Last year at this time, I was able to reflect on my gratitude for being welcomed so warmly into such a wonderful community as I started my first year at Stony Brook. I am happy to say how good it is to still feel welcomed and appreciated as part of this dynamic school. Our students are wonderful and they exhibit their positive traits regularly. Sometimes we have to look a little harder to see as they might be masking their exemplary qualities under more questionable choices, but we know they are still there and for that I continue to be grateful!. Yesterday, I was fortunate to have two opportunities outside of our building that reminded me how well our students are doing here. A number of middle school principals from surrounding districts met to discuss issues and concerns facing our students and it was encouraging to be able to provide feedback from our successes here in Westford that could help students elsewhere navigate through these middle years as well as our students do. In talking with others, it was clear to me once again how fortunate we are that our students have such tremendous support both in the classrooms and at home. Additionally, I had the chance to visit Westford Academy and see many of the students with whom I was able to meet last year as 8th graders and appreciate how involved they are in life at the Academy and how successful their transitions have been. The feedback I hear regularly from folks at WA is very encouraging as to how well our students are prepared. With all of the recent acts of violence throughout the world, it is good to be grateful for all of the positive things here close to home which help keep us hopeful for our children's futures.
In the immediate future...first term grades will be available soon after the Thanksgiving break. Grades closed on Friday and after they are completed and verified, they will be made viewable in iParent on Friday, December 4th at 2:30PM.
Parent Conferences will be held on Wednesday, December 15th from 7:30AM to 9:30AM and Thursday, December 16th from 2:00PM to 8:00PM. There is a 2 ½ hour delayed opening on December 15th and no school on December 16th. In an effort to accommodate all families interested in attending a conference, we offer a choice between one of two teacher groups: Math/Social Studies or ELA/Science. Should you wish to schedule a conference we are asking families to sign up for one conference per student online as we have in the past via Sign Up Genius. The website will be open for families to access starting on December 7 at 9:00AM and closing on December 10 at 8:00PM. Changes can be made by calling the office after that time.
These ten-minute check-ins with two of your child's team teachers provide an opportunity for you to share important information, stay informed of your child's progress, and discuss the first trimester report card. Parent conferences are not required, and many parents find a phone call, email or one of our available weekly team conferences meet their needs. As I shared earlier, our students are well supported both here and at home and these conferences are only one of the many processes that we have in place that help foster the home/school communication which we know to be one the most critical elements for overall student success. When the adults are all on the same page, the children are more likely to thrive.
Recently, one of our guidance counselors shared a valuable resource that is always a good reminder. The cell phone companies created a parent's guide to adolescent cell phone use and while it is a bit lengthy...of course, who am I to talk...or better yet, wow, he thinks it's lengthy...watch out...at any rate, it is an excellent resource with which we should all have access. Many of our families choose to provide their children with cell phones and while they are remarkable pieces of technology that many of us could never imagine as a reality when we were adolescents, they are tools that create a false sense of security for students in relation to what they perceive to be their privacy. We have a responsibility to help students learn how to use these technologies responsibly and safely. As adults, we should actively know with whom our children are communicating and the manner in which it is being done. Growing up it was not uncommon for our parents to hear at least our half of the conversations we had with friends on our land lines in the house. Notes that were created and passed between friends could be intercepted and most people thought twice before putting something down in writing and sharing it with anyone else. We saw it with email a while ago and how many adults struggled with communicating effectively even in the business world as the ease of communication also lead to an ease in misunderstanding. Many adults are not aware of the text conversations their children are engaged in or the discussions that they are having online. Our efforts to help model positive online communication with class discussions taking place in teacher facilitated and monitored online environments is a step in the right direction. We encourage all of you to be actively involved in monitoring your children's virtual discussions outside the school environment, as well. When students know that the are not operating in a private little world, they are more likely to develop and exhibit consistent skills of appropriate communication and keep themselves from getting into trouble for saying something they would not otherwise say in the company of others. While children will claim they do not want parents snooping into their privacy, the majority of them do not own the devices or pay the bills associated with them and this is an excellent age for them to start understanding the relationship of their decision making authority and their financial independence. If you wish to read it or save the link for future reference, I will share it with you here:
http://www.connectsafely.org/wp-content/uploads/mobile_english.pdf (if you have trouble opening the link here, simply copy and paste the address into your web browser)
Moving away from virtual reality and back to something requiring live human interaction, I was able to enjoy the WA performance of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN last night and saw a number of our former Stony Brook students among the incredibly talented students involved in every aspect of the production! Congratulations to everyone involved! That being said, save the dates for the Stony Brook Theater Arts upcoming production ofTHOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, JR. on Dec 11 & 12. I was asked to share the following information regarding when tickets are available for purchase:
Rehearsals-last hour: (Auditorium Lobby)
Tues 12/1 3:30-4:30pm
Thur 12/3 3:30-4:30pm
Fri 12/4 3:30-4:30pm
Sat 12/5 3-4pm
Production Week-Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs 12/7-12/10 7-8pm
During lunch: (Stony Book Main Lobby)
Thu 12/3 10:15-12:00pm
Fri 12/4 10:15-12:00pm
Mon 12/7 10:15-12:00pm
Tues 12/8 10:15-12:00pm
Wed 12/9 10:15-12:00pm
Fri 12/11 10:15-12:00pm
At Performances: (Auditorium Lobby)
Fri 12/11 6:15-7:00pm
Sat 12/12 12:45-1:30pm
Sat 12/12 6:15-7:00pm
As I will more than likely not send out an email next week over the Thanksgiving break, I also want to let you know that the Stony Brook Winter Choral Concert will be Dec 2 @ 7:00 in the auditorium.
Finally, I was going to update everyone on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's decision to adopt a hybrid assessment system that in essence combines PARCC and MCAS into a new yet to be developed MCAS 2.0 and administered in Spring 2017. However, I had more important things to share :?) In short, we will continue to use PARCC this spring and I will share the dates with you in the future, instead of two rounds of testing like we did last year it will only be one round of each content area similar to MCAS in the past so it will be a shorter overall assessment than last year for whichWE ARE THANKFUL!
Have a wonderful holiday!
Chris
