Dear Stanbridge Parents & Staff,
STUDENT SHOWCASES Two successful Division Showcases down and one to go! It was a full house yesterday that came to see our Middle School Division present their slides. Our four Advisory classrooms were packed both with nerves and smiling faces. For many students, this was their first presentation to a room full of people. Each of the student presentations built on their learning from the beginning of the school year, challenging our students in public speaking, presentation skills, sharing of knowledge, individuality and creativity. This coming week, Elementary families will gather in Hayden Hall to see a variety of presentation formats by all students. Please plan to have at least one family member attend and arrive early for parking, as both our lot and the neighborhood are sure to be impacted by these community events. We look forward to sharing this opportunity for you to see your child shine! OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY (OT) Stanbridge has contracted with Therapeeps for OT services that will take place on our campus on Thursdays. This is the first time we've had OTs on staff and we are working to make the most of this time. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. ADVANCEMENT OFFICE NEWS Our Director of Advancement has been out on medical leave since early November. Please join me in welcoming an Interim Director of Advancement who knows our community well. Please know we will be getting the year-end donation letters out in the near future for tax purposes. If you have any questions or needs prior to receiving those letters, feel free to reach out to me directly. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School Future-Ready: Students Master AI, Presentations, and Spreadsheets
Students from Upper Elementary to High School are now diving into the Google Applied Digital Skills curriculum, gaining essential tech skills for school, careers, and life. The curriculum includes lessons on how to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in daily life, create dynamic presentations, and manage spreadsheets. By working with real-world tools like Google Slides and Sheets, they develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. High School students are working on the Google Slides lessons while upper elementary and middle school are working on the AI lessons. By learning these skills early, students build confidence and adaptability, making them better prepared for an increasingly digital world. With technology evolving rapidly, this curriculum ensures students stay ahead—future-ready and digitally fluent. Middle Elementary has been working on their Google Slides showcase the past two weeks. They are excited to show parents what they've been learning. Prior to jumping into presentation-mode, they were creating VR experiences in Cospaces. Lower Elementary has been hard at play with the basics of coding, the best way to learn for this age. Parents are welcome to reinforce their learning at home in Kodable and Scratch Jr. – Gregory Wilson, PhD., Director of Instructional Technology High School students are learning about self-advocacy and assertive communication in Social Learning, as well as how to set personal boundaries while respecting others' boundaries. We are examining the in-person and online connections we make and how to evaluate the health of those relationships. We also discussed how we use our cellphone cameras – what boundaries we set when photographing people, including ourselves, and posting photos online or sharing them with others.
Here is a helpful link for parents from Common Sense Media: Help Kids Make Friends and Interact Safely Online – Mary Stadler, Director of Counseling MS Art Silly Sandwiches
This art prompt delivered such deliciously silly titles as Dessert Sandwich; the Honey Carrot Cake Donut Sandwich; the Cool Crazy Heart Sandwich; Rainbow Dessert Sandwich; Mr Good Recipe Sandwich on Earth; the Most Hardest, Healthiest, Poisonous, Paperous and COLDEST Hamburger; the Submarine Sandwich (ingredients included a submersible boat!); Unedible School Supplies Sandwich; the Brawl Stars Sandwich; Heart Attack 9,000... and more! Dear Stanbridge Parents & Staff,
Each division showcase for current parents builds on previous learning to challenge our students in public speaking, presentation skills, sharing of knowledge, individuality and creativity. Please see your division schedule below and plan to have at least one family member attend a Thursday event. Also plan to arrive early for parking, as both our lot and the neighborhood are sure to be impacted by these community events. It was wonderful seeing all the parent support on campus yesterday for the HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION Showcase! Check out this week's collage for a few great moments. Students were able to make their presentations to standing-room only crowds, making all their hard work feel like they all hit a huge jackpot. The format emphasized that, in addition to the tremendous SEL happening everyday, our school follows a traditional high school curriculum. A huge thank you to Camille Geraci and Jay Huston for their ability to think outside the box on how we previously ran Showcase in High School. If you have any feedback about the new format, please let us know. We think it was a Grand Slam idea! The MIDDLE SCHOOL DIVISION will present their Showcase next. Middle School Advisory Groups will present slide decks about life in Middle School. We will meet in Advisory classrooms. Please pick up your individual student's daily schedule in Hayden Hall prior to programming. ELEMENTARY DIVISION presents last, as they need much time to prepare for one of their first public speaking appearances. Families will gather in Hayden Hall to see a variety of presentation formats by all students. We look forward to seeing you at your child's Showcase. More importantly, we look forward to sharing this opportunity for you to see your child shine! Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Danny Martin Principal ELEMENTARY & MIDDLE SCHOOL (Lemon & Nurse groups) Our Elementary and Middle School Physical Education classes continue to do an amazing job! Our Elementary classes have done such an incredible job of playing together as a team and showing great Sportsmanship. We have focused heavily on working with supporting each other and being great teammates. Playing lots of various scooter, dodgeball, tag, and exercise-based games, I have seen such an improvement with their hand-eye coordination, proprioception, flexibility, agility, and stamina. Our Middle Schoolers have been playing lots of sport-based games such as baseball, soccer, sockey (a combination of hockey and soccer), bowling, and golf to focus on learning various game rules, but also full body coordination and teamwork skills. We are seeing lots of great sharing, respecting others and ourselves, and looking out for our friends. It's been an awesome quarter! I look forward to continue seeing our students thrive in PE. – Coach Gage Daniel, Co-Athletic Director, K–8 Physical Education; Health MIDDLE (Hammerhead & Tiger groups) & HIGH SCHOOL Our Middle School and High School classes have been doing great in Physical Education this Winter! This quarter we have participated in some new activities, as well as some of the activities from the Fall quarter. The new activities implemented this quarter have been baseball, jousting, basketball, football, and sockey (a combination of hockey and soccer). We still have circuit training, running the mile, and dodgeball games. Physical Education can help students improve their grades and standardized test scores, stay on-task in the classroom, develop confidence and self-efficacy, and develop critical thinking skills. Stanbridge PhysEd also follows the 4R's of Respecting the equipment, each other, the teacher, and yourself. We are seeing empathy grow towards peers which comes from teamwork, trust, and sportsmanship during activities. Lastly, in Health, students are realizing that living healthier lifestyles now, when they are young, can build positive habits and benefit them when they are adults. – Coach Daniel Quinal, Co-Athletic Director, 6-12 Physical Education; Health In Student Government this week, we talked about having another seasonal hot chocolate sale and have decided to do it on Monday, February 10th. On that day, Student Government will offer K-12 students and staff hot chocolate during lunch for free. We look forward to serving you this delicious Winter treat!
Next Friday, February 7th, will be our February Pizza Sale. Please pre-order on the Pizza Form if you would like your child to have a delicious pizza, salad, or hot dog lunch next Friday. Because of the success of the trial run of hot dog sales during last month's Pizza Sale, we will keep hot dogs on the menu for this upcoming sale. I think the Costco Pizza Sale is going really well and we are able to make money while also serving you a quality pizza along with yummy hot dogs now. Student Government recently bought some new sports equipment for all students to play with [during recess and lunch] and they are enjoying all of it. Student Government purchased five new basketballs, four soccer balls, three footballs, two frisbees, and a six-pack of foam dodgeballs. All balls were placed in the ball bin in the courtyard. We are pleased that students have enjoyed using the balls already! Thank you to SPA parents for providing us with delicious baked goods for today's Bake Sale! Congratulations to High School on their successful showcase presentations yesterday. Middle School, you are up next week! – Daniel C., Secretary Stanbridge Student Government Dear Stanbridge Community,
The Stanbridge Academy Showcase series traditionally takes place mid-winter afternoons before dismissal. We invite current parents to experience the learning that your child is engaging in at school. Think of Showcases as what used to be called (in our school days) a traditional school open house. Each division showcase builds on previous learning to challenge our students in public speaking, presentation skills, sharing of knowledge, individuality and creativity. Please see your division schedule and plan to have at least one family member attend the event. Also plan to arrive early for parking, as both our lot and the neighborhood are sure to be impacted by these community events. HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION High School classes will have two to three student speakers per class period. We will follow your individual student's daily schedule. Please pick one up in Hayden Hall prior to programming.
Middle School Advisory Groups will present slide decks about life in Middle School. We will meet in Advisory classrooms. Please pick up your individual student's daily schedule in Hayden Hall prior to programming.
Families will gather in Hayden Hall to see a variety of presentation formats by all students.
Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Danny Martin Principal BULLDOG BASKETBALL
Our 2025 BASSAL Basketball team is owning the court so far. We had a great game on Tuesday, avenging our loss to Winston Prep. Bulldogs were thrilled with a slim two-point win after coming from behind 21-6 at halftime! Way to Stay Strong, Bulldogs! We tied the game today against Star Academy, making our record 2-1-1. SPA EVENTS: SOUP FROM THE HEART The Soup from the Heart SPA Staff Appreciation event is an annual lunch we all look forward to! Families love providing a warm mid-winter meal for their Bulldog's teachers and we, in turn, love to gobble up your delicious family favorites. All the love... no wonder it's always scheduled the week of Valentine's Day! For any food provided to our staff, it is especially helpful if volunteers are specific in their sign-up to include family name*, food item title, and if any ingredients contain common allergens such as dairy, gluten, peanuts, tree nuts, what kind of meats, or the like. We do have a few serious allergies on staff that need to know these items. You can update your volunteer slot after you sign up, if you want to secure your slot now, but don't know yet what you are bringing. *Every year there are items so delicious that staff want the recipes! ¡VAMOS 2025!
We just started 2025 and now we are working and preparing for everything that is coming to us in this wonderful year. In LowerEl we are reviewing basic vocabulary: colors, numbers, days, months, animals, transport, school supplies, foods, and drinks. Short Spanish cartoons, some Spanish songs, and games such as Spanish BINGO help reinforce our learning. Middle El is reviewly vocabulary similarly to LowerEl, but we also learn sentence structure and basic expressions in Spanish – How are you? How old are you? Where do you live? What do you like to eat/drink? What is your favore movie/tv show? and more. We start focusing on Spanish pronunciation. There is always new vocabulary to learn and Upper El students practice a lot during class. Spanish movie scenes help students hear proper pronunciation and learn new vocabulary. Certainly it is a challenging exercise but they are doing very well. In Middle School, we learn to recognize vocabulary with wordsearches, and we practice pronunciation by reading aloud small paragraphs and sentences. We continue to learn and use many of the basic questions for communication in Spanish. We use iPads for educational Spanish games or for finding Spanish slides that help in our class. Like the other levels, Spanish films continue to be a helpful learning tool. High School classes learn vocabulary through puzzles and wordsearch. Almost daily, we type a good number of sentences in Spanish and complete corrections to improve our grammar. We read each sentence aloud, as well, and try the best pronunciation. Practicing basic conversations is important, so we try to speak as much as we can in Spanish every day. In Spanish 3, we reached a goal to speak only Spanish nearly the entire class! Recently we are working hard to prepare for next week's Showcase. Students are excited to show their parents what they are learning. We have good expectations for the rest of the year. We will keep working more and more to improve our Spanish learning process. Before I finish I will thank all of you for your support and understanding during my medical leave. I am doing very well now and ready to continue. Muchas gracias. – Ruben Nunez, K-12 Spanish This month, Elementary students are focusing on Relationship Skills. They are working on empathy and paying attention to others through a variety of games. They are also doing lots of body-based mirroring and clapping to help encourage students to build internal and external awareness. They faced their final challenge by working together to keep the leader a secret from a guesser. Students have had lots of fun while articulating the importance of paying attention to others and expressing understanding to develop friendships. See students expressions of empathy in the pictures below. Middle Schoolers are working on some new curriculum that is designed to help teach students about emotion regulation, mindful awareness, and distress tolerance. This content has sparked some great discussions about what benefits Middle Schoolers and the skills they need to be successful. This week, we learned about the three states of mind: emotion mind, reasonable (logic) mind, and wise mind. Students discussed how they are most successful when they combine the emotion and reasonable (logic) mind, and decisions cannot be made well with only one of them. The wise mind helps us balance these two states. We have also welcomed some new Middle Schoolers this Winter. Those students are working with their group to get to know each other and settle into the routine by goal setting and creating vision boards to express these interests and goals. – Emma Mamis, Board Certified Dance/ Movement Therapist, Clinical Counselor Monday is a National Day of Service to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a world-famous civil rights campaigner. "He is considered one of the great orators of modern times, and his speeches still inspire many to this day," (ducksters.com). Check out places to volunteer in your home community, read non-fiction books together at your local library (there are plenty of children's books on civil rights), or look up Martin Luther King, Jr. online to read about his contributions and help continue the conversation at home at an appropriate level. There are so many more ways to contribute.
Here are just a few resources to check out:
Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Danny Martin Principal INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAMS (IEPs) AT STANBRIDGE
I hope everyone has had a smooth transition back to the real world following break! As spring begins to approach, it is possible that you have an upcoming IEP meeting. I just wanted to send out a reminder of some ways that Stanbridge can support you through this process.
For your knowledge, ALL testing can be completed at Stanbridge. It is where your student is comfortable and feels supported! – Alyssa Dew, Learning Specialist POST-SECONDARY TRANSITION SUPPORT
We spent time last semester creating a multi-pathed flowchart that took them from graduation to independence. We traveled to the College of San Mateo, as it was on many of their flowcharts. Our students enjoyed hearing from two alumni, as well as seeing one of the recording studios and their resource center. On February 11th, our Juniors and Seniors will visit San Francisco State and learn more about how they support students. In March, we’ll be hosting alumni panels so that both parents and students can hear from alumni. The dates and details will be announced shortly. – Cindy Schlesinger, Dir. of College Counseling & Transitions SOCIAL THINKING WITH TRICIA (K5)
The focus before the holidays was gratitude. Executive Function skills were was built into the Secret Santa party and gift shopping, which included planning, organizing, and following through. Everyone enjoyed their gifts! A big thank you to the parents for shopping with your kids and helping to make this lesson a success. With the New Year, we are continuing to work on gratitude, adding in empathy and compromise over the next several weeks. We will connect empathy with the Martin Luther King, Jr., recognition and Black History month. This can also be a continuing conversation at home. Students have many questions about Martin Luther King, justice, and injustice. Keep conversations simple and answer only the questions your child asks in order to encourage understanding at their maturity level. Expanding too deep into the topic before they are ready can cause feelings of anxiety and confusion. Keep it simple. – Tricia Keener, Speech & Language Pathologist SATURDAY, MARCH 29 • 6:00 PM • FARALLON ROOM @ SKYLINE COLLEGE
We are excited for this year's Spring Gala, which will be held in a new venue sure to dazzle us with breathtaking sunset views. Mark your calendars now and keep an eye on your mailbox for this year's invite to a fabulous night featuring the Justin Geraci Duo, who will be joining us from Ohio just for this event. Donor support each year ensures that all of our students can keep shining bright like the stars we are sure to see—staying connected to academics, the arts, athletics, enrichment, and the social-emotional learning that Stanbridge Academy provides. Current and alumni families, faculty and trustees, alumni graduates (age 21+), and friends of the Stanbridge community, are invited to celebrate our incredible community. On behalf of our entire staff and student body, we are truly grateful for your generous support. ELEMENTARY
Elementary students have come back from a much deserved break and are getting back into our math classes. Lower Elementary is continuing to learn with their Dimensions Math books as well as practicing counting numbers up to 100. They have now begun to focus on skip counting! Middle Elementary has also been working hard on their Dimensions Math books, plus studying cardinal, ordinal, even, and odd numbers. Upper Elementary has been working on math with brain teasers and studying square numbers. [2025 is a square year because it can be calculated by multiplying 45 by itself. Fun fact: the last time this occurred (44x44) was in 1936!] They have also been working hard in their Dimensions Math books and continuing to progress through their workbooks. – Adria Olson, Lower Elementary Lead Teacher MIDDLE SCHOOL Middle School students continue to grow mathematically, as they tackle problems specifically suited to their individual interests and identified areas for improvement. Over the past several weeks, students have focused on answering word problems to the best of their ability by identifying key pieces of information, then determining what equation to write based on key words in the question. Through word problem practice, students are challenged both with reading comprehension and to connect mathematical concepts to real-life scenarios. Another skill many students have focused on is making mathematical comparisons. For some students, this looks like solving a series of equations, then determining which final solution is greater than the other. For other students, this looks like comparing the values of fractions (with both like- and unlike-denominators) or comparing positive and negative values. Middle School students in the Pre-Algebra course have learned how to compare positive and negative values (integers). They are continuing to work through their Math-U-See workbooks and are currently completing the seventh lesson, which focuses on solving problems with negative numbers raised to various exponents. In prior lessons, they learned how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply integers. Across the board, students continue to work hard in math, whether that be on Mathletics, in a Dimensions book, or a Math-U-See book, and I look forward to all their growth in the year ahead! – Avery Linthwaite, Middle School & HS Consumer Mathematics HIGH SCHOOL The students in Consumer Math have been working diligently daily to learn as much as they can about Measurement and how those concepts pertain to the Foundations of Geometry. In the first chapter, we focused on length, then they progressed through the chapter on weight. They have nearly finished the chapter on capacity. Throughout all three chapters, students have been expected to participate in group problem solving. They completed hands-on activities, such as measuring aspects of the playground structure with meter sticks and comparing the mass of school objects on a scale. Additionally, the students answered countless word problems successfully by drawing representative visuals and carefully considering the units of measurement at play. They continue to strengthen their understanding of capacity going into the New Year! – Avery Linthwaite, Middle School & HS Consumer Mathematics Happy New Year, Bulldogs! In 1st period Geometry, students finished up a unit on angles and are now extending that knowledge to shapes. For example, we began exploring patterns in how the sum of an interior angle changes based on the number of sides to a polygon. For example, a triangle has 180 total degrees amongst its three angles. We are deriving how many degrees the interior angles add up to in shapes such as trapezoids using our knowledge of parallel lines with a transversal, which was studied in unit seven. In Algebra 2, students are entering their final week of study on Polynomials. We've learned how to do all four operations with polynomials, often with multiple methods. For applied problems, students find and interpret key features such as the zeroes of the function as well as the max/min or an appropriate range/domain. Next we will look at radical functions, which are radical because they are awesome but also because they include roots like square roots. In Statistics, students finished single variable statistics with a self-led project in which they chose to study NBA statistics of points, rebounds, and assists. We looked at various positions and used four different graphs to show or summarize our findings. Eventually, students designed a new version of one type of graph to make a more sensible and engaging graphic of "All-Time Leading Scorers." We also reviewed other academic studies of the NBA to see how professionals and academics choose to summarize data, analyzing why they chose that graphic over other options. In 5th period Geometry, students have started formal proof-writing, with a focus on proving how triangles are congruent, if possible. We did a hands-on, as well as digital exploration, of what criteria lead only to congruent triangles and when more than one triangle is possible. For example, if you have a triangle with three known side lengths, it is impossible to create a different triangle, whereas knowing all three angles can lead to many different triangles. In Pre-Algebra, students finished their first seven mini-units and recently took their first exam, extending their world of math from positive numbers to integers (positive and negative whole numbers). We explored cases such as dividing integers, raising negative numbers to a positive exponent, and even obscure cases such as raising negative fractions to negative exponents. Next up, we will use our more robust number system to include variables and why and how to solve for unknowns. – Daniel Geller, High School Mathematics This week, Secretary Daniel C., will give the update on Student Government.
In Student Government, so far, we have done some winter activities. High School had a door decorating contest – each Advisory decorated a door with a holiday theme. We also offered free hot chocolate to all Stanbridge students right before the break in December. The students liked the hot chocolate so much that we plan to offer free hot chocolate again later this winter. Next Friday, January 17, will be our next Costco Pizza Sale. We will also be selling hot dogs during this particular sale, to see if hot dogs are an item that students would be interested in purchasing during our monthly Costco Pizza Sale. Hot dogs will sell for $2 each. Parents, please fill out the Google Form included in this week's Bulletin if you would like your child to have a pizza lunch, a chicken Caesar salad lunch, or if you would like your child to have a hot dog lunch next Friday. As a reminder, please bring $1 and $5 bills to pay for food. If your child brings coins, we can only accept quarters. Student Government has been in talks with administration about bringing back more [division-wide] after school social activities that students can sign up for, like bowling or an afterschool movie. Stay tuned as further details get figured out. Overall in the school year so far, I feel good about being in Student Government. I look forward to seeing if students like the option of hot dogs being offered during next week's Pizza Sale, too. Happy 2025 Bulldogs! – Daniel C., 2024-25 Student Government Secretary ONLY AT STANBRIDGE
We ended the year with a visit from the one-and-only Stanbridge Santa and lively performances at the Annual Holiday Concert. A highlight of the concert is the leadership of performance arts teacher Tobias Banks, he certainly makes our students shine bright. Thank you all for supporting this annual event. (Stay tuned to social media over break for lots of pictures... and get a sneak peek in the weekly collages below!) Thank you to the Stanbridge community for your thoughtfulness, generosity, and support. We appreciate the gifts and the snacks that were brought in for the staff on Tuesday, as well as through the rest of the week. We were able to feast on savory and sweet treats all week long! ANNUAL FUND UPDATE We have now reached over 85% participation in the 2024-25 annual fund from our parent community! A special thank you to our Advancement committee members Cindy Kuenhle, Kinga Czegeni, and Sherrie Shagong for sending emails and making calls to help us close the gap. It takes a village – we appreciate all you do for our community. We all wish you health and happiness as you head off into Winter Break to celebrate the holidays. Spending time with friends and family to laugh, relax, and recharge. Wishing you joy to come in 2025. Happy Holidays! Julie Smith & Danny Martin |
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