February 16, 2015
"Have You Seen the Owl Today?"
WINTER CARNIVAL 2015! The Big Event is finally here! And the good news is that it's looking like we're going to get a little break with the extreme weather for Wednesday's Lantern Parade! There are no changes to the schedule at this point, with the exception of the Rainbow Ice Sculpture work being moved from yesterday to Tuesday afternoon. (Thanks to UES mom Marni Leikin for making that very sound call!). Children, faculty, and staff have been hard at work getting their lanterns ready for weeks. Check out some of their work below:
PERSONAL DEVICES AND CELL PHONES AT UES It's recently come to our attention that there has been some significant misuse of personal devices and cell phones by some of our students (some as young as 1st grade), both inside and outside of school. In addition to some instances of anonymous, mean communication, we have also been hearing that some students are accessing inappropriate material and sites on their devices while at school and on our buses.
I have been working with older students and their families navigating this very complicated issue for years, and I have rarely found it desirable to engage in an outright ban of devices for many reasons. It has become clear to all of us at UES, however, that personal devices at the elementary level are fraught with risky and dangerous implications and are simply not necessary. Many of your children's teachers already have their students keep devices away during school hours, but this approach has not been universally applied at UES.
As of this morning, the UES community will begin an "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" approach to all personal electronic devices for our students: if your child has a device and does not need it for emergency communication with you, they should keep it home at all times. If your child has been given a phone for emergency contact with you, it will need to be turned off and in their backpack (or turned in to their teacher) upon arriving at school. Any devices seen in school, including the playground and buses, will be confiscated with a phone call to the parent to come in and pick it up.
Again, we know this is a very complicated issue, but we firmly believe that the safety of all our children can be seriously compromised with unsupervised use of these devices. Please think about how easy it is for you to accidentally access inappropriate and sometimes even scary material on your devices, and then think about one of our children seeing it. This happens in schools around the country every day! There are an enormous number of resources online to help parents with keeping their children safe on the internet; here is a good place to start:
http://www.safekids.com/kids-rules-for-online-safety/
We all appreciate your cooperation with this, and I welcome your questions and concerns.
COFFEE WITH THE PRINCIPAL! Beginning on Thursday, March 12, I'll be starting a series of monthly "Coffee with the Principal" gatherings with parents and community members, and I'd like to invite you all to join me! These gatherings will be 30-40 minute presentation/Q & A sessions focused on important topics of the day. Our first topic will be Internet Safety For Young Children (see above!), and School Counselor Mrs. Francke will be joining me. Knowing that different times work better for all of you, we'll be giving the presentation three times (beginning of the day, lunch, and after school) on the 12th to see what works best for the most people. I'll have more details in the next Wise Owl, and, in the meantime, think about what topics should come up next!
MONTPELIER IS #1! This shouldn't come as a surprise to any of us, but according to Best Choice Reviews, Montpelier is the #1 out of 50 ranked small towns in America! Check out this very interesting list below. How many of these beautiful towns have you been to?
http://www.bestchoicereviews.org/50-best-small-town-downtowns-in-america/
100TH DAY OF SCHOOL! Anyone who happened to visit Union last Monday may have noticed groups of Kinders searching the halls for numbers 1 to 100 in a variety of hidden spots as a way to celebrate the 100th day of school. Well, the number 100 happened to be in my office, so I got to see many of the children very excited to come to the end of their journey! They were even greeted by a special guest:
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| Mrs. Dostie's class gets a 100-worthy hug! |
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| Mrs. Koch's Kinders at the Finish Line! |
SCRIPPS SPELLING BEE! The Scripps Spelling Bee is coming to UES right after vacation! Twelve to fifteen top spelling 4th graders will be our unofficial "test pilots" on the morning of Wednesday, March 4. They will be followed on Thursday, March 5 by our 5th graders, the winner of whom will get to represent Union Elementary at the state bee at St. Michael's College on March 19! More details will be coming home with your children by the end of the week.
"I THINK I CAN" BY THE MSMS PLAYERS Many of our K-2 students were treated to an outstanding performance last Thursday of "I Think I Can", a one act play performed by our MSMS drama club. The play as described by the players:
"I Think I Can is a one-act play produced by the Main Street Middle School Players for audiences in Kindergarten through third grade. Here is the plot: a ten-year-old girl, Becky, struggles to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up, but her real problem is lack of confidence. Her cat, Professor, leads her on a fantastic journey exploring different jobs that eventually help Becky see that she can accomplish many important things if she believes in herself. The play carries this important message to its audience with physical humor, audience participation, and plenty of funny situations."
It was a terrific show! Some highlights:
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| The big crowd awaits the show! |
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| UES Alumnae on stage! |
BOX TOPS! From UES Parents Group mom Jenny Sheehan:
"Thank you to all who have sent in Box Tops for Education! This fall we earned $341.30 from submitted boxtops. Last year we raised $861.00 from boxtops and we hope to raise a similar amount or more this year! If you have more boxtops to add to our collection, please send them in by Thursday,February 19th to the UES main office or to your child’s classroom. Any questions please contact Jenny Sheehan at Jennybrownsheehan@gmail.com"
HENNESSEY HOOTS! A "Hennessey Hoot" to:
* all of the volunteers who joined over 35 UES students on the relatively balmy (10 degree!) morning of February 4 for the annual Winter Walk to School Day! Joining me that morning were (and I hope I got you all) Cathy Clements, Mayor John Hollar, Theresa Giffin, MJ Jennings, Emmanuel Riby-Williams, Diana Hart, Harris Webster, and John Snell, and we all got to join the kids for some hot chocolate and tea before school! The regular Wednesday walks will resume some time in March -- details to follow.
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| Dez and I discovered that John Snell knows a thing or two about trees on our walk from the Co-op! |
* to the UES Winter Carnival Committee for their incredible devotion and commitment to making this event fun and memorable for the whole community! A big Hennessey Hoot to Diadel Ortiz, Sharon Pine, Melissa Parker, Chris Parker, Wendy McGuiggan, Jeffrey Jarrad, Jenny Sheehan, Marni Leikin for their time and efforts, with the loudest Hoot going to Kristina Kane for her organization skills and amazing leadership!
* all of our Kinders and their 5th grade buddies, who refused to let the cold heart of Mother Nature get them down! When they came to school last week to discover a fresh new mountain of plow-made snow, it didn't take them long to make the best of it! We were all overjoyed to see our new, low cost play structure:
* all of our Kinders and their 5th grade buddies, who refused to let the cold heart of Mother Nature get them down! When they came to school last week to discover a fresh new mountain of plow-made snow, it didn't take them long to make the best of it! We were all overjoyed to see our new, low cost play structure:
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| Kings and Queens of the Mountain! |
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