Migration Videos and Stories

Dear families,

We have all worked long and hard on the migration project but it appears the video editing part has come to a sudden end. It seems that although we have iMovie on all the school computers, we don't have enough processing capability in our server to manage this type of file. So the kids won't be able to edit their movies here at school after all. I am so sorry about this disappointment.

Our plan is to save every child's footage in .mov format. This is a universal video format, the same as what they saved their quick films in at the Apple store. Using these files, you should be able to edit them at home, at a video workshop at the Apple store, or next year at school once the tech issues are resolved.

Meanwhile the children's grades will be based on their migration stories, rather than on both the story and the movie. I have had a lot of families ask for more time on the story write-ups and so have extended the due date to Monday, May 4th. The stories I have read so far have been very intriguing and I hope that part of the process has been valuable to your child as well. Everyone has worked very hard to get their projects done (parents included!). We will still have a time to share these stories and maybe a few video clips from the films you all took. I will have further details on that soon.

Again, my apologies,
Mary

STAR Testing and Health News

Dear Parents,

A reminder that beginning next week on Tuesday, and scheduled during the following ten school days, our second through eighth grade students will be taking Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests.

All students in these grades will be taking the English Language Test (ELA). The ELA is given in two parts over consecutive days. In grades two and three there is a third part of the ELA test which is given on a third consecutive day.

All students in grades two through eight will be given a Math Test. The Math test is given in two parts on two consecutive days. In grades two and three there is a third part of the Math test which is given on a third consecutive day.

Grades five and eight will take a Science test which will be given in two parts.

Grade eight will also take a History-Social Science test which will be given in two parts.

Classes will only take one section of the test each day. All tests will begin at 8:45 AM.
Please assure your child that she/he has been well prepared for these tests and that his/her parents and teachers know that they will do very well.

Please also make sure that your child gets a good nights sleep each night during this time period and that they have a good breakfast each morning. If you have any questions, please call me at 583-2165 or email me at epearlstein@ismonterey.org.

Health News:
I wanted to assure all of our parents that we are following updates from the Monterey County Health Department regarding Swine Flu. There have been no reported cases in our area. In response to the advice that we have received we have asked our teachers to:

• Remind and allow our students to wash their hands frequently.
• Reinforce that students should cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze.
• Send them to the office if they complain of feeling feverish, a sore throat, a headache, chills, tired, dizzy or nauseous.
  

Parents should observe their children for similar symptoms at home and make sure that they take the same precautions.

It is never fun to tell parents about State Standardized tests or precautions to take during flu season.

I want to leave you with a positive thought.

At ISM we have great kids, great teachers and great parents and I feel very lucky to be here.

Eric Pearlstein
Interim Executive Director

(831) 583-2165
epearlstein@ismonterey.org

Exciting Addition to our Apple Store Trip... Earth

We have a great opportunity to use our pizza money on Wednesday to see the film "Earth" at the Del Monte Center. Attached and headed your way by kid mail is a notice of this change - no need to return it, as we already have your permission slips.



PLEASE be sure to pack a sack lunch for your child on Wednesday, as we will not be at school for school lunch.

We will return to school at 2:30, not 12:30 as originally planned.

SPECIAL NOTE: Parents who are planning to drive for the field trip: Does this timing work for you? Is there anyone who will not be able to drive? I don't have my list with me at this time. Please let me know.

You can also drop the kids off and come back at the end of the movie if that works better.

Thanks!
Mary

Costumes Needed for Drama Classes

Dear Parents:

Spring is a time for cleaning out closets and noticing how much our children have grown during the year. As you do your Spring sorting of clothes, hats, shoes, purses, robes, costume jewelry, etc., please keep the ISM drama department in mind and donate any items you might want to pass on.

We are getting ready for grades 1-3 skits and plays and would like to have the children dress up in costumes and accessories. Our closet of used costumes could use a helping hand to expand the choices for our students.

Any donations can be brought to my office in the Mutipurpose room (Mr. Robby's office) or left in the room just off the stage. Thank you for thinking of ISM.

I will keep parents posted of performances coming this Spring with grades 1-3.

Thank you,
Elisabeth Lane
Drama Teacher, ISM
elane@ismonterey.org
831-601-6790

Parent Update - 4/25/2009 (Migration Video)♦

Hi, families,

I will not be at school on Monday, April 27th. The students will have a substitute, Mr. Josh Statton. I will be back on Tuesday.

Ms. Arnow and I have been trying to work out some of the kinks with loading the migration videos onto imovie to edit. We have run into a technical wrinkle we didn't anticipate from both of our first conversations with Laurel, our contact at the Apple store. The DVD files are not importable into iMovie, though she had thought they might be. As it turns out, iMovie only supports MPEG-4, DV, and .mov file formats. Anyway, there are a few options here.

[DEVELOPER'S NOTE: If you own a PC, you can easily convert DVD videos to MP4 using the following open source software http://www.planetdvb.net/staxrip/ ]

One, if you have the interview still stored on a cassette, please send in the cassette on Monday. I can download it using the school camera at home on Tuesday night. That is our best option of all. Please mark the cassette clearly with your name/child's name so I can keep them straight and get them back to you.

Two, if not, and if you can send in the camera itself, I can still download it at home. If the camera is a flipster, and if it is okay to send it to school and to the Apple store (on Wednesday), we can download it directly there.

Three, if all else fails, the kids will still have a great experience learning to use the movie editing tools at the Apple store. We may not be able to edit our interviews at school, since we've had a lot of technical difficulties in the tech lab recently, but the kids will understand better what they can do with movie images on a computer.

The interview component of the project will be graded based on the raw video if we are unable to do the editing. The basis of their grade is the quality of the questions and the way they are able to shape the story from the interview.

Hope this makes sense; contact me if not.

The Apple Store trip will be on Wednesday. We have plenty of drivers, actually more than are needed. You all are so awesome! If any of the drivers need to do something else on Wednesday, please let me know (not everyone, please!).

Homework will be the usual for reading and spelling this week.
Math will be Study Links 9.5 (Monday), 9.6 (Tuesday), ? Wednesday depending on our field trip timing. Thursday will be 9.7 if we don't get to it on Wed.

Handwriting will be pages 69 Monday, 72 Tuesday, 73 Wednesday and 74 Thursday.

Many thanks,

Mary