November 20, 2009

New Announcements:

 

·         Happy Thanksgiving: On behalf of the entire Disney staff, I’d like to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. We hope you enjoy your week off and are able to spend quality time with family and friends as the holidays are upon us.

 

·         Escrip – Did you know you can sign up for E-Scrip, register your Safeway card and/or your credit cards to the secure service, and earn money for Disney Elementary by just doing your normal and holiday shopping? This is the simplest thing to do. We would love to see 100% participation in this program. It is  quick and painless and as a result each time you shop you  know you are supporting our school. The link is http://www.escrip.comand I promise it only takes a few minutes but can yields thousands of dollars for us.  You can link to your Safeway Card as well as several different credit cards. Take your pick ..all will help out our school. 

 

·         Thank you to all the wonderful Walt Disney families for your generous donations during the "We Care" drive for our sister school in Antioch.  We delivered a car full of donations to Fremont Elementary that included warm coats and outerwear, mittens, umbrellas, and boxes of snacks.  The school staff was so grateful. They call our school families their special angels.  They assured us that every item would be put to use.  They shared stories of the children and how much they needed our help.  May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and know what a huge difference you have made in the lives of others. Thank you to Disney parents Joan Knight and Christine Salisbury for their efforts in chairing this worthwhile program that models to our children the giving spirit.

 

·         New Schedule for 2^nd Graders in 2010: As we enter December, please be mindful that all 2^nd graders in SRVUSD will transition away from the early/late readers schedule. Some SRVUSD schools eliminated their 2^nd grade early/late reader schedule at the beginning of the year. This will be in effect starting January  4, 2010 upon our return from Winter Break. All 2^nd graders will go a full instructional day.

 

·         PTA Art Contest Winners:  Thank you to all of our students who submitted entries into our PTA Art Contest. They were all beautiful. A special thank you to Sherry Rosso and our PTA for chairing and sponsoring, respectively, this event. The following are our winning artists:

 

Visual Art:



Group One (Kindergarten - 2nd Grade):
1st Place: J. Sung - Reid/Costa,
2nd Place: C. Singh - Siskind/Vanasupa,
3rd Place: K. Hirtle  -Prochazka, Honorable Mention: M. Rosellini - Prochazka



Group Two (3rd Grade - 5th Grade):
1st Place: A. Moghannam – Rodriguez, 
2nd Place: N. Baer – Tayeb,
3rd Place: M. Jaber –Tayeb, 
Honorable Mention: J. Sung - Parkhurst



 

Photography



Group One (Kindergarten - 2nd Grade):
1st Place: C. Moghannam-Drain/Fissore,
2nd Place: C. Casparian - Drain/Fissore,
3rd Place: I. Dutta - Drain/Fissore



Group Two (3rd Grade - 5th Grade):
1st Place: A. Rosso – Biven,
2nd Place: A. Badain – Macias,
3rd Place: E. Campbell - Hughes 



 

Recurring Announcements:
         

·         PC Desktops/Laptops Needed: we are still looking for donations of PC desktop or laptops. Even though our school is predominantly on the Macintosh platform, our library and one classroom has a need for a limited number of PC’s. If you or your company are looking to donate PC desktops and/or laptops, please contact me via email or by calling the school office at 479-3900. I am looking for PC’s that are able to run Windows XP proficiently.  We would be happy to provide you with a tax ID number for your tax purposes (please consult your tax advisor to see if your donation is tax-deductible).

 

·         Traffix Busing Update: We've seen a big reduction in traffic congestion on Pine Valley Rd. since TRAFFIX bus service began this year. We've also heard from a lot of Walt Disney parents and students who love having the bus service available. The routes are short, the buses are new, and the drivers are doing a great job looking after our students.

TRAFFIX pro-rates their annual bus pass throughout the year. So if you didn't get on board in August, you can get a discounted pass now for just $175 for service through the end of school in June. That's cheaper than the cost of driving back and forth to school twice a day for most folks. It's saving parents a lot of time, and preventing the congestion and gridlock we used to have in front of the school.

So if you're not yet on board, please go to http://www.ridetraffix.comto see the pickup times for the stop nearest you. If you buy a pass online with your credit card today, your child can begin riding the bus tomorrow. For more information call the TRAFFIX program manager directly at 866-TRFX (8739).

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 16, 2009

New Announcements:

 

·         WOW Winners:  Congratulations to this week’s WOW winners!

 

Bernie B. from Mr. Blair’s class

Caelan C. from Ms. Koby’s class

Collin S. from Ms. Fagerbourg’s class

Andrew Z. from Ms. Garrahan’s class

Jessica C. from Ms. Costa’s class

Alex P. from Ms. Schaeffer’s class

Arman K. from Ms. Hughes’ class

Chloe S. from Ms. Siskind/ Ms. Vanasupa’s class

Jake B. from Ms. Tayeb’s class

Jack B. from Ms. Drain/Fissore’s class

Holden M. from Ms. Rodriguez’s class

Ali B. from Ms. Macias’ class

Everett W. from Ms. Frank/Windham’s class

Jake O. from Ms. Biven’s class

Ben K. from Ms. Parkhurst’s class

 

·        Technology Town Hall Meeting:  our Disney Elementary School Education Foundation (DESEF), Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and staff are working together to host a “town hall” meeting to discuss how we can address our technology situation. The meeting will be scheduled for November 19 at 6:30 pm in the MPR. If bringing more technology to our classrooms is important to you, come and watch a presentation and have an opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback, and be a part of our solution. To help us prepare for an appropriate number of attendess, please RSVP by completing this online form.

 

·         Traffix Busing Update: We've seen a big reduction in traffic congestion on Pine Valley Rd. since TRAFFIX bus service began this year. We've also heard from a lot of Walt Disney parents and students who love having the bus service available. The routes are short, the buses are new, and the drivers are doing a great job looking after our students.

TRAFFIX pro-rates their annual bus pass throughout the year. So if you didn't get on board in August, you can get a discounted pass now for just $175 for service through the end of school in June. That's cheaper than the cost of driving back and forth to school twice a day for most folks. It's saving parents a lot of time, and preventing the congestion and gridlock we used to have in front of the school.

So if you're not yet on board, please go to http://www.ridetraffix.comto see the pickup times for the stop nearest you. If you buy a pass online with your credit card today, your child can begin riding the bus tomorrow. For more information call the TRAFFIX program manager directly at 866-TRFX (8739).

 

Recurring Announcements:
         

·         PC Desktops/Laptops Needed: we are still looking for donations of PC desktop or laptops. Even though our school is predominantly on the Macintosh platform, our library and one classroom has a need for a limited number of PC’s. If you or your company are looking to donate PC desktops and/or laptops, please contact me via email or by calling the school office at 479-3900. I am looking for PC’s that are able to run Windows XP proficiently.  We would be happy to provide you with a tax ID number for your tax purposes (please consult your tax advisor to see if your donation is tax-deductible).

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 9, 2009

New Announcements:

 

·         WOW Winners:  Teachers and staff are recognizing students who successfully demonstrate our “Mega-skills” inside the classroom, on the playground, or around campus. Our “mega-skills” are Responsibility, Respect, Honesty, Caring, Teamwork, Positive Attitude, Focus, Confidence, and Effort. Students receive a “WOW” slip when they are “caught” using mega-skills. On most Friday’s, teachers draw one WOW winner to be invited to the “WOW Lunch” with me. Students receive a prize as a part of being honored for their efforts. Although the prizes have not arrived yet, they will receive the prizes when they come.

 

The following students were WOW winners for this week:

Graciela A. from Ms. Parkhurst’s class

Riggs M. from Ms. Rodriguez’s class

Makenna C. from Ms. Biven’s class

Macy B. from Ms. Tayeb’s class

Sean H. from Ms. Schaeffer’s class

Christopher W. from Ms. Garrahan’s class

Abby R. from Ms. Koby’s class

Kagan L. from Ms. Siskind/ Ms. Vanasupa’s class

Nicholas A. from Ms. Costa’s class

Jonathan P. from Ms. Drain/Fissore’s class

Verona P. from Ms. Macias’s class

 

·         No School on Wednesday:  Yes, that is right…no school on Wednesday due to the observance of Veterans’ Day.

 

·         Thank you San Ramon Rotary:  the San Ramon Rotary Club donated dictionaries to all of our third graders this past week. Three members came to campus and presented the dictionaries to each third grade student in this longstanding tradition. We appreciate our partnership with the Rotary Club! To see pictures of the presentation, click here.

 

·         PTA Meeting on Thursday:  we have a very important PTA meeting this Thursday, November 12. During last month’s meeting, I gave a presentation regarding our instructional technology landscape at Disney. Since attendance at the October meeting was low, we decided to wait until November to vote on the allocation of PTA funds that will potentially be combined with school site funds and DESEF (the Disney Education Fund) funds to give us a significant upgrade in our instructional technology.  Come to this meeting, which starts at 7:00 pm in the library, to have your voice and vote count.

·        Technology Town Hall Meeting:  our Disney Elementary School Education Foundation (DESEF), Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and staff are working together to host a “town hall” meeting to discuss how we can address our technology situation. The meeting will be scheduled for November 19 at 6:30 pm in the MPR. While the topic of this meeting is similar in nature to what will be discussed at the November PTA meeting, the specific nature of this meeting is different. If bringing more technology to our classrooms is important to you, come and watch a presentation and have an opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback, and be a part of our solution.

 

 

Recurring Announcements:
         

·         PC Desktops/Laptops Needed: we are still looking for donations of PC desktop or laptops. Even though our school is predominantly on the Macintosh platform, our library and one classroom has a need for a limited number of PC’s. If you or your company are looking to donate PC desktops and/or laptops, please contact me via email or by calling the school office at 479-3900. I am looking for PC’s that are able to run Windows XP proficiently.  We would be happy to provide you with a tax ID number for your tax purposes (please consult your tax advisor to see if your donation is tax-deductible).