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Woburn Public Schools
District Newsletter
October 23, 2009 |
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| Superintendent's Corner
Mark Donovan |
 We've added a new feature to this our district newsletter. In this edition, you'll find articles from our team of student reporters. We have reporters at each school who will help us by reporting on what's happening in our schools from the perspective of a student. Not every school will be included in every edition, but we hope you'll find these articles interesting.
We want to thank all of the students who are volunteering their time to help out Woburn Public Schools by spreading the good news. |
| The NED Show at the Malcolm White School
Mr. Roketenetz |
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On Friday, October 16, 2009, the Malcolm White School was visited by the NED show. The mission of the NED Show is to encourage and inspire students everywhere with the fundamental belief that there is a champion in every child.
The NED Show promotes academic achievement and character development by teaching three critical skills that will benefit kids for a lifetime: Never Give Up, Encourage Others, and Do Your Best!
You can visit www.thenedshow.com to learn more about this entertaining program. We thank our PTO for organizing this fun event.
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Dr. Sally Grimes: Reading in the Early Grades
Donna Matrinko, Title I Director |
 All regular and special education first grade teachers attended a full day of professional development on Tuesday, October 6, 2009. The presenter of the day was Dr. Sally Grimes from the Grimes Reading Institute. Teachers gathered in the Administration Office's Conference Room at the Joyce Middle School at 8:00 am and remained throughout the entire day. The focus of the presentation by Dr. Grimes was on reading acquisition and the importance of phonological and phonemic awareness as part of the reading process. Teachers received information on theory along with tips on how to implement simple strategies into their daily lessons. Attendees received teacher made materials to use as a model for creating their own to use in the classroom. Comments from the teachers were all positive. They felt the information was informative, helpful, fun and asked for Dr. Grimes to come back in the future.
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| Greetings! |
Welcome to our newsletter! This publication is designed to keep you informed about what's happening in the Woburn Public Schools. In each newsletter we'll include contributions from some of our schools as well as articles from the district in general. Be sure to visit woburnpublicschools.com for the most current information about our schools.
We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter. Be sure to forward it to anyone who might be interested in signing up to receive it. |
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Flu Season Update
Mark Donovan, Superintendent
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We want to thank our nursing staff and our students' parents for their hard work in dealing with this year's flu situation. In particular, I want to thank Marcia Skeffington, our Head Nurse, and Karen DeCampo, Public Health  Nurse for all they're doing to keep us updated. Our school nurses are constantly monitoring student absences and working with parents to make sure that any student who exhibits flu-like symptoms receives appropriate care. At this point, we're seeing an increase in the number of absences across the district, but the situation is better than what we thought we might be facing at this point. Students may be out for various reasons. Our nurses are trying to track these absences and look for trends.
I want to remind parents that if your child has a fever of 100.4 or higher, he/she must stay out of school until no fever is present for 24 hours without the use of medication (Tylenol, ibuprofen). If necessary, we may decide to increase the minimum time that a student must stay out of school. We also suggest that parents call their pediatrician for guidance on when they need to be medically evaluated. Please be aware that the same rules apply to our staff members.
We continue to work closely with Jack Fralick from the Woburn Board of Health. As you probably heard, available doses of the H1N1 vaccine are very limited at this point. This delay in producing vaccines is a nationwide problem. Obviously, planning for city-wide H1N1 flu clinics is severely limited when vaccines aren't available. In the meantime, we'll continue to follow all guidelines from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as we head into this year's flu season.
For more information on influenza go to www.mass.gov\flu.
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Collaborative Reflective Practice for Principals
Mark Donovan, Superintendent
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This year, Dr. Jim Nehring from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Masachusetts at Lowell will be working with our principals to explore the use of collaborative reflective practice to achieve school goals. Dr. Nehring's work with our principals is based on the work of various educational researchers over the last 30 years. In the workshops, administrators will learn the principles behind collaborative reflective practice as they work with their staff members and others to develop school improvement plans. We've completed two sessions at this point, and we're eager to learn more. |
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Power Standards: Determining What's Important
Dr. Gary Reese, Assistant Superintendent
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In Massachusetts, Curriculum Frameworks in various subject areas have been developed by state-wide committees. Most frequently, these documents contain long lists of learning standards to be "covered" by our teachers.
Over the next few months, teachers at all grade-levels will begin the process of identifying power standards in the areas of math and English. This process involves identifying the most essential skills and concepts that students need to know and be able to demonstrate for success in school and beyond. It helps teachers to get 'at the heart' of the curriculum and to distinguish the enduring understandings in the curriculum from those 'nice to know' skills and concepts. Teachers in grades four and five met during the week of October 19th to begin the process. Their meetings included thoughtful dialogue about the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, resulting in a better understanding of the standards and how we ensure that students have learned them.
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| Hurld School: Journey through Books
Laura F. and Jennifer O., Student Reporters
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On Monday, the19th of October, 2009, at the Hurld School, the principal, Mrs. Mills came around to all the classrooms to launch Journey Through Books. This is a program that encourages children to read.
 The program may sound a little confusing, but it's not. Here's how it works. Each year there is a theme for the Journey. This year's theme is "Going on a Safari." Everyone has a marker to travel to the different places on the board. When students have read the assigned number of minutes for their grade, they move their cute monkey marker to an animal they visit on the safari. The last stop is the Reading Safari Bookstore. After they've arrived at this place, they get to pick out a book as a prize for completing their journey.
In June there is an award ceremony for children who participated in the Journey Through Books. The students who finish a journey receive a gold medal, and a bookmark. In the past, children who completed more than one Journey received a certificate for mini-golf or a small cheese pizza. Even children who participate but don't finish get a bookmark.
Happy Reading!
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| Joyce Middle School: Learning to Lead
Emily M., Student Reporter |
On October 6, 2009, forty seventh and eighth graders from the Joyce Middle School participated in a leadership conference. The conference was a day long training in the school's library. It was lead by the lively speaker, Dana.
The Learning to Lead program is a program lead by Dana Hult and his wife who go around the New England area and teach students, such as me, how to be a good leader.  Being a leader isn't someone who makes all the decisions and tells people what to do. Being an admirable leader is someone who is respectful of others, a listener not always the talker, and is nice. The big thing here is to be nice. This can be as simple as holding a door for someone, helping someone who is lost, or just giving someone a compliment.
Another concept Dana taught us was to step out of our "comfort zone." To do this, he had us walk about ten yards doing anything we could imagine instead of the usual everyday walk. This really made us step out of our comfort zone. We all had to walk our silly walks as thirty-nine of our classmates watched our every step.
In addition, we learned that everyone looks up to leaders, and frequently people try to emulate their leadership skills. Dana told us that leadership involves shaping the way people think, feel, and act.
In conclusion, Dana put us through all different exercises where we really stepped out of our comfort zone, and we got to know the people at our table. As an eighth grader I got to meet and talk to students that I wouldn't necessarily have met. This wasn't just another speech or lecture, but more of a fun way to communicate with us that we should be ourselves and be nice to everyone. I believe that each of us picked up something from Dana's numerous lessons on how to be a good leader. I believe we all thought it was worth missing our classes even though we had to make up the work. The pizza for lunch was great, too!
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| Kennedy Middle School: Chain of Kindness
Gabriella D., Student Reporter |
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The "Chain of Kindness" began two years ago following a presentation called Rachel's Challenge. The presentation challenged all of us to do the right thing and recognize positive acts. The good deeds and the student who performed the deed are put onto strips of paper and  announced each morning. The strips of paper are then linked together and hung up in the cafeteria. (If you look at the picture closely, you can see the chain hanging above the flag.)
The goal of the Kennedy Middle School is to get the chain to wrap around the whole cafeteria. Each day the chain gets longer and longer which means that our school is filled with wonderful students and faculty.
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Linscott-Rumford School: Community Service--Can Drive
Kayla N., Student Reporter |
The Annual Linscott-Rumford Can Drive has started and in just three weeks, we have collected over 5,000 cans and bottles. Mr. Wells hopes that we can raise over $1,000. The can drive promotes healthy competition between the grades too. The third grade is absolutely positive about winning the pizza party, telling the fifth grade that they're going to enjoy the pizza party! Well, only time will tell who will win. Every can and bottle will give you two minutes of  community service. Donated money from all of the cans and bottles will go towards local charities, such as The Woburn Council of Social Concern. The Woburn Council of Social Concern provides food for people who need assistance. With the economy right now, some families need more help than others. This should encourage all of the Linscott-Rumford students to participate in this drive. The can drive will go on until December 18th. By then, I'm sure we'll have over 20,000 cans and bottles. We owe a big thank you to Mr. Tom and Mr. Joe because they count the cans and bottles and return them to get money for them every year. So, next time you see anyone with a soda can they're about to throw away, tell them to reduce, reuse, recycle and donate it to the Linscott-Rumford can drive! |
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Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter. We'll continue to refine the format so that we can include as much useful information as possible. We'd like to spread the word about the Woburn Public Schools, so please forward this message to anyone who might be interested. Everyone is invited to click on the "Join Our Mailing List" button at the top of the page to subscribe to this newsletter.
Sincerely,
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Mark Donovan
Superintendent
Woburn Public Schools
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