January 6, 2012

January 6, 2012

How fortunate we all are to have had several weeks to spend some time with family and friends, to relax and recharge. Here we are at the beginning of a New Year with five months ahead of us to make a difference in the lives of our students and one another. We have the opportunity to grow and learn from one another. 

We started the year growing our culture and community into a positive, caring and purposeful community of learners. Let's continue to build that momentum and to celebrate each moment. Be reminded to focus on the Big Rocks, live in the moment and appreciate one another. Let's all be committed to being great leaders by infusing quality, character, courage, enthusiasm and integrity into our workplace and into our lives.

Calendar

January 9 - 13th:

(A normal, full week!)

Tuesday

* RTI meeting 7:15 a.m.

Wednesday:

* All School Meeting 9:00 A.M.  *Includes Spelling Bee

* PD:  Team/Individual Planning

****3:30 PM: HR/PK-12 Education Team from district will meet with teachers in the library to ask how things are going.

PK-12 Education will be partnering with Human Resources beginning the first week of January through mid February 2012. They would like the opportunity to speak with staff (certified and classified) at our site. This will allow them to connect with staff while gathering feedback and completing a temperature check with the following four questions: 

1. How is it going?
2. What is working well?
3. What is not working so well?
4. If you were in charge, what would you do differently?

They will travel in groups of two. One person will facilitate the get together and the other one will scribe the feedback onto chart paper.

January 16 - 20th:

Monday, January 16th: 

*No School 

Tuesday

* Potential Discovery Parent Orientation Meeting 9:30 a.m.

Friday:

*Teacher Professional Development day (no students)

              Job Alike Day

Winter Voyages

A new and much needed addition to voyage planning:

Each teacher needs to find a 'voyage buddy' in a different grade level. The purpose of the 'voyage buddy' is to be your back up in the event that you fall ill or have some unexpected complication that prevents you from attending your voyage or completing it. Your 'buddy' can be anyone on staff, but must be a staff member.

The 'buddy' then needs to have comprehensive lesson plans for a substitute here at school should they be called away at the last minute.

THIS IS CRITICAL. We simply do not have flexibility to cover teachers when they are unable to do their voyage. Please inform Julie about who is your 'voyage buddy'.  I recognize that this will take a chunk of time to plan for lesson plans...please think of using your emergency plans and embellishing them so they would cover the duration of the time your would be gone covering another teacher.

THANK YOU!!!

Chaperones:

The ratio for chaperones is one adult volunteer for every 5 students. If you have a situation where you believe you need to increase the ratio, then plan to do so. I would recommend you take yourself out of the count and use yourself only when you cannot secure enough chaperones. 

I want to remind you of the email I sent out a while back about checking with the previous grade teachers and ensuring that we are giving parents equitable opportunities to chaperone. See me if you have questions.

Budget
Nothing to tell you yet  :)
Stay focused on the present moment.


Open Enrollment

The open enrollment closed Thursday at 5:00 p.m. At that time there were only 5 children (!) from Renaissance that had open enrolled to a different school. We were aware of those students and the reasons behind those decisions.

As Lori and I looked over applicants in the lottery it is clear that we have room for very few new students. It is a celebration that our community is solid and appreciative of the education that is offered at Renaissance. We have strong partnerships with our families. And yet, I feel a sadness for all the children and families in the lottery who will be disappointed that they will not be able to join our community. I can't imagine a better school than Renaissance. Together, through our collaboration and  commitment to our mission, we have created a magical place for kids to grow and learn.

As always, while we presently have so very few openings, we will have some families whose lives will change and a few openings will present themselves over the spring and summer.

 How joyous that the learning experience we offer is one that so many families want for their children. This is a testimony to your hard work and dedication to offer the rigorous, relevant and purposeful learning experiences for students at Renaissance.

Love and Logic

We believe that kids are best prepared for the real world when we allow them to do as much thinking as possible. It's good practice for the real world, and it keeps the monkey off of our backs most of the time.

Here's the problem. Do you know kids who like to keep adults doing all of the thinking? Do you know kids who are good at tricking us into doing so?

How do we avoid falling into this trap? One strategy involves using plenty of questions!

The more questions we ask,

the better thinkers our kids will become.

People who understand Love and Logic also understand that the human brain seeks closure. When we use plenty of questions, children's brains are so busy searching for closure that they have less energy left over for power-struggles.

The more questions we ask,

the fewer power-struggles we will have.

Kids grow the healthiest and strongest brains when they're fortunate to spend time around adults who say things like:

• "I don't know. What do you think?"

• "Are you sure that's the best idea?"

• "How do you think that's going to work out for you?"

• "Would you like to hear what some other kids have tried?"

• "Do you think that's going to work out well or ________?"

• "What do you think you are going to do?"

• "Which one of these is the best solution to your problem?"

• "Do you have enough money to pay for any possible damage?"

• "Is that a wise decision?"

Featured Folks

Authored By: Sarah Vasilauskas

I am a Colorado Native and grew up in Cortez, CO.  For those of you who are not familiar with where that is, it’s in the Four Corners area about 20 miles South of Durango, CO.  My educational journey started in Missouri where I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in Early Childhood and Elementary Education.  After graduating, I landed a position in Kansas City where I taught first grade for two years at Blue Hills Elementary.  Even though I enjoyed teaching in Missouri I knew that I wanted to move back to Colorado closer to my family.  I started applying for schools knowing that it might be difficult to find a job at that time so I did not expect anything to happen so fast.  After several phone interviews I had the opportunity to interview with Deborah and Noreene.  I remember having to move my classroom to the other end of the hall in my old building that summer so I could teach summer school.  While moving my classroom, Deborah called me within the next hour and offered me the job.  I had not even seen Renaissance or met anyone, but I knew this was going to be my “new home” and I was going to love it.  That summer I ended up trekking it up the mountain in my rental car all the way up Poudre River to meet some of the staff. I was really in the middle of nowhere up there, so if I didn’t like it, there was no turning back! I immediately knew the rapport of the school was amazing.  We got to make canvases, walking sticks, work on our mission, climb up an enormous wall, and jump off.  We were tied in, but I remember being up there and my feet were shaking because the board I had to stand on was only about 3 inches wide.  If I didn’t jump my partner “Laurie Menard” would not be very fond of me. Ha! Needless to say, I jumped and taking that leap of faith was the best decision I have ever made.  I am home, I am happy, and Renaissance has challenged me to reach outside my comfort zone and strive to be the best teacher I can be.  For that reason and many more I am very grateful.

Currently, I am on my 7^th year of teaching. My husband Nic and I just recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary in June of 2011 in Seattle, Washington, Victoria, BC, and Vancouver, Canada. We bought our first house in January of last year and live in Highlands Ranch, CO. I met Nic out on the town at Elisha’s bachelorette party.  If you want to know the crazy story, you will have to come find me.  Thanks to Hanni Gilbert and her lipstick I now can call Nic my husband, and he is quite a good catch! In my spare time I enjoy traveling, playing tennis, running, cooking, attending sports events, going to concerts, hiking, climbing 14ers, reading, and spending time with my family. Even though I do not have children of my own yet, my twin nephews Trey and Ryder who turn 4 in January, and my nephew Cole who is in 1^st grade keep me entertained. They are the three lights of my life and I enjoy being their aunt. Nic and I also have a Flat Coated Retriever puppy named Layla. We just adore her!

Nic and my nephew Cole in Estes

Nic and I on our wedding day with our nephews

Me at the top of my first 14ner I climbed this summer!

Our puppy Layla

Nic and I in Victoria, BC for our first wedding anniversary. We were outside the Empress where we had our first  High Tea.

My nephew Cole playing soccer

Trey & Ryder (my twin nephews)

Some things you might not know about me are:

·      I have traveled outside of the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, Paris, Wales, and London. Nic and I love to travel and our next stop is New York City and Napa this summer before we start a family.

·      I was #1 singles on my high school tennis team and played against a girl who was trained by Martina Hingis. 

·      I am terrified of the dark.

·      I enjoy playing every sport you could think of and am highly competitive while doing it. 

·      My dream is to one day be on the Amazing Race.  Who will join me?

·      I decided I wanted to be a teacher when I was in 2^nd grade.

·      I was a huge Tomboy growing up. I would even spit on the street like the boys while playing tag football because I thought it was “cool.”

·      I like to sing, even though I’m not good at it, I make up my own songs as I go and they don’t have any rhythm or rime.  They just are well….actually….. pretty obnoxious.

·      I cannot park a car to save my life! Don’t ever look at my parking job, because I am always way over on one side of the line, or completely over in another parking space.

·      I do not like the water, due to almost drowning when I was little. Once again, I thought I could swim, took my floaties off and sunk to the bottom. My Dad had to jump into the hotel pool and save me. He tried to use the big stick with a net on the end that you clean the pool with…..Yeah it didn’t work so well and I was still underwater. After he finally got me out I was coughing up water for hours.  It was quite traumatic.

·      My last name is not only long, but also Lithuanian. Our poor children! 

I leave you with some of my favorite quotes about teaching:

“To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?” -Katharine Graham

"I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it!"-Author Unknown

“The work will teach you how.” Noreene-Thibault-Chen 

Happy New Year to my Renaissance Family!

Love,

Sarah Vasilauskas

"In a way, winter is the real spring,
the time when the inner things happen,
the resurgence of nature."
- Edna O'Brien, Irish novelist

Happy Weekend!
Deborah