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Buzz Newsletter, 08/22/2014
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August 22, 2014 |
The Springer Buzz
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In This Issue:
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Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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Principal’s Letter |
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“It’s A Springer Thing” We had a great start to our school year and part of that has to do with our “It’s A Springer Thing” program that was emphasized in each classroom for the first 3 days of school. “It’s A Springer Thing” is our attempt to set three important “habitudes” in our students: responsibility, growth mindset, and empathy. On Wednesday, teachers led their students through activities that focused on responsibility. The message was that we are all responsible, or accountable, to ourselves, others and our school/community. The children brainstormed examples of responsibility and actions that could be construed as irresponsible. Not surprisingly, students had no trouble coming up with these examples. We have always had very responsible students! Thursday the classrooms ran activities and challenges that taught students about growth mindset. The opposite of a growth mindset is a fixed mindset; one where outcomes are viewed as fixed. When someone says, “I can’t do this”, they are displaying a fixed mindset. A growth mindset has a person believing that they can get better at ANYTHING through persistence and hard work. A key fundamental to growth mindset is that failure is okay; that with effort and grit an unsuccessful attempt is a way to learn. Today, classrooms emphasized empathy, defined as the ability to feel and understand what others are feeling. The importance of empathy cannot be understated. In a community of learners that needs to work together, our students’ ability to understand each other in a very meaningful way is paramount in creating a caring and supporting school environment. Assemblies today tied all three of these themes together. Students were told the responsibility, growth mindset, and empathy is what is expected from all of us. It’s who we are and it’s what we do. Indeed, it’s a Springer thing. Of course we want to have our students demonstrate other traits as they learn and grow. But all the positive life skills, in some way, can be tied in with responsibility, growth mindset, and empathy. For example, getting to school on time is an act of responsibility. Not giving up after getting a bad score on a test is an act of growth mindset. Not gossiping or spreading rumors about someone is an act of empathy. Posters in classrooms will highlight these traits throughout the year. Buddy classes, meeting monthly, will work together to build on these ideas. Positive affirmation certificates will be given to students who get caught “bee-ing” good. “It’s A Springer Thing” will be the focus throughout the school year. Whatever you can do at home to model and support these themes is greatly appreciated. I encourage you to have discussions with your children about these traits. Have them share with you what they learned and how they plan to demonstrate these traits this year. Thank you for a great start of the year. Enjoy the weekend. Friendly reminders: Please do not park in the auction winners’ spots in the parking lot. Those spots are reserved for all school events for those families who won them at the auction. Dogs- while we love all of our furry friends, only service dogs are allowed on campus during school hours. |
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Back-To-School-Night |
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Get Ready For The Walk-A-Thon! |
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GET READY TO WALK & ROCK--THE WALK-A-THON IS COMING! This year Springer's Walk-a-thon will be a ROCK-a-thon! We’ll transform the field into a fantastic celebration of rock-n-roll as we complete laps and collect sponsors for our annual fall fundraiser! Don’t forget to save the date – the Walk-a-thon is Saturday, October 11 from 10-3! If you’re not yet familiar with this stupendous and super-fun all-school tradition, watch for more information soon in Friday Folders and check out a few FAQs online at the Springer website. Wondering how you can get involved at the event? It's fun and easy to participate. Just click here to choose a one-hour volunteer shift, no training required -- we hope all Springer families will volunteer. We also need sponsors for the 2014 Walk-a-thon! Sponsorship at any level can make a difference. Donate raffle prizes, giveaways for students, or get your company logo printed on the ever-popular Walk-a-thon t-shirt! And remember, you can now pre-register for Walk-a-thon food via the Back-to-School Order Form you recently received via email. Questions? Please email your Walk-a-thon co-chairs, Christy Gammons (christine.gammons [at] gmail.com) or Karen McKinley (karenhey [at] stanfordalumni.org). And get ready to ROCK! |
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Back-To-School-Order-Form |
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Hello Springer Parents, The Springer Back To School (BTS) Order Form is a quick, easy, online tool that allows you to make donations, sign up for PTA memberships, order Birthday Books, select your child's Walk-a-thon T-shirt size, place Walk-a-thon Food Pre-Orders, and purchase Auction Tickets, Spirit Wear, and Yearbooks. This is a convenient way to make a single payment for your donations and orders! Click on the link below to open the form. We recommend reviewing the 2014-2015 Spirit Wear selection with your child before opening the form. Please consider making your BTS payment via e-check. We prefer electronic payments because they allow us to more quickly and easily process the BTS orders. (Last year, a parent volunteer made 27 trips to the bank to deposit over 1400 handwritten checks for the Springer PTA!) Furthermore, payment by e-check is less expensive for us. (Intuit charges the PTA a flat fee of $0.50 for every e-check. PayPal charges the PTA 3-5% of each payment.) The Los Altos Educational Foundation (LAEF) accepts (and prefers) payments by e-check as well. Making your payment by check is of course still an option, if you prefer. We appreciate your support!! The link to the form is: Springer 2014 BTS Order Form The password is "stingers" (all lower case) The online form will close on Sunday, September 21 and payments are due by Friday, September 26. Thank you for your support of the Springer PTA! Thomas Wieland and Shannon Coin 2014-2015 Springer PTA Co-Presidents |
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Student Extracurricular Activities: |
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There are after-school activities at Springer for all grade levels. For more information, please click on the following links. |
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Springer Singers |
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Does your child love to sing? Then Springer Singers is where you want them to be. Springer Singers is a great way to get your kids singing and dancing with their Springer friends. The chorus is open to any Springer student grades 1–6. We will practice on Wednesday’s after school. Applications available in the office, or click here to print your registration form. Please complete form and return with payment to the office (scholarships available) to participate. |
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Girls on The Run! |
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It’s time to register for Girls on The Run! Girls On The Run also needs new coaches. For more information and online registration, please click here. |
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Flag Football |
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Dear LASD Parents, We are excited to announce our 10th season of the LASD flag football program. This is a co-ed recreational program intended to provide an opportunity in a school related sport, have fun and develop basic football fundamentals. Flag football is a minimum contact sport for all age and skill levels. Our program has over 300 annual participants in grades 4 through 8. The elementary league is organized around A level (grades 5/6) and B level (grades 4/5). Each team will play teams from all the other LASD schools at their league level. Practices start in early September, games begin in late September. Santa Rita and Almond practice on Wednesdays. Gardner Bullis, Covington, Springer, Loyola, and Oak practice on Fridays. Games are on Mondays. Games and practices are from 3:30 to 5:00. Our season ends with an exciting all day tournament the first weekend in November. Egan and Blach have 7th and 8th grade teams and have a Monday Friday schedule. Practices start in September and play a league schedule during the month of October with a play-off the first week of November. All equipment, except cleats is provided by the league. We still need parent volunteers to help with coaching, assistant coaching, and team parents. We conduct a coaches clinic at the beginning of the year to help develop skills, drills, practice plans and game strategies. We are also looking for high school students to participate in our youth referee and coaching programs. You can register your daughter or son at: www.afterschoolathletics.com Vince Giacomini 408-892-9193, vince[at]pws.bz Jerry Sorensen 650-906-0491, gjsorensen[at]sbcglobal.net |
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Parent Education Opportunities: |
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Through enriching presentations from local and national experts on topics of interest to parents, faculty and staff, the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series seeks to contribute to the academic, physical, and emotional health of our students. All events are free of charge and are for parents, faculty and staff in Los Altos and Mountain View public schools. For a schedule of upcoming presentations, please click here. |
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How to Submit an Article to the Springer Buzz |
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If you have an article to submit to the Springer Buzz, please send it to the editor at springer.buzz@gmail.com by noon on Monday for inclusion in the next edition. Late arrivals will be included if possible but can’t be guaranteed! All flyers must be in either WORD or PDF format, accompanied by a brief summary of the activity in the email. |
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5/11/25 1:29 PM