Vassal Lane Upper School 197 Vassal Lane Cambridge, MA 02138 617.349.3550 vassallane.cpsd.us
Head of School Daniel Coplon-Newfield 617.349.4858 dcoplon-newfield@cpsd.us Assistant Principal Tanya Benzan 617.349.6705 tbenzan@cpsd.us School Counselor Susan Peloquin 617.349.6550 x332 speloquin@cpsd.us Guidance Counselor Matthew Sadowski 617.349.6550 x324 msadowski@cpsd.us School Psychologist Heidi Munoz 617.349.6550 x349 hmunoz@cpsd.us School Nurse Mary-Margaret Segraves 617.349.6550 x295 masegraves@challiance.org School Clerk Frances Ayres 617.349.6550 fayres@cpsd.us
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December 2016
VL MONTHLY
New at VLUS: Fencing! Vassal Lane Upper School has partnered with our neighbor, Olympia Fencing Center to provide students with a high quality and fun fencing experience. While at VLUS we have both novice and experienced fencers, Instructor Essene Waters has designed weekly classes to: challenge the students physical and mental self-discipline, creative thinking and team work – skills which can be transferred to other areas of their personal and school life. As both an individual and a team sport, fencing has been compared to a high-speed game of physical chess, where strategic and tactical thinking, as well as precise, disciplined physical action plays major roles. Fencing creates a sense of bonding and working together. Through fencing, our students are developing their communication skills and relying on each other for support. Just as importantly, they’re having an AMAZING time! Photos (top to bottom): –Kira Hartness, VLUS Student and Fencer enjoys bouting with classmates when she's not training herself. –Essene Waters, Fencing Instructor
International Night Please join Vassal Lane Upper School as we celebrate the wonderful cultures that make our community so special! On Thursday, December 15th we will have a potluck dinner, “trips around the world,” and an “Art Stroll” at the 2nd Annual VLUS International Night. Please share your cultures and traditions by reserving a table (individual family or as a group of families) dedicated to their country of origin or culture. You can bring artifacts, food, music, and/or photos to help teach others about your country and culture. We are also asking students and families to participate in this year's art project by creating a “Tree of Life.” Instructions and a poster board for this project went home with students recently. We hope the “Tree of Life” activity will spark curiosity and questions about heritage, culture and tradition in your home. If you are interested participating in the International Night, please complete the flyer (sent home in backpacks) and send back to school.
Let's Connect! Did you know that you can find VLUS on Facebook? To keep up with all our news, just follow us at: facebook.com/vassallane
Grade News 6th Grade Sixth graders are completing their engaging, information-filled and persuasive Geography Virtual Brochures and are looking forward to convincing their audiences to visit a chosen country. Please ask your child to show you their online brochure. Don't be surprised if you find yourselves packing your bags for a wonderful world adventure! In December-January students will begin their study of Human Origins. As anthropologists and archaeologists, students will be writing and using their personal field note journals to gather important information, write thesis statements and sketch images that reflect their understanding of our human distant past and evolution. 7th Grade Seventh graders will participate in the annual Cambridge Health Alliance Vision and Hearing Screening on Thursday, December 15th from 9:05-2:30 in the VLUS library. On December 23rd, seventh graders will attend a community-building field trip to the Steriti Rink in the North End. Students should bring in their permission slip and $3 for the train ride as soon as possible. Student should also bring a bagged lunch. Spending money is optional. 8th Grade On December 7, eighth graders will visit the Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School. The visits are in advance of the CRLS Information Night for rising 9th graders and families on January 12, 2017 at 6PM. The high school visit will begin with a brief assembly where CRLS staff and students will present general information about the school. The students will then break into small groups for a tour led by juniors and seniors. Following the tour, students then will participate in Q&A session before heading back to VLUS for lunch and to finish out their day.
Upcoming Events December 5-9th: Computer Science Education Week; VLUS Focus-Coding December 7th: 8th Grade Field Trip to CRLS December 9th: Friends of Vassal Lane Upper School Meeting 7:30AM, VLUS Library December 15th: International Night December 15th: CHA 7th Grade Vision & Hearing Screening December 21st: School Site Council Meeting 8AM, VLUS Library December 21st: 6th Trip to Lanes and Games Bowling December 22nd: 8th Trip to Lanes and Games Bowling December 23: 7th Grade Trip to Steriti Ice Skating Rink View full school calendar at vassallane.cpsd.us. Reminder Please remember to ask your child or check his/her backpack for flyers and important school information.
VLUS Teacher Rounds: Teachers are Learning & Developing Their Practice Together By Matt Dunkel and Sarah Foleno, the VLUS Instructional Coaches
Ways to Get Involved VLUS and the Friends of Vassal of Lane Upper School is always looking for parent support. If you'd like to connect with FoVLUS, please contact Tucker Fischer at jtfischer@live.com or MaryAnn Matyas at ma.matyas98@gmail.com. To become more involved with VLUS, please call your grade level liaison: 6th: Tucker Fischer, jtfischer@live.com 7th: Diana MacArthur, ddmacarthur@gmail.com 8th: MaryAnn Matyas, ma.matyas98@gmail.com
In this edition of the Coaches’ Corner we’re going to focus on Teacher Rounds, a powerful form of professional learning at VLUS. Each grade level team participates in weekly Teacher Rounds meetings – and this year, we have added Specialist teachers to these teams. Teacher Rounds is a process in which teachers: Visit colleagues’ classrooms Debrief the observation, then Develop and share plans to experiment with new teaching practices in their own classrooms, based on what they saw in the observation. Each team starts by developing a “problem of practice” to focus their collaboration throughout the year. This year, each team in the school will be focusing on teaching practices that impact student engagement. Teachers have studied national research on student engagement and generated a VLUS-specific list of “look fors”: observable teaching practices and student behaviors related to student engagement. These “look fors” will be the focus of each Rounds cycle. Teachers’ feedback on Teacher Rounds has been overwhelmingly positive. As one teacher put it, Rounds is “a place where educators can learn from each other and speak openly about how to be better teachers for our students.” As another teacher wrote, it is very helpful to see “new ways of doing things and… new insights into what really pushes students to learn.” This teacher reported that Rounds is “very helpful in coming up with small changes to implement to improve student learning and engagement in my own classroom. I think it added to my repertoire of ways of teaching and I gained new ideas of how students learn.” We have an amazingly ambitious and reflective teaching staff – and we’re proud that VLUS is a learning community where teachers open their doors to one another, share dilemmas, and constantly push themselves to better serve our students. VLUS teachers, we appreciate you!