 Dear Stanbridge Community, It is hard to believe that the calendar turned to October this week, especially given the unusually high temperatures. Please remember to send a refillable water bottle to school with your child every day. We have water filling stations at school and encourage students to stay well hydrated to beat the heat. We have a series of open houses that will be coming up this fall. Word of mouth about our great school is one of the main ways families come to Stanbridge. Please consider spreading the word about these open house opportunities to families you know who have a child that could benefit from a Stanbridge Academy education. Invite your friends whose children could benefit from Stanbridge.
RSVP Online: Stanbridgeacademy.org/admissions. Have a great weekend! Stay Strong, Bulldogs! – Julie Smith, Head of School    BRIDGES & TRANSITIONS
There is no better time than the present to plan for the future. Our goal is to help each family learn about the many post-secondary options as we support the growing independence of your children. Our Transitions Program at Stanbridge provides the support structure for that bridge. Our Stanbridge transition events begin later this month. On Wednesday, October 23rd, Sandra Fishler from Landmark Success Center and I will host a Zoom session at 5:00 PM entitled, What Comes Next: an overview of post-secondary options. This introductory session will include the landscape of educational and vocational options as well as what supports are available and should be requested. The following week, our juniors and seniors will be going on a guided tour of the College of San Mateo including learning more about their Disability Center. Coming later this year:
Go Bulldogs, – Cindy Schlesinger, Director of College Counseling & Transitions LEARNING SUPPORT We're thrilled to announce some exciting updates coming to the library! Over the course of last year and the summer, we've been hard at work refreshing and revitalizing our library resources to better support learning and discovery across all grade levels and subject areas. Whether your students are exploring a new passion, diving deep into research for a project, or simply looking for an engaging read, our library will have something to capture their interest. We're also working to integrate the library more closely into classroom instruction across all grade levels and subject areas. Teachers will be (and have been!) incorporating library resources to develop engaging, cross-curricular learning experiences. Students can expect to see the library playing a larger role in their lessons and activities. We look forward to continuing to expand our library and give it the much needed face lift it deserves through the Scholastic Book Fair starting in November. Stay tuned! – Alyssa Dew, Learning Specialist  ELEMENTARY Students in Elementary have settled into their SEL rotations. Students are becoming more independent in their transition to group and readiness to learn relationship skills. All group activities focus on CASEL standards. Activities are adapted to the needs of the group. Students have been working on basic student skills such as raising their hands and learning the routine. In addition, we have focused on understanding emotions and making and keeping friends. As we work on student skills, students learn self-awareness through games that practice following directions and maintaining personal space. In making and keeping friends, students drew and discussed what they look for in a friend and they discuss how to respond when a friend is in need. Finally, to begin understanding emotions, we identify sensations, thoughts, and actions that accompany feelings. MIDDLE SCHOOL In Middle School, students have also been learning about our routine, expressing personal identity, and understanding emotions. As part of our routine, we begin with different activities that encourage self-regulation and mindfulness. We follow this with a check-in that includes the opportunity for students to express themselves and consider different opinions through various in our weekly bracket. Students are always eager to see what comes out on top and what their peers vote for. This month we have learned about identities. Students have spent many weeks considering their own identities and creating artistic expressions of who they are. Middle School is a key time of self-discovery. Identity portraits are an opportunity for students to express themselves and get to know their peers. In addition to identities, students deepen their understanding of emotions. We have talked about the thoughts, actions, and sensations that lead to different emotions. We focused on the purpose of emotions as notifications to help us communicate and connect. One key skill is remembering that emotions come and go like waves. Even with strong emotions, we can use tools and tolerance to ride them out. – Emma Mamis, Clinical Counselor All Activities Address SEL Standards & Competencies: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/se/tselcompetencies.asp
 MS Weekly Bracket sample Dear Stanbridge Community,
This week our Ninth graders went on the first experiential trip of the year! It's always very exciting to see our students leave and come back from these trips. (See this week's collage post for select pictures.) The students come back a little more self-assured, much closer to each other and the staff that accompanies them. This trip to Camp SEA Lab in Aptos gave our students a taste of marine research and the ocean ecosystem – they even participated in a sandcrab counting study. Experiential trips are essential because they allow our students to learn outside of the classroom, seeing the world outside themselves. Experientials are unique to Stanbridge, both for the individualization of their 'outdoors' curriculum and because it is part of the students' overall school experience. For Eighth grade parents wondering if your child will go on this or other experientials in High School, we will be holding a special session for our families to talk about High School at Stanbridge. In fact, we will be holding several open houses over the next few months welcoming current and prospective families alike. Stanbridge families are welcome to attend the sessions that relate to their children's needs. Admissions Open Houses are being held at 9:00 am on the following Fall Tuesdays:
Have a great weekend! Stay Strong, Bulldogs! – Danny Martin, Principal  HIGH SCHOOL Can you complete the triangle below? How did you do it? What patterns do you notice? Students came up with discoveries as follows: the sum of each row is double the next, each row is the previous * 11 (till double digit numbers appear), there is a pattern near the edge of multiplying by n to get the next number and (n+1) to get the number to the bottom. To start off the year in math, all High School students worked through a variety of tasks such as this one to build a strong foundation in what it means to be a mathematician. Asking questions, looking for patterns, struggling, and making mistakes are all vital to successful mathematicians. On the other hand, speed and memorization, though at times helpful, are not key traits of successful mathematicians. Students learned the power of collaboration and teamwork, and set the behavioral parameters for a cohesive classroom throughout the year. –Daniel Geller & Avery Linthwaite, High School Math   MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School students have been diligently working in math class on a day-to-day basis. At least two days a week, they spend time on the Mathletics platform, where they are able to practice their skills and advance their knowledge at their own pace–with my support as needed. When the students are not on Mathletics, they are completing handwritten work independently or with a peer from Dimensions Math textbooks and workbooks. Alternatively, some middle schoolers have begun the Math-U-See Pre-Algebra course. The current unit is all about working with integers (positive and negative whole numbers). –Avery Linthwaite, Middle School Math ELEMENTARY Upper Elementary math kicked off the year with activities where students described their summers through math—counting family members they saw, slices of pizza eaten, and more. We then smoothly transitioned into our Dimensions Math books, allowing many students to continue their progress from last year. Currently, we’re focusing on building endurance and mastering essential skills to handle increased workloads. As a class, we're diving into geometry, exploring the concepts of area and perimeter while becoming familiar with angles. These new skills are being applied in our exciting group project: constructing a chicken coop for our class stuffed animal! Middle Elementary continues to gain familiarity with shapes in both 2-D and 3-D. They're practicing their proficiency in single- and multi-digit addition and subtraction, with some even beginning to tackle multiplication. Lower Elementary students are beginning their journey with addition and subtraction, utilizing hands-on tools to strengthen their number understanding. They are gaining confidence with independent work in Dimensions Math books. – Hat Dilly, Upper El 2 Lead Teacher This month in Social Thinking and Speech we are talking about Thinkables and Unthinkabots that get in our brains to do unexpected things or say unexpected things. The Thinkables are like super heroes in our brains that can help us "defeat the unthinkabots." So, if we get stuck on doing things one way (Rock Brain) or focusing on one idea, then we can use our flexible thinking (T-Flex powers) to defeat them so we can learn and play successfully. The students are having fun learning about these ideas, creating their own posters, and even their own Bots and Thinkables that can defeat the bot. One middle elementary student came up with Happy Flower that makes you feel in a 'sunny' mood. If Angry Snow, a storm/rain cloud, freezes up your sunny mood, 'Sunny the Sunflower' strives to defeat it. Other topics we talked about this month are following a group plan and whole body listening (with options to move as needed).  Dear Stanbridge Community,
It was wonderful to welcome so many of our families to Back to School night last evening. We heard from many of our parents how impressed they were with the teachers and their presentations. It is a highlight for our staff to see our students' parents as well. We are partners in your children's educational journey. Today, the staff continued in our quest for excellence in our field of education for neurodiverse students. We reviewed an essential tool in our social emotional learning: Leah Kuyper's Zones of Regulation. You can click on the link to familiarize yourself with these zones. You might be surprised that our staff uses these zones for their personal feelings too. Today we also welcomed Jennifer Abrams, an educator and communications specialist. Ms. Abrams is widely known for increasing intergenerational communication through a variety of exercises and discussions. The materials we engaged with were based on Jennifer’s most recent book, Stretching your learning Edges: Growing (UP) at Work. Having the time for staff to engage in meaningful ongoing education is critical for school improvement. Faculty and staff building a trusting, working relationship improves student outcomes as well. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School  HIGH SCHOOL High School Science has started the year off strong. Physics just finished a test on Newton's First Law and now move into Projectiles. Heads up! Biology explored Carrying Capacity with a 3-day activity trying to keep cups alive by feeding them beans while battling shelter, predators, and disease. Chemistry is figuring out the Periodic Table and made a wall diagram of an Argon atom replete with s & p orbitals shown! And Systems of the Human Body dissected a chicken wing and made their own wall diagram showing the interactions between muscles, tendons, and bones. We are also super excited for our 9th graders to see all this science in action during our three-day Fall experiential overnight to Camp SEA Lab starting on Monday. Woo-hoo! –Jay Huston, High School Science  Students were exploring elements in the main group of the periodic table. At the top is an electron configuration diagram and all the arrows are called an orbital diagram. In the bottom, right they are identifying the number of valence electrons and the number of energy levels. And finally in the bottom left, they are doing a Lewis dot diagram. These are four ways of looking at the same element, in this case Polonium. MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School students have been working on effective scientific observation skills and learning the difference between their observations, which are based on things they can see, touch, hear, and smell, versus an inference – something that is a conclusion based on observations. Students have done a little bit of microscope work, focusing on learning how to draw what they see while looking through a microscope at 20x magnification. We will continue to work on these foundational skills for the remainder of the first quarter. –Tasha Hudick, K-8 Science ELEMENTARY Elementary students are learning the basics of measuring, mixing, and following simple instructions in a science experiment. We’ve done some simple chemical reactions and explored two different types of slime! We are using our science toolkit, Our Senses, to talk about our experiments. –Tasha Hudick, K-8 Science Student Government has gotten into a rhythm these last few weeks! The new members have quickly learned the ropes from the veteran members about the standard operating procedures for all of our sales. The members are energized, motivated, and working collaboratively to run our sales each week. Speaking of sales, we would like to thank SPA for providing such delicious treats for our first Bake Sale of the school year! We thank you and appreciate you!
This week in Student Government, discussions began about things we could purchase for the school with the funds that we get through our weekly Friday sales. This will be a process, but already, students are thinking deeply about ideas that can improve the experience of students at Stanbridge. One such idea under consideration is installing another microwave in the courtyard, as this year students have seen slightly longer lines to use the microwaves at lunchtime. Student Government is currently researching a variety of pizza places as we consider changing the location of where we get our pizza for our monthly Pizza Sale. Members are taking initiative and looking at the prices of different pizza places, as well as their quality, as we consider switching to a different restaurant. We will keep you updated as we continue to research and weigh our options. Our Student Government wants to hear from our students! This week we put our Suggestion Box back in the front office, where students from any division are welcome to write down ideas and suggestions that they would like Student Government to consider. Your input is taken seriously and is greatly appreciated! –Kenny Katz, Student Government Faculty Advisor Dear Stanbridge Community,
We look forward to meeting Parents and Guardians at our “Back-to-School Night” this coming Thursday, September 19, on campus. Please plan to arrive early for parking in the surrounding neighborhood and attendance in person. Elementary Division – 2:00 PM on campus before pickup We invite Elementary Parents and Guardians to attend our Back to School Open House from 2:00-2:45 PM. Hear from school leadership, see the classrooms, meet fellow parents, and hear from your child's teacher. Middle School and High School Divisions – on campus from 6:00 - 8:00 PM Be sure to pick up your schedule in Hayden Hall before joining us outside for the introductory part of our evening. We expect a full house! Meet and greet School Leadership at 6:00 in the Courtyard for introductions and an informative slide deck. Afterwards, Parents and Guardians will rotate through their children's classroom schedule to meet the teachers and hear about the coming year. We are thrilled to see returning parents and new families alike! A reminder that Friday, September 20th is a Professional Development Day. Students do not have classes next Friday. Stay strong, Bulldogs! – Danny Martin, Principal  HIGH SCHOOL
The High School U.S. History classes are off to a running start! We have engaged in numerous discussions, and jumped into readings about the early years of the American republic: life under the Articles of Confederation, reasons behind discarding the Articles and establishing the U.S. Constitution, and the significance of the U.S. prevailing against the British in the War of 1812. This week, we covered the various factors that led to the American Civil War, including whether popular sovereignty should have been used to decide the slavery question in the West, and how the Dred Scott decision was a huge factor in escalating tensions between North and South. The High School Government/Econ classes started the school year studying the different types of governments that exist, as well as the reasons why a written constitution is an incredibly important aspect of governing a state. This week, we started a unit on political parties, their role vis-à-vis facilitating elections and governance, and how the role of political parties has shifted significantly since the late 19th century. Students also completed their first current events assignment – pick a news story that they felt holds significance, summarize it, and explain why it is a story that deserves attention. – Kenny Katz, High School History & Government MIDDLE SCHOOL – DIVING INTO HISTORY As we've started off the year in Middle School Social Studies, we have begun our U.S. History content with a focus on the indigenous people of North America and those who were the earliest inhabiters of this country. Learning about these first Americans has brought conversation topics ranging from migration (of both humans and animals), to the uses and abuses of power, and even to the impacts of climate change on these original Americans. We've explored interactive maps of U.S. and the tribal lands that used to cover all 50 states, discussed what kind of evidence is used to understand the past, and how historians operate like detectives of the past, sifting through various pieces of information to try to find a connection. A good amount of time has been spent getting settled in the classroom and learning and practicing the various routines and protocols we have, as well. Making sure all students feel comfortable in the space and with the expectations they have. It's been a great start to the year. I'm really looking forward to continuing on this journey as we dive deeper into U.S. History and all that comes with it! – Drew Vinson, Middle School Humanities ELEMENTARY Lower and Middle Elementary are starting to learn about community workers and the jobs they do in the community. We have discussed what we think each job entails and if we interact with these workers with our families. Middle Elementary has been working on "Where I Am on the Map" worksheets. Upper Elementary is also starting to discuss what they know about social studies, as well as beginning to learn about maps and locations. We are excited to learn more about our communities and the world around us! – Adria Olson, Lower El Lead Teacher Social Learning is a school-wide program anchoring our work at Stanbridge. All students attend a class at least once weekly that focuses on a topic or skill related to self-regulation, relationship-building, and prosocial behaviors.
Based on the work of Michelle Garcia-Winner (Social Thinking) and Leah Kuypers (Zones of Regulations), Tricia, our speech therapist, and Mary and Emma, our counselors, create lessons that target each group's areas of need. High School students responded to a survey of their needs and requested more lessons about making friends, nurturing friendships, and starting conversations with people they do not know. They also asked for lessons on Executive Functioning skills, such as studying for tests and keeping themselves organized. Their other areas of interest included getting along with parents and dating and romance. Our first lessons will focus on friendship: how to make friends, be a good friend, and use who-what-when-where-why-and-how questions to start conversations with new people. The high schoolers will have opportunities to practice these skills when they go on experiential trips this month and next. – Mary Stadler, Director of Counseling Dear Stanbridge Community,
We are wrapping up our third week of school and starting to settle into routines. This past week the Stanbridge Parent Association (SPA) held its first meeting of the school year. It was encouraging to see so many new faces joining us! Danny Martin shared about our CARES program, and our Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) program. We will continue to highlight different aspects of our program during upcoming in-person SPA meetings. We hope more parents will be able to volunteer this year to help with the many SPA activities. We are alternating between in-person and Zoom for the SPA meetings to try to encourage more families to participate. The next SPA meeting will be October 2 on Zoom from 12:00 - 12:30 pm so that you can join us from wherever you are during your day. SAVE THE DATE- BACK TO SCHOOL INFORMATION There will be two sessions for the “Back to School” programs on September 19, 2024:
The “Back to School” programs will allow you to hear from your student’s teachers and ask general curriculum questions. If you have more individualized questions regarding your child, we encourage you to email your child’s teacher directly and reach out to set up a time to connect. Parent Teacher conferences will be held in November and those meetings will be specifically about your child. We look forward to seeing you at the Back to School programs and happy weekend! Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School  ELEMENTARY
Our Bulldogs in the Elementary division have been working in Lexia, reading aloud short stories as well as chapter books. While making literacy accessible to all learners, students have been discovering and attaining new vocabulary. Lower and Middle Elementary have been practicing pronouncing and writing sight words. They have been enjoying reading rhyming books such as Down by the Bay and Pete the Cat books. They even practiced making up their own rhyming words. Upper Elementary has already delved into descriptive paragraph writing this year. Using the hamburger model, students begin with the introduction and end with the conclusion – represented by the top and bottom buns respectively. They are also using graphic organizers as a tool to help plan their thoughts and set up ordered sentences for descriptions of their STEM project in which they designed, built, and presented a school of their creation. As part of their language learning, we are also working on how to be a good listening audience. – Harriet Mukisa, Middle Elementary Lead MIDDLE SCHOOL Our Middle School Humanities team works closely to plan cross-curricular lessons in Language Arts and Social Studies, enforcing learning as not merely subject-based, but teaching students that subjects often tie together. Students began a different type of study about Indigenous Americans this week . In Language Arts, students began reading Rabbit Chase, a graphic novel about an Indigenous middle schooler who gets lost on a school field trip and must work with mythological creatures from their tribe to get back to their family. Students have enjoyed the graphic novel, and are asking amazing questions about history, historical sources, and Indigenous cultures. In Social Studies, they have been working with interactive maps, looking at how the United States was divided geographically before European settlers arrived. Students are learning why is it important for Indigenous people to tell their stories, myths, and traditions from their own perspectives. – Emma Woods, Humanities: Language Arts HIGH SCHOOL High Schoolers are launching into English by studying neurotypes (types of brains) this week. Students identified their strengths and areas of growth, what tools work best to support them in the classroom, and how a neurodiverse community benefits everyone. Students worked on taking notes with the content, engaging in class discussions, and even built their own "brains." This work lays the foundation for students to better access English, express themselves, and empower them to advocate for their needs. – Emma Woods, Kantodeia Schnabel, & Drew Vinson, English As we settle into the school year, students are adjusting to their Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) schedule. Elementary receives Social Learning, Emotions & Relationships, and Library once per week in a rotation. Middle School receives Emotions & Relationships as one of their five end-of-day "Specials" classes. High Schoolers receive SEL content through a weekly grouping during morning Advisory. All Bulldogs are all learning about routines and expectations through various activities that support the needs of their specific learning group. Content in Emotions & Relationships is based on five Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Across the grade levels, students are offered regular opportunities to check in using the Zones of Regulation. Ask your Middle or High Schooler about their Emote check-in! Can you or your student identify their teachers on the "Bitmoji Zones Board" below? – Emma Mamis, Board Certified Dance/ Movement Therapist, Clinical Counselor  Dear Stanbridge Community, This week was all about settling into our school routines. It is always a pleasure to see happy students in classes and also outside learning and playing. This year, a bright spot has been our new sports court. Through your generous donations at the 2024 Gala, we were able to have the old court replaced to make it an inviting place to be. Our students are enjoying using the Sport Court for Physical Education and for recess/lunch breaks. The photos below capture just some of the ways that the sport court is being used: Coach Gage is warming up with his Middle School Physical Education class and, lunchtime basketball with Middle and High School playing together with teacher, Daniel Geller. Enjoy the Labor Day long weekend ahead and we will see you back at Stanbridge next Tuesday, September 3. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School  HIGH SCHOOL
This year Stanbridge High School has started off wonderfully! The students have quickly accepted and welcomed our new High School teachers: Avery, Coach Daniel, Drew, Greg, and Kantodeia. Daniel Geller is now in high school full-time, too. This new crew of educators have brought wonderful insights, skills, and energy from their previous jobs (and Divisions) and helped our program reach the next level. One of the largest changes this Fall is that we have revamped our CARES program! While the program still highlights the importance of lifelong-learning in Community, Academics, Respect, Empathy, and Safety, students are no longer carrying around CARES sheets. Emphasizing 1:1 reflective conversations with their teachers at the end of every class, students now review their behaviors. This adjustment helps them become more introspective and strengthens their student-teacher relationships. I feel so lucky to work at a school with such thoughtful students and dedicated staff. If this is any indication of the year to come, students and staff are both going to thrive this year! – Jay Huston, Head of School MIDDLE SCHOOL Middle School is off to a fantastic start for the new school year. There are many new faces, both students and teachers who have joined our program. We are so excited to have Drew take on Social Studies, Avery join us for math, Gregory for Tech, and Daniel and Gage for athletics! We have spent the last week in our advisory groupings getting to know each other and getting settled into our new routines. Our new advisory groups Blanc, Vinson, Everest and Denali are named after the highest peaks of different continents and students have been gathering both in their individual advisories and in Twin Peaks Advisory, where we combine two groups to play games and expand our social circle. Academic groupings are named for different sharks: Hammerhead, Lemon, Tiger and Nurse. Sharks are often misunderstood animals but have amazing qualities and abilities – just like our students. Our shark groups give Middle Schoolers yet another opportunity to stretch their social and emotional growth while learning together. – Tasha Hudick, Middle School Division Lead ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Our 2024-2025 Stanbridge Academy Elementary school year has begun! New additions and changes to classrooms have shaped up our clean and calm learning environments. The first few weeks focus on learning new routines, schedules, students and staff. Class expectations have been set. Team building activities have been enjoyed. SEL classes and speech services have begun. Student workload and responsibilities increase slowly each day. Differentiated reading groups will be decided after observational and formal assessments occur to determine appropriate placements. Finally, the sign up calendar for parent volunteering opportunities has been sent. Be sure to check it out along with the SPA Volunteer Survey, too. Students have come in excited about starting school and we're off to a great start for school success! – Michele Sumpton, Elementary Division Lead |
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