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!