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September 5, 2014 |
The Springer Buzz
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In This Issue:
Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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Meeting with Jeff Baier as guest
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PTA Meeting Announcements |
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The meeting agenda and the presentation on PTA Programs and Goals for this year will be available on the Springer web site in the next day or so (in the "PTA Meetings" section). Meeting minutes, as well as agendas for future meetings, will be posted on the same page when they are available. PTA would like to remind everyone that we have a special meeting scheduled next Tuesday, September 9th, at 7:00 pm in the Teachers' Lounge. We would urge anyone who would like to know more about the LASD bond measure (Measure N), or has any questions about it, to attend this important meeting. The meeting was specifically set up to give all parents an additional chance to learn more about the measure and about the district's current plans so they can make an informed decision in November. LASD superintendent Jeffrey Baier will present an update on the district latest plans and will be available for a Question & Answer session. Representatives from LAEF and KLASS will also attend. A good online resource for this discussion is the Facilities Master Plan Committee report available on the district web site. It is very readable and not too long, please take a little time to look at it if you can! In addition, after the presentation and discussion, we will request our members to approve an amendment to the 2014/15 PTA budget, authorizing a $5000 donation in support of the bond measure. Please note that, while the meeting is open to the whole community, only PTA members will be allowed to vote. We hope you will be able to make time to attend this important meeting and we look forward to meeting with you and to hearing your questions! Thomas Wieland (President) and Shannon Coin (Executive VP) |
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Choicelunch Is Here! |
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Our new lunch vendor, Choicelunch, will begin service on Tuesday, September 2. For more information click here. |
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Walk-a-thon Needs YOU To Volunteer! |
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VOLUNTEER! As you all know by now, the Springer Walk-a-thon (make that ROCK-a-thon) will be held Saturday, October 11 from 10-3! To make this all-school event a huge success, we're counting on all families to volunteer on the day of the event. Most shifts are one-hour, require no training, and are a fun way to participate and socialize with other Springer families. Check out available shifts and sign up on our online form: http://tinyurl.com/rockathonvols T-SHIRTS! If you have not yet filled out your Back-to-School form, remember... that's where you tell us your kids' Walk-a-thon t-shirt sizes! Please take a few moments to do it today to make sure your child gets this much-loved Springer keepsake. Click here for the BTS Order form!(password “(stingers”) SPONSORS! The Walk-a-thon needs sponsors! If you can donate funds or in-kind items like raffle prizes, we'd love to hear from you. You could see your ad on our t-shirt! For info, 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! (Psst! Sponsor cards and registration info comes home Sept. 12!) |
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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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Please Complete Lice Permission Form |
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Those annoying Lice! Don’t you just wish we could eradicate these bugs from our lives? Realistically, we won’t be able to eliminate lice completely, but learning about lice and how to prevent infestations and treat them when necessary, is a proactive and smart approach. Periodic lice checks can greatly reduce lice outbreaks, but schoolwide checks are not possible without the help of volunteer parents. Volunteer parents will be trained by the District Nurse and privacy for your child is ensured. Please read and sign the permission slip, which will allow a trained parent volunteer to check your child by clicking here. And please sign-up as a volunteer too--we would love to have you on the Springer Lice Squad! |
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Technology At Springer |
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Springer Elementary School Technology Implementation Springer’s Technology Committee would like to provide greater transparency towards one of the weightier expenditures of the Springer Elementary School. Click here for additional information on improvements to our computer lab, how Springer will utilize technology in 2014/2015, and details on how we’re using technology in each grade level. |
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Save Money on Your Energy Bill and Donate to Springer |
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Do you want to save money on your electricity and donate to Springer at the same time? Then click here to check out Ohmconnect. What is Ohmconnect? Ohmconnect is a home energy tool that combines the energy reductions of a community and sells that reduction back into the grid. We can generate an estimated $5k to $10k across a school's community, which is then donated to Springer Elementary School. How do users sign up? 1. Sign up at www.ohmconnect.com/springer 2. Connect your utility account to Ohmconnect 3. If you have a central AC or electric car, send an email talk@ohmconnect.com to receive a free electric car charger and/or wifi thermostat to automate your reductions and donations. Questions? |
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LAEF |
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Did you know that every child in every grade in all nine LASD schools benefits from LAEF’s 2014-15 grant? Your donation today supports enrichment program staff and smaller class sizes now through June 2015. LAEF’s grant is already at work in our school, funding STEM, PE, Art, Music, and library while also improving the student to teacher ratio. That’s why we are striving for 100% participation from our LASD families. Giving to LAEF is our way of investing in what we value: our children’s education. Please give today at LAEFonline.net. |
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Project Cornerstone |
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Cornerstone Corner Project Cornerstone developed and implemented The ABC Program (Asset Building Champion Program). Springer School is one of more than 130 schools in the Bay Area implementing the ABC Program. The ABC program supplies adults with the tools to support children and teenagers so that they can thrive. Volunteer adults are trained to go into the classrooms and teach lessons that allow students to discuss, practice, and internalize developmental assets. In conjunction with “It’s a Springer Thing”, students, teachers, and parents will be learning and practicing “Responsibility”, “Growth Mindset”, and “Empathy” all year long. Each month an ABC reader will read a book in your child’s classroom and discuss, engage, and practice being responsible, having a growth mindset, and empathy. Each lesson will also emphasize the importance of having caring adults in student’s lives, using a common language and vocabulary, increasing life skills, and creating a more caring, positive school climate. Please join the Springer community in supporting all of our children, both in school and out. You can do this by reading the monthly “Cornerstone Corner” section in this school newspaper (The Buzz). You will also be getting monthly reports via email or hard copies of the lessons taught in class by the ABC reader. Keep an eye out for an introduction to the first book of the year, “Friends to the End”. The ABC Program is most effective if ALL adults model and reinforce the same skill and tools the students are learning in the program. COMMON LANGUAGE AND VOCABULARY: Project Cornerstone: A YMCA of Silicon Valley Initiative ABC Program: Stands for Asset Building Champion Program ABC Reader: A trained adult volunteer who reads literature and teaches monthly lessons in the Springer classrooms Developmental Assets: The positive values, relationships, skills and experiences that help children and teens thrive |
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Girl Scout Information Night |
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Girl Scouts is a great way to build leadership, advocacy, self-expression and friendship. Service Unit 608 of Los Altos is hosting a Girl Scout Parent Information night for girls K-12. They will provide information regarding Girl Scouts, help you find your girl a troop to join and assist with starting new troops at your school. Join us on Monday, September 15th from 6:30 to 8:30, Los Altos United Methodist Church, Creekside Room, 655 Magdalena Ave., Los Altos Hills. For more information, please contact Sandra Hillman at Sandra.G.Hillman[at]gmail.com |
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For Parents New to Special Ed And Special Needs |
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ARE YOU A PARENT NEW TO SPECIAL ED AND SPECIAL NEEDS? If you are new to special ed or not so new yet still have lots of questions, come and meet local Dr. Trenna Sutcliffe, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician. She is an expert in over 18 different conditions such as anxiety, autism, ADHD, behavioral disorders, CP, and other developmental disabilities. We will be talking about navigating your way through the path of education, family life, testing, and more. For date, time and more information, click here. |
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Creating Conditions of Discovery and Inquiry in our Schools: A Conversation about Innovation with Lisa Kay Solomon and Warren Berger |
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How can we best prepare our students with the foundational critical thinking and creative problem solving skills required to thrive in times of increasing ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty? What will it take to shift our classrooms from stand and deliver models to more inquiry-driven methods that foster discovery and personal engagement? How can our teachers, administrators and parents create environments that promote questioning, experimentation, co-creation and collaboration? And, how can we do this all amidst the realities of performance demands, testing requirements and quantified measurement assessments? Join authors Lisa Kay Solomon and Warren Berger Thursday, September 18, 6:30 pm at Mountain View Center for Performing Arts for a thought-provoking conversation power to influence schools, classrooms and community organizations. Drawing on their insights from their newly published books Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change (Simon & Schuster, 2014) and A More Beautiful Question, Lisa and Warren will explore a new way of thinking about how to create cultures and conditions for discovery and lasting impact. For more information contact agallagher@lasdschools.org or to RSVP go to https://www.facebook.com/events/375552049263231/. |
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Become a LIVING CLASSROOM docent... share your love of nature with kids! |
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The Living Classroom is looking for docents to help deliver hands-on garden-based lessons to the students of the Los Altos School District. No experience necessary as we provide all the training needed! Our Fall docent training session will take place on Monday mornings from 9 - Noon on September 8th through October 13th. Please click here for more details. Questions? Please contact the Living Classroom at livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or visit our website: www.living-classroom.org. |
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Noontime Fun!visor Program! |
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We are thrilled to begin our seventh year of Funvisor Programs at Springer! Our weekly 2014/2015 Noontime Fun!visor schedule will be posted at Morning Assembly to remind students of the many activities from which they can choose after they finish their lunch. No registration is required to participate. Some programs like volleyball and STEM sometimes are designated for a certain grade level but most programs are open to all students. Funvisor Programs will begin mid September and run through the middle of May. Planned programs include LEGO, Run4YourLife, Arts, Board Games, Volleyball for Upper Grades, Garden, and Writing and Poetry. We would love parents, grandparents, and caregivers to help out even if just once a month! Especially we need help with our NEW VOLLEYBALL program for upper grades which is bound to be very popular!!!! Donations of LEGO, Connect4, JENGA, Boggle, checkers, and new decks of UNO would be very much appreciated and can also be brought to the office. Please contact Noontime Fun!visor Coordinator Laurie Pasmooij (Laurie.Pasmooij[at]mac.com) for more information. |
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Join Our Arterrific Stinger Team! |
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Looking for 4th - 6th Grade volunteers to help during noontime Art Club on Wednesdays! Last year over forty 4th - 6th Grade students volunteered 1-13 hours of their time to work with younger grades at Art Club helping younger students with tasks like hot gluing eyes on pine cone groundhogs, stringing lanyards, affixing mustaches on paper puppets, cutting legs for tennis ball crabs for the Walkathon, and constructing and testing miniature sailboats in water. They had a great positive impact on our community! This year we are recruiting students in 4th through 6th grades to join our Arterrific Stinger team to lead activities in Arts and Games on Wednesdays at lunch that include volleyball training, board games, writing, trivia contests, and art projects. A training meeting for interested Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Grade students will be held Wednesday September 10 at lunch in the multi. Students are welcome to bring their lunch to the meeting. Please contact Funvisor Coordinator Laurie Pasmooij (laurie.pasmooij[at]mac.com) for more information. |
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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. |