=========================================================================

Student Directories are now available at $2.00 a copy. Please pick your copy up in the front office.

Thank you to the family of Brian and Paul Conant for the recent donations to the nurse’s office of snacks for hungry students. Your generosity is appreciated!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Wrapping Paper sale. We managed to make a $2,700 profit for the Parker School which is almost $1,000 more than last year. Many thanks to all who participated in this very successful fund raiser. Pick up time for the wrapping paper will be on Tuesday, November 12. Please watch the Friday Announcements for further details.

The Halloween dance will take place on Friday, October 25 from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. Damara and Melanie’s advisories are sponsoring the dance. We would appreciate help from the Parker community. If you have any decorations (orange and black paper streamers, white sheets or fabric, or any other decorations), please send them in to school by Wednesday, October 23. We will provide refreshments, however, we are looking for baked goods (to be donated). Please send in baked goods on Thursday, October 24. Together we will make this event a success!!!!!

For my senior project, I am planning on writing a novella. In my search for a mentor to guide me, I hope to find a editor and peer to help me revise and improve my work. I was hoping that there would be a community member who was either an experienced writer who could help me, or could connect me to such a person. Any help anyone could provide me in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Brian Whalley

Senior Project Proposals are currently being reviewed by the Senior Seminar teachers and will be returned to students early next week for revision. Seniors should be immersing themselves in their early research and making initial contacts with people who will be involved in their project at this point. Please watch for requests for assistance from our seniors as they work on their projects (usually printed in the _Help_ section of the Friday Announcements). Many of the successful experiences that kids have had in prior years have been initiated or facilitated by Parker parents or connections that Parker parents have set up for kids, so please help if you can.

This week’s class updates are from Becky Wilusz’s classes:

We are still working our way through The Odyssey! We have followed Telemachus away from Ithaca and to Sandy Pylos and Sparta in search of news of his father. Then we watched Odysseus’ journey away from Calypso and his arrival in Phaeacia. We in the middle of listening to Odysseus tell the king and queen of Phaeacia the story of his ill-fated journey home, including his trip to the House of the Dead. Our class discussions have focused on important quotes about Odysseus, descriptions of him and what they tell us about the kind of person he was, quotes about the ways the gods and goddesses interact with people and quotes describing the women we have met so far in this epic tale. Students are working on their reading journals. There is an option for students to make the project portfolio eligible by completing a weekly synthesis.

After tackling personal narrative and descriptive essays, parts of speech and parts of sentence, we have moved onto our third type of essay, the definition essay. Students are in the process of drafting that piece, conferencing and peer editing to refine their points and revising their work. Next week we will finish the definition essays and then move on to our first revision week full of conferencing, organizing and reworking essays.

Last week's oral presentations were a success. Students shared detailed observations and data that they collected from the Culturing Microbes experiment. Then they made inferences about the causes of microbe growth and the role microbes play in decomposition. This week students have had the opportunity to further explore these ideas by designing their own experiment testing conditions that promote decomposition (COW #5 due next Friday).

To prepare for COW #4 (due today), students are recognizing and describing patterns using graphs, t-tables, diagrams and equations. Ask them what a linear graph looks like, or an exponential one. Don't forget about extra-help sessions which are determined by class.

Talk the talk and Walk the walk....this is the theme this week (going into next week for some classes). Students are "talking the talk" in math as they complete their oral presentations on Exponential Functions. In science, we are "walking the walk" into the field, to explore water in action!

All of this is tied to our essential question, How do parameters affect the possibilities?

We wanted to thank all the parents who volunteered to help out at our Capulet's ball. The ball was a big success. Please check out the pictures on the web!

In addition, we wanted to thank those parents who have returned the permission slips for our upcoming field trip to see the play Romeo and Juliet on November 14.

Please know that many classes will be showing an edited version of Shakespeare In Love. The movie offers a great view at what life was like during Shakespeare's time.

All Division 1 AH classes have been doing acting workshops in preparation for upcoming recitations. This week, Tassia and Matt's classes have been focusing on passage, voice, and movement. Martha and Clay's classes have been focusing on voice dynamics (inflection, pauses, stress and nonverbals). Emma and Michelle's classes have particularly been staging Act 5 Scene 3 (the last scene of the play).

Tassia and Matt presented two Renaissance teasers this week, one on transportation and the other on religion. Martha and Clay finished up a grammar unit on the use of the comma and introduced an art lesson with the help of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and Disney's Fantasia. Emma and Michelle presented slides on art of the Renaissance.

Students are continuing to read Laura Esquivel's novel, "Like Water for Chocolate." This week, students considered the setting of the novel in the midst of the Mexican Revolution. Students also explored the sensory appeal of the novel by examining passages that strongly evoke taste and smell. To extend the novel's sensory experience, students sampled smells, flavors, and other sense stimuli that their teachers brought to class and used each one to evoke a distinct memory. These sensory-based memories became the material for a short piece of imaginative writing. Next week, students will finish the novel and organize work that they have generated over the last several weeks in connection with the novel into a reading assessment.

Just a reminder that on Thursday, November 7 (for Block 2 students) and Friday, November 8 (for Block 3 students) we will travel to Dartmouth College to view original murals by Jose Orazco. Look for a permission slip soon.

David's students are continuing to work on their "Leer" projects based on the book "Casi Se Muere". Students should be studying vocabulary pertaining to the text.

Did you sign up to volunteer in the library? We need you! Four identical training sessions are being set up for all new parent volunteers (see the dates below). It is important that you attend one of these sessions. Please register by calling the main office or send an email to me at Laurie@Parker.org. Please come prepared to tell me what days & times during the week you can work. I'll be interested in learning about areas of subject interests or expertise you can share.

I look forward to meeting you! Thank you!

Thurs. Oct. 24 8:30 - 10:00 AM

Thurs. Oct. 24 2:00 - 3:15 PM

Mon. Oct. 28 8:30 - 10:00 AM

Mon. Oct. 28 2:00 - 3:15 PM

I have about 15 oak shelves that need to be cut down, sanded and poly-urethaned. If you can help, please call or email me at school - Laurie@parker.org. Thank you!

Laurie Nehring, Librarian

We have 14 students interested in participating in the Spring Break Spanish trip to Miami. We need to have at least 20 students attend the trip in order for the trip to take place. The final deadline is Friday, November 1. Please send in a deposit check for $75.00 made payable to "Winged Victory Tours." Should you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact Damara at (978) 635-9774.

As last year, two buses have been contracted and we expect to fill both, so participation will be on a first come, first serve basis and is limited to available bus space. Please return your completed applications, along with payments, as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Application packets containing all required information can be picked up in the Parker Office. The basic cost for bus transportation and lift tickets will be $145.00. Equipment rentals and lessons are also available. Scholarships may be available for financially needy students wishing to participate in the ski program. Please contact Mary Ann Gapinski – the Parker School Nurse, to obtain the required scholarship forms.

Applications will be accepted until November 8th or until the buses are full.

Jim DiGiorgio

"They do the mash....they do the monster mash!" Join your friends for a fun evening of costumes and dancing. The Div II/Div III Halloween Dance will be on Friday, October 25th. There will be many halloween-y activities, including a costume contest for those daring spirits who show their true colors (no face masks please). Tickets will be on sale the week of the dance, starting Monday 10/21.

The P5 practice field is on Antietam Street between MacArthur Avenue and Sherman Avenue.

Colored mouthguards must be worn by all soccer players at every practice and every game – this is an MIAA rule and will be strictly enforced. There are likely to be some scheduling changes during the season from the Game Schedules handed out, please stay tuned to the coaches and Friday Announcements for any changes.

Please include the hours you donated during the month of ________________, your help is invaluable. Thank you.

Parent’s Name: _____________________________________________ Month: ___________________

(Please print)

Child’s Name: _____________________________________________ Advisor: __________________

(Please print)

Activity: __________________________________________________ Hours: ____________________

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

14 - Early Release (1:30 dismissal)

17 - President’s Day - no school

18 - 21 - Winter Recess

11 - Trustees Meeting @ 7:00 p.m.

12 - Spring PLP Conference Day (no classes)

18 - Early Release (noon dismissal)

21 - 25 - Spring Recess

29 - Trustees Meeting @ 7:00 p.m.

23 - Early Release (noon dismissal)

26 - Memorial Day - no school

17 - Trustees Meeting @ 7:00 p.m.

24 - Last Day of Classes (or earlier)

25 - 27 - Faculty Work Days (or earlier)