Thursday, December 15, 2011
Blue Ribbon Conference
Birch Meadow staff officially recieve our Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Award at the National Blue Ribbon Conference. In addition, Birch Meadow was invited to display information about our school to share with others.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Rotary delivers dictionaries
Thank you to the Reading Rotary who presented a Thesaurus to each third grade student in December.
Festival of Trees
Thank you to the student council and Patti Beckman who helped coordinate and organize the Birch Meadow tree for this event. The Birch Meadow tree this year was a sports theme (see below)! The Festival of Trees supports the Reading Education Foundation. Thank you to the families and students who support the Festival of Trees and REF.
Coats for Kids
This year our student council is supporting a Coats for Kids collection in collaboration with Anton's Cleaners. Coats can be dropped off in the lobby of Birch Meadow. Below you can see the collection box being decorated by the student council.
Honesty with Officer Corey Santasky
As you know, Birch Meadow’s behavior program is focusing on 6 themes of character this year: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Sportsmanship, Cooperation, and Caring.
Honesty is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. A special thank you goes to our 3rd graders who introduced our guest speaker, parent and school committee member School Resource Officer, Corey Santasky. Corey talked about honesty as we prepare for the holiday season and allowed students to share how they will be honest at home and school. Teachers and staff will be rewarding students showing honesty and we are encouraging parents to do the same at home. Your child will be bringing home a bear this week. Please reward your child when you see him/her showing honesty by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show honest. The bear will be added to the other bears in a container in the office and posted in the lobby. Mr. Sprung will read one bear from each grade level at our next assembly.
The bear will be returned to you at the end of the month. Thank you for your cooperation with this program, and we look forward to reading how your child has shown honesty at home!
Thank you,
Eric Sprung
Honesty is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. A special thank you goes to our 3rd graders who introduced our guest speaker, parent and school committee member School Resource Officer, Corey Santasky. Corey talked about honesty as we prepare for the holiday season and allowed students to share how they will be honest at home and school. Teachers and staff will be rewarding students showing honesty and we are encouraging parents to do the same at home. Your child will be bringing home a bear this week. Please reward your child when you see him/her showing honesty by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show honest. The bear will be added to the other bears in a container in the office and posted in the lobby. Mr. Sprung will read one bear from each grade level at our next assembly.
The bear will be returned to you at the end of the month. Thank you for your cooperation with this program, and we look forward to reading how your child has shown honesty at home!
Thank you,
Eric Sprung
Monday, November 28, 2011
Window update
The window project is moving along successfully. The driveway around the side of the building near the dumpsters is going to be blocked along with the courtyard. The "dumpster" side of the building is the last area with classrooms to be completed. Following those rooms, construction will return to the courtyard to replace windows in the gymnasium.
If you have questions about the schedule please don't hesitate to contact me. Here are a few more pictures of the work being done. More pictures are available on our shutterfly page.
If you have questions about the schedule please don't hesitate to contact me. Here are a few more pictures of the work being done. More pictures are available on our shutterfly page.
Pat Schettini Library
On Thursday November 17, I had the opportunity to attend the naming ceremony of the library/media center at RMHS in honor of former superintendent Patrick A. Schettini. Sharon Burke, library media specialist at the high school, was the host for the evening. Tributes to Pat were done by Lisa Gibbs, Peter Hechenbleikner, Dr. Doherty, and Ellie Freedman. The high school chorus sang a wonderful rendition of the song Let the River Run.
It was truly an amazing tribute to a wonderful man and superintendent. Here is the link to my blog post honoring the superintendent the week following Pat's passing.
It was truly an amazing tribute to a wonderful man and superintendent. Here is the link to my blog post honoring the superintendent the week following Pat's passing.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Gift policy to staff
Room parents and parents are often generous to staff around the holidays. This generosity is certainly appreciated. Please review this policy if you choose to offer your appreciation to teachers during the holiday season.
Gifts to Public School Teachers and Staff
In general, a public employee may not accept any gift worth $50 or more that is given because of the position he or she holds. Public employees may accept gifts that are worth less than $50, but they have to disclose in writing that they have done so if, based on the specific circumstances, a reasonable person would think that the public employee might unduly show favor to the giver or the giver's child, or be influenced by the giver.
The law prohibits gifts to public employees, not gifts to public agencies. You may give gifts to a public school, or a particular classroom, and the $50 limit does not apply. Your school district may have its own additional rules about gifts, which you should follow.
Example: A Parent-Teacher Organization wants to give $75 gift cards to teachers to buy classroom supplies. The teachers may accept the gift cards but must use them to buy classroom supplies, and should keep receipts to show that they did so. Supplies bought with the gift cards are the property of the school, not the teachers.
New Exemption
The Ethics Commission recently created an exemption to permit class gifts to teachers. A teacher may accept a gift, or several gifts during the school year, from public school students and/or their parents and guardians, with an aggregated value of up to $150, if the gift is identified only as being from the class, and the identity of the givers and the individual amounts given are not identified to the recipient. Gifts received pursuant to this exemption are not required to be disclosed. The donor is unknown, so a reasonable person would not conclude that the gift would influence the teacher's conduct with regard to any individual or would cause the teacher to favor any individual.
Example: A teacher has a class with 23 students. Parents of 20 of the students collect money and give the teacher a $150 gift certificate to a book store, indicating that it is a class gift. The teacher may accept the $150 class gift certificate and no disclosure is required. The teacher may not knowingly accept any additional gift from any of the parents who participated in the class gift.
A teacher may accept a class gift and also individual gifts from persons who did not contribute to the class gift. Unlike class gifts, which are not required to be disclosed, individual gifts must be disclosed if, based on the specific circumstances, a reasonable person might think that the teacher's actions would be influenced by the gift.
Example: A child who did not participate in the class gift gives a plate of homemade cookies to the teacher. The teacher may accept the cookies, and no disclosure is required, because a reasonable person would not think that the teacher would be influenced by a gift that has no retail value. Similarly, a teacher would not be required to disclose acceptance of other homemade food items, hand-picked (not purchased) bouquets of flowers, and handmade gifts, candy, or other gift items worth less than $10, because a reasonable person would not think that the teacher might unduly show favor to the giver of such gifts or the giver's child, or be influenced by the giver.
Example: Parents of a child who did not contribute to a class gift and whose child is awaiting a college recommendation gives the teacher who is writing the recommendation a bottle of wine worth $40. The teacher must disclose the gift in writing to her appointing authority, because a reasonable person might think that such a gift might influence the teacher to write a better recommendation for the student.
Gifts to Public School Teachers and Staff
In general, a public employee may not accept any gift worth $50 or more that is given because of the position he or she holds. Public employees may accept gifts that are worth less than $50, but they have to disclose in writing that they have done so if, based on the specific circumstances, a reasonable person would think that the public employee might unduly show favor to the giver or the giver's child, or be influenced by the giver.
The law prohibits gifts to public employees, not gifts to public agencies. You may give gifts to a public school, or a particular classroom, and the $50 limit does not apply. Your school district may have its own additional rules about gifts, which you should follow.
Example: A Parent-Teacher Organization wants to give $75 gift cards to teachers to buy classroom supplies. The teachers may accept the gift cards but must use them to buy classroom supplies, and should keep receipts to show that they did so. Supplies bought with the gift cards are the property of the school, not the teachers.
New Exemption
The Ethics Commission recently created an exemption to permit class gifts to teachers. A teacher may accept a gift, or several gifts during the school year, from public school students and/or their parents and guardians, with an aggregated value of up to $150, if the gift is identified only as being from the class, and the identity of the givers and the individual amounts given are not identified to the recipient. Gifts received pursuant to this exemption are not required to be disclosed. The donor is unknown, so a reasonable person would not conclude that the gift would influence the teacher's conduct with regard to any individual or would cause the teacher to favor any individual.
Example: A teacher has a class with 23 students. Parents of 20 of the students collect money and give the teacher a $150 gift certificate to a book store, indicating that it is a class gift. The teacher may accept the $150 class gift certificate and no disclosure is required. The teacher may not knowingly accept any additional gift from any of the parents who participated in the class gift.
A teacher may accept a class gift and also individual gifts from persons who did not contribute to the class gift. Unlike class gifts, which are not required to be disclosed, individual gifts must be disclosed if, based on the specific circumstances, a reasonable person might think that the teacher's actions would be influenced by the gift.
Example: A child who did not participate in the class gift gives a plate of homemade cookies to the teacher. The teacher may accept the cookies, and no disclosure is required, because a reasonable person would not think that the teacher would be influenced by a gift that has no retail value. Similarly, a teacher would not be required to disclose acceptance of other homemade food items, hand-picked (not purchased) bouquets of flowers, and handmade gifts, candy, or other gift items worth less than $10, because a reasonable person would not think that the teacher might unduly show favor to the giver of such gifts or the giver's child, or be influenced by the giver.
Example: Parents of a child who did not contribute to a class gift and whose child is awaiting a college recommendation gives the teacher who is writing the recommendation a bottle of wine worth $40. The teacher must disclose the gift in writing to her appointing authority, because a reasonable person might think that such a gift might influence the teacher to write a better recommendation for the student.
Birch Meadow Music Teacher
Enjoy this feature article about Birch Meadow music teacher Melissa Steiger
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Window Project Update
The Window Project is underway.
The first group of rooms will be completed in the next week. The cafeteria windows and the rooms in the courtyard are the next set of rooms which will be impacted by the window project. See the message below related to student safety.
WINDOW SAFETY
Parents are asked to closely monitor children near the construction areas marked by yellow caution tape. Children should be kept at least 30 feet away from the tape. Part of the construction may result in broken glass and other items which impact student safety. Please help keep your children safe and stay at least 30 feet from the construction area.
The Birch Meadow courtyard is going to be blocked from foot traffic starting this Monday, November 14. This will impact many classrooms along with drop off and pick up procedures. Ms. Simon, Mrs. Tucker, and Mrs. Piazza will have their classes enter and exit the building via the doors at the end of their hallway.
Parents should drop off children at these doors before school and pick up their students at these doors at the end of the school day.
Please contact your child’s teacher or Mr. Sprung if you have questions.
Thank you.
Pictures of the temporary gym classrooms and new windows are see below and available on the Birch Meadow Shutterfly page.
The first group of rooms will be completed in the next week. The cafeteria windows and the rooms in the courtyard are the next set of rooms which will be impacted by the window project. See the message below related to student safety.
WINDOW SAFETY
Parents are asked to closely monitor children near the construction areas marked by yellow caution tape. Children should be kept at least 30 feet away from the tape. Part of the construction may result in broken glass and other items which impact student safety. Please help keep your children safe and stay at least 30 feet from the construction area.
The Birch Meadow courtyard is going to be blocked from foot traffic starting this Monday, November 14. This will impact many classrooms along with drop off and pick up procedures. Ms. Simon, Mrs. Tucker, and Mrs. Piazza will have their classes enter and exit the building via the doors at the end of their hallway.
Parents should drop off children at these doors before school and pick up their students at these doors at the end of the school day.
Please contact your child’s teacher or Mr. Sprung if you have questions.
Thank you.
Pictures of the temporary gym classrooms and new windows are see below and available on the Birch Meadow Shutterfly page.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Respect is our character trait this month
Dear Birch Meadow Parents,
As you know, Birch Meadow’s behavior program is focusing on 6 themes of character this year: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Sportsmanship, Cooperation, and Caring.
Respect is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. A special thank you goes to our 4th graders who introduced our guest speaker, parent and school committee member Lisa Gibbs. Lisa talked about respect and allowed students to share how they will be respectful at home and school. Teachers and staff will be rewarding students showing respect and we are encouraging parents to do the same at home. Your child will be bringing home a bear this week. Please reward your child when you see him/her showing respect by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show respect. The bear will be added to the other bears in a container in the office and posted in the lobby. Mr. Sprung will read one bear from each grade level at our next assembly.
The bear will be returned to you at the end of the month. Thank you for your cooperation with this program, and we look forward to reading how your child has shown respect at home!
As you know, Birch Meadow’s behavior program is focusing on 6 themes of character this year: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Sportsmanship, Cooperation, and Caring.
Respect is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. A special thank you goes to our 4th graders who introduced our guest speaker, parent and school committee member Lisa Gibbs. Lisa talked about respect and allowed students to share how they will be respectful at home and school. Teachers and staff will be rewarding students showing respect and we are encouraging parents to do the same at home. Your child will be bringing home a bear this week. Please reward your child when you see him/her showing respect by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show respect. The bear will be added to the other bears in a container in the office and posted in the lobby. Mr. Sprung will read one bear from each grade level at our next assembly.
The bear will be returned to you at the end of the month. Thank you for your cooperation with this program, and we look forward to reading how your child has shown respect at home!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Food Pantry Collection
Dear Families,
As we approach this busy time of year, it is important to remind ourselves of all that we have to be thankful for. That being said, it is also very important to remind ourselves that there are people that are not as fortunate as we are. We have been in contact with the Reading Food Pantry and have decided to run a school wide food drive. I am attaching the list of items that are needed and not needed at this time. Please, if you are able to do so, send in some of the items on the list, place them in the designated container in your child’s classroom and we will forward them to the Reading Food Pantry. Your thoughtfulness, kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated!
Fondly,
The Kindergarten and Third Grade Team
Suggested Classroom Food Pantry Donations:
Coffee
Instant and canned potatoes
Mandarin oranges
Any canned fruits
Granola bars
Corned beef hash
Beef Stew
Chili
Canola cooking oil
Instant or Regular rice (brown or white)
100% Juice boxes
Cocoa
Clam or corn chowder
Paper Products of any type
Laundry detergent
Dish detergent
Shampoo
*Any and all donations are greatly appreciated
As we approach this busy time of year, it is important to remind ourselves of all that we have to be thankful for. That being said, it is also very important to remind ourselves that there are people that are not as fortunate as we are. We have been in contact with the Reading Food Pantry and have decided to run a school wide food drive. I am attaching the list of items that are needed and not needed at this time. Please, if you are able to do so, send in some of the items on the list, place them in the designated container in your child’s classroom and we will forward them to the Reading Food Pantry. Your thoughtfulness, kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated!
Fondly,
The Kindergarten and Third Grade Team
Suggested Classroom Food Pantry Donations:
Coffee
Instant and canned potatoes
Mandarin oranges
Any canned fruits
Granola bars
Corned beef hash
Beef Stew
Chili
Canola cooking oil
Instant or Regular rice (brown or white)
100% Juice boxes
Cocoa
Clam or corn chowder
Paper Products of any type
Laundry detergent
Dish detergent
Shampoo
*Any and all donations are greatly appreciated
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
High School presents "Modern Millie"
The RMHS drama club came to Birch Meadow to introduce our students to the show Thoroughly Modern Millie. Thank you to the High School for the performace. The show will be coming to RMHS in November. More pictures can be seen on the Birch Meadow Shutterfly page.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Monster Mash and Spooky Fun Fair
We have lots of pictures from this past weekend. Monster Mash and Spooky Fun Fair were a big success. Pictures are here and on the Birch Meadow shutterfly page. We have additional pictures from this snapfish page of Monster Mash. Thank you to Pam Keating for sharing her pictures. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who made these events possible!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
FOOD PLAY
Birch Meadow students experienced the Food Play assembly last week. Thank you to the PTO for bringing this program to our school. Ask your child the difference between and "WHOA FOOD" vs. "GO FOOD". The program provided good information and reminders about making good choices about what you eat. You can see a few pictures below and many more on our Birch Meadow Shutterfly Site.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Ms. Simon in Africa
The following pictures are from the summer experience of Maria Simon, Birch Meadow kindergarten teacher, teaching in Africa. If you are interested in more pictures or hearing about her experience please send an e-mail to Ms. Simon.
647 Our team had a lovely musical send off from the children at our last school, Ziga Primary. My first grade friends are in the front row. Leaving them was bittersweet!
567 These are the Mpindo Primary School dancers. They performed at our end of the week assembly. We couldn't resist joining them, which was fun and maybe funny!
Here I am with Patricia. She was my first grade guest teacher, at Kapane Primary School. She teaches grade one and has 47 students in her class. The classroom is also shared with grades zero and two!
These are my grade one friends at Jabulani Primary School. It is a grade zero through eight school, but only has three classrooms. The youngest two grades (that I taught) have to learn outside. There simply isn't enough classroom space. Jabulani is in Victoria Falls and is just twenty minutes away from a fairly well funded private school.
647 Our team had a lovely musical send off from the children at our last school, Ziga Primary. My first grade friends are in the front row. Leaving them was bittersweet!
567 These are the Mpindo Primary School dancers. They performed at our end of the week assembly. We couldn't resist joining them, which was fun and maybe funny!
Here I am with Patricia. She was my first grade guest teacher, at Kapane Primary School. She teaches grade one and has 47 students in her class. The classroom is also shared with grades zero and two!
These are my grade one friends at Jabulani Primary School. It is a grade zero through eight school, but only has three classrooms. The youngest two grades (that I taught) have to learn outside. There simply isn't enough classroom space. Jabulani is in Victoria Falls and is just twenty minutes away from a fairly well funded private school.
Message from Asst. Superintendent - Patty de Garavilla
Elementary Standards-Based Report Cards
Parent Informational Update #1
This year, Reading Public Schools is implementing the new Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks for both English/Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics for PreK-12. These new standards include the Common Core State Standards which has been adopted by most states across the United States. Each grade level and subject area has specific standards for students to master by the end of the school year. Our teachers will focus on these as we support the goal of the Common Core which is to prepare students for college and career.
This year you will notice a new system of assessment for our K-5 students that is correlated to the new standards and expectations for mastery. Teachers will now report out student progress using the indictors of” Exceeds the Standard”,” Meets the Standard”, Progressing Toward the Standard”, and Beginning to Develop the Standard”. This system will be used with classroom assessments. You will no longer see scores reported out with letter grades or as percentages.
This will also be true of the new standards-based report card which will be introduced this year in grades K-5. This system will provide you with much greater detail on what your child is learning and his/her progress towards mastery. Please watch for more information on our standards-based grading and report cards over the next few weeks. We hope that this information will contribute to a smooth transition from the former report cards to the new.
Parent Informational Update #1
This year, Reading Public Schools is implementing the new Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks for both English/Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics for PreK-12. These new standards include the Common Core State Standards which has been adopted by most states across the United States. Each grade level and subject area has specific standards for students to master by the end of the school year. Our teachers will focus on these as we support the goal of the Common Core which is to prepare students for college and career.
This year you will notice a new system of assessment for our K-5 students that is correlated to the new standards and expectations for mastery. Teachers will now report out student progress using the indictors of” Exceeds the Standard”,” Meets the Standard”, Progressing Toward the Standard”, and Beginning to Develop the Standard”. This system will be used with classroom assessments. You will no longer see scores reported out with letter grades or as percentages.
This will also be true of the new standards-based report card which will be introduced this year in grades K-5. This system will provide you with much greater detail on what your child is learning and his/her progress towards mastery. Please watch for more information on our standards-based grading and report cards over the next few weeks. We hope that this information will contribute to a smooth transition from the former report cards to the new.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Planting at Birch Meadow
Thank you to the following parents and families who helped by cleaning our courtyard garden and planting new flowers. Some of these volunteers were working for more than 6 hours! Thank you to Aji Gnanaratnam and Mahoney's Garden Center in Tewksbury for donating the plants and flowers!
Gnanaratnam family
Jean Williams
Trey Skehan
Jodi Fox
Nancy and Bill Benson
Gnanaratnam family
Jean Williams
Trey Skehan
Jodi Fox
Nancy and Bill Benson
Monday, October 3, 2011
Responsibilty is our character trait this month
As you know, Birch Meadow’s behavior program is focusing on 6 themes of character this year: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Sportsmanship, Cooperation, and Caring.
Responsibility is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. A special thank you goes to our 5th graders who introduced our guest speaker, superintendent of schools Dr. John Doherty. Dr. Doherty talked about his responsibilities as the superintendent and allowed students to share how they will be responsible at home and school. Teachers and staff will be rewarding students showing Responsibility and we are encouraging parents to do the same at home. Your child will be bringing home a bear this week. Please reward your child when you see him/her showing Responsibility by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show RESPONSIBILIITY. The bear will be added to the other bears in a container in the office and posted in the lobby. Mr. Sprung will read one bear from each grade level at our next assembly.
The bear will be returned to you at the end of the month. Thank you for your cooperation with this program, and we look forward to reading how your child has shown Responsibility at home!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Great week! Look ahead...
Thank you to the many parents who joined us for Curriculum Night last Monday and Wednesday night! Here are few pictures which highlight student activities last week. This is a sample of the photos with many more available on our Shutterfly page. The password to the shutterfly page was sent in the Thursday EDLINE e-mail. Please let me know if you are not receiving the EDLINE weekly e-mail.
I hope to see you Wednesday night at the PTO picnic.
Thank you,
Mr. Sprung
A look inside picture day at Birch Meadow!
Students complete an obstacle course during PE class.
The book fair is set up on Friday afternoon!
Students read and check out books during library class.
A group of future artists!
I hope to see you Wednesday night at the PTO picnic.
Thank you,
Mr. Sprung
A look inside picture day at Birch Meadow!
Students complete an obstacle course during PE class.
The book fair is set up on Friday afternoon!
Students read and check out books during library class.
A group of future artists!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Walk to School Day
The rain finally went away and we had a great walk to school day on Friday. Thank you to the WASH committee and the many parent volunteers who helped with this event! More pictures will be available on the school shutterfly site on Thursday.
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