Safety Procedures During Evening Events At King

Parking
Due to the limited availability of parking at King, parents should plan to park in the neighborhood during evening events at King.

There is NO PARKING in front of the main entrance, by the fire hydrant, or on the left-hand side of the front circular drive.
Reason: The front drive is a fire lane and must be kept accessible for emergency vehicles. The fire hydrant area must also be kept clear.

Drop Off/Pick Up
The front entrance will be available for drop off and pick up ONLY. AT NO TIME SHOULD PARKING OCCUR IN FRONT OF THE SCHOOL.

International Night 2007

As always, we’re looking forward to International Night at King School this Thursday from 6:30 - 8:30. I’m hoping that you will make time to attend. It is truly one of the hallmark events on the King School calendar. I am particularly proud of our International Night Committee, who deserves many thanks for all of the planning and work that has gone into this wonderful event.

Please keep in mind that evening activities at King are family events. Parents and guardians are responsible for the close supervision of their children. This means children cannot attend without a supervising adult. I have also reminded children that acceptable behavior at evening school events is the same as acceptable behavior during the school day. Thank you for your support.

Most importantly, I want to remind you about safety procedures for evening events at King. This is especially important when considering our typically high attendance at International Night. Please review the information on the back side of this letter. In particular, please do NOT park in the front of King School. This area needs to be left open in case of emergency.

Hope to see you at International Night!

Yang Wei Assembly

On Monday, a world-famous Chinese pipa (lute) virtuoso, Yang Wei, who is a visiting artist in residence at UM, came to perform for an all-school assembly at King (for free). He was amazing and the kids really enjoyed it! What a great kickoff for International Night Week!

Parent Writing Workshop

Last evening, I met with the King School Improvement Team (SIT) and the PTO board for a parent workshop focusing on writing, an area the SIT Team identified based on King's achievement data. The presenters of the meeting, Kim Pavlock and Cathy Fleischer, came to us from the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, a group that mainly focuses on helping teacher's teach writing. However, they are now offering a variety of parent workshops which was what they brought to King.

By all accounts (including the feedback sheets filled out by attendees), the presentation was helpful, useful, interesting and inspiring.

From the notes I took last night, I'll share the following as food for thought and discussion--and for our purposes, we should all consider ourselves "teachers" of our children.

Research basis for best practices around writing:
1. All children can and should write
2. Teachers must help students find real purposes to write
3. Students need to take ownership and responsibility
4. Effective writing programs involve the complete writing process
5. Teachers can help students get started
6. Teachers help students draft and revise
7. Grammar and mechanics are best learned in the context of actual writing
8. Students need real audiences and a classroom context of shared learning
9. Writing should extend throughout the curriculum
10. Effective teachers use evaluation constructively and efficiently

Our next step: Decide whether or not this same workshop would be helpful/useful to the wider King parent group. Stay tuned!

Educators warn students: Be wary of the Web

An interesting article from a newspaper in Maine: CLICK HERE

BINGO!

Tonight is the big night, and I'm looking forward to it! Bingo Night was a lot of fun last year (my first year at MLK), so it makes me look forward to it tonight.

I am the caller during Bingo, so don't miss out. It will only be the third time in my life I've called for Bingo--and I can tell you it is a treat! I hope to see you at school tonight.

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful first day of school in 2007 yesterday! There was a noticeable excitement in the air as it seemed everyone was happy, excited, and/or relieved to be back to school after the break. As I passed by students in the hallways and at lunchtime, there were lots of excited and happy stories about what happened during the break as well--relaxing time at home, vacations to warm or snowy places, spending time with families were all themes that came up several times.

For me and the rest of the King staff, we were happy to be back at MLK and ready to continue teaching and helping students learn!

One thing I did notice during the lunch hour: several students did not bring boots and it was pretty wet outside. So . . . a gentle reminder: As always, please help your children dress appropriately for whatever the weather brings during the school day. Thanks.