CJL Newsletter Winter 2009

The CJL News

Principal’s Message
Welcome to the winter edition of the “CJL News.” This school year is going by very quickly. I can’t believe we’ve already celebrated the 100th day of school.
Reflecting on my seven months as the principal of the Captain James Lawrence School I continue to work on forming positive relationships with students, parents, and staff. My first priority is to make decisions based on the best interests of our children.
I am proud to say that parental involvement continues to increase. We had over 80% of parents attend our fall and winter conferences, a good turn out for Raising Readers and Math Matters, a packed cafeteria during Breakfast with Santa, and standing room only at our Winter Concert. Students who experience success in school have parents that are involved in their child’s education. The students benefit when home and school work together.
Thoughts become words,
Words become actions,
Actions become character,
And character is everything!

These words hang on the bulletin board in my office and I read and think about them daily. I’ve come to realize that my character is most important to be effective in my job. Children observe the words and actions of the adults important in their lives – parents and staff. Children model our words and actions. Although adults may be able to act one way at work, another at home, and yet another in social settings, young children have difficulty understanding a different set of rules for home than for school. I find that when children and adults model good character in all settings, this eliminates the chance of acting inappropriately.
The safety of the students at the Captain James Lawrence School is my top priority. Students are reminded daily to use kind words and actions with their fellow classmates. As you know, we have a “hands off” policy in The City of Burlington Code of Conduct. This means that students may not hit, kick, or push another student, whether a child starts the incident or retaliates. Following is a copy of Student Expectations from our Code of Conduct. Please reinforce these behaviors with your child at home.
As I mentioned in my back to school speech, in order to make a positive impact in our children’s lives the home and school needs to work together so all students may reach their academic, social, and emotional potential.

Expectations For Student Behavior
Each student is expected to:
• Demonstrate courtesy and respect for others
• Behave in a responsible manner
• Arrive at school on time in the morning
• Attend all classes regularly and on time
• Prepare for each class: take appropriate materials and assignments to class
• Be well-groomed and dress appropriately according to the school’s dress code
• Respect the rights and privileges of other students and of teachers and other District staff
• Cooperate with or assist the school staff in maintaining safety, order and discipline
• Follow all classroom and school rules
• Use self-control and practice good citizenship
• Use proper and appropriate language and refrain from using profanity, teasing, name-calling or any other unacceptable forms of communication including lewd hand gestures
• Follow all fire drill and emergency procedures
• Refrain from the use, distribution or possession of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and other controlled substances
• Respect and care for school and personal property
• Use reasonable means to resolve disputes and never fight to express personal anger. That includes but is not limited to, pushing, tripping, hitting, slapping, spitting on, throwing objects at or wrestling students at school or on the way to and from school
• Move about the hallways in a quiet and orderly manner
• Remain on school grounds and in designated areas until dismissal
• Assist in keeping the school grounds and facilities clean and free of debris
• Observe acceptable audience behavior when participating in large group activities
• Refrain from gum chewing or eating candy in school unless there is a party
• Eat only in designated areas
• Leave items at home that interfere with learning, which include, but are not limited to skateboards, radios, CD players, headphone, beepers, phones, walkman, electronic games, scooters, roller skates and collection cards
A student whose behavior shows disrespect for others will be subject to disciplinary action. The school may impose classroom rules in addition to those found in the Student Code of Conduct.

Tutoring
Tutoring is an important part of the Reading Program. Children are tutored in small groups for 25 minutes a day. Many of the same materials used in reading class are also used in tutoring.
The goal of tutoring is to help students “catch up” or “keep up: with classroom instruction. Students work hard in tutoring and feel proud of themselves as they become confident readers.
Children Learn To Read By Reading !!
Please Read With Your Child – 20 Minutes Every Day.

Fit Kids Get Better Grades
According to studies by the California Department of Education as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children’s fitness levels may affect their performance in school. The studies found that increased amount of
physical fitness translated into higher academic achievement. The benefits are most evident in math scores. Doctors have surmised that exercise may encourage new brain-cell growth. A workout for your body also is a workout for your mind.

Raising Readers
Parents were invited into the cafeteria to begin the Raising Readers Workshop. They were greeted by the Captain James Lawrence School Principal, Mrs. Deborah Banecker, Mrs. Eileen Sharlot, the Reading Tutor, and the Literacy Coach, Mrs. Robin Affrime. Parents were invited to enjoy light refreshments while Mrs. Banecker and staff talked about the importance of reading both in school and for homework.
Parents also learned about the new writing program including training, allowing time for students to write daily, and the mini lessons, and conferences that help to move their writing forward. Writing is an area that the district students seem to struggle with on the state assessments, and that is one of the reasons we are devoting time and effort to improve that area of their education.
A few door prizes were given out and then parents were invited to join their children in the classrooms. Parents seemed to be enjoying themselves, and were engaged and interested in the lessons.

Library News- Mrs. Morgan
The library has been a very busy place! The K5 and 1st grades have been enjoying acting out fairytales and other stories with mini plays. They have been enjoying classic tales such as “The Gingerbread Boy”, “Little Red Hen”, etc. The plays help the children learn the classic tales and help develop their oral expression and speaking skills.
The 2nd graders have been exploring the “White House for Kids” website and the World Book Encyclopedia on the computer to learn about our former Presidents. Each student has chosen a former President for a research project about that President.
The children (K-2) have also been learning about the life of our 44th President Barack Obama. It is wonderful to see such interest from the children about our new President! The classes were able to visit the library on January 20th Inauguration Day to see this historic event on live television.
Please read to and with your children! Catch the reading habit!

Project of the Month Soup-er Bowl
The students and staff of Captain James Lawrence School and Elias Boudinot had a fabulous canned food drive, the Soup-er Bowl, to benefit local food pantries. Over 2,000 items were received. CJL students in Pre-school through Grade 2 brought in canned and packaged foods to help stock food pantry shelves during the cold winter months. Each grade level was extremely generous, but our kindergarten students and staff topped the scales bringing in 521 individual food units. The K5 students will receive a pizza party as a Thank You for their hard work. Congratulations to all who participated in this wonderful event. Our school collected at total of 1,330 items.

Raising Readers
The Captain James Lawrence School had a fabulously successful Raising Readers parent workshop.
Parents were greeted and addressed by Principal Deborah Banecker, Eileen Sharlot Reading Tutor/ELP Teacher, and Robin Affrime, Literacy Coach. A few door prizes were given away and then parents had an opportunity to join their children for reading lessons. In the classrooms parents were encouraged to interact with the children as they went through a variety of lesson types including whole group and small group instruction and learning centers. The event was well received by parents who are beginning to learn about our new guided reading literacy program. Pictures from the event are on the bulletin board outside of the gymnasium.

Math Matters
On February 19, 2009, please join the staff and students for our annual Math Matters Parent Workshop. We will meet in the technology lab for refreshments and an introduction by Principal, Deborah Banecker, and Pre-school Head Teacher, Yvonne Butler. After the introduction, and some door prizes, parents will visit classrooms where students and staff from pre-kindergarten through second grade will have an opportunity to showcase interactive math activities. We hope you will join us on February 19th at 8:30 in the morning.

Mr. LeBrun – Attendance/Safety Officer
There has been an improvement in student attendance. I’d like to thank all the parents. Keep up the good work!
Our Safety Patrol has been doing a great job. Second graders that continue to do a good job academically will have a chance to perform as one of the safety patrollers.

Mrs. Calderone - Guidance
The counseling department has been busy so far this school year. Mrs. Calderone and Mrs. Kiedaisch conducted an ANGER MANAGEMENT GROUP which met for six weeks during students' lunch periods. Students who joined the group, ended the six sessions with new ways to handle their anger, including breathing techniques, calming strategies and ways to discuss their anger in order to control it. The students in this group will be participating in "group reunions" during the rest of the school year to ensure they are handling their anger in an nonviolent manner. The CHARACTER EDUCATION COMMITTEE has been busy implementing monthly incentives for students who do not receive discipline write-ups. Incentives thus far include; Harvest of Good Character Dance, Karate Demonstration and a visit from the Trenton Thunder, bat-dog, CHASE. The committee will continue with incentives to encourage an environment that is positive for all learners to be successful!

Mr. McKant – PE
Hello from the Captain James Lawrence Elementary School P.E. Department. Wintertime is here but that does not stop the fun and excitement in our gymnasium. There are lots of exciting lessons going on in the gym this season including: fitness, health, cooperative games, and our “Lawrence School” favorite dance. The students will soon be preparing for our upcoming “GYM SHOW” in April so stay tuned!! Also, Mr. McKant has a student teacher for the next several weeks by the name of Miss. C. If you see her, make sure you give her a nice Lawrence School welcome!! Parents, I know the weather is cold but don’t forget to send your children to school with their SNEAKERS!!

Cassandra A. Cooblall - Speech/Language Specialist
Greetings! It’s been a really fun and challenging year so far. At the Captain James Lawrence School our students participate in lessons and activities that improve their speech and language skills. Miss C’s Speech Stars are working hard building our receptive and expressive vocabularies, and improving our speech sounds. Some other areas we focus on are fluency, auditory processing, social language, and oral motor skills, to name a few. The intervention approaches both motivate and challenge our students. Students of all different ages come to Speech for different reasons, but together we work in diverse groups focusing on our goals and objectives for better communication with our peers, teachers, parents, and community. Our students have shown great progress, and continue to work hard everyday.
Helpful Hint to work with your child at home: Have fun conversations! You can use the dinner table like a speech session. Talk about the events that happened in each other’s day. Conversational skills, such as maintaining the topic and turn-taking are essential parts of speech and language.

March Math Madness!! – Kathy Gould, Technology
Kindergarten, first and second grade students are busy working with internet navigation and word processing in computer/technology classes. Students are also being introduced to the Smart Board, a fantastic piece of hardware, where teachers and students can control the computer on a large screen with their fingers and special pens. This wonderful new board makes learning and integrating technology into all lessons fun and exciting.
Students will be working to memorize their basic addition and subtraction facts. We will be looking for class progress.
Help your children by asking them facts in the car, on commercials, waiting in lines, and more.
Thank you for your support!
Kindergarten Classes
Winters here-Winter’s here, cold days all around. We are busy learning to read words by stretching out their sounds. Keep up the great work by reading our weekly theme books.
Our books practice our sight words, beginning/ending sounds and fill in the missing word sentences. “Sound Spell’s” cool, “Sound Spell’s” fun; this helps us to spell out words. Look out world the K5 writing process is under construction. Encourage sentences and spacing. Number identification 0-31 and counting out objects to 30 is coming along nicely; this will be us ready for addition and subtractions.
Thank you to all our parents who joined us at the Winter Conference date. Student progress, student behavior and report cards were discussed. Keep up the fabulous progress!!

Mrs. Ferrara
Greetings from Mrs. Ferrara’s class. The children are eagerly learning interesting facts about our new First Family and great people during Black History Month. We are earning our way to various activities given by the Character Education Committee by making good choices.
Mrs. Ferrara’s Class Motto:
I am as good as ANYONE!
From the book “Martin’s Big Words”
Have a great month!

Ms. Carden & Mrs. Harple - First Grade
The First Graders have been busy! Winter has kept us inside working hard. Whether it was practicing for our play or reading bigger and longer books’ we rose to the challenge. We are 100 days smarter after celebrating our 100th day of school. We can now tell you about place value from ones, tens, and HUNDREDS. Our writing is getting really intense. The first graders explored some serious topics like Dr. King’s inspirational speech, and how they would change the world. We are writing longer passages and using more and more sight words as every day passes. Stop in and see us any time. We are always willing to show off how SMART we are!

December Student of the Month
Raniya Bruton-Moore Nafia Coney
JaNiyah Dixon Russell Gadson
Chyna Czaplicki Aja Ware
Quiataya Johnson

January Student of the Month
Jamie Ellis Keith Simpkins
Janee’ Thomas John Thomas

February Student of the Month
Nafia Coney Russell Gadson
Elijah Johnson Keith Simpkins
Diamond Watley Tatyanna Welch

Best Citizen
Brian Bockius Talia Conway
Armani Diggs Tyler Mason
Elijah Johnson Diamond Watley

Character Trait – Caring
Niya Johnson Kyra Larocque
Asmar Randolph Mikai Washington

Pride
October/November
Shayla Atwood Isaiah Keller-Jenkins
James Pinto

December/January
Anaiah Crowder Dominic Johnson
Zane Stribling Aja Ware
Tahir Winder

February
Nafia Coney Russell Gadson
Elijah Johnson Keith Simpkins
Diamond Watley Tatyanna Welch

March
Anastasia Crater Quintaya Johnson
Janee’ Thomas Irmeir Warthen

Cromwell Black History Month Program Poster Winners
Anastasia Crater, 2nd – Mrs. Ferrara
Javier Hall-Soto, 1st – Ms. Carden
Brian Nistor, K5 – Mrs. Tucker
Jamie Ellis, 1st – Ms. Carden
Diamond Watley, K5 – Mrs. Fischer

Patroiotic Readers
Rajatvir Singh
I respect the country because it is special to all of us. The soldiers helped our country to keep it safe for all of us. I love the country because I was born here. It is special to all of us in this country. Soldiers and other brave people help save our beautiful country. People here should be very proud right now. Everything here is beautiful just the way it is.

Michael Sams
I am proud I live in America because in America there are the best schools in the entire world.
I am proud I live in America because at school there are different races and color doesn’t matter.
Some black and white people are my friends. I am proud I live in America for the first time ever there is an African-American president. The president’s name is Mr. Obama and his vice president’s name is Mr. Joe Biden. That’s why I love America and am proud to be surrounded by everyone that keeps me safe and loves me.