News

Newsletter

Content:

Documentation is a powerful way for students and families to reflect on and understand our community as well as feel proud of accomplishments and work. This year, the primary function of the newsletter is to document or highlight the activities happening at the school and in the school community - e.g., artwork, project descriptions, poems, stories, essays, photos, outdoor learning, social events, after-school, etc. (As opposed to in the past, when we also included announcements, which now will be circulated weekly through the communications committee and posted on the school website). We are asking teachers, families and other community members to submit work from students as well as your own perspectives on happenings at school. Also, we welcome other family friendly information such as recipes, parenting tips, games or puzzles, etc. If you are uncertain as to whether your idea for a submission is "appropriate", just email us and we'll let you know.

Teacher Assignments: We thought it would be helpful to "assign" teachers from each grade to 2-3 newsletters throughout the year. Please keep in mind that we see this as a minimum - teachers are more than welcome to make submissions to any of the newsletters above and beyond the assigned dates. Parents and caregivers, please talk to your child's teacher about any help that s/he may need with making submissions. Your involvement with the submissions will likely increase the amount of material covered in the newsletter - making it more comprehensive in documenting all of the amazing things happening at the school. Also, please do not wait for teachers to ask for help -- if you would like to cover something happening in the classroom, please talk to the teacher and make a submission according to the guidelines listed below.

Submissions:

Written material: We prefer that submissions come to us in an electronic format. You can submit word documents or emails to us and it's very easy for us to cut and paste your work into MS publisher, the program we use to format the newsletter. In other words, we'd prefer to not have to retype material into the computer. If that is not possible, then you can submit hard copies to the newsletter mailbox in the office. Just email Sarah.Kaufman@elliswinters.com to let us know that you've done so.

Photos: In most cases, digital photos are desired because they will have a higher resolution and will look better. Each classroom has a digital camera available for just this purpose. If you only have hard copies of photos, though, and would like them in the newsletter, we'll scan them.

Artwork / Hard copies / Scannable Material: If you have artwork or other material in hard copy only, we will need to scan them into an electronic format to be uploaded into the computer. There is a scanner at school in the teacher workroom with step by step directions that show you how to scan material. If you have questions about this, please contact Caroline Weaver. We also have a scanner available at home and work. The only concern is that we'd have to take the work out of the school to do the scanning. If you have questions about scanning, just email us and we'll get back to you.

Email: When you are ready to make your submission, please email us with the material on or before the submission date. If you need assistance in learning how to use email and send attachments, please let us know and we'll help you out. Email is the primary method of communicating with us. If you make a submission to the office mailbox, then please email us or call us to let us know that something is waiting.

Deadlines: Please submit on or before the submission due dates to Sarah.Kaufman@elliswinters.com. If you cannot make a deadline but have something to submit, please let us know that you need an extension. It shouldn't be a problem provided we know what you're submitting and how much space to reserve.

If you have any questions, please email us at Sarah.Kaufman@elliswinters.com or call us at 544-6799.

Thanks! We're looking forward to a great year.

We need parents to help out in the Media Center, please call Carolyn at 682-1200. We would like parents to volunteer to play the piano, help with the school's opening assembly (8-8:30) -- this includes supervising children and teaching songs and games.