First Grade Feast 2010

First grade’s annual Thanksgiving Day Feast was held on Wednesday, November 23, 2010.  A huge thank you to all of our parents and volunteers who helped our first grade teachers provide an authentic community feast for some of our youngest eagles. Little Pilgrims and Native Americans were found eating together down the first grade hallway demonstrating peace and good-will. The children get so excited to participate in a fun learning experience that celebrates our country’s traditions.

Parent Technology Night

Tuesday 11/23/10 @ 7:30 p.m. in the gym

Parents, come and learn about the technology the students are using at school to make learning fun and interesting!  Some of you favorite teachers will be sharing what's new in technology at Summerside and most importantly showing you how you can get involved from home.  Topics covered in the tech event will include:

SE Blogs       Education City    Reading Street Online      Study Island      Progress Book     Fastt Math

Fill out a short parent survey and enter to win one of two i-tune gift cards at the door.

Dr. Don Kaufman and Cecilia Berg from the Oxford Society presented Summerside Elementary fifth grade teachers with a sculpture entitled, “Race to the Sea.” The sculpture represents hatchling green sea turtles leaving the nest and making their way to the sea. For the past seven years the fifth grade students have participated in an end of year penny war to raise money for the Oxford Society. The money raised, over $6000 so far, has been used to assist with a green sea turtle population recovery program in Costa Rica. The recovery program seems to be succeeding, with more adult turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs each year.

Thank you to all the students and families that have helped with this project.

Monday Blog 11-8-10

Here’s to our Heroes: Reading Saves the Day! Make plans for our first book fair of the year on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 at Summerside. We will celebrate Grandparents Day for students in grades K-2. Soon, a flyer will be coming home inviting parents and grandparents to school to shop with your students to school. Parents, a sale preview book flyer will be coming home with students after Thanksgiving.

Report Cards come home this Friday, November 12, 2010. Check your child’s school bag for this important document. Congratulations to all the students on working hard to earn their grades this quarter. Mrs. Austin will hold Town Hall meetings for students in grades 1-5 on Friday (11/12) to hand out awards. We will spin the Wheel of Wow! Before Thanksgiving break in the café for the Eagle Effort quarterly winners. Eagle effort winners are chosen by the classroom teachers through random drawings every quarter. Good Luck students!

PTO meets this Wednesday 11/10/10 at 7:00 in the library. Babysitting is available.

Summerside Fourth and Fifth grade teachers want to thank Mrs. Rena Ford (Gifted Instructional Specialist) for holding a MIMIO workshop after school on Thursday, November 4th. Mrs. Ford showed our teachers some instructional ideas for using this technology in their classrooms. PTO purchased four MIMIO systems last year for our school. Next year all classrooms will be outfitted with interactive whiteboard systems like the MIMIOs. On Tuesday, November 23rd at 7:30 in our school gym, we will hold a tech shoot out for parents. Teachers will introduce how technology is enhancing the leaning in the classroom for their students. Topics will include: Reading Street internet access/website for parents, Fasst Math, Education City, Study Island, Grade Level Blogs, and of course our school website. Make plans to join us that night.

Monday Blog 10-11-10

10-11-10
It’s another great HOT day to be a Summerside Eagle. Speaking of hot, thank you parents for your generous support of our Marcos Pizza Challenge. This month’s winner of a class pizza part is Mrs. Emery’s AM class. More SE families ordered pizza from Mrs. Emery’s class than any other class in our school. I think they will collect their pizza party during their Halloween party at the end of the month. Remember, we will have another pizza challenge on November, 2nd (first Tuesday of each month. Hopefully, another class will become victorious in order to win free pizza served to the students at school by our friend at Eastgate Marcos.

Remember, we will enjoy a fun filled afternoon as the children work off their Walk-A-Thon donation debts this Friday, October 15th. This event is a favorite of mine and the students. If you can take a few hours off on Friday and make plans to join us. Thank you for your generous support of one of our most important fundraisers of the school year. This exciting event is a win-win for our students, our school, and our community. Send you son or daughter dressed for the weather. We will walk outside if at all possible.

Last Wednesday, October 6, our PTO held their room-parent tea after school in the gym. Mrs. Rhonda Holscher was the chair person for this special event. Room parents and teachers planned the students Halloween and Valentine’s parties for this year. I am looking forward to celebrating the season with our students this year. Thank you parents and teachers.

Lastly, Mrs. Dardy ( former SE principal) is so grateful for all the community support she received as she collected food and non-perishable item to give to needy family at the IHM food pantry. This local food pantry served any of your friends and neighbors who demonstrate a need. Mrs. Dardy wanted me to extend a heartfelt sense of appreciation for giving to others in need. Truly, this is a special school community.

Monday Blog 9-20-10

Cincinnati Hometown Sports Team Spirit Day
On Tuesday, let’s show our Summerside Spirit and cheer on our very own Cincinnati Reds baseball team as they secure the National League and hope for a playoff spot in the pennant races. Let’s have some fun and dress in red on Tuesday, September, 28th all day at school. You can even pay $1.00 and wear a hat or head covering (scarf, bandanna) all day in school. The Reds are back in Cincy to begin a 3 game series against Houston at Great American Ballpark. The magic number is now 1! Go Reds! Not a Reds fan? How about being a Red’s fan for just the day? No worries, it’s ok, just dress in the color red or your favorite Cincinnati sport’s team spirit wear. You can wear Ohio State spirit wear, UC, Bengals, or good old yellow and black to represent Summerside. Spirit Sam will be taking pictures to send to the WCS Connection next week at school on Tuesday, so join in the playoff hunt fever at school!

School Starts every day for students at 9:10 am sharp. Parents you can drop off your son or daughter as early as 8:50 a.m if they enjoy our breakfast program. Breakfast is served from 8:50-9:10 am in the cafe. Mr. Furlong, Mrs. Adam’s and Mrs. Rowland supervise the gym for all students from 8:50-9:10 am daily. Students who don’t need breakfast can drop off as early as 9:00 a.m. when teachers begin their duty for the day across our campus. The tardy bell now rings at 9:10. Help avoid attendance issues and start your son or daughter day out in a positive manner. Have children to school on time consistently. Thank you for your advanced cooperation.

Parents of our youngest eagles and their pre-school siblings- the PNC One Big World Mobile Planetarium is coming to our gym on October 2, 2010. This fun and educational program features the characters from Sesame Street to introduce young children to science through their world around them. All SE kindergarten and first grade students will attend the presentation with their homeroom class. Parents are invited to bring their 4 year old children and their friends to participate in the planetarium program. Parents will need to call Gretchen at 947-7900 to make a reservation. There is no cost to this creative on-site field trip. Parents will need to attend the event with their preschoolers. Give us a call!

Fabulous First Day

Thank you to everyone who made today, our first day of the brand new school year a huge success. It was terrific to see all of the boys and girls back to school well rested and eager to meet their new teachers. Behavior was excellent across school settings. I was so impressed. I hope this year will continue on this positve note. Be sure to check your daughter or son's first day packet and fill out the required paperwork for your student. Please return these to school ASAP. Thank you PTO for filling the first day packets before school began.

District Day 9-1-10

Second grade teachers, Miss Hyde, Mrs. Cann, Mrs. Gebauer, and Miss Hayden ( reading) learned together today at the new Amelia Elementary school about our fantastic Reading Street reading series. Our morning was filled with information, technology, and other teachers from our district. The teachers and I are so excited to show you the materials and begin reading together.

WCS Excellent with Distinction

This past Friday, the district learned that we have earned the state's highest educational designation of "Excellence with Distinction". This is a direct result of our student's academic achievement (K-12) on the Spring Ohio Achievement Assessments, the Ohio Graduation Tests, and other important measures of our student's progress (graduation rate, attendance rate). This designation is an honor to have received. I want to congratulate all of our students, their families, and our teachers here at West Clermont Schools. I especially want to recognize the teachers and staff at Summerside Elementary School for their "Excellent" school rating this year. We ,along with our sister schools, have worked very hard to improve the way we educate our children in the classroom. Our staff is extremely talented and dedicated to our students and their families. When we work together for the good of our children, amazing things can happen for them, and for us. Thank you for your continued support of our school, our district, and our community. It's a great day to be a Summerside Eagle. CONGRATULATIONS

West Clermont Team Attends Math Class!

Math teachers form Summerside, Merwin and Brantner Lane are learning with me at a 2-day math workshop designed to help us become better math teachers for young children. We are learning from Ms. Barb Weidus and Ms. Catherine Schulte, two Clermont County Educational Service Center consultants who are math experts in our area. From Summerside, Ms. Patty Emery ( Kdg.Yeah!back from medical leave),Mrs. Peggy Simmons (1st), Mrs. Rebecca Jones(1st), Mrs. Ellen Beavers (Title I), Mrs. Stephanie Rowland (new-intervention) and me. I was please to see my new friend Dr. Carrie Bunger (intervention psych.) from Merwin attend the workshop too. I even had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Heather Murphy ( 2nd.-intervention) a teacher from Hillsboro Primary School where I used to be principal before coming to Summerside. It was a great day, but the work is challenging. Our team will use an assessment called the DMA (developmental math assessment ) with our K-2 students this fall to help teachers learn more about their youngest Eagles math thinking and skills. I commend these teachers and all of the teachers that have given up several days this summer unpaid to further their teaching skills. we have an excellent group of professional educator working at Summerside and in all West Clermont schools.

Ms. Abraham Marries!

Congratulations to Mrs. Beth LaSance our very own Speech and Language Therapist. Mrs. LaSance was married in Jamaica over the summer. We wish her the all best life has to offer her and her new husband.

We have several new staff here at Summerside this school year. They are:
Mrs. Carrie Hayden Reading Teacher
Mrs. Stephanie Rowland Special Education
Miss Lauren Razor ELL
Mrs. Amy Storer Intervention Psychologist
Miss Megan Kincaid SPED Para-Pro
Miss Melissa McLaughlin Graduate School Counseling Intern
Ms. Kristi Neiheisel Child Focus School-Based Preventative Worker

I believe it is good to have new staff join any organization in order for it to stay fresh as well as on the cutting edge of what's new and exciting in education. Please join me in welcoming back all of our teachers and staff, both new and old, for our best school year yet!

PALS love to LEARN!

 

At Summerside we use the DIBELS universal screener to assess and monitor student's reading skills in grades k-5. On Friday August 6,two of my principal PALS ( Clough Pike & Merwin) went with me to learn the new version of this universal screening test. Our school psychologist friends, Carrie Pugh and Nathan Dumford ( CCESC) were at this workshop too. It was hard work, but together we got the job done. We even had a terrific lunch at Frisch's in Fairfield. Administering DIBELS is time and labor intensive. We work as a team 3 times a year at school to give this assessment to all 560 SE students. This year, the DIBELS team will begin the Fall benchmark tests on September 20. I hope everyone has been reading a lot this summer. I know I have!

This past week Mrs. Bonkosky, Mrs. Jones and I went back to school to learn about how the best teachers teach math. There were a lot of other teachers and principals from West Clermont there for the week. too. We learned how to use math tools, problem solving and our love of math increase our skills. The teachers are excited to try some of the strategies with their students! It was a challenge to put on my learners hat and become a students again for 1 whole week. Teachers and principals are life long learners.

Ms. Stiles moves to Seattle

With sadness in our hearts but excitement in our prayers, we wished Ms. Stiles a fond farewell as she prepared to move back to Seattle, Washington state this month. Ms. Stiles will join Julia who has been in Seattle with her grandma and grandpa (as well as extended family) since late May. Ms. Stiles promised to send me pictures of her trip across our great nation as she makes this long journey. I look forward to sharing them with you!

The Early Childhood Learning Center

 

I visited the Early Childhood Learning Center on a field trip at the CAYL conference. Here are a few shots of the amazing resources the ECLC has for their students.

CAYL Conference Columbus

Over the last 4 days, I have been in Columbus focusing on best educational practices in Early Childhood Education (grades K-3). Mrs Laura Nazzarine, our director of Special Education went to the conference with me and learned about what makes Summerside a Ready School. Pictured are Mrs. Berta Velilla (Child Focus) and Mrs. Chris Humphrey (Success By Six, a United Way agency) who attended this exciting conference too. This year, Head Start will house two of it's preschool classrooms in West Clermont schools, Brantner and WT Elementary school, for the first time. One of our goals for this year at SE is to expand our community partnerships with our preschool and daycare partners.

Mackinaw City, Michigan

We just spent the July 4th weekend on Mullett Lake which is about 25 miles from Mackinaw City. The weather was terrific and so were the fireworks! Mr Crahan, principal of Clough Pike Elementary School, let us stay in his lake cottage. We took our old boat, our old dog,and our kids. Upper Michigan is a wonderful place to vacation. If you ever go to the "UP" be sure to cross the Mackinaw bridge into St. Ignace. There is a lot to see and do in this scenic area.

On Friday, July 2, Mrs. Beth Perry current PTO co-vice president spent the afternoon at GFS Eastgate helping visitors sign up for their GFS Care Card. This card allows a percentage of your GFS purchases to benefit the student activity fund at Summerside each time you shop. New enrolees got a chance to win a grill and received a $5.00 off coupon their 4th of July weekened party supplies. Thanks Beth! you look very festive ( I love the balloons !) and thanks to everyone who came out for this fun event! Over 100 people signed up to support our school! It's great to be loved and supported! Go Summerside, Go Eagles!

Camp Invention is a Huge Success Again!

This week over 70 campers have been exploring and having fun at Camp Invention. This is the second year the camp has been hosted for boys and girls entering grades 1-6 at Summerside. Even though the weather has been hot, the learning has been COOL! Many thanks to Mrs Bose and Mrs Zaborill the camp's director and co-director. It's great to have kids at school having fun learning about Science, math and hanging out with new and old friends!

SE 's Office Closing

Mrs Hoff and I are looking forward to closing the office for a well deserved vacation beginning Thursday, July 1st. We will be at school Monday-Wednesday (6-28 -6/30 if you need any assistance before we close up shop. Camp Invention is over, the gym floor has been removed, new gym lights have been installed, and the custodians, Mr. Chester, Mr. Jeff, and Mr. Joe have already cleaned the first grade hallway. Mrs. Schreiber has been helping me clean up and get organized around the office and teacher's lounge. I got a new-to me desk from Mrs. Schmidt at WT Elementary. I've rearranged my whole office. I put my old desk in the teacher's lounge for them to use when they are on break from the classroom. Mrs Fields, our new part time office assistant, has been checking all of our new Reading Street materials for the students to use in the Fall. WOW! There are a lot of books to unpack, stamp, count and give to the teachers!

Summerside's Blog is Launched!

Today, I took off my principal's hat in order to be a student so I could learn all about cool web tools to show the teachers at school this fall. It was a great day! I learned how to create this blog and I can't wait to share it with you at school. My friend Mrs. Hilderbrand (former AMS assistant principal) is here with me today from Lakota West. We are leaning together. I think learning with a friend is the best way to tackle something new and challenging.