April 2002 |
I'm very happy to announce that Winnie Bolinsky has accepted our offer and will be joining us as CAO sometime this summer (probably July 1). In the meantime, Winnie will be making some trips to State College to begin her transition. I'm sure there will be opportunities to meet with her, and I know she plans to be involved with the search process for next year's teachers. Once we have her schedule confirmed, we will try to set up a parent meeting to give you a chance to get to know her and to give her the opportunity to meet all of you! Winnie sends her regards and wants you to know she is looking forward to working with everyone to support their efforts on behalf of the children, their families, and the community.
Ann Bolser
Interim CAO
Team News
and Updates
8th
grade
The plans for the community service component of the 8th grade
trip is set. On April 30, May 1, and May 2, the 8th graders will
be heading to the Spring Mills Elementary School in Penns Valley
in order to teach a group of fifth and sixth graders a variety of
technology skills. Working in teams of six (two CLC 8th graders,
two Spring Mills fifth graders, and two Spring Mills sixth
graders), each group will develop a web site and a video that
teaches other students how to do something. Upon conclusion of the
service, the 8th graders will be donating a digital video camera
to the Spring Mills Elementary School.
The 8th graders' "CLC Studios" is working with WPSX Television to produce a documentary that examines beginnings and ends. Over the next few months, the creative team at CLCS will use video to explore topics ranging from the birth of a school to the final resting place of an automobile. CLCS hopes to premier their documentary in the summer of 2001.
Team 3
The day of the Science Fair has finally arrived! The projects
look great and were as diverse as Constellations,
Nutrition and Aroma Therapy. Thank you to all of the
Team 3 parents for their help, support, and encouragement. Our
next morning project block will focus on diseases and the
environment. The afternoons will be spent working on an
independent project centered around American History. We will
finish the year off by working on our portfolios.
Team 4
By the time you get this newsletter, the science fair will have
come to a close. Thanks to all the parents who helped build,
research, explain, discuss, question, and create. The projects
look great, and the kids are definitely excited! We greatly
appreciate the External Examiners who donated their time to come
evaluate projects and present awards: George Lesieutre, Farooq
Shiekh, Glenn Johnson, Kelly Kennedy, and Rachel, Mahy, Brent, and
Jainendra from Penn State's chemistry department.
Team 4 will begin the Human Body project the second week of April.
This will be our final project before working on portfolios at the
end of the year. Information about the project will soon be
available on Theresa's website. We plan to cover topics of human
development and adolescence and talk about the effects of tobacco,
alcohol, and drugs. More information will be sent home to families
in the Friday folder. Please be on the lookout for
this.
Team 5
Team 5 has been doing well at the CLC Medical School. With the
guidance of Dr. Donna and Dr. Jalynn, they have successfully
explored the concept of cells, the basic building blocks of life.
Now they are exploring how groups of cells work together to form
tissues, organs and systems. Each student has picked one system to
explore more thoroughly and is working on creating an experiment,
a model, and an educational product that includes information
about the symptoms, treatments and preventive health care for one
significant disease which effects that system.
Team Five reached another milestone in their JOURNEYS PROJECT this
week with their presentations of itineraries to a tourist
executive panel at the Visitors Center. They'll go before the
CCCVB Board of Directors for a final presentation in mid-April.
This collaboration will lead to a marketing of Team Five products
to benefit young travelers to the Centre Region. What an
opportunity!
Our poet-in-residence Beth Workman has enjoyed quite a following
among Team Five students and many other CLC writers. Poetry
workshops have entered their third 3-week cycle!
Team 6
Teams Sixers continue to prepare for their festival of six
cultures. They've been supported by advisors from Penn State's
International Hospitality Council. To date, guests from Thailand,
Russia, India, China, and Norway have been hosted by Team 6 to
heighten enthusiasm, ensure accuracy, and, most importantly,
broaden perspectives among the the festival committee workers. The
goal is to present the festival to the CLC community during the
week of April 15-19. Keep an eye out for an announcement and an
invitation in next week's Friday folder.
April Parent
Meeting - Thursday,
April 18, 7:00
April
Board Meeting - Thursday,
April 25, 7:00
Open House and
Lottery
We are
continuing the process of recruiting students for the 2002-2003
school year. An Informational Open House is scheduled for
Tuesday, April 9 from 7-8 p.m. at the school. Word-of-mouth has
always been our most effective marketing tool. If you know of any
family with a current 4th, 5th, or 6th grader interested in
hearing more about the CLC, please encourage them to attend.
The admission lottery is scheduled for April 19 at 5 p.m.
Peer
Mediation
Congratulations
to the students who have been selected to be trained for our peer
mediation program.
Team 3 - Ryan B., Liz S., Samantha, and Austin E.
Team 4 - Luke, Walker, Britnea, Parth, Krishna, Michael P.,
Stefano
Team 5 - Mike M., Teresa, Matt Y.
Team 6 - Emily K., Mike K.
The training sessions will be held from 12-3, April 8-12. During
the 15 hours of training, the mediators will learn important
conflict resolution skills including reflective listening and
solution generation, as well as reinforcing patience and
responsibility. We are all looking forward to getting this program
underway!
CLC
Yearbook
Jalynn
and Rachel are working with a group of students to create our
second-ever yearbook. The yearbook committee includes Tiffany W.,
Luke, Vanessa, Chelsey, Lorraine, Hannah, Zach, Leanna W., Bill
S., and Rachna. The progress has been slow, but steady. All CLC
students have been asked to create a "personal page" and
guidelines were sent home in a Friday folder several weeks ago.
The deadline for personal pages has been extended to next Fri.,
April 12.
Lice
Update
It has
been a very "exciting" week here at CLC. On Tuesday we found 6
cases of head lice in Team 4, 5, and 6. While doing head checks
over the next several days, we found a few more students with
nits(eggs). The nits are particularly hard to detect because they
closely resemble dandruff and, at this time of year, many folks
have very dry scalps. Alice Fink, the school nurse from Mt.
Nittany middle School (with her expert eyes and years of
experience), came in to help us out on Thursday afternoon, which
was great. We think we have it under control at this point. We
will probably do head checks, again, on all of the students in
Teams 4, 5, and 6 next week to cover our bases. If you have any
questions, please give MJ a call. If you are interested in having
more information, we have a number of handouts in the office and
some videos that Alice let us borrow from the SCASD. A HUGE thank
you goes out to Rachel, our intern, and Kate, our office
assistant, for all of their diligence and patience in helping to
do the head checks. The are, officially, lice experts!
Transition
Week - April 15-18
Students
will be asked to submit presentation proposals for the
Mini-Conference to be held during our next Transition Week. Our
last conference was a huge success with a wide range of
presentation topics including poetry (Poetry from the
Heart) , history (Women's Rights Movement),
inventions/design (Motorized Bicycle), and science (Cell
Cities). We're hoping for just as much variety at the next
conference. An announcement and conference schedule will be sent
home in next week's folder.
CLC Rocket
Club
The CLC
Rocket Club will meet on Tuesdays during the Extended School
Program (ESP) from 3:15 - 4:30 pm. beginning on April 9. Glenn
will once again be advising the club. Interested students can sign
up for the CLC Rocket Club by signing the list in the office or by
sending Glenn an email message. Do it today!
(glenn@clccharter.org) Remember: Safety First! D.C.
Trip
Students
and staff will be traveling to Washington, D.C. once again for our
all-school trip. The trip is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4. In the
past, students have spent the day in small groups led by a staff
member and parent chaperones with the day's itinerary determined
by the interests of each group. Our drop off points have been at
the National Zoo and the Mall, where we have access to the
Smithsonian Museums, the Washington Monument, and other historical
sites (all, by the way, FREE!) If you would like to join us as a
chaperone, please let M.J. know. Many more details will be coming
home to you as we get closer to the trip date.
Boxtops
The
latest count of the Boxtops for Education have put both the 8th
grade and Team 3 at 500 with the other three teams close behind
with Team 4 at 375, Team 5 at 477, and Team 6 at 401. A huge thank
you goes out to Team 3 who decided to share their extra boxtops
with the other teams in order to help them reach the team goal of
500. Linda Feltman is working to set up the celebration parties
for each team once they reach 500. If you are interested in
helping her, please contact Linda at clcemail@aol.com. Our grand
total for the year is 2220 so far. (Only 280 to go to reach the
school goal of 2500!) Thank you for eating all of those cereals
and brownies!
Calendar April 8-12 Peer Mediation
Training 12-3 each day April 9 Open House - 7:00 p.m. April 15-18 Transition Week April 18 Parent Meeting - 7:00 p.m. April 19 NO SCHOOL - Act 80 In-Service Day April 19 Admission Lottery - 5 p.m. April 25 Monthly Board Meeting - 7:00 p.m.