Principal's Page – Coffin Elementary School

Click HERE for the entire November newsletter.

Dear Coffin School Families,

I hope that this finds all of you well.

As a part of the time I spend in classrooms every week, I often ask students questions about their learning.  Our conversations usually start with a straightforward, “What are you learning?” and evolve from there.  Sometimes I’ll ask this follow-up “How do you know that you’re learning?” (tough question), and encounter widely varying   answers.

Noting the impact of my questions on the responses, I’ve been framing questions a little differently.  Now I also ask, “What’s something you do really well here at school?”  (the ‘recess’ answer is not an option…) followed up by, “Tell me how you know this.”  Wow!  What a difference.    By changing to a more open-ended mode of interaction, I’m able to learn much more about the students and how they see themselves as learners.  This latter line of questioning consistently brings out livelier and more     engaging answers.

I share this knowing that you’ll be conferencing with your child’s teacher in these next couple of weeks.  There will discussion of benchmarks, assessments, and report cards that cover a variety of essential learning areas.  Teachers will be anticipating your questions and concerns and will be ready to answer and respond.  In addition to these important lenses, I trust that you’ll also find time to simply celebrate your child’s growth from the beginning of the year.

I know that teachers are very much looking forward to joyfully sharing with you your child’s academic and social progress.  In the midst of this increasingly busy time of year, conferences can be a welcome few minutes to step back and to take pride in how far we’ve come.

Wishing  you and yours a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday.

Mr. C.

sciembroniewicz@brunswick.k12.me.us

Just a friendly reminder that to ensure the safety of our students and staff,                       School Drive is closed to through traffic from 7:30 AM – 4:00 PM.

Parking is available at the sites marked below and there is a pathway between M3 and M4 leading to a crosswalk .

Thank you for your assistance in keeping everyone safe!

Some interesting data in this study – http://mainechildrensalliance.org/assets/files/databooks/2012/2012MaineKidsCount_web.pdf

Good morning Coffin School,

I hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating weekend.  While I wasn’t thrilled about the rain, it was most certainly good for the plants and our lawn is looking greener than
ever.

I find springtime to be a wonderful reminder of how things grow even more when they’re nurtured – taken care of thoughtfully.  It’s not just plants, of course.  We as people grow when others nurture us and help us to learn in positive and supportive ways.

We can even nurture things within ourselves – we get to decide
how we want to approach a day or even a particular situation.  Imagine a time of frustration.  One can choose to nurture the frustration, perhaps
blaming others and even getting angry, or one can choose to step back, think
about what’s really going on, and work on positive ways to solve a
problem.  Both are choices and depending
on what one chooses to nurture, it shapes our days and our lives.

I encourage you to take a few moments this week to think
about what you want to nurture in your life – kindness, generosity, patience –
there are so many choices – it’s refreshing to know that they’re all ours to
make.

As Baxter Bear and his helpers would say, be kind, be gentle,
be safe – and, be responsible – that’s our Coffin Way.

Happy Springtime and have a great week!

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Good morning Coffin School,

I hope April break gave you a chance to get rested and renewed as we head into this final stretch of the school year.

My family and I were able to take a vacation together and while I enjoyed every minute of our time together, it’s good to be back.

One of the biggest changes you’ll see at Coffin School today will be during recess.  We’ve got a brand new fence on our big playground.  This is something we’d been
planning for a few months and the weather finally allowed the work to move
forward.  This new playground fence is just another one of the many ways we stay safe here at Coffin School.  Please be sure to stay on the inside of the fence and wait for teachers to open up the gates for coming in and out.

One other special request – please enjoy the beautiful characters that are hanging throughout our hallways, but do not hit them with your hands.  We
want them to last for many years.

Wishing you all a fantastic week as we head into the coming months of learning, celebrations, field trips and other exciting work!

As Baxter Bear and his helpers would say, be kind, be gentle, be safe – and, be responsible – that’s our Coffin Way.

Have a great week, everyone!

Good morning Coffin School,

I hope this morning finds you rested and ready for learning.

This weekend I found myself thinking about the ideas of commons
and community.  You may have heard this word “commons”  before – there’s the Brunwick Greater Commons down on the Harpswell Road – and a commons is often thought of as land that’s shared by an entire community.  When you stop and think about it,
the idea of a commons can mean anything we all share – classrooms, hallways,
playgrounds, schools, roads, waterways, the great State of Maine, the planet –
all things that need our caring attention.

I get the sense that sometimes people think rules or laws alone
can protect the many commons in our lives.  I believe there’s more to it
than that.  One of the things I love about our school is the fact that
people continuously choose to do the right thing, even in situations where
there are no official rules.

Remember the playground flowers I mentioned on Friday?  While
there are no official rules saying we can’t touch the flowers, students are
being thoughtful of the commons and are preserving these blossoms for all to
enjoy.  Thank you for your commitment to the commons and please keep this
spirit alive here at Coffin and throughout our community.

Before I end – one compliment and a reminder.

Everyone did an excellent job during last week’s fire drill –
thank you!

Reminder – we’ll have more fire drills and inside safety drills in
the coming weeks and they’ll be unannounced – that means you won’t be told
before they happen.  With a fire drill,
you’ll hear the alarm and with the safety drill you’ll hear a message over the
intercom.  Just continue to follow your
teacher’s instructions and we’ll all do a great job.

As Baxter Bear and his helpers would say, be kind, be gentle, be
safe – and, be responsible – that’s our Coffin Way.

Have a great week, everyone

Below is the text from the first of two placement letters that will be sent out this week.  Friday’s letter will be a common one between HBSS and Coffin School that outlines specific placement criteria.

April 1, 2013

Dear Coffin School Families,

We are beginning the 2013-14 classroom placement process and I want to keep you informed as to how this will work.

At Coffin, we currently have ten Kindergarten classrooms, nine first grade classrooms and two multiage classrooms (grades 1 and 2).  Placement is a complex process and staff will
be working together and weighing multiple factors over the coming months as we
build balanced classes.  The goal of such a comprehensive approach is to set all students and all classrooms up for success.  While parent input regarding
your child’s learning style(s) is always welcome, please know that we are not
able to honor specific teacher requests.

Kindergarten Families – Your child will be assigned to
either a first grade or a multiage classroom (approximately 19 current K students
will be in next year’s multiage). While our goal is to keep as many placement
options available to your child as possible, we understand that there may be
some families who may not want their child in a multiage classroom.  Please fill out the form on the reverse side if you do NOT want your child considered for a grade 1 and 2 multiage classroom at Coffin.  Should you want your child considered for multiage, you do not need to return this form.

Thank you for taking the time to assist us with placement. We plan to send home next year’s teacher assignments in early July.

Sincerely,

Steve Ciembroniewicz

Please check the box if you do NOT want your child in the
multiage classroom and return this form to Coffin School by April 11, 2013.

I do not want my child ____________________ considered for a multiage classroom.

Parent/guardian name: ____________________

This information will be treated confidentially.  It is not in any way a formal commitment and at this point will simply be used for planning purposes.  Thank you for taking the time to help us with the placement process.

________________________________________________________________________

Overview of the Coffin multiage program:

Our two multiage classrooms are each made up of both first and second grade students. The children come into the multiage program as first graders and leave at the end of second grade. They are with the same teacher for two years and remain at Coffin School
for second grade.

Over the two years the children receive the same curriculum as all first and second grade students. The focus in science and social studies one year is on the first grade
curriculum and the other year’s focus is the second grade curriculum.  The two classes do projects together throughout the year. The only time they are separated by grade is for math instruction.

For more information about multiage:

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/mixed.age.group.pn.html

Good morning Coffin School,

I hope this late March morning finds you well.

Two things to share today.

First, thank you for doing such a good job with last week’s
inside safety drill.  You listened carefully to your teachers  and everything
went well.  We’ll practice this same drill at least one more time in the
coming weeks so don’t be surprised when you hear the announcement.  Just
continue to follow your teacher’s instructions.

Second, have you ever heard the phrase about March coming in like a lamb or
lion?  I think we’re still waiting this week to see how the weather goes.
A funny little story, my month of March seems to be going out with goats.
Yesterday my family and I went to a farm and learned about baby goats –
they’re called kids.  Listen to this…. (recording of baby goats from yesterday)

That’s a hungry little goat who was just born the other day.  Very, very
cute.

As Baxter Bear and his helpers would say, be kind, be gentle, be safe – and, be responsible – that’s the Coffin Way.

Have a great week, everyone.

Click HERE for the full newsletter.

Dear Coffin Families,

It’s the early hours of what promises to be a sunny Sunday and I’ve  just conducted a ‘Google’ search to confirm the first day of spring. The dancing Irish moniker reminded me that today is St. Patrick’s Day.  Believe it or not, my family and all have Irish citizenship (with a last name like ‘Ciembroniewicz’ sometimes even I forget…).

In any case, it’s amazing to me that we are now in the third trimester of the school year and that spring is peeking around the corner. Invariably, March begins an extra busy time with trimester assessments, conferences, upcoming placement and Kindergarten screening (to name a few) all taking place in the upcoming weeks. With so much activity, I hope you take a few moments to reflect on the year thus far. I trust conferences were a time for you and your child’s teacher to celebrate successes. March is a wonderful time of year to see how much students have grown and to project how much more they’ll learn in the remaining months of this school year.

Spring is also budget season. In short, the philosophy we’re bringing into this process is the goal of building capacity while at the same time exercising fiscal responsibility. We are proposing to add a behavior interventionist at Coffin School as well as a Response to Intervention stipend (former will focus on direct intervention and professional development and latter will help with tracking academic and behavior data). At this point, all other staffing levels remain unchanged.

The coming weeks promise to be filled with budget news and I encourage you to follow the process and perhaps even attend the meetings (K – 8 programming meeting @ 6:00 PM on Wednesday, March 20). Placement information and more Kindergarten screening updates will be out the first week in April.

Tá súil agam go bhfuil lá breá agat!

(Wishing you the finest of days!)

Mr. C.

sciembroniewicz@brunswick.k12.me.us