Alice Deal Weekly Bulletin

June 9, 2008

"Think globally. Listen compassionately. Act inclusively."

Thought for the week

"May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand."
~ An Irish Blessing

Bell Schedule
Monday - Bell I Tuesday - Bell I Wednesday -Bell I Thursday -1/2 day schedule (Last Day of School!)

2007-2008 Yearbook
The yearbook is still on sale! The price of the yearbook is $42. We have a limited number of copies, so make sure you don't miss out. All checks or money orders should be made out to Alice Deal M.S.

STAY INFORMED!

Congrats to the class of 2008!
Oh, the places you'll go! We will miss you! Although many of you are parting ways to attend different high schools, keep in touch with each other! Remember that relationships are important at all stages of your life! Make us proud in high school and beyond!

Celebrating Deal Birthdays!
June 8th Lily Cortez Timothy Valentin June 9th Sean Kelly Joshua Leeper June10th Khyla Link Erika Ventura-Castellon June 11th Isabella Albamonte Hannah Gellman Cleo Hines Samuel Mason June 12th Shawn Curry Jr. Andres Mendez June 13th Nicholas Clements Grecia De La Rosa We hope you enjoy your special day!

Upcoming Activities!
June 9th 8th grade promotion ceremony 7th grade trip to King's Dominion ELL Trip to the Mall June 12th Last day of school for students June 13th Last day of school for teachers Final check-out must be completed!

The Write Stuff
The Write Stuff of DC, located in Tenleytown, will be offering tutoring and academic coaching to stabilize skills and get ahead early in the summer. Parents can opt for their children to have intensive scheduling from June 16th through July 11th and have the rest of the summer off. Please contact Linda duBuclet at 202-363-8686 for further information.

Message from Principal Kim
This is the last weekly bulletin of the year. I have enjoyed this group of students tremendously. I will miss the hard-working and joyful 8th graders who have blossomed and matured so much during the last two years. Thankfully, knowing that the 7th graders will return next year to fill that 8th grade void makes this goodbye easier. Parents, if you have not done so already, please come to Deal or to your chosen high school to register your child for the 2008-09 school year. We would like to have all students registered by Friday of this week! The summer reading lists, one for rising 6th graders & one for rising 7th graders, are available in the main office as well as online. Have a great summer! Don't forget to read and journal! Principal Kim Alice Deal Middle School

Weekly

Perfect Attendance Luncheon

There will be a Perfect Attendance Luncheon on Tuesday for the following students who recorded perfect attendance for the year: Hakim Bouaichi, Denis Cornejo, Caitlin Doherty, Christina Harn, William Herrick, Sharmen Hettipola, Tyler Jackson, Jordan Lindsay, Alinson Perez, Katherine Perez, Eric Scarlett, Justin Trabue, Katherine Truong, and Maya Michelle.

If you are an 8th grade perfect attendance student, you are welcome to return to school on Tuesday for the luncheon.

Seventh Graders Go to King's Dominion on Monday

Three buses of seventh graders travel today to King's Dominion. Students are scheduled to arrive at school at 7:30 a.m. and should return at 7:30 p.m. Student Council thanks for the following staff members for agreeing to chaperone this end-of-the-year fun day:
- Ms. Abbas
- Ms. Moses
- Mr. Ngwa
- Mr. Santiago
- Ms. Bruce
- Ms. Brown
- Mr. Geremia
- Ms. Dryden
- Ms. Mason
- Ms. Wells
- Mr. Brandenburg
- Ms. Washington

Student Council Officers for SY 2008-2009

Student Council is pleased to announce the slate of officers who will lead Student Council for SY 2008-2009.
President:               Sharmen Hettipola
Vice President:        Gabrielle Hansford
Treasurer:               Jonathan Hill

Congratulations! There will be much to get done next year, and your work begins even before school reconvenes in August. We are proud of you.

7th Grade ELL Field Trip

The 7th grade ELL students will be on an all-day field trip today. They will be visiting the Old Post Office and the National Mall.

Bikes for the World - A Big Success

Two Saturdays ago, Deal and nearby communities donated 51 bicycles and $510 to Bikes for the World. Deal, along with public schools in suburban Virginia, filled a shipping container with 500 bicycles headed for Uganda in East Africa. A special thanks goes out to the Deal families who donated bikes and money. We would like to also thank students Max Smith, Drilon Kojcini, Denis Cornejo, Mohamed Ahmed, and parent Kay Pearson for volunteering. Despite the threatening rain and tornado watch, the bike collection was a big success.

Final Check-out by Friday

All teachers must be packed up and checked out completely by Friday. Due to ongoing construction, we are unable to grant any extensions of the deadline.

Boleros & Blues Fundraiser for Teaching for Change

Boleros & Blues is an original musical on the life and songs of Agustín Lara, a famous Mexican composer. The funds from the event will support Teaching for Change's work in the 2008-09 school year.

Boleros & Blues: The Legacy of Lara, will be Tuesday at GALA Theatre. Reception at 7 p.m. and play at 8 p.m.

Please purchase tickets at GALA Theatre on Tuesday. For ticket information contact: Julie Choe, [email protected] , 202-588-7204.

First Tee Summer Golf Extravaganza for Girls
(Sponsored by the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital)

Girls will take golf lessons in the morning and return to the meeting location in the afternoon for some fun activities. The mission of First Tee, DC, is to impact the lives of young people in the nation's capital by creating affordable and accessible golf facilities to primarily serve those who have not had exposure to the game and its positive values. First Tee uses golf as platform to teach youth how to be successful on and off the course.

Langston Golf Course, Washington, DC, 20002

DATES: Fridays - June 27, July 4, 11, 18, 25, August 1, 8, 15. You need to attend most of the sessions.

TIME: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
AGE LEVEL: Non-Girl Scouts going into 3rd through 9th grades
FEE: $10.00
Full Financial Assistance is available.
Make checks or money orders payable to GSCNC.
TRANSPORTATION: Transportation will be available, however, locations and times are to be determined.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
202-237-1670 x229
E-mail:

Kites for Peace

Hundreds of kites will be flown on Tuesday from 4 p.m.-8 p.m. on the Washington Mall, near the Washington Monument and Sylvan Theatre. These kites, many designed by children in the local community, will be shipped thereafter to children in war who live in Iraq and various countries in Africa.
Kites will be available for anyone to come and fly.
There will be speeches by youths and leaders, as well as a meditation on peace for children, music, a ribbon dance, and much more.

For FREE TICKETS
mailto:[email protected]

Food for Thought...

Cultural Shifts to Launch Successful Professional Learning Communities

In this thoughtful Journal of Staff Development article, PLC experts Robert Eaker and Janel Keating say that some schools claim to have "professional learning communities" but haven't made certain cultural changes necessary for them to be a reality. Eaker and Keating suggest the following to get a school's culture - its assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and habits - ready for truly effective teacher collaboration:

A shift to high expectations - "This shift is seismic," says the authors. "When schools passionately and sincerely adopt the mission of ensuring high levels of learning for all students, they are driven to pursue fundamentally different questions and work in significantly different ways."

A shift to collaboration - Teachers working in isolation simply won't bring about major gains in student achievement. "A teacher's world can change when the school shifts from a culture of isolation to a culture of collaboration," write Eaker and Keating.

A shift to results - Teachers in authentic professional learning communities are "hungry for evidence of student learning, and they use that evidence both to respond to students who need additional time and support as well as to inform and improve their professional practice. Their focus shifts from inputs to outcomes and from intentions to results."

     Educators in the White River School District in Buckley, Washington, have worked to make these shifts. They asked one another what it would look like to embrace learning as their fundamental purpose, build a collaborative culture, and respond to student needs and improve practice. "What commitments are we prepared to make to every student who walks into our schools this fall?" district leaders asked. "What commitments are we prepared to make to one another as we attempt to create a professional learning community?"
     One school in the district answered these questions by making a commitment that "the children most in need will receive the most help from the most skilled staff." To fulfill this commitment, teacher teams reviewed formative assessment results and developed plans to give additional time and support to struggling students within the school day. They also began reporting progress to parents every week. "These practices," write the authors, "represented a seismic cultural shift from the days when students most in need received help from paraprofessionals who had minimal training and little direct guidance from a classroom teacher or when parents only received formal progress reports every nine weeks."
     Eaker and Keating distinguish between collective commitments and the standard school vision statement. The vision is a description of "an attractive future for the organization - 'someday we hope our school will be a place where - .'"   Collective commitments, on the other hand, are specific, stating how each individual can contribute to the work: "This is what I can do today to help create the school we want." Such commitments are a series of "if-then" statements, say the authors, for example:

- If we are to be a school that ensures high levels of learning for all students, then we must commit to monitor each student's learning on a timely basis using a variety of assessment strategies and create systems to ensure they receive additional time and support as soon as they experience difficulty in their learning.

- If we are to create a collaborative culture, then we must commit to be positive, contributing members to our collaborative teams and accept collective responsibility for the success of our colleagues and our students."

Collective commitments don't guarantee success, say Eaker and Keating, but they create a different dynamic between principals and their colleagues by putting the leader in "the role of promoter and protector of the shared vision the staff has created and the pledges people have made to one another to make that vision a reality." When there's a transgression, the principal can refer to the commitments: "Here are the promises we have made to one another, I need you to honor them."

"A Shift in School Culture" by Robert Eaker and Janel Keating in the Journal of Staff Development, Summer 2008 (Vol. 29, #3, p. 14-17), no e-link available