Tuesday Bulletin Weekly Newsletter of the and School Association Lafayette Elementary School Washington, DC November 11, 2008 www.lafayettehsa.org Zelda Caldwell, editor

MARK YOUR CALENDAR November 12 (Wednesday) and December 16 (Tuesday) – Deal Middle School Open Houses, 9-3 p.m. November 14 (Friday) – Square Dance, Lafayette Cafeteria, 7-9 p.m. November 20 (Thursday) – LHSA Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m. November 27-28 – Holiday, no school December 8 (Monday) – Conference Day, no school

FROM THE PRINCIPAL – Lafayette is recruiting new substitute teachers (see page 3)

FROM THE HSA – John Katz and Diana Blitz, HSA co-presidents If it’s a crisp fall Saturday, the chances are good that, in between soccer, baseball, and other activities, a large number of Lafayette families will be at a cross country meet. This Saturday, the Lafayette team again dominated the city championships. At least as important as the victories is the esprit de corps that Mr. Thurston, assisted by Ms. Shapiro and Ms. de Jonckheere, has instilled in the kids. Every Lafayette runner who finishes is greeted by cheers from friends, family, and teammates, whether it’s the top finishers or those at the end of the pack. The Lafayette team is several times larger than most of the other teams (one often hears parents from other school saying, in amazement, “here comes another Lafayette runner,”) and that’s probably the case less because of the talent Lafayette has than because of how fun and challenging the coaches make the practices and meets. The team will be smaller next year, since only fourth and fifth graders can run, but it will undoubtedly be just as strong, in both skill and spirit. The fabulous Lafayette baking crew came through again on Election Day. On very short notice, our bakers produced a great array of breakfast treats to ease the hunger pangs of folks on line to vote, and we raised over $700. Thanks to Michelle Dolge and everyone else who helped.

FROM THE MUSIC & BAND ROOM – Rebecca Stump, Music Teacher November has become a very exciting time for us here in the music room. In the different grades, we are celebrating Native American Heritage Month, the coming Thanksgiving holiday and Veterans day. We are doing some very creative original songwriting in the upper grades and beginning recorder instruction in 3rd grade. We hosted our first Informance of the year on Friday, with the 1st grade's Patriotic Celebration and we will be holding two more in the next two weeks. The 6th-graders will be rock stars for a day this week as their groups perform an based on the story Where the Red Fern Grows. Next Thursday, the 4th grade will help us celebrate our Native American heritage with a Pow Wow that includes Regalia, music making, dancing and arts and crafts. Note to Parents: I am still feverishly collecting coffee cans for the 6th-grade drum-making project. Please drop them off any time if you have empty cans. Thank you! 3rd-graders should bring a recorder to class on music days. If you don't own one, I have some for students to borrow, but it would be great if students had an instrument available to practice at home. 4th-graders should have brought home the Regalia homework assignment that will be due next week. Please let me know if you have any questions. In band news: With 48 4th- and 5th-graders participating in Beginning Band this year, 12- 12:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays can be a zoo in the music room. We have finally advanced enough to open our band books and start learning notes. So far, we have learned three notes and played through #10 in the Standard of Excellence book. Advanced band has been trying different songs out to see what we want to work on for our first concert. Exciting new pieces include the "Batman Theme" among others. As always, I hope that all band students are practicing at least 15 minutes a night and bringing their instruments home regularly. No one should be leaving an instrument in the music room over the weekends. Take those things home and practice them!

FROM THE ART ROOM – Laurie McLaughlin, Art Teacher, Grades 1-6 November is always exciting in the art room. In addition to the many handcrafts that are created this time of year as we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, there are three exciting things to note: • Rainforest Habitat Exhibit: This humungous exhibit is on display in the Gym lobby hall until the Thanksgiving break. Each 2nd-grade child made a scientific illustration of an rainforest creature, then created a three- dimensional habitat with real (tactile) and visual texture. Each class was assigned a layer of the rainforest; forest floor, understory, canopy, and emergent layer. Ms. Stanton and Ms. Rankin’s class also wrote a class poem and Ms. Rankin’s class worked on some drama tableaus to illustrate our conservation book, “Stop That Noise.” Enjoy this display; we hope it prompts many interesting conversations about preserving this unique and special habitat. • Calendar 2009: This year’s calendar has gone to print and it’s gorgeous! We expect the finished product back by the middle of the month in time to purchase it for extra special gifts before you head off on your Thanksgiving trips. • Pow Wow Informance: The 4th-grade Pow Wow Informance and interactive museum will happen on the morning of Thursday, November 20 for all 4th-graders and their parents. I need help from 4th-grade parents putting our museum displays in the cafeteria Wednesday morning and after school, and running the craft stations during the Pow Wow itself on Thursday. Please drop me a note or e-mail if you can help: lauriemclward@.net. Thank you!

SQUARE DANCE ON FRIDAY – Marjorie McClure, Physical Education teacher This Friday, November 14, we will be having a square dance. All Lafayette families with children of all ages are invited. Students in the 3rd grade and up are highly encouraged to attend. It is a novice dance so everyone will be learning together. So, get the family fed, put on your dancin’ shoes and head over to the school for a great night of family, friends and fun. The dance will be in the cafeteria from 7 to 9 p.m. Please make sure that children have a supervising adult with them. This is a family event. Some refreshments will be available. There will be prizes for the best dressed square dancers. I have two volunteers, and if anyone else can pitch in and help that would be great. Please contact Ms. McClure at [email protected]. Please also RSVP if you plan on attending. While it’s not mandatory, it will help with the planning.

STUDENT COUNCIL NEWS – Kristina Colevas, 5th grade treasurer This year we have a new thing for the kids at Lafayette. It's called the Piggy Bank Campaign. People donate money to the Central Union Mission so they can buy Thanksgiving dinners for the needy people in the Washington area. Each dinner is $1.93 and we will be collecting coins (or

Tuesday Bulletin 11-11-08 – page 2 dollars!) in the Great Hall by the security desk. The due date for turning in money is Friday, November 21. Please bring in money! It's going to a good cause.

SALLY FOSTER: LAST CALL If you are missing items from your order or received products you did not purchase, please contact Kim Gross ([email protected]) or Sara Durr ([email protected]) no later than this Thursday, November 13. And don't forget, you can continue to raise money for Lafayette by ordering from sallyfoster.com. Be sure to enter our school code: 499222.

LAFAYETTE TRIUMPHS AT CROSS COUNTRY CITY CHAMPIONSHIPS – Coach Robert Thurston Fort Dupont Park, Saturday, Nov. 8—In a fitting ending to a stellar season, both our boys and girls teams took top honors at today’s DCIAA City Championship Meet. Will Oakley led the boys with his winning time of 13:17; Alex Ganote grabbed second place in 14:02; Nicholas Neptune in 14:29 nipped Kevin Merriam, 14:30. Completing a Lafayette sweep of the first five places was Colin Trinity in 15:03, having run the last half of the race with only one shoe! Nathan Kovar, 8th in 15:35, and Nick Girdis, 10th in 17:05, gave us extra “insurance” that would have assured a victory if any of our top five had dropped out. The boys needed no insurance today, beating their nearest opponent, Nalle, by a scored of 15 to 49. With the girls it was a different story: Lafayette was holding the first five positions in the race, but about halfway through Charlotte Oakley had to drop out due to extreme breathing difficulty. We don’t have the girls’ times right now but Kristina Colevas won the race; Rose Marshall took second place; and Liana Moore-Butler claimed the bronze medal. After Sahna Sabbakhan took fourth place, we watched nervously while runners wearing other colors (notably the red of Stuart Hobson) crossed the line. But finally we spotted two runners in blue uniforms: Malayna Nesbitt, 18th; and Nia Crawford, 19th. We were safe, and the girls joined the boys as team champions. In the B Team races, Lionel Kearse won the boys’ event in 15:25, closely followed by Stephen Berg, 2nd in 15:28 (both ran fast enough to have placed in the top ten of the championship event). They were joined by Alexei Girdis, 3rd; Ryan Katz;, 4th; Alex Joyce- Johnson, 5th ; Carl Johnson, 6th; Ezona Haile, 7th; Christopher Wiggins, 8th; Daniel Katz, 9th; Eric Meade, 10th; Adam Schauer, 11th; Deloniel McCombs, 12th; Belize Saunders, 13th; and Stuart Landis, 15th. The girls’ B Team race was won by Jacquii Howard of Nalle, but Reshma Ramakrishnan took second place, and Ruby Shevlin took third. Maisie Dombo had to stop due to breathing problems. We note proudly that both of the Deal teams won their division, the boys with a “Lafayette majority” (Derek Levinson, 4th; Brian Angel, 6th; Alex Morales, 9th; and Luke Trinity, 11th; and Ross Pendergast, 12th), and the girls with help from Jacinda Miller in 10th place. Former Lafayette stars Oliver Nedab and Kaycee Malone helped the Wilson team to a one-point victory over School Without Walls in the boys’ high school race. The high school individual winner was 9th-grader and Lafayette standout Simon Gigli. Lafayette grad Mariama Taifa-Seitu took 4th place in the girls’ high school race.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL – Lynn Main, Principal One of the hardest situations that a school has to deal with each year is teacher absences. A doctor can cancel his patients for the day and reschedule them, a lawyer can ask for a continuance of a case, or an accountant can just work a few extra hours the next few days and catch up on the missed work. A teacher absence is nothing like these. We can’t cancel the day or reschedule the lessons. We can’t stay late the next day and teach that lesson to the students who

Tuesday Bulletin 11-11-08 – page 3 have already left for their afternoon activities. So that is where the substitute teacher comes into play. Finding substitute teachers is always a challenge for every school system. The pay is pretty abysmal and the benefits are none. Sometimes we know about an absence in advance and can arrange for the substitute ahead of time. Other times a teacher will call me at home late at night or very early in the morning letting me know of an illness and we have to scramble early in the day to see what we can arrange. We have substitutes who prefer working with the older students and others who really like early childhood. Finding someone who is willing to fill in for art, music or P.E. can be especially challenging. We have been particularly lucky that several of our Lafayette retirees come back on a regular basis to cover classes as well as in the library. We have also been the start of several new teacher careers. All over Washington are teachers who got their feet wet substituting at Lafayette. They liked it so much that they went on to get education degrees and take on classrooms of their own. So we are constantly looking for new substitutes. This year we have done some extensive recruiting to find more substitute teachers. Linda Geen has taken the lead on this and actually held a substitute teacher open house in the early fall so people new to Lafayette could see what the school is like and learn a little about how we operate before actually getting the call to come on in for the day. She stops in several times during the day to make sure things are moving smoothly and the substitute is finding everything needed for the day’s instruction. She will also try to develop instant plans when what we find in a room is a little thin. She also fills in when we can not locate anyone for a class or for when teachers need to arrive late or leave early because of various personal appointments. The most difficult challenge is when a teacher goes out for a longer absence. We have welcomed several babies while I have been at Lafayette. We have faced several serious illnesses and operations. If a teacher lives in Washington, I expect to see a jury summons, every two years, no exceptions. Teachers have been chosen to serve on long jury trials. Life has a way of happening to people even at Lafayette. It’s hard to step into another teacher’s classroom. Routines and procedures are already in place and may not really match your particular style. You don’t know the children well. In fact it is a lot like starting the school year all over again. And while children may not actually say it out loud, they are worried about their teacher and are hoping for a quick return, too. If you think you would like to take on the challenge of being a substitute, please call the school and leave a message for Linda Geen. She can fill you in on what DCPS requires and how to go about getting licensed as a substitute. We are always looking for new candidates. You might hear about Ms. Bonds or me covering a class one day, something I really enjoy. You might get tales of the not quite perfect sub day. But for the most part we try our best to make a teacher absence as minimally disruptive as possible. Because before you know it things will be back to normal and another great day of learning will take place at Lafayette.

FROM THE COMMUNITY

LAFAYETTE STUDENTS IN NUTCRACKER Please come see your fellow classmates — from Lafayette’s third grade— perform in The Washington Ballet's Nutcracker this December. See Zola Bzdek play a mouse on 12/5 (7:30 p.m.), and 12/6 (1p.m.) at THEARC theater, and 12/16, 12/18, 12/21 (5:30 p.m.), and 12/27 at the Warner Theatre. See Caroline Sroka play a snow angel, and Thomas Zeitler play Benjamin Franklin and a character in the party scene on 12/5 (11 a.m.) at the THEARC theater, and 12/13 (7p.m.), 12/19, 12/21 (1p.m.), 12/26, and 12/28 (1p.m.) at the Warner Theatre. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster (Warner Theater) and www.thearcdc.org for THEARC theater .

Tuesday Bulletin 11-11-08 – page 4 COMMUNITY NOTICES *Register now for the 2008-09 Lafayette Adult Men's Basketball League. The cost per player is $75 along with your registration form. Forms are available in the information rack near the main office or in the Lafayette gym on Wednesday nights 6:30-9 p.m. during open gym. The league is hoping to start in November. Please make all checks or money orders payable to Rim Rockers Basketball League. Return all registration forms/fees to my teacher mailbox labeled Robert Johnson. Thanks in advance. *Mother-daughter exercise steps for sale. Seeking new home for two seriously underused exercise steps by "The Step." Mom version measures 42" x 16", and daughter version measures 29" x 14". Exercise DVDs included. Asking $80 for the pair. Please contact [email protected] with any questions. *Our awesome babysitter is available for weekday work. She has been working with two Chevy Chase families for two years now. She speaks English, is dependable, hard working, and my kids love her. If anyone is interested or has questions contact Annie Bennett at 267-243- 5035. *We invite you to come to an open house to hear about Eagle's Nest Camp. Eagles' Nest is a co-ed summer sleep-away camp nestled in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina, not far from Asheville. It is a small (160 campers) camp that promotes independence and fosters community, and offers a host of regular camp activities, such as sports, drama, a myriad of arts programs, waterfront activities, horseback riding, and. rock climbing. It has a “healthy” kitchen meaning that it uses whole grains and locally grown produce, and tries to involve the kids in some of the operations of the kitchen. If you are interested in seeing a slide show about Eagle's Nest and meeting the director, please come to the Open House at the home of Nancy Golding on Wednesday, November 12 at 7 p.m. The address is 3232 Rittenhouse Street, NW, and you can reach us at 362-7388.

E-mail submissions for next week’s issue to [email protected] or drop them in the Tuesday Bulletin drawer in the Great Hall by 3:15 pm Friday.

Tuesday Bulletin 11-11-08 – page 5 Alice Deal Middle School OPEN HOUSE(S)

Wednesday, November 12th 9:00 - 3:00 p.m Tuesday, December 16th 9:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Current and Prospective parents have two opportunities to visit Alice Deal Middle School.

• Please come visit our classrooms and see why we are the highest performing middle school in the District! • Learn about our exciting academic and extra curricular programs • Sample our advanced math offerings • Try out our World Language classes (Spanish, French, Chinese) • See the initial phases of our International Baccalaureate program. • Tour our newly modernized building (modernization scheduled for completion - August ‘09) • Experience team teaching and our rigorous academic program first hand! • See our amazing students and teachers in action!

Open House #1 – WEDNESDAY, NOVEMER 12 (9 am – 3 pm) Open House #2 – TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16 (9 am – 3 pm)

For more information -- visit www.dealpta.org

Alice Deal Middle School 3815 Fort Drive, NW 202-939-2010

Tuesday Bulletin 11-11-08 – page 6

Square Dancing at Lafayette

Grab your partner and learn Square Dancing!

Date: Friday, November 14th Time: 7-9 p.m. Place: Lafayette Cafeteria Who: All Lafayette Families. Older students in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 are highly encouraged to attend. Children must be with parents or other supervising adult.

Prizes for the Best Dressed Square Dancers!

Please RSVP to Ms. McClure if you plan on attending. Include the number of people. It’s not mandatory, but will help with the planning. Email: [email protected]

Tuesday Bulletin 11-11-08 – page 7