Important Dates

March 8 -  Cultural Night, 6-8:30 pm

March 15 - Superintendent Conference Day (no school for students)

March 19 - Principal's Coffee, 9:30 am, Projects Room

March 22 - Parent/Teacher Day Conferences, Early Dismissal, 10:45 am

March 28 - Parent/Teacher Day Conferences, Early Dismissal, 10:45 am & Evening Conferences, 5-8 pm

March 29 -  PTA Family Fun Night, 6-8 pm  

April 15-22 -  Spring Recess,  school closed

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CET Newsletter March 8, 2019

http://www.chufsd.org/schools/carrie_e_tompkins_es

Message from the Principal, Mrs. Kelly Maloney

Dear CET Families,

We are very excited about tonight’s event-”Around the World with CET: Cultural Night”. Thank you to our music teacher, Ms. Peters for organizing this event as well as to all of the families who are hosting a booth, and to our faculty and staff who lent a helping hand in setting up for tonight.  It takes a village! For those of you who attended last year, please have your child(ren) bring the passport they were given last year (if you can find it!). We will be distributing passports again this year. Children will have their passports stamped at each country they visit; they will be required to share something that they learned before getting it stamped. Last year there were a few children who became separated from their parents and didn’t know what to do. So this year we have a “Lost Child” station outside the Main Office. Please talk to your child(ren) about what they should do if they become separated from you.  

I look forward to seeing you tonight!

Best,

Kelly

News from the Assistant Principal, Mrs. Kerri Bianchi 

  It should come as no surprise that CET strives to promote and build empathy in all of our students.  Building empathy is not part of anyone specific curriculum but instead woven into all aspects of a student's experience at CET and represented as one of the components of the Profile of a Croton-Harmon Graduate.  Teachers build empathy into classroom community expectations through cooperative group projects, instruction through the Second Step Program and by example and modeling appropriate behaviors. We also provide school-wide opportunities to foster empathy.  As a school, we hold REACH Assemblies that focus on themes such as friendship, respect, acceptance and diversity, cooperation and perseverance, and honesty and responsibility. All of these themes are directly connected to modeling and building empathy. We also encourage our students to participate in community events that draw attention to being empathetic.  To date, our students have participated in two food drives that benefited our local community, a pajama drive that helped to keep local children warm at night and most recently, the Kids Heart Challenge where we raised $8,954 for the American Heart Association. Our students have so much to be proud of and we will continue to provide examples and opportunities for them to demonstrate and practice being empathetic.

News from Robin Woolley, School Counselor 

Kindness and friendship for the whole family!

With the cold weather lingering, I’m finding it tough to continue to come up with activities for my children.  If your kids are like mine, the TV (and other screens) often take over.  If you’re tired of fighting the “screen battle”, here’s an idea for giving in to the screen while incorporating family time and character education.  Make some popcorn, snuggle up on the couch and pick out one of these top 30 kindness and friendship movies that Big Life Journal recommends.  Click here for the article and list of movies that you may want to check out.

 News from Patricia Lynch, Math Teacher

C.E.T. Loves Math!

The struggle is real!

Let’s address the elephant in the room …

Many parents have stated to C.E.T. teachers that they had a hard time with Math courses in school and that may be why their child finds math a struggle or more difficult than reading or writing.  Math phobia or anxiety is common.  The wonderful news is that the brain’s plasticity allows new learning to occur at all life stages, especially as a child.  Whether your child is advanced for their age, in need of extra support or somewhere in between, research proves we always have the potential to strengthen our math abilities.  Struggling in a productive way, leads to deeper learning.

Believe it or not,  ALL math students struggle at one point or another – even if they appear very confident!  In the video link below, Stanford University students talk about the pressure of being a top math student in elementary school and how they hid their struggles at times.  At C.E.T., we encourage the ‘productive struggle’ necessary for growth.  We do celebrate mastery and do review prior material quite a bit, but in moving forward, students need to grapple, wonder, predict, communicate, attempt, question, double check, learn from mistakes and more!  Research proves that even a 5-week focus on improving math skills works wonders!    

So, remember, just like discussing books and life lessons with your child, your child needs to watch you productively struggle aloud with math.  Learning does not end in the classroom. Children need help and support at home to succeed in their studies. Try to create a quiet place for your child to study and carve out time every day when your child can concentrate on reading, writing and math uninterrupted by friends, family or other distractions. Keep informed about what your child is working on by visiting the C.E.T. Math Lab site where you have access to grade-level curriculum, math work and supports. Croton-Harmon teachers want your child to build resiliency and to carve their path to math success and if you also begin to feel more comfortable with the productive struggle of math, that’s icing on the cake!

Rethinking giftedness video: 

https://www.youcubed.org/rethinking-giftedness-film/

Full article on math improvement:

https://bhi61nm2cr3mkdgk1dtaov18-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/SPED-paper-2.2019-Final.pdf

  News from CET PTA

For the first time ever we are selling beautiful Handcrafted Greeting cards. There are four options to choose from. Two box choices for "Cards for all occasions", a box with Childrens' birthday cards and a Thanks & Blanks box. These cards are beautiful and at only $1 per card, it is a steal. Please help support this new effort by the PTA.

Orders are due March 18th and payments should be sent with your child (cash or checks made out to CET PTA) in an envelope marked with your child's name and addressed to CET PTA - Greeting Card Fundraiser. You can download the order form here https://sites.google.com/a/chufsd.org/cet-pta/2015-gift-card-fundraiser/greeting-cards

Some upcoming events are our General PTA meeting on Wednesday, March 13th at 7:30 pm. The next Principal's coffee is scheduled for March 19th at 9:30 am and the interesting topic is STEM.

We would also like to invite any person/s interested in getting more involved in the PTA - whether that is running an event or getting involved with the Executive committee, or simply volunteering time at specific opportunities - to contact us to talk about opportunities to get involved.

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Parent/Teacher Conferences

Please sign up for your parent/teacher conference. You can access the link from our CET webpage. The last day to sign up is  March 12, 2019.

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Experience Science 2019

Sign up NOW for the  2019 Experience Science Technology and Innovation Fair! 

This event takes place on Thursday, May 2nd from 5:30-7:30 pm in the Croton-Harmon High School Auxiliary Gym. All K-12 students are eligible to participate.

For more info, visit our Experience Science website

Students can sign up right now. Use this simple student sign up form 

Updating You and Your Child’s Information in the K12 Alerts System 

To be sure we have the most up-to-date information for you and your child, you may access K12 Alerts by either logging on to the CET Homepage where you will find “Parent Portal/K12Alerts” or by accessing the Croton-Harmon School District’s Homepage and clicking on “Parent and Resident Portal/K12Alerts”. Once you log in to the K-12 Alert System, you will be able to make any necessary changes to your or your child’s information.

If you have any questions please contact Denise Cuomo, 914-271-4793, ext. 4200

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High School Homework Help

for Grades 1-6

Drop into the Croton Library on Wednesdays for homework help, run by high school students who want to help younger friends. It takes place from 3:15-5:00 pm in the Small Program Room.

For more information, contact criedel@wlsmail.org

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NYS Senate Earth Day Celebration

To celebrate Earth Day this year, the NYS Senate is sponsoring a poster celebration for children in grades K-6. The theme is: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. 

Please photograph and submit your entries electronically, in jpeg or pdf format, via www.harckam.nysenate.gov. Submissions must be uploaded to the website by April 17, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator for this event, Cynthia Thomas Greenstein, 518-455-2520 or cthomas@nysenate.gov