[CabotCommunity] JABBERLITE TUESDAY, JANUARY 23rd 2007

Tue Jan 23 08:03:50 EST 2007

JABBERLITE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 23RD

This Jabberlite contains the following items:

 Upcoming Events – change of date for Winter Concert!

 Next PTO meeting & issues of business

 What can you do to alleviate congestion next year at Cabot?

 How PTO funds are spent – a spotlight on Technology

 Cabot Family Dance & Newton Food Pantry Collection

 A Cabot Student initiative to improve school lunches

 Health Notes from the Cabot Nurse

 Newton Parent Advisory Council for Special Education Seminar

 Community Event Alerts - Museum of Afro-American Artists & Family Movie at
the Coolidge Corner Theater

DON”T FORGET TO VOTE TODAY AT THE NEWTON NORTH REFERENDUM

CALENDAR

January 23, 2007

Voting Day - Special Election on Newton North High School

January 27, 2007

Cabot Connecting Families Bowling, 2-4 PM Ron's Ice Cream & Bowling Hyde
Park

February 3, 2007

Cabot Family Dance (snow date 2/10)

February 3, 2007

PTO "Campaign for Cabot" ends

February 5, 2007

School Council 5:00 - 7:00 PM

February 8, 2007

Winter Concert, 11:00 AM & 7:30 PM

February 8, 2007

Early Release, 12:30 PM Dismissal

February 8, 2007

Newton PAC for Special Education - Strategies for Parenting the Explosive
Child"  7:30 PM Newton Ed Center 100 Walnut St.

February 11, 2007

Snow date for Cabot Connecting Families Bowling

February 12, 2007

School Committee Meeting, 7:30 PM

February 19 to Feb 23

Winter Vacation, NO SCHOOL

February 26, 2007

School Committee Meeting, 7:30 PM

February 27, 2007

PTO Meeting, 8:35 AM– 9:30 AM

February 27, 2007

Affinity Group 12:30 PM

February 28, 2007

Incoming Kindergarten Parent Evening, 6:30-8:30PM (Snow date 3/5)

UPCOMING EVENTS – save the dates!

Cabot Winter Concert – Thursday, February 8th 11am & 7:30pm

Please be aware that the concert date has been changed from January 25th to
the above date. This concert involves the grade 5 chorus, band and the
orchestra.

Cabot Connecting Families Bowling Event – Saturday, January 27th 2-4pm at
Ron’s Ice Cream & Bowling, Hyde Park

Cabot Connecting Families invites you to join us for Ice Cream and Bowling
this Saturday afternoon from 2:00pm - 4:00pm at Ron's Gourmet Ice Cream and
Bowling in Hyde Park.  Don't forget to look for the specially marked flyer
with all the details in your student's backpack - if you're the lucky
winner, bring the flyer with you and you'll enjoy a free gourmet ice cream
on us!!

This is a great event – fun for all the families and a good way to meet
other Cabot families! If you have any questions contact Mary Heney at
mheney at rcn.com or Sara Goldberg at salgoldberg at comcast.net 

Neighborhood Fireside chats with Dr. Quarcoo

As advertised recently, Dr. Quarcoo has instigated a series of neighborhood
get togethers to reinforce community and an old-fashion meet and greet.
These dates have already been confirmed, more are coming. Use your Cabot
Directory to decide which one is nearest to your neighborhood and RSVP to
the host directly! Come along and socialize with some of your Cabot
neighbors and Dr. Quarcoo! Our thanks go to these parents who have offered
to be hosts and those who are yet to be scheduled!

            February 7th, 7pm          Virginia Dean

            February 13th, 7pm        Kate Dulit

            February 27th, 7pm        Bud & Vicki Gartland    

            March 12th, 7:30pm       Janet Hart

            March 21st, 7pm            Claire Ryan-Robertson

            April 24th, 6:30pm         Monalisa Neville

Q&A Session with School Committee Members

Thanks last week to Marc Laredo & Reenie Murphy for braving the cold and
coming to answer Cabot parent questions. And thanks to all those parents who
turned up to ask & hear the discussion. A summary of the evening was already
sent to the Cabot community via email and a paper copy is displayed on the
PTO Notice Board.

PTO Meeting – Tuesday, February 27th at 8:40am, Cabot Library 

Come join us to add your voice to our PTO deliberations. This meeting we
will be discussing the state of our finances year to date, what to do with
any surplus from this years Campaign for Cabot, upcoming events such as the
Cabot Family Dance and proposed format changes to the Book Fair, what
fundraisers we should include in next years schedule and a preliminary look
at budget items for next year. In addition an update will be given on the
location of the modulars and exploring ways to alleviate congestion next
Fall especially at drop-off and pick-up. 

WE GOT WHAT WE WANTED! NOW WHAT? 

What did we get that we wanted? Extra classrooms for next Fall in the form
of modulars! The School Committee heard our opinions and voted that Cabot
should get 2 modulars to provide the additional classrooms that are
projected we will need in the Fall of 2007. That’s great for us
. BUT

 the
flipside is there will be even more congestion at Cabot as we learn how to
accommodate even more students and faculty, and put even more pressure on
Cabot’s amazing but already overburden administrative staff and specialists.
Not to mention our failing infrastructure!

What can we do? YOU can start to think about how you can compromise on your
daily activities with respect to Cabot. The site for the modulars will
probably be at the rear of the building on the faculty parking lot. Some,
not all, parking will therefore be lost. Some discussion has been made to
reserve some spaces for teachers on the Cabot Field side of Parkside Street.
Whatever happens you can be sure that drop-off and pick-up is going to be
even more congested than it is now. So that’s why we are asking you to begin
thinking about what you can do to alleviate this congestion. We can all do
something!  Maybe its taking the bus to school, or making a determined
effort to walk with a buddy system for you & your children, or the
revolutionary idea of not parking right on the streets by Cabot but parking
a few blocks away!!!!! If you are interested in exploring the bus or walking
buddies then please contact Liz Haas haas.joffe at rcn.com Cabot parent School
Council Co-Leader or Janet Hart parisharts at hotmail.com , Cabot parent School
Council representative.

How are the PTO funds spent?

Still wondering what happens to all the money the PTO raises? Well, first of
all check out our budget plan for the year at www.cabotpto.org
<http://www.cabotpto.org/>  . Frequently in our emails we have identified
areas where PTO monies are spent to illustrate just how they benefit our
students. This time we thought we would highlight Technology where we have
budgeted to spend $9,500 this year. Our thanks go to committee chair, Cabot
parent Richard Wright who provided this summary:

Cabot teachers and students are integrating technology into their lessons in
many ways, at all grade levels. Grade three students are using PowerPoint as
part of their unit on trees in Mrs. Vaswani and Ms. Griffin classrooms. Ms.
Milham is working with her students to create presentations related to
various science experiments in her class. Grade 4 is using the laptop cart
on the second floor to implement Type to Learn. Ms. Magovney’s students are
working on a Kid Pix project, creating and identifying patterns. She has a
wonderful parent volunteer to help her students with this project. In grade
2, Mrs. Moriarty uses the LCD projector in her daily lessons which often
include: streaming videos and websites. Her class uses the laptops on the
third floor to publish newspaper complete editorials, classroom updates and
other exciting information. Lastly, most classrooms have websites providing
curriculum related links, parent information and more. Many classroom
teachers are using their LCD projectors daily as part of their lesson
presentations.  

We have allocated some of this year’s budget as follows: 

*	We are planning the purchase of five (5) new iMacs and two (2)
laptops.  The estimated cost is 6K.  
*	We have also allocated $325 for the purchase of miscellaneous items
(CD's, DVD's, Replacement chargers)

Future needs to be addressed or in the works:

*	Learning Center Teachers laptop upgrade 
*	Upgrade the ibook for Ms. Miller grade 1 class.

Cabot Annual Family Dance - Saturday, February 3rd 7 – 9pm

Cabot PTO invites you and your family to a fun filled evening of music,
dance and food.  As in previous years, the dance will be held at Bigelow
school from 7 to 9 PM.  

Once again our very own famous faculty'n'musician  - Marc Lacatell, will
help us all swing to some groovy music.  It is a fun, relaxing event for the
whole family, held by the 

PTO every year where we announce our year to date collections for the
Cabot's Annual fund drive. In the spirit of Healthy Body and Healthy Minds,
the family dance committee 

asks families to bring healthy snacks to share for this evening.

For the family dance event, we are looking for a dancer to showcase his or
her talent, such as Chinese, African, Irish step dance or any other folk
dances from different parts of the world.  

If you know any student within Newton Public school system who would like to
participate, please do let us know.  The performer gets a gift certificate
from a local bookstore.  

We are also looking for a Cabot parent to be our official photographer at
the Cabot Dance! 

 If you have any questions, or would like to answer the call for either of
these opportunities, please contact Archana Vahalia at auvusa at netscape.net
or Suzy Ernheart at srenyeart2 at yahoo.com   Thank you!

Collection for the Newton Food Pantry at the Cabot Family Dance

At the Cabot Family Dance, the Cabot Social Action Committee will be
collecting non-perishable items for the Newton Food Pantry.  The Newton Food
Pantry has a particular need for the following donations:

canned fruit  *  meals in a can (beef stew, spaghetti and meatballs, meat
ravioli, etc.)  *  canned vegetables (especially, beets and peas) * peanut
butter

Please donate the 14-16 ounce jars/cans, the extra-large/family size ones
are difficult to store. Thank you from Isabelle Thacker
isabelle at thackers.net 

What do you think about Cabot lunches?

Do you like school lunches? Do they meet your standards of a healthy meal
and do they need your child’s culinary & dietary needs? One of Cabot’s 4th
grade students, Sasha MacDonald doesn’t think so and decided to do something
about it. What did she do? She went straight to the top of course and asked
for, and got, a meeting with Superintendent Dr. Jeff Young. At the meeting
Sasha presented her ideas for a healthier menu & got Dr. Young’s approval to
investigate further. She has now met with the person responsible for Newton
school lunches and watch out for the interview with her in this weeks TAB!
So if you feel like Sasha there’s room for improvement in school lunches
please consider joining Sasha and her mother, Laurie Meizler, on this
mission. Laurie and Sasha would like to invite any Cabot student & their
parent to a kick off meeting to develop ideas to present to Newton Public
Schools!  If you are interested please contact Laurie directly at
ldmeizler at hotmail.com

Health Notes from The Cabot Nurse

The Newton Health Department exclusion policy requires that children be kept
at home if he or she shows signs of any of the following: 
a fever over 100°F during the past 24 hours; a cold in the active stages,
i.e. coughing, runny nose, or sneezing; a sore throat and/or 
swollen neck glands; an undiagnosed rash or skin eruptions; vomiting or
diarrhea within the past 24 hours; or head lice that have not been treated. 

Because school health rooms are not equipped to accommodate sick children
and crowded health rooms lead to further spread of disease, it
is imperative that sick children be kept at home. It is also crucial that
parents make every effort to pick up children as soon as possible
when notified by school personnel. Please review with your children that
when being dismissed from school due to illness, they must wait for you
in the nurses office and are required to be signed out from the nurse's
office. Changes in emergency phone numbers should be made known
immediately. Also, please inform Karen Kerrigan, the School Nurse, if your
child has strep throat, any contagious illness or rash, head lice or
any medical or surgical conditions that require hospitalization or lengthy
duration at home.

The Newton Parent Advisory Council for Special Education Seminar – Thursday,
February 8th 7:30pm

The Newton Parent Advisory Council for Special Education presents
Strategies for Parenting the Explosive Child on Thursday Feb 8, 2007. The
Explosive Child by Ross Greene, PhD of Mass General Hospital provides a
compelling new framework for understanding and effectively parenting
inflexible, easily frustrated children who experience frequent meltdowns.
Greene explains explosiveness and rigid behavior as symptoms of a deficit in
the flexible thinking skills children need for handling difficult situations
such as hearing the word “No” from a parent.  “Once parents have a better
sense about why these children behave as they do,” says Greene, “strategies
for helping things improve become clearer.”  His Collaborative Problem
Solving approach offers specific strategies for preventing meltdowns and for
teaching children the thinking skills they lack.  

We will view Greene’s video outlining his approach, and discussion will
follow led by Beth Edelstein, founder of the Foundation for Children with
Behavioral Challenges ( www.fsbcsupport.org <http://www.fsbcsupport.org/>
). FCBC is a support group that promotes awareness of compassionate
approaches for parenting children with social, emotional, and behavioral
challenges.  Information about Greene’s book is available at www.ccps.info
<http://www.ccps.info/>   

The meeting is at 7:30 PM at the Education Center, 100 Walnut St, Newton
02460 in Room 318. Please contact Leslie Lockhart for more information about
the meeting or the Parent Advisory Council at 617-527-5046 or
newtonspedpac at yahoo.com 

Celebrate Black History Month at the Museum of Afro-American Artists 

Saturday February 10-10AM-noon Cost: $25
You are in for a treat!  Explore Boston's only museum dedicated to
contemporary and historical expressive arts from the global Black world with
E. Barry Gaither, the Executive Director and internationally known art
expert. Meet at the Museum, 300 Walnut Ave, Roxbury at 10AM or meet our
shuttle at Back Bay Station at 9:30AM

Optional lunch after the program at United House of Prayer--great soul food.
Lunch not included in the cost. Shuttle will return participants to Back Bay
after the program and after lunch.
Pre-registration required.

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=6b9z98bab.0.754z98bab.k7f858n6.99&ts=S0228&p=http%3
A%2F%2Fwww.ncaaa.org%2Fmuseum>  <http://www.ncaaa.org/exhibitions.html> Find
out more about the Museum

For more information call Discover Roxbury (617) 427-1006 or email
<Mailto:marcia at discoverroxbury.org> marcia at discoverroxbury.org

Boston Globe Film Critic Ty Burr presents: THE BEST OF OLD MOVIES FOR
FAMILIES

Sunday, February 18: Screening; $3, Discussion: FREE 12-30-1:15pm

Have a classic film favorite that you want to introduce to your kids? We
invite you to join Boston Globe film critic, Ty Burr, for a screening of THE
COURT JESTER and a discussion of his new book,The Best of Old Movies for
Families: A Guide to Watching Together. Ty will share with you why some
classic movies are great for even the youngest member of your family! THE
COURT JESTER (1956) stars Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury. The throne of
rightful king of England has been usurped by the evil King Roderick. The
task to restore the throne falls to Hawkins

(Kaye)--and all he needs is the king's key to a secret tunnel.

www.coolidge.org <http://www.coolidge.org/>  

FUNDING PROVIDED IN PART BY THE COOLIIDGE CORNER THEATRE

290 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA 02446

This JabberLite has been compiled for you by the Cabot PTO

Jo Doherty

Cabot PTO Co-President

11 Leonard Avenue,

West Newton, MA 02465

617-332-1530

jcdoherty11 at comcast.net

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