June 12, 2015

The Swift Rewind

 For his 8th Grade Challenge Community Connection, Jimmy Jiang assembled, edited and published writing and art work from all Swift House students for his literary journal, The Swift Rewind. He used the program Lucid Press to create the beautiful online publication.  Eve Wilson and Bryce Davies also helped with the images.  Please click on the cover to see the full journal. Feel free to share the link with family, too!  Look for your son or daughter's work-- it's in there.

 

Reminder: Core Placement Input Opportunity 

On the last day of school, we will meet with fourth grade teachers to learn about our new Swifties for 2015-2016. We will also ask current students to write a letter to us indicating their preference for core placement, including core teachers they would like to work with (top two), peers they would enjoy having in core with them, and whether or not they would like to be a mentor. We use all of their feedback very carefully while balancing cores for the next school year, working hard to balance grade, gender, as well as academic and social needs.

If you have specific input about core placement that you would like us to consider in this process, please e-mail your son or daughter's core teacher before June 15th so we can take it into consideration. As mentioned, it is a great balancing act in which we try to meet everyone's needs.

It is very difficult to make changes once core placements have been made, so please be proactive with any information that may be helpful.  Core groups and important dates for 2015-2016 will be sent out in July with our summer mailing.

E-Portfolios

Your child has an important job on these last days of school-- to share his or her e-portfolio with you. Students were asked to e-mail their parents a link to their portfolios.  If any documents within the portfolio are restricted from view when you open the portfolio, you can either click on the document to request access, or have your son or daughter log-in.   

Please find time in the next few busy days to look at the portfolio with your daughter or son.  Your home portfolio review should involve the following steps:

1. Child logs in and opens portfolio
2. S/he reads the Personal Plan reflection, both the student and teacher comments
3. S/he shows you the evidence for each goal and explains how these evidences show growth
4. S/he reads through the Nexus reports (now screenshots of Nexus within the portfolio), looking for any patterns of successes and challenges
5. Together brainstorm potential goals for next year.  We will have "Hopes and Dreams" conferences next September to create new personal plans.  It might be helpful to write down goal ideas for September while they are fresh in your minds.

Thank you for taking the time to reflect on your child's work.  They have a lot of growth to be proud of!

This Week's Events...

• Community Panel Presentations: 8th graders did a wonderful job of presenting their work to community members and their peers.

• Open House: Thank you for joining us to learn about students' projects.

• Sandbar State Park: We presented awards to the 8th graders and had a lovely picnic, with great help to Ms. Barland for organizing all of the food and to Mr. Cote for driving all of the coolers up!

• Step-Up Day: 5th-7th graders did a wonderful job of greeting next year's 5th graders.  They interviewed the new students and introduced them to the team.

• 8th Grade Graduation: Congratulations to the class of 2015!  Silas Cote won the WCS Social Studies Award and Jimmy Jiang won the "Spirit of Williston" Award for Swift House.

• Portfolios: All students posted their class reports and personal plan reflections in their portfolios.  In addition to the evidences supporting their goals, they have a lot to show you.

• Core Placement Letters- 5th-7th Graders wrote letters stating their preferences for core placement and peers for next year.  Remember to e-mail your son or daughter's core teacher if you would like to have input.  Core placements will be determined and mailed out in July.

Phew- it has been a busy week!  See photos below for a snapshot, or check out our Swift House photo site for many more photos.  Next Monday and Tuesday will be our chance to clean-up and say goodbye for the summer.

Aaron presents his project

Mr. Hunt on grill

American Ninjas

Olivia and Melaina

More Ninjas

Brayden is buried

Leslie and Lauren

Awaiting Awards

Koell and Ms. D

Washington DC and Home-team

Please check out the photos in the Swift House photo album for a great overview of both groups' activities for the week (password= flyforever).  For those on the DC trip, checking out the album is a wonderful way to see where the other groups went.  Thank you to all of the folks who shared their photos. 

Isaac G addresses Senator Leahy on the steps of the Capitol after our group photo.

Visual Narratives

Students wrote and illustrated narratives for their final writing piece of the year.  We scanned many of them so you can see their work below.

• The Jailed Man, by Koell B
• The Adventure of Luna the Cat, by Jen D
• The Hero Under the Tree, by Jimmy J
• Shadow Wolf, by Aaron Dempsey
• The Other Girls, by Hannah, Madi and Joanna
• Jim and the Can, by Bennett and Colby
• Snuffleupagus, by Kat and Emma
• Tales of Illusion, by Hugo S
• Why You Should Never Open that Strange Box You Found in the Woods... by Eric C
• Lost in Time, by Camille, Olivia and Lily

E-Mail Account Info for 8th Graders

The technology folks at CSSU are working hard this summer to combine all e-mail accounts in the district into one domain.  If this works out 8th graders will continue to use their current accounts (firstnamelastname@cssu.org) at CVU next year.   If not, they will be given support at CVU to transfer their files.  Either way, WCS graduates will continue to have access to their cssu.org accounts right through the fall.

Have a lovely summer, everyone!