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Parents'
"Did You Know" Just
a thought… Lower School news… • Back-to-school night was a wonderful evening, and the attendance was astounding. Thanks, one and all, for making the event a special one for the benefit of our students and your kids. • STRIVE slips are due! Kindly return the slips asap! • We are still missing a few emergency data slips… please give them a high priority. • Kristen Butler, daughter of Debbi, began a practicum at the Lower Schoollast week in the rooms of Diane Wozniak and Kirsten Rindal. Kristen is working on a teaching credential at Azusa College. • Rich DeBolt, President of San Diego Mayflower Moving Co, is working with our fourth graders once again. Years ago, Rich offered Parker's fourth grade a proposed "one-time-only" program, Discover America, which emphasizes geography. Rich brought his huge moving van to the school,toured the fourth graders through the vehicle, and introduced them to "Driver Bob," whom they would follow all over the U.S. as he corresponded with them. Rich was so impressed with the students, their questions, and their manners that we are now entering our 10th year of this program, and he'll visit again on September 27. • Dori Rodi Shryock noticed that a "Hopkins 24/7" segment will be aired on ABC on Thursday, September 21, regarding the Cochlear Implant, a remarkable device used by one of our Lower School students. Theinstrument simulates the action of the cochlea in transmitting a signal to the auditory nerve, and is proving very effective in children's language acquisition. Staff development news… • Margery Squier, LS parent of Annie, will continue to meet with LS teachers as they learn the in's and out's of webpage design and use. She will be returning today (Monday) to meet with the special teachers at 8:15 a.m. in the tech center. Teachers needing extra assistance from Margery may arrange for her help by visiting the LS office. Faculty meeting…9/20/00 • This week, Bonnie Tierney, the LS's Educational Psychologist, will present a tape she has made to explain phonemes and phonemic awareness. All primary teachers are requested to attend, and other teachers who would like to learn more about these essential building blocks are invited. The meeting will begin at 7:30 a.m. in the auditorium. Significant dates throughout the year… • Coming home in the Monday envelopes today… a more comprehensive list of dates and events throughout the year. News around the school… • New parents are reminded that the new parent mentor dinner is this Tuesday, September 19, at 6 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center on the Middle/Upper School campus. • Check out the Parker Perspective on the school's website. You won't want to miss it! (www.francisparker.org) • Tony Pasaik has been hired as the school's new alumni director, and Charles Wells is the new database and charitable gift administrator. Welcome to both of these gentlemen. • An alumni luncheon will be held at the Lower School on October 15 in honor of those who attended the school from 1920-1959. Student council news… • Student council officer candidates will be visiting classrooms (campaigning) this week to familiarize their peers with their faces, names and ideas. Voting will take place this Friday morning (until noon), thenthe new officers will be announced at our assembly. • Parker's Freshmen (Class of 2004) will visit the Lower School on October 2 to tour the original school site. The program gives these upper school students, many of whom never attended the Lower School, a greater sense of the history and traditions which have shaped Parker through the years. Community service news… • Alli Marsh, one of 431 Lower School students, is becoming something of a celebrity. As a diabetic since age 4, Alli knows something about this disease, and she is doing her best to fight for a cure. Last year, she testified before Congress, appealing for additional funding for research. She also became the focus of "Alli's friends," a group which marched in last year's Walk for the Cure. The same event will be held on September 23rd this year, and you are invited to join "Alli and Friends of FrancisParker" in Balboa Park as they attempt to stamp out this illness. For more information, call Rob Marsh, Alli's brother, @ 858-459-1773. • The AIDS Walk is scheduled for October 1 at 7:30 a.m. in Balboa Park. Over the last few years, Parker has been a huge supporter of this event, sending in excess of 180 Parker community members to participate. If you are interested in joining this group, call Carol Jensen at the US. • Lower School athletes Kris Jones and Linda Ruggles… and hanger-on Bob Gillingham have entered the Challenged Athletes' Triathlon scheduled for November 5. The event supports challenged athletes all over the world, including many who will have competed in Sydney this fall. On the Friday prior to the event, several challenged athletes will visit the Lower School to promote fitness for everyone. Kris Jones will swim 1.2 miles, Bob Gillingham will bike 55 miles, and Linda Ruggles will run 13.1 miles as Team Parker endeavors to… survive! Kudos to… • All of you for negotiating so smoothly the many demands (and meetings) which occur at the beginning of the school year. Technology news… • The national math standards have arrived, and with them have come some excellent resources. Among them are the National Council for Teachers of Math website: www.standards.nctm.org . Peruse this site for a clear explanation of the processes and concepts which make up the standards as well as some practical exercise to demonstrate the standards in practice. Thoughts to ponder… The following was contributed by Sikkand Harminder: Lets face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indeces? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends, but not one amend; that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue? Sometimes I think all the Englishspeakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite a play and play a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few arealike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another? Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly, or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly? You have to marvel at the lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which is not a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it. |