November 29, 2007

Notes from Jayne Heffron, Cumberland School

November 29, 2007

While we are firmly underway with the 2007-08 school year, we are already planning for next year. A crucial element is enrollment, especially our K4 or Junior Kindergarten numbers as these are the most difficult to predict since the students are not yet at Cumberland. Tomorrow, we will be holding an Open House for incoming Jr. Kindergarteners, those children who will be four on or before September 1, 2008, so that their parents/guardians can see a bit of our program first hand. We take our projected potential students from the census list and this list shows a fairly large pool of students from which we draw. Our current K4 class contains 94 students and it looks likely that next year's will be around this size. While our student population at each of the four district schools has varied over the last years, overall we are holding relatively stable with enrollment. If you know of anyone who is new to Whitefish Bay having a four year old, please mention to them that we would love to show them around the school. Thanks.

I was with my family over Thanksgiving and we were looking at my mother's elementary school report cards. While we have moved far from where education was for my mother, a rural one room school house, several of the items on the report card still have great value for children even though we no longer put them on the report card. Comportment, playing nicely with others and being helpful to the teacher are still foundational skills, even though we call them by different names!

The Winter Festival Concert is coming up on December 14^th at 9:45 and 1:30. To help us all fit into the gym, if last names A-M generally attend the morning concert and N-Z come in the afternoon, it is very helpful. If this does not work for your schedule, please attend when it works for your schedule. Please remember that the gym doors open 45 minutes before the performance. Our building and hallways are so full with students and staff that we really appreciate you arriving no more than 45 minutes ahead of time to avoid over-full hallways as children pass from one class to the next. I will ask the WFB Police Department to lift the parking restrictions around the school on that day.

Notes:

• The Cumberland 5^th grade Community Services Club is holding a hat and mitten drive. They are collecting warm hats/mittens/scarves/socks for the Next Door Foundation as voluntary admission to the winter Festival Concert.
• Dogs are not allowed on school grounds. Many of our students are allergic or afraid of dogs. If you bring your dog when dropping off or picking up your child(ren) please keep the dog on a leash and arrange a meeting place with your child that doesn't require you to come onto the school yard to meet him or her. Thanks.
• Students get excited when they are having a party or hosting an event and we understand that. To avoid any students being excluded and to keep the school out of the middle of any arrangements, though, we do not allow invitations to non-school events to be handed out here at school even if everyone in the class is invited. Please help your child avoid disappointment by not sending invitations to school for distribution.
• 2008 WFB Little League Registration – NOW IN DECEMBER! Registration is in the gym at Lydell on Wed., Dec. 12^th from 6-8 pm and Mon., Dec. 17^th from 6-8 pm
• First Grade Brownies: A new troop is forming. If your first grader is interested, she may attend a meeting Monday, December 3^rd at Cumberland. All girls will meet Alice Egan in the Cumberland foyer and she will take them to Room 4 for the meeting. Parents should pick up their daughters in Room 4 at 4:30. Questions? Call Alice at 967-1763 or Linda at 963-9369.

Reminder: Friday, December 7th is a half day for students. Dismissal is at 11:50

November 15, 2007

A letter from Ms. Heffron

November 15, 2007

This week we are finishing the bulk of the WKCE testing in third through fifth grades. You may not know that the federal legislation called No Child Left Behind or NCLB requires that all public school students in the entire country are tested annually in 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 10^th grades. The legislation includes percentage targets for the numbers of students overall who have to score proficient or advanced in order for the school/district to qualify as having made Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP. The target goes up each year for the number of students we must have who score at the proficient or advanced levels. The Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE) measures a student's knowledge and learning related to learning goals or standards. It does not rank students against other students. Because the stakes around this testing are so high (federal monies to schools and continued local control, for example) we create the best conditions for testing that we can. We do not, though, do extended test preparation in isolation. Our experience and belief is that students score very well based on a rigorous daily curriculum and high quality teaching, which we have here in Whitefish Bay. The results of this testing are generally released to us in the spring. Stay tuned.

Thanks for taking time to meet with your child's teacher(s) for conferences. It sends such an important message to children about the value of education when we are able to partner together.

At this time of giving thanks, I give thanks for having the honor of working with you and your children here at Cumberland. I recognize the importance of the work we do with children and of being in a community that so values educational opportunities. Thank you for entrusting me with your children. I wish you a healthy and thanks-filled break next week.

Notes:

• Reminder: No school Friday (11/16), Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (11/21-23)
• Silver Spring Drive-Vision For the Future-You are invited to attend a panel discussion about the future of Silver Spring Drive hosted by the Whitefish Bay Business and Professional Association and the Whitefish Bay Community Authority, tonight(11/15/07) from 7:00-8:30pm @ WFBHS Cafeteria

Winter Festival Concert Information

The all-school concert will be held on Friday, December 14 at 9:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. All-day kindergarteners and 1^st-5^th grade students will perform at both concerts.

Students are asked to dress as they would for any special occasion. There is no need to purchase anything new for this event.

To accommodate all parents and visitors, please try to attend the concert at your designated time:

• Families with last names beginning A-M, please try to attend the 9:45 a.m. performance. Families with morning kindergarteners should attend this performance.
• Families with last names beginning N-Z, please try to attend the 1:30 p.m. performance. Families with afternoon kindergarteners should attend this performance.

Of course, if the designated time does not work with your schedule, please attend the performance that will work best for your family.

The gymnasium doors will open for audience members 45 minutes prior to each performance. The gymnasium doors will open at 9:00 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. for the performances. The approximate length of each concert is 1hour, 15 minutes.

We look forward to seeing you at the Winter Festival concert on December 14^th!

November 8, 2007

Notes from Ms. Heffron, November 8, 2007

Dear Parents and Guardians,

November is a very busy month here at Cumberland. We have our first round of Parent Teacher Conferences on November 13^th, 15^th, 16^th and 19^th. (If you have not scheduled a time with your child's teacher, please contact her/him to do this.) Except for Friday the 16^th, teachers are with students all day, teaching as usual, followed by conferences which start by 4:30 and run until after 7:30. As you can guess, this makes for very full days, so as a neighboring principal wrote, please be nice to the teachers and understand that if they are not returning your calls or emails as quickly as usual it is likely because of the time pressures with conferences. The teachers do everything they can to make this time helpful and beneficial and to do this after teaching all day takes a lot of OOMPH! Thanks for your understanding.

Parents/guardians of 4^th and 5^th graders will notice that something has changed this year when you do not receive a report card during conference time. For years, 1^st-3^rd graders have been on the trimester system and when we moved to a new web-based attendance and report card system this year, we had to have one reporting schedule school wide. Everyone is now on the trimester schedule. What this means to upper grade parents is that you will be meeting with your child's teacher to talk through your child's progress, and then in December your child will receive a report card. Through this lens, the move to trimesters increases the number of times that you will get formal information about how your child is doing.

Here are some questions that may be helpful as you talk with your child's teacher(s):

• How does my child learn best?
• What are her/his interests in school?
• Is she/he making the expected progress?
• Are you differentiating instruction or assignments for my child?
• How is my child relating to her/his peers?
• Are there areas of concern that we should work on together?

And, it is very helpful to school staff to know what your child is saying about school at home. We also appreciate knowing if anything has changed in the child's life, as often it manifests in indirect ways here at school. All teachers are in the building during conferences, as am I. The Specials teachers love to see parents during conference times, too, so if you can, visit them in their rooms.

Tardies have reached epidemic proportions with more than thirty students coming in late some days. If your child(ren) is on time, thank you and congratulations. While we understand that occasionally something unexpected comes up, if your child is showing a pattern of late arrivals, please expect a call from me in the near future so we can talk through how I can help you to get your child here by 8:15. It really makes a difference in his/her learning.

Notes:

• Spirit Day is Friday, November 9^th and the theme is Crazy Shoe Day.
• Winter Festival is December 14^th. (details will come later)
• NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS NOVEMBER 16^TH, OR 21^ST-25^TH
• PTO reminder: Presentation Monday, Nov. 12^th, 7:00PM, Navigating the Passage from Childhood to Adolescence
• The Shorewood Players production of "The Wizard of Oz" features several WFB students in the cast. Show times are Fri. & Sat., Nov. 9, 10, 16, & 17 @ 7:30pm and Sun. Nov 11 & 18 @ 2:00pm. Tickets can be purchased at the door or ahead by calling (414) 737-3421 or www.shorewoodplayers.org

Please see the below for some email addresses that were incorrect in the Cougar Caller.

Name	Correct email Address	Name	Correct email Address
Heather Brennan	hbrenn.ri.wfb@wfbschools.com	Jim Loebl	jloeb.ri.wfb@wfbschools.com
Jonathan Brodie	jbrod.ri.wfb@wfbschools.com	Diane Reiels	dreie.cu.wfb@wfbschools.com
Sally Danforth	sdanf.ms.wfb@wfbschools.com	Dina Schachtely	dscha.cu.wfb@wfbschools.com
Bonnie Lewis	blewi.ri.wfb@wfbschools.com	Lisa Seiler	lseil.ms.wfb@wfbschools.com
		Julie Stefan	jstef.cu.wfb@wfbschools.com

November 1, 2007

A Letter from Ms. Heffron

November 1, 2007

Lately, during lunch hour students from several grades have been playing very energetic 4-Square games. 4-Square, in case you do not know, is an old game played all around the world involving a painted 'court', four players and a large ball. The objective, similar to tennis, is to hit the ball (using only your hands) into another player's area so that it hits the ground within the marked area but in such a way as to make it difficult for the other player to return the ball. Lively and fast paced, there are usually many players lined up along the edge of the game area to rotate into the game when one player gets out. I really like it that kids are playing 4-Square because it is good exercise, it moves quickly so many children can be involved in a short time, and children have great fun inventing new variations. The negotiation that is involved in creating variations gives children opportunities to learn how to compromise as well as encourages their creativity. 4-Square can be played by people of various ages, too, so it can be a fun family or neighborhood pursuit. I encourage you to give it a try with your child!

Before we know it the temperatures will drop and questions will arise about going outside to recess. For your planning, please know that children go out to recess every day unless it is heavily raining or the wind chill is below zero. In order for recess to be a fun time for children, they need to be wearing clothing that is warm enough and that allows running, climbing on the equipment or even hanging on the bars. We greatly appreciate you providing your children appropriate jackets and shoes (and boots and snowpants when it is colder) and reminding them to wear those items to school. Also, for our youngers, it is very helpful that children wear clothing that they can get into and out of themselves.

This leads naturally into the FOUND items we are accumulating here at school. There are bins in the front entryway and downstairs outside the doors to the music wing that are already overflowing with clothing. Please take a look if you think something may belong to your child.

It really helps to label outerwear with your child's name, too, so left behind items can be returned to the owner.

Notes:

• We are already planning for 2008 incoming kindergarteners. If you have a child who will turn four on or before September 1, 2008 and you did not fill out the census form, please call our office to be put on the mailing list for K4 information. The same applies if you know a friend or neighbor new to Cumberland. Please pass the information onto them.
• Bay Ball raffle tickets: There is still time to purchase the tickets that were sent home in Thursday folders. Drop off the stubs along with a check payable to the WFB Public Education Foundation to our office. Questions? Call Alicia at 967-4760.
• Indoor lacrosse for boys 3^rd and up, girls 4^th and up: Each group meets for a one hour session on Sunday afternoon. Details are available at www.hot4lax.com. A limited number of flyers are posted on the board outside our office.
• We continue to need supervisors for lunch/lunch recess. If you can work even one hour a week between 11:20-12:20, we will greatly appreciate it. Training is provided. Please call the office at 963.3943.

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