In addition to being a venue for the Elementary community to come together and build a sense of unity and camaraderie, the aim of this year's assemblies are to emphasize and promote specific behaviors that positively impact our community.  Consequently, each month we will introduce a new theme and spend the ensuing weeks working to teach students and recognize those who are demonstrating this positive behavior.

At our last assembly, we focused on the importance of Attentive Listening.  In order to introduce students to the idea, a group of teachers that included Mr. Doles, Ms. Delgado, Ms. Szyman, Ms. Keelin and Ms. Olivia choreographed a hysterical skit based around the idea of a gameshow.  During the skit, Ms. Szyman and Ms. Keeling demonstrated fantastic attentive listening skills while Ms. Delgado and Ms. Olivia showed us exactly what it looks like when individuals are NOT using attentive listening skills.  In addition to helping the students think about this important skill, the skit also gave the adults the opportunity to have a bit of fun as those in the audience applauded their colleagues' creative way of engaging the students.

Please feel free to look at my November Monthly Message to see what specific skills are included when attentively listening.  We encourage you to follow up with your children at home to see how they are doing and to reinforce how attentive listening really helps build better communication and stronger relationships between those speaking with another.

During the recent Kindergarten and 1st Grade Teaching and Learning Dialogue, the main theme of the conversation revolved around the role of language within our school community.  While English is the primary language of instruction, one of the main goals for all of our students in our community is continue developing proficiency in multiple languages.  Given these circumstances, I had the opportunity to speak a bit about what it is we aim to achieve and what we emphasize as a faculty.  As well, parents had the chance to weigh into the discussion to share what they hoped their children would gain through learning experiences at BFIS.

Although there were quite a few details shared related to research on language acquisition in terms of how it happens and the associated timeline for the process, the primary focus had to do with the mindset that we want our teachers to have upon entering the classroom.  First and foremost, it is critical that teachers see students as unique individuals with specific needs in terms of language development.  Teachers have to analyze whether students are developing language competency, literacy or perhaps both.  As well, we must consider a child's linguistic and literacy development in his/her mother tongue.  Moreover, we have to look at the curriculum experience of childern and determine how to balance content or concept objectives alongside language development objectives for children acquiring an additional language.  Simply, there are a number of layers and specific pieces of information that impact the strategies that we will use for a given child and for that reason it is vital that teachers think and act on a case by case basis.

I also wanted to note that there seems to be a bit of confusion that has arisen as a result of this conversation amongst different members of the parent community.  During the Dialogue, one parent raised the question of whether or not the school would ever consider teaching subjects such as Art, PE or Music in Spanish as a way of allowing children further opportunities to acquire more of the Spanish language.  While we understand that learning Spanish is a priority for many families, the school has no plans to begin teaching additional subjects in Spanish.  Certainly, we agree that having children participate in very context-rich activities aids language acquisition.  However, given that the primary language of instruction at BFIS is English, we will continue to have all classes, with the exception of Castellano, Catalan and Spanish as a Foreign Language, taught in English. 

We have found through experience that if parents do choose to enroll their children in sports or arts activities throughout the city, many instructors are willing to teach classes in Castellano if asked by participating families to do so.  Therefore, we strongly encourage families to pursue these opportunities with their childen if learning Spanish or Catalan is a significant priority. 

As always, I would like to thank the parents who were able to make the time to attend the Dialogue.  With approximately 25 parents, I believe that it was one of the largest turnouts that we have had for this type of an event.  I hope that it was pertinent and interesting for those who attended and I very much look forward to hosting another Kindergarten and 1st Grade Dialogue in the spring.

Just a simple reminder to announce that the ES Halloween Parade will begin promptly at 3:15 pm on the main patio.  Later in the evening, the Halloween Party hosted by the PTA will be held from 7:00 pm until 10:00 pm.

Hope to see you at both events!

At the most recent Teaching and Learning Dialogue, which was held for the parents of children in Nursery and Pre-K, a variety of interesting topics came to light.  While I had prepared two main talking points, parents had the opportunity to raise different questions that provided an opportunity to share further details about different aspects of BFIS.

The first item that I chose to share with the parents was my excitement over finally establishing a consistent framework of two classes per grade throughout the elementary school.  I spoke about the fact that this has been part of the strategic plan in the elementary for many years and that finally we have been able to turn this hope into reality.  One of the primary benefits of having this structure is that it enhances the level of collaboration amongst teachers because there is a natural counterpart for every classroom.  Consequently, it helps us ensure that teachers are never working in isolation and constantly have opportunities to share ideas as well as learn from others.

Additionally, I spoke briefly about the fact that we will have an educator by the name of Chrissy Bruce spending some time each week working with teachers in Nursery and Pre-K.  Her role will be to work with our team of teachers to help support the implementation of an early intervention advocacy program.  The objective of this program is to ensure that our children are working toward meeting appropriate developmental benchmarks in speech and language development as well as with fine and gross motor skills.  While we always aim to make the best use of our instructional time each day, it is equally important to communicate with parents if support outside the school is necessary.  We believe this is critical as early intervention is extremely beneficial for children with specific developmental challenges.

Overall, I was extremely appreciative of the parents who took the time to attend the Dialogue.  My hope is that it was both informative and interesting for those who were present and that we have an even greater number of parents for the second round in the spring.