Larries Newsletter

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read our first sharing of our community newsletter. We realize that since March 13th of 2020, when COVID-19 changed all our lives, we have not been able to see your faces in or around the building at the numerous events we normally would have...our realization from this...WE MISS YOU!

In speaking with community members, many have expressed the fact that they miss not seeing and hearing what is going on here at SLC. Our second realization….it is time to start sharing what great things have been happening since the pandemic started. On the first Monday of every month, we will be releasing a digital community newsletter, in hopes of sharing many POSITIVE things that our staff, students, and even community members have been doing throughout the previous month.

The past few weeks, news channels have been covering several stories involving getting our students back to school (across the country). SLC has been lucky enough to be able to offer in-person learning 4 days a week for our Pre-K to grade 4 students and on a Hybrid (two days a week) schedule for grades 5-12. There would be no better news than to hear NYS no longer requires the 6 feet of social distancing for desks in classrooms, but as of today, that is still the rule. This rule limits most of our classrooms to 12-13 students max. Please know we are working on Plans B,C,D, etc. for possibilities as soon as that rule is changed/altered.

You may also have heard we are working very hard to give our students in grades 7-12 some semblance of a winter sport season (games begin March 1- March 21). This will then be followed by Fall 2 and Spring sports seasons. We are working to also safely re-open our fitness room for students and staff and will be looking at ways to safely involve more students in our music and performing arts programs. These are small steps, but ones we are happy to be taking on to try and bring students back to a more “normal” school year.

In closing, I know this has not been a typically “great” school year for many students and families. All our lives have been challenged in so many ways. During this past year some of the best advice I was given to help me through was this: "If you’re feeling helpless yourself, then go out and help someone else.” The positive feeling you get from helping someone else is a great first step in getting you back on the road to feeling like you are accomplishing something again!

The district is running a contest in all English classes in grades 5-12 to come up with a name for our new SLC community newsletter. Each grade level will nominate one newsletter title. On March 17th, the entire student body will vote to determine the title for our newsletter.

We will disclose the new title and the winner of the competition in our April edition!

Spring often signifies change and with March upon us, we are happy to share with our community that we are slowly starting to see some positive reopening opportunities for students! Since the start of February, we have been working diligently to extend our safety plans to after school opportunities for both student support as well as clubs and activities. We have reviewed all safety protocols throughout the year and feel confident we can begin to see a slight return to normal for students.

With these opportunities to stay after school for either academic support or with a club or activity come a few extra steps that students and families will need to keep in mind.

• All students are able to stay after on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday. This is open for students regardless of the day of the week that they attend or if they are remote.

• Students will need to contact the teacher to ensure the teacher is available. This can be in-person if the student is present on that day, or via email. This is to ensure that there is enough room to accommodate for our safety social distancing regulations. Check with your teacher as soon as you know that you would like to (this can be planned in advance) to make sure there is space for you to stay!

• If students will need transportation, they will need to arrange that with the teacher they are staying after school with. Please let your teacher know you will need the 3:25 pm bus in your communication with them, so they are aware and can put you on the list for the transportation.

We look forward to continuously assessing our opportunities for students and beginning the road to return back to school as we knew it prior to March 13th, 2020! We appreciate our students, the community, and our staff for all they have done to help navigate this difficult time. We know there are brighter days ahead this spring!

Stay safe and healthy~

Mrs. Zender

During Advisory class this month, high school students were challenged to create an SLC themed snowman. Students had the entire mid-winter break to create their snowman and submit a picture for the competition. The winner of the snowman competition was Kalissa Young. She won an SLC t-shirt for her awesome efforts! Great job, Kalissa!

The Liberty Partnership Program at SLC has had many online activities recently including online game nights, a virtual field trip to Egypt, study sessions, and more. Soon we will have more in person offerings after school including: Snack n' Study events and short workshops on various success skills.

Great work, LPP students!

High school extracurricular robotics is off to a good start this year! Some of our members have met with people across the country. The robot has been constructed as a trial run, but will definitely need major changes before qualifiers. If you want more information contact, hsrobotics@bfcsd.org.

SLC’s robotics team has done community service at our high school library this year! We helped clean and polish the library's bookshelves.

Written By: Samantha Major and Raegan Grant

Physics students gather data with their “cupsling” for circular motion. A “cupsling” is a plastic cup with rubber bands attached to it. Their cups were filled with water as they swung them around their head.

As part of their curriculum, students in Mrs. Martin Stone's class complete a work study program. Two of the work study programs include clothes recycling and janitorial services.

Jeffrey is very interested in the career field of janitorial. He is training under Mrs. LaBarge and learning new skills daily. Larissa works with Mrs. Lyon to help sort donated clothing, shoes, and sneakers, which will then be given to anyone in need.

The grades 7-12 Chorus students at SLC have all been working on basic piano skills using online keyboards, and in-person students have a chance to play full size keyboards. The piano skills will aid them in their future singing. They are also learning about the blues, and have played a blues bass line in C, a blues scale in C on piano. The chorus students will be writing blues songs together in March.

The Chamber Choir students have each completed a Personal Learning Project. Each student set their own learning goals, researched information about their goal and then presented their findings to the class. Examples of student projects included learning a new advanced song on guitar, writing a song about 2020, learning to do vocal riffs and runs, learning songs from popular Broadway shows, researching vocal technique, learning about busking, preparing college portfolios, learning ukulele, violin, and more.

Great job, Chamber Choir students!

Weekly hour long online musical theater workshops have been ongoing since the start of January for past cast and crew members. We have done musical theater games, improvisation activities, a Disney themed theater hair and make up challenge, worked on our accents and more. The students have had a great time exercising their creativity.

The IMPETUS Moonshot Challenge!

Build your straw rockets and shoot for the moon! In this activity, students built straw rockets and experimented with changes to make the rocket go the farthest!

For more information about this program contact Mrs. Bissonette at dbissonette@bfcsd.org

Here are a few pictures of IMPETUS students and family members completing this challenge.

Spanish Club members participated in a virtual cooking class last week where they made tacos and baked sopapillas!

We have been working hard in the middle school with improving our CORE skills so students can be successful. Congratulations to our first group of CORE students!

CORE Tips for Parents for Remote Learning:

1. Students should follow their normal school schedule while at home. We can provide you with a schedule if needed.

2. Students should check their email every morning, and respond to any messages from school. Unread emails should be deleted if they are not necessary, or read.

3. Students should keep a to-do list that they cross off as items are completed, or add items that they need to do.

Activity period is now available for students on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays. Extended day has changed hours to connect with Activity Period on Tuesday and Thursday.

Snowshoeing with Ms. Adams!

This January, students in Ms. Phelix’s English Language Arts class finished reading the classic coming-of-age novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. The book follows two rival groups from the 1960s, the Socs and the Greasers, who are divided by social class.

In celebration of the novel, students partook in Outsiders Day and chose to dress in the style of either the Socs or the Greasers as part of a costume contest.

Some students flexed their mental muscles by memorizing and reciting Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, which is an important poem from the novel.

Other students flexed their real muscles during a (COVID-safe) arm-wresting “rumble”. Students enjoyed other book-themed snacks and games to round-out the this year’s Outsiders Day celebration

Middle School Robotics students designed battle bots to compete against each other. They completed trial runs the week before February break and made modifications. The actual competitions were held the week of February 22-26. The winning robot from each class will be featured on the Robot Wall of Fame.

Here are some pictures from the Battle Bot challenge.

Our middle school students in the Extended Day Program have been busy with academics and fun enriching activities. Last week, the students were making indoor snow from supplies provided by Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Parents/Families, our partnership in your child's education is a critical element in their academic success. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you. This year has presented us with some unique circumstances, and we are grateful for your support.

We are happy to have 85% of our students participating in hybrid instruction (4 days in-person and 1 day remote), and grateful for technology, which allows us to connect with and educate our remote students from a distance. We encourage you to maintain communication with your child's teacher and be sure that on remote days your child has a space to work with minimal distractions.

Elementary students and staff recently enjoyed a fun-filled Friday, celebrating Valentine's Day and the 100th day of school.

Mrs. Powers and her Pre-K students celebrated the 100th day by completing acts of kindness in school and at home with their families. The goal was to complete 100 acts before February 11th! One of our acts was to put smiles on the faces of residents at LBSH by sending them Valentine’s Day cards.

Great job, Pre-K students!

Mrs. Braun's school counseling plans this month in the Elementary School include welcoming Brian LaBier, a mental health counselor from Citizen Advocates, who will be available to support students one day a week. Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten screening welcome videos will be recorded and shared with families, so please stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

As always, Mrs. Braun is available to families and students during school days and she can be contacted at (315) 389-5131 ext. 29353 and by emailing mbraun@bfcsd.org.

As we approach the one year anniversary of St. Lawrence Central’s adoption of a 1:1 Chromebook initiative, it is important to remind everyone of the district's Acceptable Use Policy. In recent weeks, our monitoring of student account activity has revealed that many students are making poor choices when using their school provided accounts and Chromebooks during their internet searches.

In the Acceptable Use Policy, it outlines that the use of Internet access, e-mail and Chromebook provided by the District are intended for educational use, instruction, research and the facilitation of communication, collaboration, and other district related purposes. Users are subject to the same standards expected in a classroom and/or professional workplace while in school or at home.

Students must understand that all other activities such as playing games, listening to music and watching videos are all privileges that can be revoked when abused. As a district we have technology in place to help protect students when they make poor choices when accessing material on the internet but we can not do it alone.

The Acceptable Use Policy provides some guidance on how students and parents can assist in keeping our students safe. First of all, although students generally will be supervised when using the District’s Internet System on school property, it is not practicable for the District to monitor and enforce a wide range of social values in student use of the Internet. Parents are primarily responsible for transmitting their particular set of family values to their children, and discussing with their children what material is and is not acceptable for their children to access through the District’s Internet Systems. While the school does employ a filtering screen for home access to the District’s Internet System, parents are exclusively responsible for monitoring their children's use of the Internet when the District’s Internet System is being accessed from home or a non-school location.

Thank you everyone for your continued support in helping us keep our students and District Internet System cyber safe.

Email: crose@bfcsd.org
Website: www.bfcsd.org
Location: 1039 State Highway 11C, Brasher Falls, NY 13613
Phone: 315-389-5131
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrasherFallsCSD