a restructuring of the Language Arts curriculum, which will be in effect in the fall of 2008. In the 7th and 8th grades, reading and writing will be more connected, with additional reading support specific to students who struggle with reading happening during time when other students study languages other than English. In the 6th grade, the Language Arts and Reading teachers will work to blend their curricula more, with reading and writing covered in both classes to prepare students for the blended system in the older grades.
Mrs. Singer hopes to hire two new staff members - one certified in Social Studies and Language Arts, and one certified in Science and Math. The overall goal involves six teachers plus foreign language teachers per grade, leading to smaller student-teacher ratios. Possibilities include:
The staff is committed to retaining the longer teaching time blocks. Budget constraints may affect Unified Arts. There is currently no drama class in the budget for the 2008-2009 year for 7th and 8th grades, though extracurricular drama opportunities will be available as well as more limited drama options as a part of Language Arts. Five days of P.E. will stay. Parents should contact Mrs. Singer or Mr. Barber with feedback about priorities - what's important to keep and what we don't really need.
Beautification: Volunteers are needed to come paint the cafeteria on Saturday, February 2 from 8am to noon. All parents are invited. Students may come with a parent if they are prepared to work. Please bring your own paint roller wheels, drop cloths, and paint pans if you have them. At Mrs. Singer's request, Parents as Partners allocated up to $50 for expenses for this effort to improve our school environment.
Traffic flow has created a safety issue in the past, especially during pick-up time. Recent improvements include cones placed in the parking lot and a staff member who helps to direct traffic and keep students safe at that time. A suggestion was made to emphasize pick-up protocol at future 6th grade parent meetings.
Class activities are coming up:
ADL will host a basketball tournament from Wednesday, February 20 through Saturday, February 23. Please contact Mr. Barber if you are able to help! A 50/50 ticket sale is in progress, with the winning ticket to be drawn during the tournament. Tickets are $20 each, and if all 1000 tickets are sold, a single winner will get $10,000 and the school will have $10,000 to use outside of budgeted funds. Please consider purchasing a ticket and e-mailing your family and friends to see if they are also interested in a ticket.
The drama group's production of Annie is well under way! You can contribute to costumes, sets, props, and sound by bringing your bottles in to the redemption center on River Road and specifying that the money goes to the ADL musical. The play calls for old-fashioned costumes. If you have any of the following items in your closet, please bring them in! They need cardigans, lace-up riding boots, mens' felt hats with brims, a straw flat-brimmed hat, old-style print dresses, men's lace-up shoes or wingtips, ladies' pumps, suspenders, bow ties, and vintage ladies' hats. Deb Alden is coordinating sewing efforts - if you can help please contact her at 878-8244. Also please call Deb or get in touch with Mary Lou Lord if you can help with set construction, props, or painting. The play will happen at 7 p.m. on April 3, 4, and 5, with a Saturday matinee.
Games and Sports Party (GASP) will happen on Friday, March 7th for all grades from 7-9 p.m. High school athletes come to help with this event, but fifteen parent volunteers are also needed - please see Lisa Cray to volunteer. This event costs $7, which includes a cake raffle, refreshments, and games and activities including a blow-up obstacle course, a pie-eating contest, music, tattoos, and active games.
A spring book sale may happen during the week of March 17, and will need volunteers.
The annual book swap at Fleming Elementary will happen just before April vacation, and the Fleming PTO has requested donations of used books appropriate for 4th-6th grade levels from ADL families. A box will be available for drop offs before the swap - please check your bookshelves at home for unneeded books to support this literacy effort at Fleming.
Alternative ideas were discussed for the snack cart, since finding volunteers to staff the cart has been a challenge. Laurie Singer will talk to Bob Clifford in food service to ask about vending machine options.
The lost and found has new bins! Lisa Cray appreciated volunteers' help with last semester's donated items. They were bagged with information about washing and where to bring them for donation, and volunteers took the bags home and took care of them from there.
Parents as Partners' next meeting is scheduled during the basketball tournament. We will work with Mr. Barber to see if there is a break time during the tournament during which the meeting could happen. Our March meeting is rescheduled to March 27 so it won't conflict with the 7th grade Medieval event.
Respectfully submitted,
Laura CF