Cornwall News

March 15, 2024

Hello Cornwall School families,

This week's highlights includes a message from our school counselor, Tammie Johnson, and some news about the traveling eclipse exhibit students experienced this week.

There is also information regarding Celebrate Neurodiversity week, a showing of the film Screenagers, conference info, and more!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Warmly,

Heather

School Counselor Update, Tammie Johnson

Unique and Unified

For the past five weeks all students in my Monday classes in Kindergarten through fifth grade have been learning about bias and how every person is unique with their own story. Ask your kindergarten through third grade child about Ibtihaj Muhammad, the Olympic fencer and the first American to wear a hijab in the Olympics, who wrote the book The Proudest Blue. Ask a fourth or fifth grade student about how our brains work really fast and we have to slow them down so we can learn the whole story before we decide who someone is. All students have learned about melanin and how we get our skin color from melanin, our biological parents, and our ancestors.

Questions that Kindergarten through third grade students have been working together to answer are: What does the word unique mean? Have you ever heard of the word bias? What does “don’t judge a book by its cover” mean? Have you ever heard the word melanin? What does the word diversity mean?

Questions that fourth and fifth grade students have been focusing on include: Is there diversity at Cornwall School? Why or why not? What is a stereotype? Can you give an example? Does everyone have bias? What does “don’t judge a book by its cover” mean? Have you ever heard the word melanin? What do you know about the human brain?

Resources we have been using:

Books

The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family by Idtihaj Muhammad

Always Anjali by Sheetal Sheth

All the Colors We Are/Todos los colores de nuestra piel: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color/La historia de por qué tenemos diferentes colores de piel by Katie Kissinger

Finding Your Spot in the World: A Story About Diversity by Diane Alber

4th/5th~ The Bias Inside Us traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute Homepage The Bias Inside Us Book: The Colors We Share by Angelica Dass

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Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences

As part of the updated progress reporting system, the spring parent-teacher conference window opens March 22. The goal of this conference is to be in person, as teachers plan to share student work and current progress toward the standards.

Eclipse Exhibit

This week, Cornwall students had the opportunity to learn about the upcoming Solar Eclipse happening in our region on Monday, April 8th. Amy Clapp, of Salisbury Elementary School, wrote a grant to bring a traveling exhibit from ECHO Science Center to all of the students in ACSD. With the help of teachers, Abby Adams and Kate Cunningham, we explored hands-on models of the eclipse and various aspects of the science of our solar system. Among those tools were solar eclipse glasses, a projection telescope, and solar binoculars. In addition, students learned about the importance of protecting thier eyes and vision during eclipse viewing by using appropriate tools. Every student in ACSD will receive a pair of solar eclipse glasses to keep the week before the solar eclipse.

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Neurodiversity Celebration Week: March 18 – 22!

Beginning next week, our schools will be celebrating neurodiversity in our community. Neurodiversity refers to the biological fact that everyone has a uniquely wired brain and their own way of thinking, learning, and experiencing the world. Learn more at https://www.neurodiversityweek.com/introduction! SEPAC also invites you to connect with them through the SEPAC website and join them for two upcoming events:

Neurodiversity Celebration Night
Marquis Theater Cafe (65 Main St, Middlebury)
March 20th, 5:30-7:00 pm

Shine a Light on Neurodiversity in ACSD

ACSD School Board Meeting (208 Charles Ave, Middlebury)

March 25th, 6:30pm

At Cornwall School, we plan to celebrate in the way that fits each classroom the best. It’s a great fit with our school counselor Tammie Johnson's unit, on being “unique and unified” (see above).

Our librarian Abby Adams is putting together a special book display next week on the theme of celebrating neurodiveristy, and FOCS and SEPAC have teamed up to bring us color posters and a comic book about neurodiversity. Third grade teacher Mindy Harvey organized and shared activities with teachers to choose from to do with their classes, and we are also inviting a special guest from the high school to share his experience with us on March 25th. He will be meeting with the younger students and is planning to share a book called Not Your Typical Dragon.

Screenagers: Next Chapter Showing

here will be local counselors available to answer questions following the movie! Please use the attached visual!

Free viewing of "Screenagers Next Chapter: Addressing Mental Health in the Digital Age" by filmmaker and physician Delaney Rushton on March 19th at 6:30pm in the auditorium at MUHS.

ACSD Preschool Enrollment

If you have a child who will be 3 by Sept 1, 2024 and needs preschool placement, please fill out the preschool interest survey by the end of March. ACSD has two school-based programs: Mary Hogan and Bridport. Space is extremely limited, so we also encourage you to consider other preschool options. ACSD partners with prequalified private preschool programs to pay tuition for 10 hours/week, 35 weeks/year of preschool. This means your child could receive a tuition discount at a private preschool. Your first step is to enroll with the program directly. They will help you to complete the preschool tuition paperwork. Visit this site for more about which local programs have met the quality standards for partnership or contact Meg Baker at mbaker@acsdvt.org or 382-0045