Mont Vernon Village School
September 7, 2007
SAU #39 Mission: We will engage, support, and challenge all learners.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
The school year seems to be off to a terrific start. I have enjoyed seeing all of our returning students and meeting a number of new students and their families. We have several new staff members who have also joined us this year, and I hope you will extend a welcome, when you have an opportunity, to Mrs. Charline Brown, sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Laura Ohl, special education teacher, Mrs. Melanie Jones, Title 1 tutor, Mrs. Susan Casey and Ms. Robin Hoey, para-educators, and Ms. Mary Hemingway, food service.
Sadly for us, our Spanish teacher, Mrs. Ahgren, has moved to the Amherst Middle School. Luckily for our students, they will be able to see her again when they move over to 7th grade. We are in the process of hiring a new Spanish teacher and have a Spanish-speaking substitute starting next week who will fill in until a replacement is hired.
Please take note of the changes to the school lunch program sent home in the first day packet. Traditional payment options (cash or check) are still available, but parents can now choose to make payments to their child’s account through PayPal for a small fee. Parents can also check their child’s account balance by entering their child’s ID number into the NutriKids system. We hope these changes will make it easier for parents to update their accounts and keep account balances in the black (please note that students will receive an alternative meal if their account balance is -$3). Application forms to qualify for free and reduced lunch are available through the school nurse’s office or through the food service office.
NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) assessment begins next week for students in grades 2-6. All testing sessions are scheduled for the morning, and we ask for your cooperation in helping your child get to school on time. A parent toolkit containing additional information about the assessments is available on-line at: http://www.nwea.org/support/details.aspx?content=930.
Upcoming Events:
 | Please note that our first Late Start Day will be on Tuesday, September 11th. Students will arrive between 10:30 and 10:40 A.M. with school starting promptly at 10:45 A.M. Buses will pick up students two hours later than their usual times. Please note that there will be no morning kindergarten on Late Start Days. If you have not already returned the slip for child care on Late Start Days… |
| The first PTA meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 11th at 11 A.M. Please come to learn more about the PTA and learn how you can help. |
| The magazine drive will begin on the afternoon of September 11th. Packets will be sent home with all students for this important PTA fundraiser. Monies raised support Enrichment programs for Village School students. Your participation is encouraged. |
| Meet the Teacher Night is also scheduled for Tuesday, September 11th. Parents of students in grades 1-3 are invited to meet their child’s teacher from 6:30 to 7:15 P.M. Specialist teachers will be available in the main hallway from 6:55 to 7:35 to answer questions and provide an overview of their programs, and parents of students in grades 4-6 are invited to meet their child’s teacher from 7:15 to 8:00 P.M. |
| Our first SRA (Student Recognition Assembly) will be held on Friday, September 28th at 2:15 P.M. Family members are welcome to attend as we join together as a school community to celebrate some local traditions. |
| School Picture Day is Friday, September 14th. |
| Mark your calendars now for Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day on Thursday, October 4th. The program will begin at 1:15 in the MPR. |
All the best,
Meredith Nadeau
MVVS Principal
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What Happened To Computer Class?
by Thomas Campbell
Hi! To those who don’t know me, I’m the Computer Technology Educator at MVVS. I arrived just after the flood last year!
This year we begin evolving into an exciting and effective model of teaching and learning by removing “Computers” as a special and aligning the use of “technology tools” more properly as a component of the curricular activities of the classroom. Although computer technology is ubiquitous throughout most aspects of daily life, until recently, much educational effort was devoted to introducing computer skills as a technical training course in the “computer room”, often times isolated from what was being discovered and mastered in the classroom. While we will continue to spend time physically in the computer room, our pedagogical focus will begin to iterate increasingly towards the content being explored in the classroom. Eventually, we will increase the technological capabilities found within our classrooms and the computer will take its proper place alongside the pad and pencil and other tools found in every classroom today.
Technology integration at Mont Vernon Village School will focus on developing collaboration between our classroom teachers, our children and our specialists (technology and library) to utilize technology – computers, software, digital cameras, video, the Internet, electronic databases and virtual libraries to extend and enrich their learning in the areas they are developing mastery in.
Think big, start small. If a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, we have begun our journey with a few excellent pathfinder miles last year. In a 2nd grade class, we visited a poet’s website and immersed ourselves in the poet’s work before firing up our word processors to compose our own poetry. Our 4th graders completed a terrific project on careers that included the use of PowerPoint in their excellent presentations. Our 5th and 6th graders began learning project management, taking on a summer vacation project that utilized several productivity tools: Word, Excel and PowerPoint; required significant research using a variety of real-world internet sites; developed in depth historical and geographical knowledge on a destination here in the United States.
It takes a village… I’m always happy to gain your expertise and communicate our thinking. Please feel free to contact me at school.