Saddle River School District
Wandell School
97 East Allendale Road, Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
(201) 327-0727 Fax (201) 236-8166
Dr. David Goldblatt Robert Schoendorf
Superintendent/ Principal Head Teacher
Dear Saddle River Parents,
Let me take this opportunity to briefly describe some of the new initiatives, projects, and program enhancements taking place during the 2011-2012 school year. Please note that these improvements to our school agenda are merely additions to many successful initiatives already in place at Wandell.
Mrs. Lindsey Rauch will be on family leave until January, and we hired Ms. Kaitlin Forbes as her leave replacement. Ms. Forbes previously worked as one of our resource room teachers last year and we are extremely pleased she has stepped forward to assume this position. We begin this new school year with 3 classes in both first grade and third grade. Ms. Angela Penna will join Ms. Budds and Ms. Tarabokia to complete our set of first grade teachers.
Ms. Christina Kim, our art teacher, will be returning from her family leave in September.
Changes in Student Policies
Over the summer a committee of teachers, parents, and administrators has revised our student code of conduct with an emphasis on harassment, bullying, and intimidation. This will be reflected in our new student handbook as well as our lessons to students on HIB. I will address this vital issue at our back to school evening in September.
School wide Initiative: Health and Nutrition
Our new school wide initiative for this school year will focus our students’ attention on the vital life enhancing topic of health and nutrition. Pupils in all grades will be examining, as researchers and investigators, the value of living a healthy lifestyle where such environmental influences of what we eat and how we exercise are pivotal factors. Our staff will be assisted by informed parents and other school stakeholders. Additionally, our goal is to bring all of our parents into this learning initiative to support our children as they learn.
Curriculum Review
As part of our five year curriculum review initiative over the summer we revised our K-2 Mathematics curriculum to align with the new Common Core Curriculum Standards adopted by the State of
Technology Enhancements
We are very excited to start the 2011-2012 school year with some new initiatives, while expanding upon some of the successful ones that were piloted last year. With the help of the Wandell School Education Foundation, we plan to expand our third grade publishing center to other grade levels. The project enabled each student to create his/her own hard cover book to bring home as a keepsake of their third grade writing and illustrating. With budgeted funds, we have also purchased new microphones and headphones that will allow us to use programs like Kid Pix , iMovie, Garageband and PowerPoint to help students create presentations with slide show features. These funds will also allow us to expand our second grade podcasting project into other grades, too! These initiatives were well received by students, teachers and parents, and we really hope to take them to a new level this year. Using cameras purchased this year and in years past, we will create virtual field trips and develop opportunities for students to share their visits with other students at Wandell. All classes are going to take some big steps in the areas of digital storytelling and literacy. To prepare, we will begin the year by emphasizing journal writing on the computer, digital photography and keyboarding. It is going to be a very exciting year! If you are at all interested in becoming a volunteer in the computer lab, please send Mrs. Kilgallen an email lkilgallen@wandellschool.org, -- no computer skills necessary! She will teach you everything you need to know!
Fifth Grade Collaboration
To be proactive in meeting the articulation needs of our future graduating students as they move on to
Library Sciences and Language Arts/Reading
Things get really revved up in the library by the time our student's reach 5th grade. A large part of the curriculum is spent creating "The Biography in A Bag" research project which has always been a favorite among students. This project teaches our students all the skills necessary to be successful as they move forward to middle school. The students work for many months researching their topic, exploring websites, utilizing print media, encyclopedias and, of course, written literature. They will learn how to evaluate and indentify accurate information and how to create a bibliography as well. Additionally, we take the time to discuss plagiarism and why it is so important for the student to write in their own words and style. Each student learns the difference between search engines and websites and why it is important to narrow down their searches on the internet. The culmination of this project incorporates an oral presentation to the class, which gives each student the experience of public speaking, another important skill to take to middle school and beyond.
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The other major unit of study the 5th grade is involved in during library is our production of the WWB, "The Wandell Wolverine Broadcast." The students gain valuable hands-on experience as well as taking part in lessons based on voice and articulation and TV News and production. At the beginning of the year they will receive training from Mr. Kleinbard, from NBC News, on how to properly use our cameras. Along with help from Mrs. English, they will learn the art of script writing. Each 5th grader will get to choose whether or not they want be in front of the camera as an anchor/reporter or participate in some of the behind the scenes jobs like camera, stage manager, or set design.
These two units along with the other normal library activities make 5th grade library fun and exciting!
Staff Development
We have been extremely busy this summer as many of our teachers participated in a number of staff development activities and courses. Staff members with the assistance of our language arts consultant developed a complete set of terminal language arts objectives for each grade. These objectives will form our teaching and learning guide as to what pupils are expected to know as they complete each grade at Wandell. Additionally, to improve professional practice, we sent all of our first and second grade and special education teachers to special Orton Gillingham training in
Building Projects
Summertime provides an opportunity to catch up on spring cleaning and other needed projects. Multiple tasks were completed this summer, including hooking up to the Borough water system for domestic water needs, finishing the installation of the Greenhouse in the Science Center, refinishing the floors in the All-Purpose Room and gymnasium, upgrading the lighting in the gym, and refurbishing the lockers in the north hall.
Engineering surveys to explore needed improvements to the heat distribution system were begun, and the Board expects the results of the investigations to be reported to the public in the early fall.
Thanks to Ed Cebulski, Edgar Lyttle, and Horace Chambers the building is thoroughly cleaned, washed, and prepared from top to bottom and is now ready for our students. We appreciate their dedication in providing a healthy and beautiful school environment.
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Wandell School Field Development Grant
Our Borough of Saddle River partners will submit a grant application requesting funding upgrade for our
Our School Partners
I want to thank our education partners, the Home & School Association, Wandell Education Foundation, and Wandell Rec, for their unwaving and continuous support, especially since their financial contributions have enabled us to again aggressively move forward (unlike most school districts experiencing budget shortfalls) with an enhanced academic learning agenda. They help build a dynamic learning foundation that gives our staff the ability to provide quality teaching and learning. Their efforts truly make our school special for our students.
As you are well aware, the programs, initiatives, and interventions listed above are by no means our total set of learning activities. However, over the last several years we have reduced class size, added in certain instances extra classes in certain grades, additional special service providers, and revitalized all our major curriculum subject areas. These significant changes to our school culture address and emphasize opportunities for each student to strive for academic excellence, personal self-development, and a social responsibility to her/her community. With the collaboration of our parents, teachers, and students I know this will be another very successful school year.
My best wishes for a happy, healthy, and rewarding year for all members of our school community.
Sincerely,
David Goldblatt
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