Community Newsletter

Friday, November 6, 1998

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CLC Progress Report

By Kyle Peck

Dear CLC parents and friends,

Thanks, again, for your continuing support. We’ve had another great month, and thank you in advance for reading this newsletter to learn more about what’s happening at the CLC.

It’s been another month of "full speed ahead" work at the CLC. All segments of the CLC family really gave it their all. The teachers are still working VERY hard, but seem to have "settled in" developing effective, efficient ways to plan and manage the many activities in their classrooms. The students, too, have been working hard (with a few exceptions) on an impressive variety of projects. And our parents knocked themselves out on our "Fall Party," with a Halloween theme. They made GREAT refreshments, set up amazing decorations, and had a super set of activities to keep us all entertained. And, when the cleanup committee finished its work, the school was in better shape than when we started. THANKS!!

This was a month of impressive progress toward out school’s vision. There were moments, hours, and even whole days of "Greatness." The teachers and aides all agree that our vision is attainable. We all need to keep this vision in mind.

The CLC will become… • a school in which every child is actively engaged in project-based learning, and is making progress toward a personalized learning plan. • a school in which all parents have more and better information about the progress students are making. • a place where students have powerful learning resources both at school and at home, and know how to use them well. And… • a school in which we develop strong, productive relationships between school and home &emdash; relationships that lead to the development of happy, capable, confident people.

Thought for the day…

More Action on Parent Concerns

In the last issue of this newsletter we posted a list of concerns and actions we planned to take. In this issue I’ll give a brief update on progress we’ve made toward each.

Concern #1: "The students are not well supervised at lunch and after school."

Parent Volunteer Coordinator Kate Itinger arranged for parent volunteers to come in after school for the first few weeks, and Malena Moore rallied support from undergraduate students who are preparing to become teachers. We currently have three Penn State students who are coming in after school (on different days of the week), and one who comes in at lunch one day each week. All of these Penn State students have the appropriate criminal record check and child abuse clearances, and they are enjoying the time they spend with the CLC students.

Perhaps more importantly, the students seem to have "settled in," accepting the expectations we have set for them. Students are spending more and more time working on projects and other homework, or on other productive activities like sending email or even creating animations. We informed the students that their teachers have important work to do after school, and that they are not to be bothered. It’s working pretty well, so the teachers generally stay in their classrooms after school, preparing for the next day. As a result, there is direct teacher supervision most of the time. In addition, we’ll be starting up some activities after school, as described in another article. Unless I hear otherwise from you, I’ll consider this issue resolved.

Concern #2: "The teachers are working too hard."

This issue is not resolved, but we’ve made important progress. Diane Lehman (a CLC parent) has been working with Josephine and her class as an instructional aide, about 30 hours each week. This has allowed us to pair Angie Volz with Mark. By making these pairings "official," Mark knows that he can count on Angie’s presence and her help in designing, delivering, and assessing learning and Josephine knows she can count on Diane for the same. This is working well. For this reason, we’d like to make the arrangement "permanent." We’d like to offer Diane a continuing position as an instructional aide, at the first meeting after her clearances arrive from the State. Please let us know if you have any thoughts on this. We hope that the CLC Board of Directors will vote to hire Diane at our next meeting, Thursday evening, 11/19. Until that time, we will be using Diane’s services as a "contractor," rather than an "employee."

The teachers are still working too hard and to long. We will be hiring someone (perhaps one of the Penn State Student volunteers) to supervise after school activities and "close up" at the end of the day. This will make it possible for the teachers to leave before 5:30, hopefully reducing their time at the school to nine or ten hour days.

Concern #3: "I don’t see enough (insert a subject here) happening."

Perhaps because more of our work is visible on the CLC website, and perhaps because we have distributed the Jostens CD-ROMs for math work, this concern has diminished. In the new version of our Internet-based "Progress Tracking System" you will be able to request to see the "curricular targets" and skills called for by the assignments given. This, too, will help parents understand how "traditional subjects" are being addressed in our non-traditional projects and assignments.

Concern #4: "The behavior of other students is limiting what CLC can do for my child."

Good news! I’m not hearing this any more. The teachers seem to have "reached" students whose behavior was most in need of adjustment. We’re still finding certain students "challenging," and these their behavior is still limiting what they learn, but the degree to which their behavior is interfering with other students’ progress has been greatly reduced. This is also due to a general improvement in our students’ ability to accept responsibility and work independently, which is allowing the teacher to remove a misbehaving student to discuss the problem without stopping important activity for other students. The second adult in each classroom has also certainly contributed to the reduction of this concern.

Concern #5: "I don’t have enough information about what’s happening at school."

We’ve made progress on this, but we need to make more. The teachers are doing a great job of publishing their accomplishments on the CLC website, and we’ve sent out two newsletters and held two monthly meetings. The Progress Tracking System will also help to fill the information void.

To make your thoughts known on these or other issues, do one of the following:

• Call Kyle at 861-7980. (If you like, you can call after hours and leave a message on the answering machine.)
• Use one of the "online conversations" we have established. (Go to our website at clccharter.org, and follow the links.)
• Send a note in with your son or daughter, and ask them to put it in the "Suggestion Box" beside the photocopier.
• Come in any time and talk with Kyle about your concerns.

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All CLC Students Take iMacs Home!

(Now what?)

All of our CLC students demonstrated the required skills and took iMacs home. Most are connected to the Internet, and can use this connection to do important CLC work. However, several of our families have yet to make the connection. Because that connection is a vital link between the home and school, we want to work with you to make sure that all of our families are connected.

PLEASE RETURN THE ATTACHED SURVEY TO LET US KNOW IF YOU HAVE CONNECTED, IF YOU NEED HELP, OR IF YOU ARE WILLING TO HELP OTHERS GET CONNECTED.

If there is no telephone line in the room where your iMac resides, we’ll be happy to provide you with one. We bought the parts needed to make them, and will be happy to show any CLC student how to make the line you need. Just send your CLC student to Kyle Peck with the length, and we’ll take it from there.

Thanks!

Our bylaws call for a five representative Board of Directors: the Administrator (Kyle Peck), a Teacher Representative (Mark Toci), a Parent Representative (Patricia Ryan), a Student Representative (to be determined) and a Community Representative.

As we mentioned in our last Board of Directors meeting, Patricia Ryan accepted the responsibility of identifying candidates to replace our community representative Dr. Howard Wray, who is leaving the area. Here is a list of people who have been identified as possible candidates:

Please review the list and let Patricia know if you have any additions or insights. Based on this feedback, we’ll create a "short list" and contact these people to find out if they are willing to serve. Please let us know your thoughts by Friday the 13^th, so we can complete this process by our Board meeting on 11/19.

Due to the holidays in November and December, we’ll be varying from our "fourth Thursday" policy for meetings. The November and December parent meetings will run from 7:00 &emdash; 7:45 in the classrooms, an each will be followed by a Board of Directors meeting from 7:50 to about 9:00.

Chess Club to Begin

on Wednesdays!

Angie Volz, CLC Instructional Aide has offered to host a "CLC CHESS CLUB" on Wednesday afternoons from 4:00 &emdash; 5:00. Angie has asked me to explain that she is NOT an expert, but that she wants to join other CLC students who want to learn the game and improve their skills. We’ll play each other, and then perhaps challenge our parents and kids from other schools to match wits with us. Interested? See you Wednesday. (Parents are welcome to participate, too!)

Computer Game

Developers’ Club to Meet on Friday

Like the challenge of playing computer games? Ready to take the next step and CREATE YOUR OWN? Starting on Friday the 13^th Kyle Peck will lead interested CLC students in the creation on their own computer games. This club will begin at 3:30 on Fridays, and will run until about 5:00.

Thanks to CLC students Adam Lehman, Brittany Beard, Donnee Gordon, and Stephen Cieply, for working with Kyle Peck and our "extra-special" parent volunteer John Cieply to write and submit two grant proposals to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s "Digital Grassroots" and "Web Companies" projects. The students worked on the project from the very beginning and their ideas and words are a big part of our proposals. Nice work!

At the Fall Party some of our parents offered to organize a "cleaning party" for the school. They gave me a list of cleaning supplies and offered to do the work. I know a good thing when I see it, and I’d like to take them up on this offer. If you’d like to help, please contact Kate Itinger, at 237-3634.

As you’ll recall, the CLC follows the State College Area High School schedule, since our students ride their busses. As such, we will be CLOSED on the following days in November and December:

November 26, 27, and 30^th &emdash; Thanksgiving

December 24 &emdash; January 1 &emdash; Winter Holidays

"Up and Running"

With the technologies we have installed, our students can reach people around the world, instantly, and for free! So, let’s get started…

To get students accustomed to using the Internet and electronic mail, (and to get them reading, writing, thinking about other cultures, and learning geography) we issued a challenge to see who they could contact in distant locations. Some students have jumped right in, including: 

When students get an email message from an interesting place, they should print a copy of the email, put it in the wire basket by the world map in the office. Then, they put a tag with their name on it on the appropriate place on the map.

Here’s a picture that was attached to one of Emily’s emails from China…

Thanks again for your support! Please complete the enclosed papers and return them to Kyle Peck.

Name: ____________________________________

Internet Connections at Home:

Have you connected your CLC iMac to the Internet? _____ Yes _____ No

Research Participation

As you know, we care a great deal about how our families feel about our school and the services we provide. We also feel that you have important insights about how we can improve the school. We know you are busy, but we’d like to interview about ten families, thee times during the course of this first year, to "stay tuned" with what you’re thinking and feeling. Dr. Ali Carr, an Associate Professor at Penn State University has agreed to lead a small team of graduate students to conduct these interviews and to summarize the data for us. The interviews will take from 30 minutes to an hour each, and we’d like to conduct them in November, February, and May. We’d like to interview one or more parents in each family, and a student, with the parent and student interviews held separately. The interviews can be conducted in the location of your choice. The data will be presented to the school after it has been summarized, and no attempt will be made to determine who said what. We would appreciate it if you would consider participating.

_____ Yes, our family will participate, if selected from those who agree.

_____ No thanks. We’d rather not participate.

Free and Reduced Lunch

As a public school, we are able to provide free or reduced priced lunches to families with limited incomes. If your family qualified at your previous school, you automatically qualify again this year.

If you want to participate, or if you want more information, please check the appropriate line below.

_____ Our family has participated in the past an would like to again.

_____ I’m not sure whether we qualify, but I’d like to find out.