Dear Ocean Shore Families, Hi there! I hope you are ready to enjoy a nice weekend and are able to make it to Fog Fest! I will be out of town and sad to miss this event. Please tell me all about it on Monday! We are fortunate to have so many celebrations and festivals in our community that bring us together. A final reminder – Help us reach our goal that EVERY child will be represented at our Super Fun Night of Reading on Tuesday 10/1! With events being offered before school (7:45 am) and in the evening (6:00 pm) we are hoping a family member can join with a student! This will kickoff Readathon and equip our families with tools to make reading fun and meaningful at home! See you there! Reflections From My Office: In the next few weeks, we begin many of our overnight field trips for older students from Outdoor Ed, to the 6th grade Calistoga trip and the infamous 8th grade trip to Yosemite. Seva and I had the opportunity to visit the 5th grade students and teachers at Outdoor Ed on Wednesday evening. This year’s trip will be remembered by so many sweet moments and memories that are transformative for the kids – from hot weather and Virginia keeping kids cool with a “mister” or spray bottle - to the famous “skit night” around the campfire. It was pretty magical to see them all in action and see the kids respond to this amazing opportunity. It was fun to hear of how many parents and staff recalled their own experience as a child at Outdoor Ed. Do you relate? Can you recall this childhood memory? The 5th graders arrived home today as they were full of energy and eager to tell their stories from Outdoor Ed. Thanks to the efforts of our teachers and the Outdoor Ed staff, the kids had an extraordinary experience. I am grateful our students have this opportunity each year. The exciting part happens upon their return. It is nothing short of magical to see the differences in the kids when they arrive back to campus on Monday. They are bonded, more confident and tolerant of one another. Many reasons contribute to why Ocean Shore kids come back in high school or years later to visit the campus they called home for so many years. They are drawn to the memories they made with their classmates. This week will no doubt be etched in their childhood memory bank for years to come, cherished as a reminder of the unique experiential educational opportunities provided to them at Ocean Shore. Here are a few pictures from my visit on Tuesday. Does it bring back memories to you? PODCAST: Dolphinently Talks! Speaking of ways families get involved, hear from our kids on what it means to have their parents involved in school! Check out the latest episode! Episode 3! CLICK HERE! Staff Makin’ Waves: Be sure to read about our “Staff of the Week” – Natasha! We are so grateful Natasha joined our team this year! As an Ocean Shore alumn, she came to us from Vallemar this year. Learn more about one of our new members from the team! See You Next Week at Ocean Shore's Super Fun Night of Reading!Check out the latest from PEF! We hope you can make it to the Family Fun Fest at PEFathon! You will not want to miss this super fun event!Weekly Flyers:Dear Ocean Shore Families, Hello! What a wonderful PTO meeting last night! It brings me such pride and joy to see our community in action. It was great to hear from all our parent and community groups that support our school. As I shared last night, the way our kids are supported by these groups can be compared to a wheel on a wheel on bike. Each group – PTO, PEF, DLG, EAT, school site and district supports, etc… all represent the spokes of the wheel. The outside tire is our collective efforts to provide the Ocean Shore experience. And at the center, integral to the integrity of the wheel, is the “bolt” - our children. Each spoke provides an essential role for every child. As evidenced by last night, our partnerships are strong and mighty! What a privilege to be part of this journey with you! Reflections from My Office: Last night, families and teacher facilitators had powerful conversations about the struggles and victories of supporting literacy at home. Parents swapped best practices with one another about what works for their child at home. I noticed many parents taking notes and sharing ideas with one another. That was awesome! People asked intriguing questions such as, “How do I compete to get my child to read a book with video games and You Tube?” Or, “My child has a learning challenge with reading. Is it alright for them to listen to an audio book once in awhile?” How refreshing to hear such honest and purposeful conversations. People shared success stories about how they used their time spent driving in the car to listen to a book or podcast together, and then discuss it. Or, how some families read together – long after their child had already learned how to read. Check out this article that was used in one of our sessions last night – posted HERE! As I was leaving last night, I had a great conversation with Virginia – our 4th/5th grade teacher. Despite a very long day of facilitating her session for parents and teaching kids all day, at 9 pm she was as jubilant as ever. She was so grateful for the opportunity to talk with parents and answer important questions – knowing the power that comes from family engagement with literacy. Beaming from ear to ear, she said, “I just love nights like this. Our parents want the best for their kids and it is so great to work together to support them.” I felt her excitement and it motivated me! The commitment from our community is so strong and so inspiring! This left me feeling pretty great for my drive home to Half Moon Bay last night. Thank you for this inspiration! Every Child Represented: Last night we launched a goal. It is our school goal to have EVERY CHILD represented at our next family education night – the Kickoff for Readathon! Every single child deserves this and we hope you are willing to help us reach this goal. Encourage one another to attend and find ways to help families join. Any family member can attend with their child! Why Should You Go? Our teachers will be working with families and children for a 30 minute workshop where we guide you through questions that can be used to discuss a piece of literature. Families will gather together and practice so that when you leave, you can feel confident about how to best support reading practices at home. Come to the Readathon event to learn the “how to” when we ask you to be reading every night, every family, for every child. Remember the importance of recording this practice at home with your child’s Reading Log or homework agenda – and celebrate the success of using it daily! When: OCTOBER 1st: (2 sessions being offered!) If you can only attend in the morning, come to school at 7:45 am – 8:15 am (MPR). If you can join for the evening, come for dinner at 5:30 pm (pizza fundraiser) for dinner, 6:00 – 6:30 (workshop)and then 6:30 – 7:30 (Classroom visits). See the flyer below! Weekly Updates:Weekly FlyersDear Ocean Shore Families,
Hello! What beautiful sunny weather we are having! I hope are about to enjoy a lovely weekend outside. Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year! I already have my pumpkin candles burning at home with fall decorations going up this weekend! Reflections from My Office: This coming week is a special event. It is our first PTO general meeting for all families on September 19 at 6:30 pm. While we do ask that all families attend, I believe it is important to inform you on why this matters. You have heard me mention the importance of family engagement quite a bit lately. It's because this matters for our kids so much. While Ocean Shore was founded on a family partnership model, what matters most is how your involvement begins at home with your expectations of your child’s success. Attending the general meeting on Thursday is an important bridge between home and school and links those family expectations to school. I am really proud of the work our PTO has done over the past year to make PTO meetings meaningful for parents. You may be have noticed that there are more workshops for parents on things like student wellness and how to support learning at home. The meeting on Thursday will offer important updates, this years budget, other business, and you will be introduced to the various groups that represent all of our programs and initiatives and help connect with a group. In addition, the bulk of the evening will offer various breakout sessions for parents to help them develop their child's literacy skills across all ages and reading levels. Please take a moment to carefully look at the 5 different sessions being offered by our very own Ocean Shore faculty along with some community resources. I am really excited about this event and can’t wait to share this informative and special evening with you! We ask that you SIGN-UP for the 3 sessions in effort to keep each session organized with balanced group sizes. Session sizes are limited to 40 people due to classroom size. SIGN-UP's for the PTO Breakout Sessions are POSTED HERE! Why should you attend the PTO Meeting? Simple: “Family participation in education was twice as predictive of students’ academic success as family socioeconomic status. Some of the more intensive family engagement programs had effects that were 10 times greater than other factors.” (Wahlberg, 1984). To help how this quote can relate to Ocean Shore, I wish to share with you the personal story of an Ocean Shore family who joined our school a few years back. I recently heard about their journey here at Ocean Shore and felt it inspiring to share with you. Currently, this family is very involved in their children’s education but this was not the case at first. When they arrived to Ocean Shore, they had just moved from another county. They were grateful for the new school and community yet had a different perspective of the role of home and school than our parent participation model. In their experience in the past, the role of the family and school were very separate. The school was the sole provider of teaching and learning experiences, while the home provided everything else. Families were not involved in their child’s learning experiences because this was the role of the school. When this family arrived, they began to notice one of their children was having some difficulty learning to read. It was after a parent-teacher conference when this was discussed that things began to change. The teacher and parent talked about how reading at home would greatly support the work being done at school. This work at home does not replace the role of the school, but enhances the practices at school to optimize the learning for the child. The parent did not take over the role of the teacher but assisted in making sure their child established a reading routine at home that worked for their family. In her reflections, she shared with me, “I realized how much this meant to my son. He really wanted to have that time with me (to read together). When I started making it important, he started making it important. And then I started to notice the improvement at home and in his classwork. It was then that I realized it was really important for me to be involved at home which helps him at school. I love being in the classroom for both of my kids. I hope other parents can learn from this experience to help understand why it is important to know what your kids are doing at school and how you can help them at home – no matter what age they are or how well they are doing in school.” I hope this can be a great reminder for all of us on the value of supporting your child’s learning at home and at school. This triangle of support will provide the best education possible! PODCAST: Dolphinently Talks! Speaking of ways families get involved, hear from our kids on what it means to have their parents involved in school! Check out the latest episode! Episode 2 is all about WHY FAMILIES SHOULD ENGAGE IN SCHOOL (from a child's perspective!). CLICK HERE! UPDATES: (Click here for links to flyer posted below!) Dear Ocean Shore Families,
Hello! I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend! As I have mentioned, every week I take a moment to reflect on the week at Ocean Shore with this blog. Be sure to read to the end for important details and updates from our campus. Reflections from My Office: This week I was interviewed by some very talented young documentarians – our 7th and 8th grade podcast and newscast elective class. A small team of these students came by my office to ask me about the year ahead and what makes Ocean Shore School the special place that it is. I love opportunities such as these – to highlight things we are very excited about for this year! With the guidance of our 2nd grade teacher Juli and 7th/8th grade teacher Sophie, these students will make up our OSS Newsroom team! This is an awesome way for us to see our school through the lens of our students and hear from their voices firsthand on important topic, which will change each week! This year, we will continue with the “Dolphinetly Talks!” – a weekly podcast entirely created and produced by Ocean Shore students. In addition to the podcast, students will also be producing a video newscast. I am so excited to share these with you this year! In one week, they created the first episode of “Dolphinently Talks!” SEASON 2 where you hear from our own Ocean Shore students. It is very “Ocean Shore”! Their first podcast episode of the year features a segment on the value of family engagement. Listen as the kids reflect on their own families and what it means to have involved parents at their school. They also interviewed some important volunteers! I continue to value our partnerships with families and what a difference family expectations make for student success. Take a moment to listen – it is worthwhile for the 8-minute segment! Find it here: https://anchor.fm/os-dolphinetly-talks All the platforms Ocean Shore Dolphinetly Talks is on: Apple Podcasts Breaker Google Podcasts (only for Android users) Overcast Pocket Casts Podbean Radio Public Spotify Stitcher Updates: (CLICK HERE for direct links to the Information posted below! ) |
Jeanne BellingerPrincipal of Ocean Shore. Check back here for weekly updates and messages from the principal. Archives
June 2022
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Location |
Ocean Shore School
411 Oceana Blvd Pacifica, CA 94044 Main office: 650-738-6650 |
For enrollment questions, please contact our front office. Our PTO does not have control over cumulative records.
School secretary - Patricia Buddington |