Annual Thanksgiving Feast

It was a special day at Southeast School today. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a delicious feast including turkey and all the delicious trimmings. Our second graders performed several songs to help us get in the festive spirit. And we ended with a whole school recess on the playground. 

Staffing Update

Please be informed of a staffing update:

Our Nurse, Mrs. Hanka, is out on medical leave for the next few weeks. She is expected to return at the beginning of January. We will have the Nurse's office staffed with a certified Nurse in her absence.  Your children should continue to see our Nurse as needed.  Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Family Literacy Night

Thank you to everyone who showed up tonight!  What a fabulous showing. Thank you to Mrs. Doyle and our UConn interns and staff!

Superhero Run Postponed

Due to inclement weather, the Superhero Run/Walk has been postponed to Sunday, Nov 2. The run will begin at 3 pm and the benefit meal will be at 4 pm at Southeast. We hope you can join us!

Mrs. LaBella Day!

Special congratulations to the Mansfield Teacher of the Year 2015, our own Mrs.  Erika LaBella!  She embodies the best of all the great teachers in Mansfield. Today we showered her with "Wows!"  Please join me in congratulating Mrs. La Bella!  

PTO Carnival

Open House

Thank you to all the families who came to school tonight. I had extremely valuable feedback from so many families about the great start to the school year. 

When I arrived tonight, there were some protestors stationed at our corner regarding the CT Core Standards. I would like to share a few unprompted points, from my perspective as principal. 

Mansfield adopted the Common Core slowly over the past three school years. There have been numerous changes, but I realize they may not be noticed. Here are a few examples, of so many possible examples: 

-Junior Great Books which teaches active listening, responding using text support, and reading complex and lengthy text. These three features are directly taken from the Common Core.  All of our grade levels are engaged in Junior Great Books throughout the year, but not everyday.  We use guided reading  to teach the reading skills. 

-Another feature is the development of critical thinking skills. Schools have been adopting a problem solving approach for many years. We continue to fine tune our practice each year. You can search for depth of knowledge (DOK) on the internet to get a glimpse of this approach. We look for developments from a DOK 1 to a DOK 3 or 4 in any unit of study. 

- A third feature of the Common Core is exposure to various types of writing. We will be honing our teaching skills in this area this year as we study the Lucy Calkins Writer's Workshop approach out of Teacher's College. This is the focus of our Oct professional development day. 

Please know that I feel the Common Core has raised the standards and expectations in an appropriate way. It has caused the staff to work more closely together, and to increase our opportunities for professional development.  I see this as a win-win. 

I'd like to believe that we can take the politics out, put research in and say that things are moving in a good direction and I personally feel very proud of the staff for their uncanny ability to rally together and find a way to make it work, and work well at that 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. 

Welcome Back!!

I hope the start to your child's/children's school year has been as invigorating as it has been for us at school. The summer always provides a chance to reflect, plan, and implement changes designed to make Southeast School a better place. This past summer has been no exception. We have implemented a new birthday celebration policy. While we will continue to celebrate children's birthdays, we will no longer accept food. This decision is based on the health, safety, and wellness of all of our students. 

Tonight is our Open House from 6:30 to 7:30. I hope you will join us!  We look forward to seeing you at this, and many of the other great events we have planned this year. 

Welcome Ms. Bayard, thrid grade teacher

I am pleased to announce and welcome our new third grade teacher - Ms. Ashley Bayard.   

 

Ironically, Ashley is not new to Southeast.  Just two years ago, Ashley successfully completed her student teaching with Mr. Maheu in first grade. From there, she gained experience during her UConn fifth year internship teaching Literacy in third grade at Naubuc School in Glastonbury. She fosters relationships with adults and children exceptionally well, she has strong content knowledge, excellent classroom management techniques, asks thoughtful questions, and is willing to do anything she can to make her students successful.   Plus, she absolutely loves Southeast!  We couldn't ask for a better fit to our dedicated staff and school. 

 

Our committee was comprised of representatives from central office, administration, parents, students, teaching staff, and support personnel.  We reviewed 49 applications, conducted 10 interviews, and observed 2 demo lessons and we are so happy to have ended the search with Ms. Bayard. 

Welcome Ashley!  We look forward to watching you grow with us. 

Retirement Announcement-Ms. Liebman

After 11 years of service to Mansfield Schools at Southeast, our beloved school psychologist, Ms. Marie Liebman, has retired. We feel grateful for the years Ms. Liebman spent helping our students adapt to new situations, creating academic reports and education plans, guiding colleagues, and supporting families.  We will miss her tremendously and wish her the best of everything as she embarks on this new journey.

Last day of School

Tomorrow is our last day of school.   We are feeling proud if our fourth graders and the growth they made this year. I wish them a great start to MMS!  Please visit and stay in touch. 

Tomorrow we have a brief introduction to your child's teacher for next year. We call it Step Up Day. Our staffing for next year is as follows:  

Pre K:  Mrs. Harakaly

K:  Mrs. LaBella, Mrs. Robichaud

1:  Ms. Hathway, Mr. Maheu

2:  Mrs. Cackowski, Mrs. deVecchis, Ms. Kamienski

3:  Mr. Hendricks, Mrs. Villar, and a new teacher who will be determined by a committee by early August

4:  Mrs. Sangree, Mr. Warinsky

Our office is open most days in the summer, but we recommend you call before you come in to visit. Sometimes vacation schedules might prevent us from opening our office on certain days.  

Please take time to set up a daily routine for your child to practice math facts, reading and journaling this summer. It's well known that summer regression will occur if students don't continually work on their skills. It was such a successful year, we would love to see continued growth over the summer!!

Enjoy your summer months. Please don't hesitate to reach out if I can be of any help to you over the summer. 

Fun in our own Backyard

It was a "perfect" day in every way...today we celebrated the traditional Fun in Our Own Backyard. The day started with the opening ceremony highlighted by our own Southeast Drum Line and a core group of students who performed a hysterically funny play. We cheered, chanted, and clapped. Then students headed outside for water games and other activities. The afternoon consisted of stations with the ever-exciting bubble blowing and a homemade play dough station for the younger students. The older students played "Capture the Frisbee" and that, they did.  After the fun-filled day, Ms. Parker surprised everyone with a guest appearance by EOSmith's drum line. Everyone was amazed!  The finale was a three bucket dump over my head to the "winning" team....team 15!  Congrats to our fourth grade team leaders of the lead team,  Lucas and Ben!  It was a great day for everyone involved. 

Many thanks to the parents who volunteered their time, and the teachers involved in the planning, preparation, and execution of a noteworthy day. 

Mansfield Teacher of the Year 2014 Announced!!

We are so proud to announce that our very own Mrs. Erika LaBella has been selected as the Teacher of the Year for Mansfield Public Schools. Those who have had the pleasure of working with her, and even those who haven't, know of the many talents she brings to our students each and every day. Southeast is fortunate, in my opinion, to have the lion share of outstanding staff members. It's just another great reason to celebrate all we do here at SE. We look forward to a formal ceremony in the Fall. In the meantime, please help us celebrate with Mrs. LaBella!

Mrs. Shay Day

We were fortunate to have the expertise of Mrs. Shay as our district Literacy Consultant. After 15 years in this role, she is retiring. We are sad to see her go, but celebrated in true SE style. Special thanks to the MANY teachers and students who were involved in our celebratory play written by our very own, Ms. Kamienski. What a show!

Fourth grade wax museum

What a stellar display the fourth graders put on for us in their wax museum. Amazing job....some great photos below of Annie Oakley, Anne Frank, Louie Armstrong and others. Take a peek!

Suzuki Concert

Suzuki touring performance, here is the MMS Orchestra and the Suzuki Strings!  Amazing talent from start to finish.  Congratulations to all involved.

Educational, yet fun, Ideas for Summer Vacation

Top 10 Summer Regression Remedies

10. Read 10 minutes each day for each grade you have completed (3rd grade=30 min.)

9. Keep a journal of places you visit and things you do.

8. Go on a field trip (zoo, museum, etc.)

7. Play on-line math fact building games or typing programs to keep skills sharp

6. Have a family game night

5. Go to the Mansfield library weekly

4. Read to a sibling, friend, or a relative.

3. Read the cartoon section of the newspaper or complete the word search, or Sudoku.

2. Take a hike and identify the birds, trees, plants or rocks you come across.

1.   Start a book club with friends

Leadership Cluster Donation

The leadership enrichment cluster donated 100 bags of homemade cookies to the Covenant Soup kitchen in Willimantic today. Here is one of the volunteers, Neil, so happy to receive the donation. What a worthwhile project, and it was the childrens' idea. 

Ms. Math Invades First Grade

Our world has been turned upside down. Ms. Math brought her dice into Southeast and we've never been the same since. 

Movie Night!

4th Grade Ice Skating Trip

Our Fourth graders from across the district met at Bolton Ice Palace.  Take a look at the fun!

Science Fair and Invention Convention

Another great night at Southeast School! Congratulations to all the participants and families. Thank you for your support. Also, congrats to Kira and Athavan who will represent Southeast at the statewide Invention Convention. Good luck!!