You can view the whole Chronicles including community announcements here:
September 18, 2015
Dear Crocker Farm Families: We hope your transition back to school has been smooth. It’s been
wonderful to see your children back at our school. As usual, lots happening in the Crocker Farm
Community. We want to highlight a few areas for you.
School Climate
Our teachers, working in conjunction with our counseling team, Dr. Amy Baver, our new School Psychologist, Ms. Toby Bobbitt, our School Adjustment Counselor and Ms. Tara Luce, our Guidance Counselor are working with students to review the norms, values and expectations that allow our children to feel socially, emotionally and physically safe in school. Teachers are reviewing classroom expectations as well as other important areas of our school such as buses, cafeteria, hallways and playgrounds. For example, our counseling team have assumed complete responsibility for the daily operations of our lunch room. During this thirty minute period, they have implemented a system where:students have been initially assigned a lunch table with peers from their classroom
* students earn “mixing it up” with other tables based on demonstrating positive lunchroom behavior
* students are bringing playing cards, chess boards and books to use after they finish eating
Thank you to our counseling team and to our students for making our lunch room a more enjoyable place to
be.
Wildwood Building Project
As you may know, in 2013, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) approved Wildwood Elementary School to enter into an “Improvement Building Project” Process. Fast forward to Fall 2015, and the Wildwood School Building Committee, under the leadership of Michael Morris, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, are actively overseeing the progress of this project. We encourage all Crocker Farm community members to become informed and active in participating in this project. Particularly as one of the possible scenarios involves changing Crocker Farm into a PreK through Grade 1 school. Several forums and meetings are scheduled. Please see the important dates posted below. Here is a link to the building project website: http://www.arps.org/news/wildwood_school_building_committee
New Staff
Over the last three years, we have recruited, hired and retained seven classroom teachers. Several of you have participated in hiring process of these individuals. This year, we are happy to welcome five new professional staff members to our school community. Dr. Amy Baver is our new School Psychologist. Johanna Bradbury is our new ELA Intervention Teacher. Erin Casioppo is our new Special Education Teacher. Blanca Osorio-Castillo is our new ELL Teacher. Kate Perkins is our new 3rd Grade Classroom Teacher. To learn more about these new staff members, please follow this link:
http://cf.arps.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_927419/File/latest%20news/snazzy%20biographies%20for%20staff.pdf
Professional Development
At our early dismissal on Wednesday, September 16th, our entire staff, PreK-6, participated in a preliminary training on Restorative Practices. The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) is working with our district to share information and train staff. The IIRP states that “the fundamental premise of restorative practices is that people are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them.” We look forward to sharing more on this topic and how we intend to utilize this framework in our school community.
Topics For The Future
Google in our school - Run for Fun - Fall Assessments - Chrome Books - Family Conferences
Please feel free to contact us to share your positive experiences, your concerns, and your insights,
Derek Shea (Principal) and Sharri Conklin (Assistant Principal)
