Happy New Year!

I'm sitting in my office, looking out at a quiet campus, knowing that all of the members of the El Carmelo community are doing something different (hopefully all fun) at this moment. I'm also thinking of what we have to look forward to in 2009, again so many different expectations and future experiences, from kinder to fifth grade, but all focused on the growth of our kids.

My very best wishes to you at the end of this year and into the next. See you in 2009!

Chuck Merritt

Snowball the Guinea Pig

I want to acknowledge an little-known, but helpful contribution to El Carmelo School. I learned this morning that Adobe Animal Hospital on First Street in Los Altos regularly donates medical procedures for classroom pets. Our own seven-year old guinea pig, Snowball, who lives in Mrs. McCoy's room 6, recently had surgery. Adobe took care of the surgery (outpatient, in this case) for free as part of their commitment to hands-on science education in schools. A big thank you to the staff and management of Adobe Animal Hospital!

Congratulations all you leprechauns!

I had a great time at last Friday's performance of "Blather, Blarney and Balderdash". The story of a lovesick shepherd and the leprechauns that come to help him win the hand of his beloved was delightful and wonderfully performed by a large and strong cast of El Carmelo 4th and 5th graders.

So many things to praise! The cast's delivery of their lines had me laughing out loud (hope I didn't disturb anyone). The set looked great and did everything it needed to do (I really liked the hole in the hedge and how it was used). Great costumes (I'm sure that represented many hours of parent work alone). The student actors not only sounded great and looked great, they knew where to be and at what time to enter and exit which was no small feat with an involved story and lots of parts.

Producers Rebecca Davis and Anna Maria Dias along with Director Jonathan Shue should be very proud of their work and the work of the many students and parents responsible for the success of the school play. It was a very good time and I for one am grateful that all of these folk made this effort. It really paid off for the audience and, I hope, for everyone involved. Well done!

Getting ready for PIE?

Thanksgiving is just over a week away. Has anyone else jumped the gun by having pumpkin pie before the big day? I confess I have (along with pumpkin scones, pumpkin lattes, well... enough said). Pie is a big part of this time of year.

Another slice of PIE (Partners in Education) is the important work being done by El Carmelo volunteers to support the work of the Palo Alto Unified schools, including ourselves. I want to thank everyone that has worked to organize this year's effort and to all of you that have contributed so far this year. Did you know that we count the contribution level by percentage of families? Any contribution of any size goes to show how committed our school community is to education. Thanks again for your contribution, particularly during a time of uncertainty.

And do enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday. The one constant of mine has been that, in whose ever house we celebrate, whatever we are eating, we always bring our loved ones together. May your families cherish the time you spend being thankful .

Rainbows and Pumpkins

Some of you were able to share Wed. 10/29 at El Carmelo as we posed for the annual Rainbow Picture. Thank you, Chris, our wonderful photographer who dared to be creative on a 10-foot ladder for the sake of a beautiful picture and a fun time.

Even more of you attended the Thu. 10/30 Pumpkin Project and shared in the enjoyment of several dozen finely carved pumpkins, many of which were donated later to elder-care facilities. Thank you to the kids that carved pumpkins and to the PTA volunteers that made that event as well as the coffee and chat table nearby possible.

And even MORE of you were able to take off some time this morning to attend the Halloween Parade. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. The costumes were great and the rain even provided a new way to hold the parade that seemed to be enjoyable for all. Thank you to everyone that helped our kids have a good time this morning.

One last thing. As I went in to classrooms this afternoon, intending to help teachers with whatever end-of-Halloween issues might have arisen, I discovered a calm, productive hum of activity everywhere I went. No drama. I have rarely felt so satisfied by being superfluous. All of which to say that we have here the most talented, skilled and generally fantastic teachers at El Carmelo. Thanks to you all for a wonderful week!

On Ice

Another sign that El Carmelo is a wonderful place. What a fun time at the annual Ice Skating Party. I had a blast! Every age was represented on the ice (I noticed this principal guy with a white goatee; he looked a little shaky) as well as every experience level in ice skating. Several kids I skated with had never been on the ice before and ended the evening skating on their own. Thank you Linda and Yi-Mei for this wonderful Fall treat!

Techology Staff Development

Last Friday, the staff met at El Carmelo in the morning to learn a new information management application called Cruncher and collaborate on the new science curriculum. The group used their laptops (Thank you, PTA!) on the wireless network in the library. This time of large group and small group learning and planning was very useful.

At the end of the morning we carpooled up to Foothill College's Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) for lunch and a tour of this remarkable learning center. The KCI is a technology center that provides computing for Foothill students but, more relevantly (for us), provides opportunities for professional teachers to learn to use technology with their students. There are many courses offered there that focus on how to integrate technology into the various curricula of elementary education. We received presentations on online resources for math, language arts and other subjects, learned about various kinds of content management systems and discussed our future technology needs by grade level.

Bike Safety, Part Two

I have to tell you about tonight's Parent Education event, "Bringing Up Bicyclists". 50 parents attended Richard Swent's talk about bicycle safety at El Carmelo. Richard's presentation has everything; videos, diagrams, demonstration (Richard said "I got to ride my bike on the stage!"). It was great. In addition to our own EC families, we had attendees from Escondido, Hoover, Ohlone, Duveneck, Walter Hayes, Barron Park, Stratford School and JL Stanford Middle School! Congratulations to Richard, Carrie Manley, PTA officers and the EC community: you're awesome! Don't forget to participate in Wednesday's Walk and Roll to School.

Bike Safety

Dear parents,

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about traffic, and particularly bicycle, safety this fall. Many of you have spoken to me out in front of the school both before and after class. We talk about the safety practices put into place in recent years; the red curbs for bus drop-off, the yellow curbs for parent drop off, the work of the city-staffed crossing guard position, bicycle parking, etc. All of these practices cumulatively provide a safe environment for our kids' getting to and from school. But if our children are not keeping themselves safe, these practices will not be enough.

This is why we as a school community are focusing this month on training our kids in bike safety. On October 6, El Carmelo's PTA is sponsoring "Bringing up Bicyclists" at 7pm in the MP room. A bicycle expert will explain to us how we as parents can help our students keep themselves safe. Also that week, Oct. 6-8, the Walk and Roll to School program will encourage walking and biking to school. On Oct. 16, the 3rd graders will receive bike safety input at the annual Bike Rodeo, with a word from the PD, FD on safety and practical training from volunteers with students' own bikes on the field at school.

Please support our bike and traffic safety program by talking to your child about safety and by supporting our various efforts this month and throughout the school year.

Chuck Merritt

Lifeskills

In the last Carmeletter, I mentioned the lifeskills program that our El Carmelo social climate committee is developing (thank you, committee!). The plan is to address a series of lifeskills through all-school assemblies throughout the year. The lifeskills are:

COOPERATION
EFFORT
FRIENDSHIP
CARING
PROBLEM SOLVING
RESPONSIBILITY
FLEXIBILITY
INITIATIVE
PERSEVERANCE

The first assembly will feature Cooperation. Do you have an example of student cooperation that you find especially interesting? If you do, please consider emailing me a summary and a contact teacher that would be able to give details? Thank you!

cmerritt@pausd.org

Sept. 13

Dear El Carmelo community,

This is my first post to Dragon Tales, a blog that I have begun in order to provide an informal communication with parents of students at El Carmelo School in Palo Alto. I have chosen this name partly thinking of the subject of this first post; the Dragon Library that I've begun. You may have noticed the books in the window of my office at school. You probably saw that they are all about dragons (although there is a lot a variation in content...including Math!). I am trying provide a wide range of reading levels within the collection, so there will be books that appeal to our kids K-5.

Your children are welcome to check these books out from me. I will be asking too if they will write a brief comment on the book they read (or that you have read to them). Some of those comments on what they enjoyed about the book may even find their way to this blog! If I do post comments, they will be identified only by initials.

So, please take advantage of the books your daughter or son likes. And if you have any suggestions of either dragon-themed books or of other themes your child is interested in, please let me know.

cm