Dear Parker Families,

It’s hard to describe what school feels like as I write this first Friday letter of the new year. In some ways, it feels as old and familiar as home to be back, and in many others, there is a different kind of shine that is all about this year, this day, this set of beginnings. The day is as beautiful as can be, with strong sun and the kind of occasional strong wind that makes you remember that anything is possible. The windows are all open, the doors, too. The hallways are quiet, but the classrooms are filled and some are chatty, very chatty while others are quiet with first steps and tentative thinking. Fifty or so MST students in Divisions 1 and 2 are outside in the back yard, each class involved in a physical challenge. Wellness classes are outdoors playing together, learning about who they are and determining how it is they want to be in class and with one another. School has started and how good it is to have everyone here at last. As important and vital as faculty summer planning is to the work we do, it is always so wonderful to see our kids come through the doors on opening day! This year, we drummed our way back, with the sounds of the Berkshire Bateria Samba Drumming School providing a rousing wake-up and welcome during Tuesday’s Big Beginning.

What are the possibilities?

This will be a school year filled with possibilities. For students and teachers in classrooms, the question is real and sturdy, and one that sets a direction of deep inquiry and experimentation. If possibilities exist, then we can test out theories and hypotheses. If a thing is possible, then it has a course, a direction, and a set of implications to try to anticipate. For us as a school community, the question is viable and timely, too. Beginning Sunday, September 22 and continuing for four days, Parker School will be visited by members of the New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges as we seek accreditation. Thirteen colleagues, teachers and administrators from schools throughout the region will investigate and explore Parker’s academic program, assess and evaluate our resources and the job we do in living out the mission of the school and the expectations and principles as defined and described in our charter. It is an exhaustive process that will include interviews, panel discussions, intensive examination of student and teacher work, and a thorough look at the educational practices that define our program. Faculty and community members have been preparing for this visit for over a year, dedicating hundreds of hours to the creation of a self-study and the preparation of materials and evidence for the committee’s examination.

While the preparations are nearly complete for the inspection, there are ways Parker Parents can help. We wish to provide our visiting colleagues a hospitable and fun stay at our school. Their commitment to being away from their homes and schools is their gift to our school. We are looking for parent volunteers who have time to guide visitors, prepare materials, and be available for last-minute needs. If you would like to help in this way, please contact Nicky Dudensing at the school. Everyone is invited to attend the reception launching our visit, Sunday, September 22 at 5pm.

The wind is picking up again. The chair of our visiting committee, Ted Hall, Principal of Souhegan High School in Amherst New Hampshire, is due any minute to meet with us about our NEASC days, and there is movement in the halls.

Have a wonderful weekend, and welcome back to school!

Teri Schrader

Principal

On Wednesday, September 11 the Parker School Community will gather together to honor and remember those who lost their lives one year ago. Upon arrival at school we ask that people remain silent and enter the gym. Parker families are invited to join us, as there will be a brief presentation followed by a moment of silence. The school wide gathering will be followed by special advisory time.

Tasty coffee, informal conversation with fellow Parker parents, and some time to ask and answer questions about our school…sound good?

Please join me for morning coffee on Thursday, September 19 at 7:45 a.m. in the Principal’s Office, Room 33 and attend our community gathering at 8:30 a.m.

For those who can’t attend a morning gathering, please stop by Room 33 at 2:45 p.m. for an informal chat. All parents and guardians are invited!

The NEASC accreditation team will be evaluating Parker School on September 23,24, and 25. Parker needs to provide lunch for the team on each of these three days. We need three people, one person for each day, who will coordinate the lunches and other volunteers to make sandwiches, salads, desserts etc. Can you help? It counts towards your volunteer hours and reimbursement for supplies is available. Please call Nicky at Parker 978-772-3293 or email nicola@parker.org.

We are trying out an evening cleaning service as a possible replacement to an in-house custodian. The school is slowly beginning to look brighter and shinier, but we miss having a person on staff to help with tasks that arise. If there are any skilled parents who feel they could volunteer for a few hours to do "handyman/woman" tasks at the school, please call Clare or Pat. We hope this is temporary until the following job is filled:

If there is anyone who would be willing to donate a few hours any day next week it would be really helpful to us in the office. Thanks.

Thank You!!!

Many thanks go to the family of Brittany Withers for donating a basketball to the school to be used during recess and lunch.

We are also very grateful to those parents who have donated stationary supplies in response to our Wish List.

Many thanks also go to the family of Isa Rebholz for donating some colorful costume clothing.

PSAT 2002

The PSAT is a practice test to help prepare students for the SAT. In general, Juniors and Sophomores take the PSAT, but ninth graders are welcome to take this practice test, too. If you did not pick up registration materials at school registration, have your daughter or son pick up the materials from Sue Whalley in room 32 B on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

School attendance is taken and records are reviewed daily. Parents or guardians must notify the school of a student’s known absence, or late arrival to school on a daily basis. Please let the office know of an absence before 9:00 a.m. You may call at any time and leave a message on the answering machine. In the case of a prolonged absence the student’s parents should notify the Principal or her designee in a timely manner. It is not appropriate for a student to call him or herself in late or absent. Parents are notified if their child is not present and the school has not received any prior notification regarding the absence. Teachers take attendance in every class and notify the School Office of unaccounted for students.

The north parking lot (near the library) is for Parker students only. Please, parents, park around the circle if you are visiting the school.

Ms. Paradise from Mike’s Auto School will be starting driver’s education classes again beginning on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 from 1:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. You must be 16 years old by the end of September, 2002. The total cost of the 10-week course is $340.00 due on Wednesday, September 18, 2002. Please pay Mike’s Auto School by banker’s check, money order or cash only, no personal checks will be accepted. There will be no classes on Wednesday, October 23. Classes on Wednesday, November 27 will be from noon – 2:00 pm. Please sign up on the sheet on the board outside the main office.

We encourage everyone to go to the new section of the Parker Website dedicated to Division III. This year’s course catalog as well as many other interesting links are on this site.

Welcome back everyone! Division One is off to a great start. We had the opportunity to work with older students earlier this week; the challenge was to build a one minute timer with a high degree of accuracy. This was the all-school activity related to our summer reading of "Longitude" by Dava Sobel. Ask your child about the experience as lots of interesting devices were developed. Please see back page of this Friday Announcements for a fine example of the collaborative student work done last Tuesday.

Classes this week are focused around building a positive class culture and getting to know each other. The supply list went home in the mail this summer and we'd like each student to be fully stocked and ready to go. Organization is one of the keys to success! Have a great weekend, resting up for the full week of school ahead.

Ann & Mit, Derek & Tanya, Gena & Dan

Wow, what a week we are having in Division 1 A/H! All classrooms have been spending the week doing get-to-know you activities. We also have been using returning students as experts in explaining the ropes to new students.

Every Division 1 A/H student has the same assignment due on Monday, September 9. The assignment is entitled: What Are My Possibilities? The assignment honors our essential question for the year (What are the possibilities?) while, at the same time, offers a chance for students to tell or show their classmates and teachers what is important to them.

Students are being asked to consider three symbols, ideas, or events that were or are meaningful to them in the past, present or future. Those items may change or stay the same. Once that is done, they are to use those ideas as a launch pad for creating a visual, musical, or movement piece. The assignment is really meant to be open ended and fun.

Besides wanting you to know about this assignment, we also want to remind you about the supplies that every Division 1 A/H student should have:

an assignment notebook,

Finally, the last day for Division 1 A/H students to revise work from last year is November 1, 2002. So, please get those revisions in! Thank you.

David, Margarita, Melodie and Damara welcome all of you to Parker. ¡Bienvenidos! All Division I and II students need to purchase a Spanish dictionary and 501 Spanish verb book as soon as possible.

Las clases de Dharma y Emily llegaron a conocerse un poco entre los estudiantes y sus nuevos profesores. Empezaron la introduccion a la materia 2002-2003 con el tema de traduccion.

In Alan's classes, students have started the year by participating in problem solving activities as a way to work on issues of trust, teamwork, communication and support. Students were shown a rubric for physical activities which will help them to understand both expectations and assessment. We are going to begin our unit on Violence Prevention next week and, on Friday, students began to consider what they believe feels like, looks like and sounds like disrespect. Students are expected to be dressed appropriately for physical activities on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday that includes wearing sneakers.

This week in Deborah's Wellness classes we started the group bonding experiences through problem solving activities. Students have been successful reflecting on how they have been treating each other and rediscovering how peer influences can both help and hinder a group's process. Next week we will create norms around acceptable group behavior and start our first unit of the year violence prevention. Our sub-essential question will be, "what are the possibilities of teen violence; from cliques to date rape?"

This week Katie’s Wellness classes started off running. Our first two days were spent in motion with capture the flag. Next week we will create full value contracts reflecting class norms. We will also spend some time

tackling problems through group initiative activities.

If you are 15 by April 19th you qualify to apply for a space on a 5 day Florida Keys sailing program during April vacation. There will be a mandatory meeting for any interested students Tuesday September 10th in room 1. If you have any questions please email Deborah Chamberlain at dchamberlain@parker.org.

Band practice will be held after school on Wednesdays, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. All musicians with at least one to two years’ experience on their instrument and a working knowledge of basic scales are welcome to join. We are asking students to make a serious commitment to the band, and to attend band practice on a regular basis, because ensemble music requires the musicians to develop together. Frank also strongly encourages students to continue with individual lessons on their instrument.

The fee for the Jazz Band will be $90 for the first term (September-January), to cover the costs of music and instruction. Scholarship money is available by request. The first practice will be Wednesday, September 18.

If you have any questions about the Jazz Band, please see Laura Rogers during registration.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The fee for the Chorus will be $80 for the first trimester (September - November). Scholarship money is available by request. The first practice will be on Wednesday, September 25. Checks payable to the Parker School. If you have any questions about Chorus at Parker, please see Martha McLure.

Student Name:

_______________________________

___ Yes I want to join the Parker Jazz Band!

Instrument: _______________________________

Years of experience/proficiency: ______________

Scholarship requested: ______

_______________________________

Parent signature

Student Name:

________________________________

___ Yes I want to join the Parker Chorus!

During Choice Block: _____

Wednesday from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. _____

No preference: _____

(Checks to be made payable to the Parker School)

Scholarship requested: ______

_______________________________

Parent signature

Dear students and families,

On Wednesday, September 11^th, we will begin the day with a special all school gathering. The program will include presentations by students commemorating or responding to the events of 9/11/01. We invite you to share your thoughts or feelings in music, words, dance, or any other form. The only limitation is it must be performed live (i.e.,please don’t bring in a pre-recorded song to share).

If you would like to present a piece on the 11^th, please fill you the form below and return it to the box in the front office no later than Monday, 9/9.

If you have any questions or concerns you’d like to raise, please feel free to talk to Lise Brody (faculty) or Katie Jamison (student).

Thank you.

The 9/11 program committee

Name __________________________________________

Advisor _________________________________________

Description of piece ______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Technical Needs (Please keep it as simple as possible) ___________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

If we get more submissions than can fit into a program of reasonable length, those we can’t include may have the opportunity to present at a regular Thursday morning gathering.

Thank you to the families of Erica Campbell and Anne, David and Eric Dufault and other anonymous donors for their contributions to the nurse’s office this past week. The nurse’s office willingly accepts donations of all kinds but especially needed now are:

Parker's Math Teams compete at both the middle school (Div I) and high school (Div II and III) levels.

If you are interesting in joining our teams this year, come have lunch with us on Wednesday, Sept. 11 in room 22. There will be pizza...just bring your own drink! If you have questions, see Dan Noel (Div I), Melanie Palm (Div II), or Diane Kruse (Div III).

I am sponsoring a choice block for beginning accoustic guitar lessons and we're looking for donations.

If you have an accoustic guitar that you would like to give us, please contact me....Melissa Diguette at

melissad@parker.org or just bring it to the school and ask someone to get it to me. If you are interested in being in this choice block, but don't have a guitar of your own, please talk to me soon so that I can find out

how many guitars we will need to find. Thanks for your generosity!

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: ____________________