January 5, 2012

 

Dear Dunn's Corners School Parents:

 

I am writing to ask you to take an important ten-minute online survey, about our school, called SurveyWorks. The Rhode Island Department of Education conducts this survey each year. It gives schools important feedback on these key areas for school success:

As principal, I believe your feedback is essential to student and school success. Your views on matters like the safety of your child at school, the way students are taught, the condition of the school, and how connected you feel to this school are important to us. By taking this short survey you can help us to make improvements to our school. This survey is voluntary. Responses are anonymous and cannot be linked to any individual and no one can find out how you answered the survey.

 

Parents can take the short survey online or on paper between January 5, 2012 and February 16, 2012. To take the survey online go to: www.surveyworks.ride.ri.gov and click on “Take a Survey.

 

If you don’t have access to a computer or the Internet or prefer to take the survey using pen and paper, you can pick up a paper survey in the school office or fill out the form below and return it to the school. We will send a paper copy of the survey and an envelope home with your child. Please return the completed survey in the envelope to the school no later than February 16, 2012. If you wish to use one of our school computers, please contact our office and we will make arrangements for you.

 

Both the paper and online version of the survey will require you to enter the school code listed at the bottom of this sheet. The code allows the survey administrator to track the survey response rate for our school but does not identify you.

 

I want to thank you for being a part of this very important project. If you have any questions, please contact SurveyWorks at 1-877-787-5725 or email: surveyworks@wested.org.

 

Sincerely,

 

Christopher Haskins

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Child’s Name:___________________________________________________________

Child’s Teacher:__________________________________________________________

Please send home a paper copy of the SurveyWorks! Parent Survey with my child in the following language:   

          English          Spanish         Portuguese

Message from the Principal:

Dear Families:

 

The season of giving is alive and well at Dunn’s Corners School. Thanks to the efforts of parent volunteers Mrs. Janat and Mrs. Kutz, and the many generous students, families and staff who have contributed to The Giving Tree project, families who would otherwise go without will experience a more joyous holiday. Also, thank you to the Rubenstein family and everyone at Miss Gina’s Produce for their contribution to the PTO through their Christmas tree sales.

 

If you’re the parent of a fourth grader we hope you enjoyed the Invention Convention. I’ve included photos in the newsletter. Also, students across grade levels recently shared their work at a recent Pride Friday. I hope you enjoy those photos, too.

 

Mr. Tedeschi, our Artist-in-Residence (and art teacher) is proud to announce Dunn’s Corners School’s affiliation with Artsonia.com, a website used to showcase student art work. Please look for permission slips which will be distributed and should be returned to school. Some of Mr. Tedeschi’s students contributed holiday-themed artwork which is currently being showcased at the Mystic Hilton who, in return, contributed $200 to the Dunn’s Corners School art program. Photos have been included in this newsletter.

 

If you can attend one school committee meeting this year then I hope you come to the January 4^th meeting which will be held here at Dunn’s Corners School. Members of our PBIS Leadership Team will present a brief overview of the universal and secondary supports we provide children through Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.

 

Speaking of positive behavior, did you know that our students earned over 10,000 tokens for being recognized for meeting school-wide expectations in the first trimester? That’s amazing! We will celebrate this accomplishment by hosting a DJ for a dance party in January. I promise to participate in the Chicken Dance.

 

Finally, we wish to congratulate Mrs. Peggy Gwaltney on her retirement. Hundreds of students and dozens of teachers have known Mrs. Gwaltney as a teacher, mentor, colleague and friend. Although she is retiring as a Westerly teacher, we look forward to a continuing relationship for many years to come. 

 

On behalf of the entire faculty and staff, Happy Holidays! See you in 2012!

 

Sincerely,

Chris Haskins

 

 

- Please observe 25 miles an hour or less in the neighborhood streets surrounding the school. Like the sign says down the road, “Drive like your kids live here.” Also, please observe 10 mph on Plateau Rd.
- Please record your child’s name on the tag of all outerwear. We have collected many items which are currently located in the gymnasium.

- Students must wear sneakers with socks on the days they are scheduled to have physical education class. Failure to wear or bring to school sneakers will prevent a child from participating in PE class. If, for some reason, you need financial assistance to provide sneakers, please contact Mr. Haskins in confidence. 

- We do not have the staff to supervise children before 8:25 AM. Please avoid delivering students before 8:25.

- Students who enter the school building after 8:45 AM are considered tardy.

- We do not celebrate holidays or birthdays with food. We appreciate the intention, but please refrain from sending in food to share with your child’s classmates.

 

I began teaching in the late 70s in Newport. I moved to Westerly in 1983 and worked at URI as an educational specialist and administrator until 2001. At that time I returned the classroom as an enrichment teacher in Westerly. Since then I have taught grades 1, 3 and 5. I now teach grade 3 at Dunn’s Corners School. My BA in Elementary Education is from RIC. My MA is in adult education from URI. In November of 2007 I was awarded National Board Certification. I live in Pawcatuck with my husband Chuck who is a mail carrier. My daughter Bethany works in the research office at UMass Amherst and my son Joshua works as a marriage and family therapist at Yale University in New Haven. I love swimming, cooking and reading. I also enjoy vacationing in Maine with my five siblings and their families for two weeks every July. I consider myself a lifelong learner and try to learn something new each day. I learn just as much from my students as they learn from me. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher….ever since I was a lunch girl (I had to watch the younger grades at lunch) in seventh and eighth grade at St. Mary’s School in Newport. I feel lucky and honored to be a teacher…it is the toughest job I have ever had, but it is also the most rewarding. I love coming to work every day!

 

Students are enthusiastically engaged in art class. We constantly advocate for more instructional time with the students, twice a week would be a great start; every day in an ideal world.  The first trimester’s focus has been on imagination and creativity, with an emphasis on understanding the three-dimensional world in which we live. Students have been challenged on a weekly basis with prompts that offer personal interpretation balanced with the task of using 3-D shapes to help tell their story. One of the student learning objectives in the art department for this year is to have 4th graders master the ability to draw spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders, and rectangular prisms. We try to do this in reality based projects of observation and prior knowledge. Students have drawn from observation: a wizard and rooster, dinosaurs and animals, a bicycle, master works (Cylinder forms: Cakes by the artist Wayne Thiebaud). Some of the prompts have been to: draw a jack in the box, alien encounters and spaceships, to illustrate a silly sentence, design a helpful robot, you and your favorite animal. We have mainly been working with the drawing tools of markers, crayons, and colored pencils and just starting with watercolors. 

 

This year I would like to use Artsonia to help promote the art program and make student work available for your viewing. It is an online gallery that also serves as a fundraiser for the art department. You are not obligated to purchase anything, although 15% will be given back to the school’s art department for any purchases made. We are fortunate to have a budget that supplies us with a well-equipped art room. Additional funding would be used for extras like technologies and things that normally do not fall under regularly budgeted items. 

 

Artsonia is also a great way to keep your child’s artwork in one place. You will be receiving a permission slip home, please return it at your earliest convenience. They will be asking for an email address. This is not for solicitation but to notify you of any new uploads to your child’s art gallery. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at jtedeschi@westerly.k12.ri.us. I encourage you to check out Artsonia.com to become familiar with it. http://www.artsonia.com

Happy Holidays!

Mr. Tedeschi

 

Dear Families:

 

How’s school? This is the question you’ll be asked this week at the Westerly Area Community Forum being held Thursday, December 1 at 6:00 PM at Westerly Middle School. I hope you can attend.

 

From my perspective school is great. Parents, teachers and students seem to feel this way, too.

 

In the 2010-2011 SurveyWorks, 100% of 86 fourth grade students surveyed agree that their teachers care about them. 100% agree that their teachers are nice to them. 97% agree that their teachers like teaching. 100% agree that their parents want to know what they’re doing in school. 100% agree that their parents want them to get good grades. 94% agree that their parents like this school.

 

How do parents feel? 94% of the 38 who responded agree that they feel welcome in our school. 92% agree that it is easy to communicate with teachers if they need to. 94% agree that it is easy to communicate with the principal if they need to. 92% agree that the community supports this school. 95% agree that the school views parents as important partners.

 

How do teachers feel? 94% of the 36 who responded agree that students get along well and interact comfortably despite any differences. 100% agree that they have good working relationships with teachers and other staff. 97% agree that staff take pride in the school.

 

Certainly, we do have some more work to do. 14% of students surveyed responded that they are unsure they will go to college and 9% are unsure they will finish high school. 39% reported that kids have called them names or have made fun of them. 39% of parents surveyed disagree that their child is learning as much as he/she can at this school.

 

Our School Improvement Team is taking a close look at the survey results. We’ll use them when planning any upcoming changes. In the meantime, we hope you are able to take some time to meet with your child’s teacher to review first trimester performance. If your schedules allow, I hope to see you at the Commissioner’s forum on Thursday evening.                                                       Yours truly,

 

Chris Haskins

 

 

 

Hello! My name is Tara Holdredge and I am a special education TA in Room 6. I am excited to be a new addition to the Dunn’s Corners staff! I live here in Westerly with my husband Brian and our four children.  I have a busy schedule with all of them and I get through it all with a sense of humor and big smile.

My name is Genevieve Kueter, I am the Fast ForWord Literacy Assistant here at Dunn’s Corners School. I am a recent graduate of Rhode Island College with a dual certification in Elementary Education and Special Education. I had the pleasure of doing my student teaching here last year in a second grade classroom; I also student taught at State Street School last year for my Special Education placement. I was a substitute teacher in the Westerly School System last year until the arrival of my beautiful son who is now nine months old. I grew up in Westerly so I am very happy to be back here working in my home town district!

 

Hello, my name is Mary Schafer. To tell you a little about me I am married and have 4 children, all boys who range in age from 11 to 27. I also have two Golden Retrievers and spend lots of time walking them. I am originally from a small town in Southern New Jersey and I have lived in Westerly for the past eight years. My family and I relocated to New England about 11 years ago for a job opportunity for my husband. We lived in Mystic, CT before moving to Westerly. My boys are very involved in sports so that keeps me busy and I am also on the Board of Directors of the Westerly National Little League. I enjoy reading, gardening and baking. In the summer you can always find me at the Westerly Town Beach.