Adam Scott C.V.I./I.S. has a focus on student achievement with clearly stated expectations and equitable assessment guidelines. This mandate will be met within a purposeful learning atmosphere that is free from the threat of physical or emotional harm, delivered within a climate which is supportive of curriculum and instruction, and addresses the learning needs of both staff and students.

CHARACTER EDUCATION ATTRIBUTE OF THE MONTH: EMPATHY

VICE PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

- MS. RUSSELL

I would like to extend my congratulations to Mr. Walker who, after many years in the teaching profession, retired on January 31^st. I am pleased to welcome Mr. Colling who is our new homeroom grade 8 and rotary Science teacher.

Question of the month: How do you see yourself as part of the school community?

Thanks to Cathy Clarke and Paul Meggs who responded to last month’s question about extra-curricular activities.

karin_mackenzierussell@kprdsb.ca

School Improvement Team (SIT) Report

Members: Mme. Ilkewicz, Mr. Colling, Ms. Knox, Ms. Scott, and Ms. Russell

As many of you know, it has been a busy year for grade 7 and 8 schools in Kawartha Pine Ridge. Schools have been in the process of implementing the Instructional Support Model which has included the development of school, division and classroom SMART goals, a visit from a professional diagnostician, creation of class profiles, analysis of EQAO and CASI data and data driven planning based on the specific needs of individual students. We have also been lucky enough to have support in the areas of professional development and resource acquisition.

Although there are many areas in which we are working to improve the instruction that we provide for students, the school focus for this year was based upon the CASI results, specifically in the area of reasoning. To that end, the team has been planning how to implement high impact strategies within a balanced literacy program that will help students to improve their skills in summarization, main idea and using information from text. As the team analyzes results, the focus will move on to other areas of need.

What can parents do to help? Read on .....

How Was School Today? Well, let me summarize it all for you….

Wouldn’t it be great if that were really the answer our kids gave us when they come home from school? Instead, many of us get the typical “ungh” or “nothing”. Here at Adam Scott, as you know, we’re “Literacy Central”. Our focus recently has been on helping students understand the importance of writing a good summary. A summary is a way to give the important details of a particular story or event. Summaries include information from the beginning, middle and end of the story. Writing or telling someone a good summary takes a lot of practice. That’s where parents can really help out.

Parents interested in giving their child a hand with their homework may want to try this out: The next time your child watches a tv show, reads a book or magazine story, goes to the movies or visits a friend ask them to summarize the event for you. Listen carefully while they retell the event. If they’ve done a good job summarizing you will have no problem understanding the event. Hopefully they will have included the most important details from all parts of the show, movie or visit.

Let me summarize the benefits of helping your child work on their summaries. First, and most importantly, you are giving your child some important parent-child time. Then, by listening carefully when they speak you are really modeling good listening skills. And finally, and possibly best of all, you just might get a better response to the question “How was school today?”

Alison Scott

DPA

As of September 2006, elementary schools have been required to ensure that students receive twenty minutes of daily physical activity (DPA) on the days in which they do not have physical education classes. Teachers have been developing their own sorts of programming based upon the needs of their students and timetables. If you wish to have specific information regarding the programming in your child’s class, please contact the homeroom teacher.

GRADE 8 TRIP

We are pleased to announce the beginning of a new tradition at ASIS: the annual year-end grade 8 trip! In the inaugural year, we would like to involve our students in a unique and exciting program, CLIC at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario.

The following is an excerpt from the Queens University Outreach web page, which describes the uniqueness of the CLIC Program:

CLiC is an educational campus experience providing grade 6, 7, and 8 students with a series of fun interactive classes geared to the Ontario Elementary Curriculum.

With CLiC, the name says it all:

Curriculum

CLiC is a unique combination of faculty experience and instructor enthusiasm using tested teaching approaches and innovative strategies. Three-day teaching modules are designed to meet and often exceed specific Ontario Elementary Curriculum objectives in visual art, science (living systems and technology), information technology, and mathematics. CLiC also offers three-day integrated camps where students engage central tasks involving the interaction of three curricula, our version of teaching across the Ontario elementary curriculum.

Link

CLiC provides exciting ways to explore curriculum connections out of your classroom and in the stimulating spaces here at Queen’s University. We encourage students to link their experiences with academic goals, and ultimately, to career options. Trips to Fort Henry, for example, link learning to a living history, excursions to local conservation authorities connect the natural environment to living systems, and reader’s theatre on a working stage provides students with opportunities to develop confidence and presence. In addition, students are encouraged to link what they learn to careers.

Interactive

CLiC participants experience campus life and participate in supervised educational, recreational and social activities. They will meet new friends, actively engage in learning, play in organized activities, and create. Group size is kept small to maximize engagement and minimize downtime.

Camps

CLiC encourages learning away from classrooms and in a camp-like atmosphere. Camp themes tie student activities throughout the day. Highlights include karaoke, bracelet making, a Thousand Islands Boat Cruise, and organized sports and activities.

For more information check out: www.educ.queensu.ca/outreach/clic

The cost of the trip will be approx. $230.00 plus the cost of busing. Fundraising will be occurring between February and May in order to offset the cost. In the event that financial assistance is still necessary, please contact Karin Russell. We want all of our kids to participate.

Fundraiser!!!

The first trip fundraiser will be chocolate bar sales. On Friday, February 16^th, grade 8 students will be invited to sell chocolate bars. This particular fundraiser will affect the individual cost of each trip. For instance, if a student sells 2 boxes of bars, the profit will affect the cost of his trip alone.

There will be a variety of fundraisers that will affect the cost of the trip equally for everyone.

Mariann Marlow and Donna Paddison are running the fundraisers and you may contact them with ideas or offers of help. The contact information will be attached to the letter you will receive for the chocolate bars.

THANKS FOR YOUR VOLUNTEERISM!!!

·    Mrs. Paddison and Mrs. Marlow who have been instrumental in getting the year-end grade 8 trip up and running.

·    Mr. Schroeter who has volunteered to run a weekly Improv Group. More information to follow on this.

PARENT COUNCIL

Next meeting is on Monday, February 19 @ 6:45

VOLLEYBALL NEWS

Congratulations to all four volleyball teams on their success in tournament play. We represented Adam Scott well. An apology goes to Jacob Harvey who was a strong player on the recreational team. I missed him on the team roster last newsletter.

Good luck to the mixed volleyball team in their tournament at Crestwood on February 14^th.

PARENTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE!!

Parents may not excuse their children from school to attend an Interscholastic Tournament. Coaches have enough responsibility to supervise and coach their team, without having additional students in the gyms and school area. This also goes against board policy. Students not on the team roster are not allowed to attend the tournament even if accompanied by an adult/parent. Thank you for your cooperation.

ENERGY DRINKS NOT FOR TEENS!!

Many students have been bringing energy drinks to school and if spotted by Mrs. Knox – they are poured down the sink!

Here is why:

Teenagers are rapidly becoming the top consumers of energy drinks. Over 500 new brands were launched this year, giving teens a wide variety of styles, flavors and sizes to choose from. Although commonly marketed like sports drinks, which replenish some important nutrients lost during vigorous exercise, energy drinks have little proven nutritional value. Furthermore, the potential side effects should lead parents to give energy drinks a second thought.

What's in energy drinks?

Caffeine is the primary “boost” ingredient in energy drinks and potentially the most dangerous element. The drinks can also include sugar, taurine, ginseng, and other stimulants, such as ephedrine. Recently, health professionals are becoming concerned with the amount of caffeine consumed by teenagers, from energy drinks and other sources.

“Caffeine is a psychoactive drug,” says Judy Owens, MD, director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. “Children under 10 or 12 certainly have no reason to include any caffeine in their diets; caffeine has no nutritional value and drinking caffeinated beverages may reduce consumption of more healthy beverages, like milk and juice.” There is currently little research regarding the short- and long-term effects of caffeine on children.

Side effects and risks

The side effects teenagers may experience from caffeine can range from stomach upsets, irritability and sleep disruption, to blood pressure changes and heart arrhythmias for those sensitive to stimulants. In particular, the risk of cardiovascular complications increases when energy drinks are combined with other drugs or stimulants, such as caffeine pills.

The real danger teens face is forming a dependence on energy drinks, which is very easy in light of hectic school, activities, sports and part-time job schedules. “Teens often assume that the caffeine in these drinks will allow them to get by on only six to seven hours of sleep per night, far short of the nine hours they need at this age.” Owens says. “They believe the drinks will restore normal alertness levels, or, even more dangerous, reverse the effects of alcohol; there is no research to indicates this is true.”

While European countries such as France and Sweden have banned certain energy drinks, the FDA currently does not regulate them in the United States, and does not require manufacturers to list the amount of caffeine in foods and beverages. Without this information, teenagers (and parents) are unaware of the amount of caffeine they are consuming, which can further lead to dependency. Breaking a caffeine dependency can be very difficult and produce a wide variety of withdrawal symptoms for teens from mood alterations and headaches, to impairments in school and athletic performance.

What’s a parent to do?

According to Owens, parents can take several steps to prevent or break a caffeine dependency:

·    Monitor the amount of caffeine your child consumes.

·    Use the Internet to learn about the ingredients and their amounts in energy drinks. (This information can be tricky to find since the drinks are not regulated.)

·    Look for signs of caffeine dependency.

·    Make a withdrawal schedule from energy drinks instead of abruptly stopping; cutting caffeine anywhere from ¼ to ½ over a period of 3 to 5 days, can reduce withdrawal symptoms.

·    Realize the consequences of insufficient sleep for your child.

·    Owens says, “Of all the things that parents do to help their children succeed in school, one of the most important things they can do is make sure their child gets enough sleep.

http://www.lifespan.org/services/nutrition/articles/energydrinks.htm, Feb.6, 2007.

Please help us keep your children healthy by discussing this issue with them. If you have any further questions/concerns, please contact me at the school.

Mrs. Knox

BACKPACKS FOR KIDS GEARING UP AGAIN

Although it may seem too early to start thinking about Back to School - Backpacks for Kids is already hard at work preparing to help students in need for the 2007-2008 school year. The Backpacks for Kids program provides backpacks filled with school supplies to children in need in grades K-8.

If your family can’t afford school supplies for your children for the coming school year, please see your school administration to sign up for this program . This program is based on an honour system and a first come first served basis. Your information will be kept private and confidential, you will not be asked to prove your income or need. Please be advised that we may not be able to provide backpacks for all children.

We are also looking for families to support Backpacks for Kids, a $15 donation will provide one backpack filled with school supplies to a primary aged child in need. A $20 donation will provide a backpack and the necessary supplies for a junior or intermediate child in need. Donations are accepted at United Way of Peterborough & District on behalf of Backpacks for Kids. Call Liz Maxwell at United Way for more information 742-8839.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Drs. Scott Kraus and Moira Brown from the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA will be presenting their compelling research into this highly endangered species. With only 350 animals remaining, the North Atlantic right whale is hovering on the brink of extinction. Wildlife scientist Professor Brad White and graduate students from Trent University will also be on hand to discuss their extensive work analyzing the right whales’ DNA in an effort to try and help them recover.

Join us for a special presentation on the:

Plight of the North Atlantic Right Whale

Thursday, February 22 @ 6:15p.m.

Room 114, Gzowski College Trent University

Please RSVP to rightwhale@nrdpfc.ca