Covington School Howler

  May 5,  2015

Principal’s Message

Dear Covington Families,

May has arrived! And this is often an incredibly busy time of year leading up to the close of school. Teachers are re-calibrating what their students have learned thus far and what they still need to know. SBAC testing is wrapping up for our 3-6th graders in what has been a fairly smooth process for students because of all of the adults that have worked as a team to support them. A huge thank you to all of the parent volunteers who pulled together to provide nutritious snacks during testing time. Our students appreciated the brain-food!

I want to highlight our teachers this week because enough cannot be said about their dedication to the learners in their classroom, the thoughtful time they spend thinking about their learners (this often happens on the drive to and from work, in the shower, standing in the grocery line) and their commitment to staying current in education to provide the most relevant learning to students.

Our teachers spend countless hours reading educational literature, whether that be in the form of books, blogs, tweets or journals, in search of a more effective way of reaching their learners. Staff collaborate weekly throughout the 10-month school year in many ways.  Some of this collaboration includes participating in staff meeting discussions, planning with grade level teams, sharing best practices with other teachers across the district and reflecting on teaching with co-workers in the staff room. I’ve even heard of some teachers who spend one day a week collaborating with educators across the world via a facilitated Edchat on twitter. Covington teachers also gain insight and knowledge the old-fashioned way--through workshops and conferences held throughout the year.

To give you an idea of the variety of professional development opportunities our adult life-long learners have pursued throughout this year, here is a short list: Design Thinking in the classroom, Mindfulness practices for students, Best practices in small group instruction, Sensory regulation in the classroom, The Good Teaching conference, Special Education Symposium, Asilomar Reading Conference and LASD’s EdSummit.

Every child is unique and so are the ways in which they process information and learn. The more tools a teacher can learn and add to their toolbox of strategies to support the process of learning the more they can support students. The beauty and fun of teaching is in finding the spark that engages each learner.

Enjoy the week!

Raquel Matteroli, Interim Principal

P.S. We are in desperate need of another Yard Duty adult during lunch time for the last 4 weeks of school. We need someone daily but if you can also cover 1-4 times a week, we would love to hear from you. Please call the Covington Office 650-947-1100.  Thank you!

Important Dates

May 8 - Last PTA Meeting & Principal Coffee 8:30am

May 8 - LASD Film Festival 3pm @ Covington

May 14 - Last Homework Club

May 15 - 6th Grade Girls Basketball Tournament 3pm

May 16 - Pet Parade

May 18 - Upper Grade Music Concert, 1pm

May 19 - Dine Out for Covington @ Pasta Market

May 22 - All Library Books due

May 25 - Memorial Day, No School

May 28 - LASD CSTEM showcase @ Almond School

May 29 - Volunteer Tea

May 29 - 6th Grade Boys Basketball Tournament 3pm

June 2 - Primary Music Concert, 1pm

June 5 - Field Day

June 5 - Minimum Day for Students, Dismissal at 12:15pm

June 10 - 6th Grade Promotion, 8:30am-10:00am

June 10 - Last Day of School, Start time 8:15am, Dismissal at 11:15am.

PTA NEWS

LAST PTA GENERAL MEETING OF THE YEAR THIS FRIDAY! (Staff Room, right after morning assembly)  We will be approving the 15/16 Budget and voting in the Executive Board for next year. Look forward to seeing you all there!

JUNIOR OLYMPICS

Junior Olympics: Dear 4,5,6 grade parents,

Junior Olympics was a fantastic day! Over 1,600 students, their families and friends came out to enjoy some friendly competition at Mountain View High School! We look forward to our awards ceremony and slideshow on Friday,

May 22 at 1:45 pm. Parents are welcome to join!

Pictures Needed

Please post pictures here so that we can have an awesome slideshow and if you are feeling particularly creative, we'd love someone to actually create the slide show :)   Please let me know - e-mail jochaircovington@gmail.com

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxYlNlJa9WyTfnBNSDJoLXdsN2RpRU53ZnpoTlB0bVNxbGhfMTYxTjBfdEJ4NFViVktROVU&authuser=1

Lost something at JO?  Please send e-mail to jochairlasd@gmail.com

Suggestions and feedback?  We always appreciate hearing from you on ways to improve this event.  Please send e-mail to jochaircovington@gmail.com

 a fun group of people to work with for a truly fun event.  Members welcome!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So many people are needed every year the make this event happen: PE specialists, LASD personnel, MVLA personnel, parents, high school students,

middle school students, as well as our very own 4-6 participants.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to the following people in our community who went over and above to make the 55th Junior

Olympics a spectacular event! We could not do it without YOU!:

Matt Abrahams, Suzy Allison, Timo Allison, Sue Boennighausen, Wendy Boufford, Kathleen Smiley, Steve Smiley, Suzanne Kasso, Kathryn Han, Jennifer Townhill, Rich Townhill, Stuart Sweet, Chester Te, Owen Brydon, Angie Kim Harrison, Marjorie Hondl, Chris Wilson, Fred Fry, Ed Gonzalez, Hiep Nguyen, Michelle Staufenbiel, James Murdock, Aaron Santillan, Valeria Carty, Marianne Mahoney, Kathleen Smiley, Suzette Anderson, Judith Kau, Kristi Snapp, Sheetal Bagai, Irina Bublik, Saori O'Reilly, Yasmin Braun, Kathi Donnelly, Kyle Harrison, Alison Sayar, Laura Kerestezachi, Gabriella Bradley, Georgia Markarian,  Sandi Elefant, Sonia Brunner, Marlena Leong, Sri Dharmasanam, Jeff Bernhardt, Dan Nero, Kim Nero, Dan Fischer, Taslim Janmohamed, James Reilly, Tricia Clark, Guy Colpitts, Tim LeBaron, Shivani Gupta, Lauren Hasenhuttl, John Crawford, Nancy Morimoto, Christopher Drake, Amy Byrne, Zhuang Sun, Vanessa Werth, Crysta Krames, Jonathan Hale, Ken Leong, Ian Loughran, Charlie Tritschler, Tom Parsons, Tie Kim, Jim Cairns, Grace Kim, Chad Starkey, Shaun Donnelly, J.D. Lyon, Katherine Lyon, Susan Moran Arangio, Sangeeth Peruri, Fionnuala Loughran, Carolyn LeBaron, Sarah Anderson, Sara Colpitts, Suzette Anderson, Jessica McDowell, Deborah Tolomeo, Elaine Chen Nguyen, Katherine Han, Stella Kister, Megan Chang, Catherine Clark, May Cheung, Sharon Wei, Takako Yanase, Lee Lucca, Lori Parsons, Eda Cano, Lisa Aronovitz, Deborah Tolomeo, Kasey Saltzman, Lori Parsons, Christie Wilson, Cubby Ng, Davida Ewan, Ivette Loredo, Elizabeth Pande, Alistair McGrath, Olivia Cairns, Lisa Schuder, Cynthia Dinh, Sophie Wang, Olga Pichkova, Xin Wang, Arezou Bahman,  Neal Maeyama

And special thanks to Mr. Heeb our amazing PE teacher and to our 4-6th grade teachers and principal. 

Want to help plan the fun in 2016?  Please send e-mail to jochaircovington@gmail.com and join the very fun crew - Louanne Gonzalez, Mara Starkey, Valerie Cairns and Jen Springer - and the other district members.  This is truly Signing off for 2015! 

Your JO Covington Committee

Laura Torres

Mara Starkey

Louanne Gonzalez

Jen Springer

Valerie Cairns

jochaircovington@gmail.com / lasdjo.com

LIBRARY NEWS

LIBRARY END-OF-YEAR RAPIDLY APPROACHING : It’s been a wonderful year in the library, but all good things must come to an end.

All books will be due when students visit the library for their last library class and no later than May 22, the Friday before the Memorial Day Weekend.

Parents, please help your students keep track of their books and return them on time.  Books may be returned to book return carts in most classrooms, brought directly to the library, or dropped off in the book return box in the school office.- Maureen Drobot, mdrobot@lasdschools.org

Thank you to all who contributed to the Birthday Book Club!: Donations to the Birthday Book Club make a significant contribution to our library pleasure reading collection.  With the recognition of May birthdays and kindergarten summer birthdays, our library will soon have 339 new hardcover books added to our shelves for the enjoyment of all of our students.  These books include picture books, easy readers, popular series for our emerging readers, chapter books for older readers, and high interest narrative nonfiction.  Hats off to you and thank you! - Maureen Drobot, Covington Library

Student Council News

Hello, parents!  As you probably already know, Nepal was recently hit with a devastating earthquake.  The Covington School student council officers have chosen this as their final philanthropic venture for the school year.  If you have any funds available to donate, please send them into your child’s classroom teacher.  Here are the details:

Funds will be raised from Monday, May 4 - Friday, May 22

You may donate either through the school, or through the Oxfam website

Checks can be made out to “Covington School”.  Cash is preferred over coins.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

Sincerely,

The Covington School Student Council

Last Homework Club

Notice to Parents of Homework Club Attendees: The last day of Homework Club is Thursday May 14th.  Thank you to all of our homework club teachers for providing this great resource for students!

Nurse Message

Students currently in 6th grade must have proof of a Tdap or Dtap (Pertussis or Whooping Cough) booster given after their 7th birthday (after 10th birthday is recommended) in order to begin 7th grade in August of 2015. Please provide a copy of your child’s immunization record to your current school office as soon as possible.

LAEF

LAEF:  We still need to raise $116,587 for 2014-15

LAEF presented a $2.855M check to LASD at Junior Olympics, but we are still $116,587 short to fully fund every K-8 student's enrichment this year.Please donate today or request a match from your company to pay for the programs your child has enjoyed THIS current year, including STEM, PE, art, library, music and smaller class sizes in K-3.  

We strive for 100% participation from our families, and it’s not too late to give. Please donate at laefonline.org or drop a check in our school’s office this week.

 School & Community News

Please join us for LASD EdTalks: Haiku Learning Management System

Friday, May 8, 9:00– 10:30am, iLearn Studio

201 Covington Road Los Altos

RSVP through Eventbrite

http://edtalkhaiku.eventbrite.com

In the LASD we are on a path to revolutionize learning for all students. Building on our history of excellence, our goal is to inspire passion in students for their own learning. We now have a tool at our fingertips to coordinate this teamwork: a learning management system called Haiku. This tool will accelerate the achievement of our goals to provide regular, actionable feedback on student progress through a simple communication process. Within Haiku, we will strengthen our professional learning networks, as well as understand more about what our students know so that we can better meet their needs.

Learn more here: https://www.haikulearning.com/

CUB SCOUT PICNIC – Join Cub Scouts

Meet Pack 76 Cub Scouts and their families to learn more about Cub Scouting at our annual Informational Picnic. When: Friday, May 15, 5-7pm

Where: Shoup Park (400 University Ave, just south of Burke Rd), Los Altos

What: Food, Beverages, and Fun provided.

Who: Any boys in K-4th grade thinking of joining Cub Scouts + a parent

For more information: Lauren Hasenhuttl, Pack 76 Committee Chair (lhasenhu@gmail.com)

School & Community News now found via Peachjar: https://www.peachjar.com/index.php?a=28&b=138&region=54001

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