Dear Spectrum Family and Friends,
Welcome back to Spectrum! We are at full enrollment capacity for the school year, and already fully engaged in already remarkable work at every level. We are well on our way to a FANTASTIC year.
Our school theme for this year is Grassroots. It has generated a plethora of ideas around which teachers have been planning instructional content. I am incredibly proud of the creativity and thoughtfulness of our teachers.
Important Reminders:
- Spectrum at Beattie Is…..crafts and sing-alongs, Sunday, Sept. 8 11:00am-6:00pm at Booth 3 right off State Street. I’d love some Spectrum company to host the booth or just stopping by! Please email me if you can take an hour or two. Melissa Prete and I will set up, I will take down. We are planning jewelry, tissue paper art, and salt clay sculpting.
- PTO Meeting 6:00pm Sept. 12 Everyone welcome – room parents please attend!
- Intake Conferences – No School Sept. 13, Full Day Compass is available.
Safety FIRST: Please discuss with your child(ren) the importance of staying quiet/silent, listening to, and following directions during safety and emergency drills. Teachers are providing explicit instruction and practice on these, especially during the first weeks of school. We will have drills, both announced and unannounced, throughout the year. Our safest location during a tornado or potential intruder is in a long utility hallway that will hold the entire school. We do not want children or their parents to be alarmed about this space. Please connect with your child about this. I am sure the teachers will let you know of any specific concerns.
Reflections and….My first day observations: Middle Schoolers giving themselves a class name, creating a class logo, reading independently. Intermediate students selecting their “Sometime soon” books- fiction, non-fiction, realistic fiction, and graphic novels, based on book talks by the teacher; Intermediate making different kinds of graphs that represent data about themselves; Early students doing yoga, sharing math strategies, completing their own plan-do-review work from Day 1! Preschoolers excitedly telling their parents and grandparents at pick-up about their “secret circle”.
Second day, Leona in Early told me the best part of her first day was starting her heart map. Heart Maps are a brainstorming tool for children to list ideas, interests, and questions about which they might like to write. They are an important part of writers’ workshop, which we are strengthening across all levels this year. We have a new member of the Spectrum family, Farmer Allyson Rosemore, who is facilitating our school compost program. We are so excited that composting, paper recycling, gardening, and eventually ECObrinks plastics recycling will soon enough become a staple of Spectrum School and our mission to becoming an exemplary school of environmental citizenship.
Third day: A year ago, I was frantic about the chaos of Compass. We worked hard to improve programming that was engaging, structured but not too structured, safe, and that built student community. This year, thanks to Krystal, Ann, Melissa, Chloe, and now Charly, I am overjoyed and confident that this “extra time” students spend at school is time well spent. We will be adding enrichment sessions and homework support. I keep saying, “it just keeps getting better and better.”
As I walk through the building, listening, watching, noticing…throughout every classroom, there is joy in learning, positive interactions, curiosity cultivated, and a sense of belonging. I am so grateful to be principal of this wonderful school.
Dr. Mary Beth Cunat
