Today is Giving Tuesday, which means it’s an especially great day to ask friends and family to make an end-of-year donation to the Curley.

Providing high-quality academic and enrichment activities is a priority of the School Parent Council, but it requires a significant financial commitment. Each year we spend tens of thousands of dollars to support music and arts, field trips, and other programs that touch every one of our students. That’s why we’re asking Curley parents to take part in our Friendraiser campaign.

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Carl Allen, the BPS Transportation Director, will speak at the Principal’s Breakfast this Thursday, November 29th from 9 am – 10:30 am in the Upper School Library.

Mr. Allen will give a presentation titled “Improving Transportation For Our Students.” Along with other members of his team, he will be at the Curley to hear your concerns. Please join other members of the Curley community and take the opportunity to have your questions answered.

Please contact Betty Alvarado at 617-304-6771, or Maria Monteiro-Roby at 617-756-3667 if you have any more questions.

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ESCUELA CURLEY K-8 DESAYUNO MENSUAL CON EL PRINCIPAL

“MEJORANDO LA TRANSPORTACION PARA NUESTROS ESTUDIANTES”

El Sr. Carl Allen, Director del Departmento de Transportacion y algunos de los miembros de su equipo estaran con nosotros para oir sus preocupaciones.

Vengan y tomen la oportunidad de que sus preguntas sean contestadas
El Jueves 29 de Noviembre, 2012
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
en la Biblioteca de la Escuela Intermedia

Para mas informacion, por favor pongase en contacto con Betty Alvarado al 617-304-6771 o Maria Monteiro-Roby al 617-756-3667.

This week’s Paw Prints from principal Jeff Slater:

• On Tuesday I was shadowed by Representative Liz Malia and Paul Abraham, Chair of the Education Department, Simmons College as part of the “Principal for a Day” program in BPS. Our guests had the opportunity to visit classrooms, talk with staff members and students, and learn about the hard work happening here at the Curley. It was an opportunity for community members to hear about our successes and learn about our challenges as they think about how they can best support this important work from their own positions.
• It is so exciting to see our after school programming expand to better meet the needs of our students and their families! Special thanks to CASP Director, Torri Canada, for her efforts at making our program such a huge success!
• Every year, in what has become a Curley tradition, our school community comes together on the early release day before Thanksgiving Recess to build community and celebrate each other. Teachers, administrators, staff members, students, and their families contribute healthy food items to the celebration. If you have some time on Wednesday, please drop in to say hello!
• We had a very productive Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) meeting this week focused on how we are using data as a school to support teaching and learning. We discussed how we, as an instructional leadership team, can support teachers as they engage in their own analysis of their students’ data. Teacher-leaders on the ILT play a key role in supporting this work at their respective grade levels.
• This week, courtesy of Boston Cares and UBS volunteers, many of our students were treated to a variety of science-related activities including dino-digs, ice cream making, and play dough creation! Special thanks to Stephanie Selznick for coordinating the event!

The Curley After-School Program (CASP) is very happy to announce the launch of their BEFORE-SCHOOL Program!

There will be a Meet and Greet event at the Lower School entrance hosted by CASP TOMORROW, Wednesday, November 14, to introduce the Before School Program to parents. The Meet and Greet will be from 7:30 am to 8:30 am, and later in the afternoon, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. CASP will have a table set up with free juice, coffee, and cake where parents can get applications and ask CASP any questions you may have.

CASP’s goal is to begin the program on Monday, November 26th, after the Thanksgiving holiday. Application forms in English and Spanish are also available below:

• CASP English Registration Form – 2012 Before School Program
• CASP Spanish Registration Form – 2012 Before School Program

Please sign up online to help with our first School Preview Tour this Friday (11/16) at 9:00 a.m. We need more parents!!

Parents of  students in any grade are welcome to participate, and we especially volunteers who have been at the Curley for a few years.  It’s easy to lead the tours – we’ll spell everything out for you – and it’s a great way to support our school.

Please email Carrie Fletcher if you have any questions.

This week’s Paw Prints from principal Jeff Slater:

• Special thanks to Sara Mallach and all of our amazing Curley parents and staff for their support of and contribution to our Election Day Bake Sale! In case you missed, our bake sale was featured in The Boston Globe!
• Turnout at Wednesday night’s School Showcase at English High was a little lighter than previous years due to our Nor’easter. However, the families that did show up were extremely excited to be exploring the Curley as an option for their children. It’s quite an honor to a school in such high demand, and that’s due to the hard work and support of our amazing Curley staff and families! Special thanks to Betty Alvarado and Maria Monteiro-Roby for their work in preparing for the event!
• I had a fun time taking a little tour of Jamaica Pond with Laura Shea’s K1 class! It was a little chilly, but the students seemed to have a great time exploring working on their scavenger hunt! Students were on the lookout for joggers, dog-walkers, trees, rocks, turtles, and a lot of other fun things! Thank you to our Curley parents for helping to chaperone the walk!
• To help improve the safety of our schoolyard, we are installing a new fence around the front of the lower school! Work began on Wednesday and should be finished over the next few days.
• I am pleased to announce the names of these teacher-leaders who will be forming our “Customized Instructional Support Team:” Lead Teacher: Sara Silverstein; Literacy Facilitator (K-5): Caitlyn McSheffrey-Gable; Math Facilitator (K-5): Kim Daly; Math Facilitator (6-8): Adrian Ward-Jackson; Teacher Development & Evaluation Facilitator: Jaime Staraitis; Data and Technology Teacher Facilitator: Connie Redden. I am looking forward to these individuals’ CONTINUED contributions as we move our work forward here at the Curley.

Next week will again be a busy week at the Curley. Below are some upcoming things of note.

Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker Ticket Give-Away

Curley parent Yasmina Alvarenga has a few tickets for the new Boston Ballet production of The Nutcracker. Donated by State Street, the tickets are for Friday, November 23 from 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm, but Yasmina needs to know by this Sunday, November 11. Tickets will be given on a strictly first come, first served basis. Email Yasmina for further details. English and Spanish language flyers with more information are below:

• A Preview of Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker
• El NUEVO Cascanues – un Avance del Boston Ballet

Thank you Yasmina!

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Veterans Day

Don’t forget that Monday, November 12th is Veterans Day. All BPS schools, including the Curley, will be closed that day.

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Health and Wellness Committee

The first Health and Wellness Committee meetings will be on Tuesday, November 13th at 7:30am in Stephanie Selznick’s room and at 3:00pm in the Guidance office. (RESCHEDULED DUE TO HURRICANE SANDY)

The committee will meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month which coincides with School Site Council Tuesdays.

The 6 areas of interest are:

• Stress reduction/yoga/mental health
• Exercise and movement
• Nutrition/ healthy foods and snacks
• Cultural proficiency
• School cleanliness/recycling/water
• Nature/outdoor classroom

If you can, please join them and give them your energy and ideas. The committee would like to see itself be made up of staff, parents and students.

Many staff are doing awesome projects and they’d like to capture the work in a newsletter. If you are not able to come to meetings please write Susan Trotz to let her know about it.

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Your Kid’s Artwork on Household Products

You will remember the Curley Arts team has entered a partnership with Silver Graphics to print your kid’s artwork on a variety of household goods. A portion of the proceeds will go to support the Arts program. The deadline for returning your order forms, which were brought home by your kids, has now been extended to Tuesday, November 13.

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School Preview Tours

Volunteers are still needed for the first Preview Tours of the Curley for prospective parents. The Preview Tours will be this Friday, November 16th at 9 am. Sign up to help do the tours, or read Carrie Fletcher’s preview of the Preview Tours.

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Half-Marathon for 6th – 8th Graders

Finally, not really to do with any deadlines next week, but some 20 kids in grades 6-8 are training to run a half marathon in May. Curley 6th Grade teacher Alissa Ferro says, “I am crazy enough to do it with them! Haha!” The Curley has partnered with Sole Train, a program run by the Trinity Boston Foundation, a non-profit that helps groups of kids train for and run half marathons. Alissa continues, “This is more about community and about achieving a seemingly insurmountable goal one step at a time more than it is about running. But the running is fun.”

If you are able to donate any running gear, it would be greatly appreciated. Jackets, hats, gloves, layers, etc. would be especially welcome. Ideally, the items would be made of a synthetic fabric to wick moisture away. All donations can be brought to Maria Monteiro-Roby in the Parent Center.

(l to r) Julie Smith-Bartoloni, Principal Jeff Slater and Liza Stearns

The Curley received an award from Boston Cares recently for Outstanding Community Partnership!

Recipients were selected from a pool of inspiring nominations offered by volunteer, community and corporate members of the Boston Cares community. Curley parents Julie Smith-Bartoloni, Liza Stearns and Rebecca Nieto, together with Principal Jeff Slater, accepted the award on behalf of the Curley community at the Boston Cares Annual Awards Reception. Boston Cares has created a video highlighting the Curley’s Community Partnership with them:

Since 2010 Boston Cares has partnered with the Curley School in Jamaica Plain on projects that have both benefited and engaged the school’s 800 students, teachers and parents. Corporate volunteer and September 11th Tribute projects have ranged from playground improvement to painting murals to rebuilding the library database after it crashed. Additionally, the Curley School has hosted our Martin Luther King Day of Service for the past two years, mobilizing 1300 volunteers to produce education packets, dental hygiene kits, baby quilts, greeting cards, recreational supplies and nutritious snacks for over 6,000 Boston public school students, veterans, struggling families and the homeless. Boston Cares notes that one of the best ways to grow volunteers is to get them involved as kids. In years to come, hundreds of adult volunteers will remember that their earliest community service experiences were as children who served on Martin Luther King Day at the Curley School.

Congrats everyone for the well deserved recognition!

Upcoming volunteer opportunities:

• For the third consecutive year, the Curley will again host the MLK Day of Service on Monday, January 21, 2013. This is a family-friendly event – all are welcome to attend for a little time or a lot. More details will be sent out closer to the date.
• On Saturday, January 17, Boston Cares has arranged for volunteers from Target to come into the building to do some painting. Any parents who are interested in helping that day would be welcomed!

For more information on the partnership and other Boston Cares volunteer opportunities at the Curley, contact Julie Smith-Bartoloni.

The Curley Arts Team are excited to announce a unique opportunity to bring your child’s art home! We have found a company called Silver Graphics. They will be able to take our students artwork and print it on a variety of products. Please see the order form your child has already brought back home. From this you may purchase as many items as they want. All order forms will be collected by homeroom teachers, which will be given to the arts teachers and submitted back to Silver Graphic to be ordered. We should receive the merchandise before the winter holiday so they will make great holiday gifts for friends, mom, dad, grandparents, whoever!

The arts team will receive a portion of the sales revenue to support Arts programming at the Curley.

If you would like more information please see the Silver graphics website at this address: http://www.silvergraphics.com/ or come talk to an arts teacher.

Order forms need to be returned to the homeroom or arts teachers by FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2012

All orders will be distributed on December 14, 2012

Thanks,
Curley Arts Team

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Estamos muy contentos de anunciar a uds. una gran oportunidad de llevar el arte de sus hijos a sus hogares.  Hemos encontrado una compañía llamada Silver Graphics y estan dispuestos a tomar los trabajos de arte e imprimirlos en una variedad de productos.  Por favor vean la orden que hemos incluído de la cual pueden comprar cualquier numero de artículos que Uds. quieran.  Las ordenes se recogerán por los maestros de salón hogar para que los maestros de arte puedan someter el pedido a la compañía Silver Graphics.  Estaremos recibiendo las ordenes para las fiestas del invierno, las cuales serán un buen regalo para sus amigos, padres, abuelos o cualquier otra persona que Ud. desee.

Si a Ud. le gustaría adquirir más información, por favor entre a la página del internet de Silver Graphics:  http://www.silvergraphics.com/ o preguntele a uno de los maestros de arte.

Las ordenes deben ser devueltas a mas tardar el viernes 9 de noviembre del 2012.

Todas las ordenes seran entregadas el 14 de deciembre del 2012.

Gracias,

El Equipo de Arte

School Preview season is upon us.  Parents, please sign up online now to help with a preview tour.  Our first tour is next Friday, November 16.  Additional tours are on Friday, December 7 and Friday, January 11.  All tours run from 9:00 a.m. until approximately 10:30 a.m.

Help us welcome prospective parents as they tour our buildings, meet the principal and leadership team, and have an opportunity for Q&A with Curley parents.  Please sign up online ASAP if you can help with any of the tours.

We usually have large number of interested families coming to the Curley, and it makes a big difference when we have lots of Curley parents on hand to meet them.  Tours are fun and easy – and we’ll give you guidance on what to do if you’ve never led one before.  New parents are welcome to come and share your experience at the Curley so far – we will plan to match you with a veteran parent.   Please email Carrie Fletcher if you have questions.

This week’s Paw Prints from principal Jeff Slater:

• This week, students in Laurie Ciardi’s 1st grade Math Workshop are exploring combinations of 10. While students are working, Laurie moves through the room recording notes about student progress on her clipboard. Based on her notes, Laurie makes “in-the-moment” decisions about how she can make adjustments to her teaching so that she can ensure that all of her students are understanding the concept being taught. We encourage all Curley teachers to use a variety of ways to “check-in” for student understanding.
• We would LOVE to have elementary parents volunteer in our grades 6-8 classrooms. This would be a great way for you to connect with our older students and learn about the wonderful teaching and learning happening in these grades. Please contact Betty or Maria if you’re interested!
• Speaking of volunteers, we are in need of someone to assist at a desk in the upper school lobby to help direct visitors. This would be a great job for someone who would like to do some reading, or work on their laptop (we have wireless internet!). We’d like to staff this desk throughout the day, but could really use the support in the morning and afternoon. Again, please contact Betty or Maria if you are interested in helping out.
• Did you know that we have a variety of new Curley logo gear available for purchase? We have t-shirts, shorts, sweatpants, and pullover sweatshirts! Items are available from the upper and lower school offices. Shirts are also available from our online Curley Shop.
• The process of connecting the upper and lower school communications system continues! If you have a second, check out the new equipment in the lower school office! Progress!

The ISEE exam will take place this Saturday, November 3rd. Admission tickets were given to students in grades 6 and 8. Please make sure your child has their admission ticket with them along with proper identification such as passport, green card or school ID. A student identification letter may be also written by the principal/headmaster or school staff on official letterhead. Students should also bring four number two pencils with erasers and should arrive by 8:30 am.

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Los examenes llamados ISEE

Los examenes llamados ISEE (Examen requerido para ciertas escuelas publicas de Boston): El Examen es este sabado 3 de noviembre. Estudiantes de 6 y 8 grado han recibido hoy un tiquete de admision para poder tomar este examen Estudiantes deben de traer: Tiquete de Admision Identificacion: Pasaporte, tarjeta de residencia o identificacion de la escuela ya sea una carta escrita por el principal en papel official de la escuela. Estudiantes deben de traer 4 lapices #2 con borradores. Estudiantes deben de llegar a la escuela asignada para tomar el examen a las 8:30 a.m. El examen empezaran a tomarlo exactamente a las 9 a.m.