ISM Halloween Festivities

{NOTE: Intended to be sent on Thursday, but not received until Friday.}

Halloween is an exciting time at ISM. Our parents have planned many wonderful activities. I just wanted to remind everyone that costumes children are wearing during the festivities should be in good taste. The information that our parent committee sent out about costumes stated that costumes should not include weapons or blood or be frightening as we are a Kindergarten through eighth grade school. Although appropriate for older children, scary costumes may be too much for the younger ones. Children have also been asked not to wear masks. They will be parading and walking all over our campus and wearing a mask while walking on our uneven terrain can be dangerous.

I am very excited about my first Halloween here at ISM and I expect I will see everyone having a great time.

Please remember, the children can come in free dress clothes tomorrow and will change into their costumes in the afternoon.

Eric Pearlstein
Associate Director

Thank You and Halloween Reminders

Thank you to the 5 parents who drove to Mission San Juan Bautista for our field trip yesterday.

We couldn't have done it without you! Our scenic trip following the de Anza trail was very memorable as well as the mission itself. The students particularly enjoyed the mission building game and stepping foot on the San Andreas fault. Thank you all for making the trip happen by sending in those forms and money. A special thanks to Sonia Perez, Kathleen Hill, Nik Myers, Stefani Chaney and Claudia Paul for their expert driving skills and chaperon help!

As you are well aware, Halloween is tomorrow. It is a free dress day. If students are going to dress in a costume for the afternoon, they should bring their costume in their backpack or bag. Costume changing time will be at lunch recess.

Come to the Halloween Festival if you can. The 4th grade is responsible to bring water and help out at the "Die-cut frames" booth. Grades K-6 will be participating in a Halloween parade. It should be a fun afternoon.

I've heard from most of you about your preferred conference time next week or the following week. If you haven't responded yet, please do so. I will get a Master List out to all soon. So far, most everyone has a time they requested.

Have a safe and fun Halloween and weekend ahead.

Mary Cunningham-Welsh

Information about Upcoming Parent/Teacher Conferences

Next Thursday, 11/6/08 students will be dismissed at 11:30 AM and there will be no classes for students on Friday 11/7/08. Parent/teacher conferences are scheduled for these times.

The first conference of the year is a teacher led conference. You and your child will meet with your child's teacher. The goal of every parent/teacher conference is for the parent, the child and the teacher to leave with a clear understanding of how the child is doing in his or her classroom.

In all grades the teacher will be showing parents and students samples of the student's work. It is often helpful for teachers to also show parents exemplars, or examples of assignments that demonstrate what is expected of all students. I have asked teachers, when appropriate to provide exemplars of typical student work.

Here are some questions to consider during the conference:

• Is the child having difficulty doing work in a subject, what kind of help does the child need?
• Is the child getting work done during class and turning it in?
• Is the child getting homework completed and turned in on time?
• Does the child actively participate during lessons?
• Is the child an independent learner?
• Is the child using his time in the classroom wisely?
• Does the child actively participate and contribute when working with a partner or in a group?
• Does the child choose to go above and beyond when he or she capable?
• How does the child approach homework? When does he or she do homework, how long is it taking, where does the child do his or her homework?
• What are the child's interests at home?
• If the child is capable of doing the work, but is not completing it, what can the student, parents and teacher do to help the child meet his or her responsibilities?

In the primary grades most of the discussion will take place between teacher and parent. During the conference a primary age child will receive a lot of encouragement and some suggestions. As children mature they are encouraged to participate more fully in their conference. The input and commitment to the process of older students is necessary for a successful result.

Spanish teachers and Mr. Robby our physical education teacher will be available to meet with parents throughout the day in their respective offices. If you would like to meet with our art, music, or drama, specialists or with Mrs. Madden our algebra and pre-algebra teacher, please email them to schedule a conference as they are part time teachers and may not be on campus when you are here for your child's classroom conference.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at (831) 583-2165 or epearlstein@ismonterey.org.

Eric Pearlstein
Associate Director

ISM Strategic Plan Renewal for 2009-2010

Last year volunteers from the ISM community helped shape the contents of the ISM Strategic Plan, a document that guides decision-making and resource allocations towards the vision we have established for our school. This document can be found on the ISM website at these links: http://www.ismonterey.org/Media/StrategicPlanningFramework/ISMstratplan080301.pdf or at http://www.ismonterey.org/Media/StrategicPlanningFramework/ISMstratplan080301.pdf

As originally conceived, this 5-year plan is to be updated each year. We would like to invite and encourage members of the school community to be a part of this process.

The Board Strategic Plan Committee will convene a Strategic Advisory Team consisting of volunteers who will have the responsibility to:

1. determine whether or not the current strategic commitments are relevant to the school vision before extending the plan;
2. assess progress in reaching current priorities and determine whether to extend or establish new priorities for the coming year.

We intend to have the first Strategic Advisory meeting on Wednesday November 5th from 6pm to 9pm in the School Library, circulate the results of that discussion to the ISM Community vie e-mails and surveys and have a concluding meeting on Wednesday December 3rd.

If you are interested in participating in this process please send an email to Strategic@ismonterey.org or contact Alastair Rodd at 1-831-384-7811.


Thanks
Alastair Rodd

Conference Times

Dear Parents,

I have sent a schedule for the upcoming conferences next week via email. Please select 3 times that could work for you and send it back with your child. The students will also be bringing a hard copy of this schedule home today.

As you know, we will be on a field trip to Monterey State Parks on Thursday and not return until about 2:30pm. The rest of the school will be out at 11:30am for conferences that day. I have added other times to accommodate these few hours when I won't be available.

I will send out a list of conference times once I hear back from everyone.

Thank you,

Mary Cunningham-Welsh

Permission Slips, Money and Drivers Needed

Dear Parents,

Our upcoming field trips are in jeopardy of being canceled. We do not have all of the permission slips, money or drivers to make the trips happen. Please send in your child's forms and money by Tuesday, Oct. 28th.

If you can drive on either trip, please let me know asap. We need 12 more spaces for the Wednesday trip this week and 15 spaces are needed for next Thursday's trip. I know it is a lot to ask of you but, I hope you will be able to join us and learn about the history of California on the trip too.

Does it sound like I'm begging yet?

[Names of students and the forms and funds needed was sent via email.]

Thank you for all of your support!

Mary Welsh

Come Cheer for ISM Teachers at Big Sur Half Marathon!

Fourth grade parent Jun Meng (father of Charles Meng in Ms. Arnow's class), Mr. Robby, Mrs. Stephanie and Mr. Brandau are running in the Big Sur Half Marathon! Come cheer for them while you volunteer. They need all your support!

Volunteer hours are from 6am to 11am, on Sunday, November 9th. Our duties are to serve water and energy drink to runners when they pass our aid station. Students 3rd grade and up are welcome to help too.

To sign up, please contact Clara Wang at clarawang@comcast.net, or sign up through PTO Manager. The race is less than two weeks away, so sign up today!

Thank you!
Clara Wang

Parent Update 10/26/2008

Dear Grade Four Parents,

First of all, I'd like to thank all of the parents who helped to drive and chaperon our field trip last Thursday. We had a great visit to the sand dunes at Seaside Beach and learned a lot about the habitat and restoration. We are looking forward to starting the seeds we collected and going back to the dunes in the winter to plant the seedlings we grow. None of this could have been done without the help of parents who helped us out that day at a very short notice. Thank you one and all!

The 4th grade picnic at Casanova Oak Knoll Park on Friday was a very nice and well- attended event. Thank you to all who came and joined in on the fun and meeting one another. The food and company were wonderful. Thank you all for the birthday card and singing!

We have another busy and fun week ahead. We have our field trip, along with Ms. Arnow's class, to San Juan Bautista Mission on Wed., Oct. 29th. We still need drivers (!), field trip forms and payment for the trip. If you have not sent in your child's forms and money, please do so tomorrow. We will have to cancel the trip if we don't have enough drivers.

Our next trip, the following week, Thursday. November 6th to the Monterey State Parks for the Rancho program, also still needs drivers, forms and payment. Please send this in as soon as possible as well. Thanks for your response!

Boxtops are due on Monday so we can be part of the contest to win a movie and smoothies in class. We hope to be the winners!

Our class will be taking a standardized test in Math on Tuesday morning. This is just a practice test for McGraw Hill Company. Please assure your child the test does not count but we hope they all will do their best. Each class taking the test will receive some money from the company. We will save to these funds to help with field trips.

Halloween is Friday. The ISM Halloween Festival on Friday starting at 1:00pm. Students can bring their costumes and can put them on at lunch recess. Costumes should not be worn to school although it is a free dress day.

Spelling will resume this week. Look for your child's words in their planners and bags to sort and write at home. In math, we will be working on number stories and true and false number sentences, The McGraw Hill test will take place during one of our math periods. In reading we are continuing with book clubs and, in writing, working on writing good paragraphs with topic sentences, main ideas and conclusions.

Conferences will take place next week. Look for a note about sign-up times in your child's homework folder this week. Please remember we are on our field trip to the State Parks on Thursday, Nov. 6th during the early dismissal for conferences so, I am adjusting my times to help that happen.

Have a wonderful week.
Sincerely,
Mary Welsh