February 2016 - Ellington Public Schools

The Windermere Whaler
February 2016
Words from Welch…
We continue to grow at Windermere School. On the first day of school, Windermere School
housed 878 students. As of January 1, 2016 Windermere School has 890 students in attendance.
With growth come expanded opportunities for our kids. Initiatives such as Book Buddies (the older
students reading to our younger students) and technology instruction (more advanced computersavvy students helping others) improve our holistic climate.
We continue to be part of a giving and caring family at Windermere School as evidenced by the
multi-faceted charities and community involvement which defines us. For example, our students
participated in the Seasonal Sharing Drive whereby students brought in items for senior citizens
who get assistance from Ellington’s Human Services Department. Students brought in practical
items that were delivered to the seniors to help brighten their holiday season. Students in
grades 5/6 competed to see who could bring in the most items. Ms. Morse’s 5th grade class
collected the most (120 items) and was rewarded with a pizza party.
Our Friends of Rachel
Clubs offer a myriad of experiences for our students as well. From the Acts of Kindness Club to
the Rachel's Community Leaders group, our students are getting involved in "giving back" and
living the spirit of communal connections and volunteerism.
Our December faculty meetings focused on yoga and mindfulness in the classroom. Information
was presented to staff from a conference Mr. Welch, Mrs. Bordieri, Mrs. Warriner, Ms. Bostiga,
and Mrs. Faraci attended in November. Dr. Nicol attended both meetings and participated in
basic yoga moves and a meditation. Teachers and staff were provided packets of information on
breathing techniques and poses as well as suggested sequences. Teachers were interested and
excited to try to integrate yoga and mindfulness into their classrooms.
To date, over 150 students have received the newly-created Whale Wonder Award and their
pictures are proudly displayed in the school's main foyer on the Whale Wonder Wall of Fame.
The Whale Wonder Award is for students who “step up to the plate” in some form or way. For
example, a student helping another student without an adult prompt or a student demonstrating
any of the R.I.S.E. tenets are recognized by a teacher or staff member. Students receiving this
award get a picture with the principal, and the student's parents receive a celebratory phone
call.
February is Black History Month and students will be reading poems, singing songs, or reciting
passages during morning announcements each day to honor those people of color who have, and
continue, to influence our lives. Remember, too, it is flu season so all of us need to remember to
wash our hands regularly, remember to get plenty of sleep and fresh air, and drink fluids often.
Let me also wish Happy Valentine’s Day to all my Windermere families and friends!
It is my sincerest hope that your son/daughter’s school experience is and continues to be a
positive one. All of us work very hard to provide a rich, quality, high-powered educational
experience for our kids at all times.
The deadline for Windermere's final Box Tops collection for this school year is FRIDAY,
February 12th. Please refer any related questions to Linda Redekas by phone at 860-4163565 or by email at lindave622@gmail.com. This year, the classroom that brings in the most
box tops between the fall and spring collections will be rewarded with and extra “field day”
activity in the spring, and following our fall collection, Mr. Pechie’s class was in the lead with
Miss Korona’s class not far behind! Our fall collection brought in over $1700 — let’s see if we
can do it again with our spring collection!
Windermere School 2016 Winter Reading Challenge All students in grades K – 6 are
encouraged to participate in Windermere’s Winter Reading Challenge beginning on Monday,
February 1st. Those students who complete 3 hours of recreational reading during the month
of February will receive a bookmark, and those students who complete all 6 hours will also
earn one $5 certificate toward any book at the Spring Book Fair, which will be held from
March 14th through March 18th. The K-4 and 5/6 classrooms with the highest participation
percentage will each receive a $50 certificate to the Spring Book Fair to enhance their
classroom libraries. In addition, the students in those classrooms will receive a special prize!
The K-4 and 5/6 classrooms with the second highest participation percentage will each
receive a $25 certificate to the Spring Book Fair, and the students in those classrooms will
also receive a special prize!
Once again, Windermere PTO is sponsoring a delicious fundraiser which includes the sale of
Butter Braids, cookie dough and Lyman Orchards pies. All orders were to be returned to
school by Wednesday, February 10. Volunteers are needed to sort and distribute orders on
Tuesday, March 8. If you are available in the afternoon or evening, please visit the Sign Up
Genius below. All help is appreciated, even if you can spare just an hour.
WPTO Needs You!
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/805044ca5ae2aab9-windermere3
MCM FUNDRAISER DELIVERY DATE: THURSDAY, MARCH 8 3-7pm (items are frozen, plan for
freezer space at home) All items not picked up will be donated. Questions?
Contact Lisa Baehre 860.338.6271 or lbaehre@hotmail.com
WINDERMERE PTO OFFICERS
CO-PRESIDENTS
Martha Allegue
Tracy Elsass
860-454-0551
860-871-8400
martha.allegue@mac.com
tracy.elsass@gmail.com
K-4 VICE PRESIDENT
Christine Montanari
860-490-4876
5-6 VICE PRESIDENT
Lori Holden
860-870-8228
christinemontanari@sbcglobal.net
lori-holden@sbcglobal.net
SECRETARY
Maureen Crocker
860-559-5185
TREASURER
Amber Borst
860-871-1190
mcrocker796@gmail.com
ambermborst@gmail.com
Please submit articles or announcements to
Melissa Delaney at mdelaney@npsct.org
by February 20th to be included in the March
Newsletter.
PTO Executive Board Changes
As Windermere transitions to a K-6
“neighborhood” school, we feel the current structure
of the PTO board must also change.
We are planning to have a brainstorming
session Thursday, February 25th at 7:00 p.m. in the
Media Center discuss the current structure and to
determine what the board should look like in the
future. Since the PTO is a parent/teacher
organization, we would like to invite any parents or
teachers to join us in this planning session. We must
have our new structure in place before our elections
are held in May.
If you have any questions, please contact
Tracy Elsass at tracy.elsass@gmail.com .
FEBRUARY
2/1 – 2/29
2/10
2/12
2/15
2/16
2/20
2/25
Winter Reading Challenge
MCM Fundraiser Ends
End collection of Box Tops for Education
President’s Day - NO SCHOOL
Teacher In-service – NO SCHOOL
K-4 Spare Time Bowling Event
Executive Board Changes Meeting @ 7:00
Mark your calendar & join us for an adult evening out!
The Safe Graduation Committee
will be hosting it's
2nd Annual Cabin Fever Social/Auction
Saturday, March 19, 2016
7:00 - 11:00 PM
at the Maple Grove Club in Vernon
MARCH
3/8
3/14 – 3/18
3/14
3/15
3/16 – 3/18
3/19
3/21
3/25
MCM Fundraiser Pickup 3:00 – 7:00
Scholastic Book Fair
th
th
Donuts with Dads 5 & 6 Grade (A-M)
th
th
Donuts with Dads 5 & 6 Grade (N-Z)
Parent Conferences – Early Dismissal
Safe Grad Cabin Fever Social/Auction
PTO Meeting – 6:30 Media Center
Good Friday – NO SCHOOL
The evening will feature music, light refreshments, a
live auction, silent auction and teacup auction.
For tickets, contact Michelle Wylie
at michellewylie@comcast.net or Wanda DeLand
at macawanda@aol.com.
All proceeds from this event will benefit this year's Safe Grad
Party for all graduating high school seniors.
.
Students Share at Town Meetings
At our most recent Town Meetings, several of our fifth and sixth grade students wanted to share a presentation of
their own creation. Having learned about wasteful habits when it comes to discarding leftover food at the
Discovery Center camp experience, Jeffrey Gordon and Alex DiRenza highlighted an idea about actually
weighing the amount of food waste after lunches at Windermere, specific to grade 6. This is a pilot concept and
will be invoked in the very near future due to the passion, thoughtfulness, and drive exhibited by Jeff and Alex.
Helping with area animal shelters and with a strong desire to help abandoned and/or abused animals, students
from grades 5 and 6 provided us with a PowerPoint presentation. Special thanks to Kyleen Spivey, Hannah
Spivey, Julia Sikora, Samantha Norton, Angelina Miller, Hannah Grimes from the fifth grade and from the sixth
grade Brionna Koehler, Jillian Donie, Piper Small, and Danika Martin.
Behavior Interventions and Supports
COACHES’ Positive
By PBIS Coaches: Loretta Donovan, David Pechie and Sara Varga
a Windermere parent or caretaker, you may have found a colored PBIS ticket in the laundry or at the
O Asbottom
of a backpack. While these tickets might seem unimportant at first glance, they are an integral part
of
our
individual
rewards and recognition system. All staff members distribute tickets to students who
R exhibit positive behavior
expectations. Additionally, when tickets are given, staff member provide specific
comments about how or why a student earned recognition, such as when students show respect for
N themselves as individuals, show respect to other students and/or staff, or show respect within their learning
environment. Upon receipt, students write their name on the ticket and add it to their classroom container.
count these tickets weekly, and add them towards a total school goal of 20,000 tickets earned. Staff also
E We
use individual tickets towards weekly drawings to select students for a photo with Mr. Welch and mascot
R Windy, the whale.
So, if you find a colored PBIS ticket at home in a backpack, pants pocket, or sneaker, be sure to ask your
son /daughter why they received the ticket. Remind your child to return it to school and praise them for
their actions!
Kindergarten:
1st Grade:
2nd Grade:
Emilia Gallicchio, Annabel Hurlbutt, Logan Ramos, Selma Abushaqra, Nishka Singh, and
Raegan Crowley
Anthony Rosado, Madeline Phair, Maria Dems, Mahathi Sivakumar, Molly Palmer, and
Leah Brown
Ramell Walton, Bhadra Aneesh, Drayton Brindisi, Andrew Orlandi, Eamonn Shaw and
Anthony Gallicchio
3rd Grade:
Jah’kari Fullard, Emily Janiak, Audrey Plourde, Vrinda Thiyagarajan, Rosie Sadlak and
Jillian Lucey
4th Grade:
Kaitlyn Wisneski, Jillian LaPlante, Matthew Varga, Pranav Rangaswamy, Rena Delap and
LiAn Burce
5th Grade:
Lexi Smith, Shannon Carbonell, Dominic Mafuz, Damian Smith, Tess Histen, Hayley Pierce,
Abraham Borst, Andrew Velasquez, Max Sadlak, Brendan Birmingham, Natalie Marshall, and
Mikhail Bruno
6th Grade:
Aidan Stratoudakis, Ellis Thompson, Val Histen, Ava Andrews, Andrew DiGregorio, Lia Shaw,
Timothy Scott, Joey Audet, Lexi Vail, Amaya Williams, Aubrey Charbonneau, and Luke Wearne
Makenna Virkler, Ananya Konda, Benjamin Brier, Gage Jablonowski, MariAna Virkler,
Ayva Johnson, Isabelle Hoyt, Divyesh Paladugu, Sarah Trottier, Shreya Kavutarapu,
Caitlin Covino, David Pierce, Samarth Kshatriya, Alexander Newall, Abigail Welch,
Imani Rogers, Cecelia Redford, and Nyshawn Walton
Bus Winners:
Staff:
Mrs. Dziadul, Mrs. Dymkowski, Ms. Bashaw, Mrs. McKeegan, Mrs. Dwyer, and Mrs. Reiss
Congratulations to the following students who received a
Windermere Whale Wonder Award recently:
Lindsey Hany, Ramell Walton, Tristan Smith, Elias Moreau,
Michael Bontempo, Cooper Gentile, Jevannie Grant, Isabelle Hoyt,
Ava Powell, Catherine Birmingham, Jillian Donie, Remy Socha, Lakshita
Ganeshkumar, Haley Pierce, Natalie Ewald, and Berlin Hisel.
We are proud of our kids who make a conscious effort to R.I.S.E. to great
heights at Windermere School.
Coming Soon!
WPTO Scholastic Spring Book Fair – Feelin’ Groovy…
… a reading event packed with excitement for students and families.
Our spring book fair will be held Monday through Friday (March 14-18) during regular
school hours. Book fair will open early on Monday and Tuesday for Dads and Special
Persons visiting Donuts with Dads for grades 5 and 6. Since Wednesday and Thursday
are half days due to teacher/parent conferences, we will continue to be open until
4:00pm and then re-open from 5:45-8pm, to accommodate those families who would
like to browse and shop while they wait for their conference. The book fair will close
on Friday at 10:00am.
A flyer with more information will be sent home in early March. If your child wishes to
participate, please send them with money on the day their class will visit the book fair.
Cash, credit cards and checks made out to “WPTO” will be accepted.
We need your help! The book fair requires parent volunteers! To sign up, please go
to: http://tinyurl.com/FEELINGROOVYBookFair to view the on-line sign-up sheet.
Anti-Bullying Insights from Sweden
In this Elementary School Journal article, researchers Robert Thornberg and Tomas
Jungert (Linköping University) and Tiziana Pozzoli and Gianluco Gini (University of Padova)
report on their study of how moral emotions and disengagement affect bullying and children’s
willingness to defend a bullying victim. Here is their analysis of each dimension:
• Moral emotions – Empathy, sympathy, and guilt are linked to prosocial, moral behavior.
The stronger these emotions, the less likely children are to engage in bullying and the more likely
they are to defend someone who is being bullied; the weaker the emotions, the more likely
children are to bully others and display pro-bullying behavior.
• Moral disengagement – This, explain the authors, is a “sociocognitive process through
which people can disengage from moral control and thus commit inhumane acts toward other
people without suffering negative self-sanctions.” Some examples: (a) cognitive restructuring
(“Stealing is not really harmful when compared to murder”); (b) minimizing one’s agentive role
(“I wasn’t the only one acting that way”); (c) minimizing, disregarding, or distorting the
consequences (“I didn’t really hurt him; he’s okay”); and (d) dehumanizing or blaming the victim
(“He’s an animal and deserves what he got”). Moral disengagement is positively associated with
aggressive behavior, including bullying.
In their study of 561 Swedish elementary students, Thornberg, Jungert, Pozzoli, and Gini
found that the level of children’s moral emotions – empathy, sympathy for victims, transgressive
guilt, and guilt for bystander inaction – goes a long way toward explaining bullying and
defending. These findings, conclude the authors, “suggest that anti-bullying programs can
discourage bullying behavior and encourage defending behavior among students by
counteracting and deconstructing moral disengagement and fostering and strengthening moral
emotions. Developing a sense of personal responsibility is crucial. To reduce moral
disengagement among students, teachers and other school staff need to make students aware of
and challenge moral disengagement mechanisms when they emerge among them as well as
enhancing the moral atmosphere of the school and classroom, because school climate or moral
atmosphere has been found to be negatively associated with the prevalence of bullying and
students’ tendency to blame the victim of bullying.”
A key school and parental role is to provide clear, explicit moral instruction, calling
attention to victims’ distress and highlighting the actions that caused distress to elicit empathy
and sympathy and counteract disengagement.
“Unique and Interactive Effects of Moral Emotions and Moral Disengagement on Bullying and Defending Among School
Children” by Robert Thornberg, Tiziana Pozzoli, Gianluco Gini, and Tomas Jungert in The Elementary School Journal,
December 2015 (Vol. 116, #2, p. 322-337), http://bit.ly/22l2ER5; Thornberg can be reached at robert.thornberg@liu.se.