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