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Friday November 19, 2021 Quote of the Week:" I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude." --Brene Brown (professor) Dear Ocean Shore Families, I'm definitely the kind of person who needs to be reminded to practice gratitude. A large chunk of my job involves problem solving, and sometimes just problem "listening" because I can't always solve the problems that I'm presented with. I'm not unique in this. Most of us deal with issues every day that don't have easy answers, and it can be frustrating and exhausting. That's why practicing gratitude is so important. When we stop and think about what is good in our lives, it makes us happier. It DOES take practice for most of us. When one thing after another seems to be going "wrong" at school, the last thing I'm likely to do is think about what I'm grateful for. However, when I do take the time (it only takes 30 seconds) to take a few deep breaths and think of something positive in my life, I feel better instantly. It doesn't make the problems go away, but those few seconds of gratitude can interrupt my negative focus and sometimes jolt me into thinking about a solution or a work-around that didn't occur to me. We all need to model gratitude practice to those around us, especially to our students. I'm grateful to my teachers and school staff who work endless hours for our students. We have the best staff in the world. I'm so grateful to all of you for supporting our school and for sharing your children with us. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Take care, Jeanne Shout out of the week goes to our Read-a-thon winners! Our top readers were: K/1st grade (tie): Zhara Rolke & Luciano Campagna, 2nd/3rd grade: Embar Metzgar, 4th/5th grade: Kaavel Basu, 6th grade (tie): Nina Alexiev & Alvine Ekah, 7th/8th grade: Zachary (Kai) McArthur. Congratulations to our top readers and to all of the students that participated this year! School Business: We are off all next week for Thanksgiving break. School will resume on Monday, November 29. Read-a-thon results: Our students read over 197,000 minutes and raised over $40,000!! Please see the attached flier for a complete list of winners, top fundraisers and winning classrooms. PTO Corner--a message from our PTO president: We are in desperate need of 2 people who have evening /weekend time and are somewhat skilled with online sign-ups or finance to help with our After School Enrichment Program. This is a “desk job” so to speak. Please email Tarra at [email protected] if you are interested or have questions. Please see the attached PTO Corner flier for other information about fundraising and employer matching donations. PEF: Giving Tuesday is coming up on November 30th. Please consider supporting the Pacifica Education Foundation! https://www.pacificaef.org/ Office Needs: Patricia is in need of Seventh Generation Disinfecting Wipes to clean our reusable ice packs. Lost and Found: We have many, many, many water bottles and lunch boxes in our lost and found as well as the usual large number of sweatshirts and jackets. All bottles and lunch boxes will be thrown out after December 3rd and clothing will be donated to Goodwill. Please come to the office and ask to "visit" the lost and found if your child is missing something. Fliers attached: Read-a-thon winners, PTO passive donations, PTO corner, PSD job recruitment, December lunch menu, Medi-Cal Dental benefits, PSD Calendar with OSS minimum days. 
There is no post this week. I'll be back on November 19th just in time to send everyone off for Thanksgiving break!
Take care, Jeanne Quote of the Week: " In the velvet darkness/Of the blackest night/Burning bright there is a guiding star/No matter what or who you are." --Richard O'Brien (lyrics from The Rocky Horror Picture Show) Dear Ocean Shore Families, I do really feel that there is a light in the darkness this week. The news that children ages 5-11 can now be vaccinated is a gamechanger. Our Sunset Ridge vaccination clinic filled up within hours. Right now, Safeway is working to get additional staff so that we can open up more appointments on November 16th at Sunset Ridge. There are many other options as well. I've attached the latest flier from the San Mateo County Office of Education to this newsletter with more information about vaccination sites. Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid will soon follow with vaccination spots. Gitima is also a guiding light for us at Ocean Shore. Here is a message from her about world kindness day: "Hello everyone, Saturday, Nov. 13th is World Kindness Day. We will commemorate World Kindness Day on Nov. 10th, Wednesday through strengthening our "Acts of Kindness" initiative and contributing to "Kindness Corner" where all students, teachers, staff, and parents can drop in their favorite quotes or words of encouragement in a "Jar of encouragement" and/or place flowers to spread hope and joy. Hope you can join us in cultivating a culture of care, respect, and compassion! One of my favorite quotes that I plan to place in "Jar of Encouragement" is in the book titled, Hope is a Decision: Selected Essays by Daisaku Ikeda: "No matter what kind of difficult situation one may find oneself in, some opening, some opportunity to fight one’s way out, can always be found. What’s most important is to hold fast to hope, to face the future with courage." I love the idea of hope being something that you choose to feel. Being around your children everyday helps me to choose hope. Gardening and planting trees is also an act of hope. Arbor Day is being celebrated on November 12th and the city of Pacifica sponsored an art contest, is helping each school site plant a tree, and is hosting a tree planting and celebration on November 13th @ 10:00 am at Fairmount Park and Recreation Center. I'm proud to announce that Ocean Shore had multiple winners and honorable mentions. These students' work will be displayed at Sanchez Art Center this weekend and next, and the names of the winners will be announced at the city celebration on November 13th. I've attached a flier with full details. Sending out kind thoughts, hope and good karma to all of you! Jeanne PS Get those kids vaccinated! Shout out of the week: Congratulations to all of our students that participated in the Tree Art Contest. A special congratulations to contest winners: Maya Warner (5th) and Nova Duncavage (6th), and to those that received Honorable Mention: Olive Keller (3rd), Katherine Tran (4th), and Mia Oliva (5th). All of you are shining stars! Staffing/Library Update: Speaking of shining stars, I'm so excited to welcome another Ocean Shore parent to our staff. Here's a message from her: My name is Jackie Downing. I am the new Library Tech for Ocean Shore. I am thrilled to be working in the library. We are so excited to open the library during the lunch period for 3rd - 8th graders. *3rd-5th graders- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday *7th-8th grades- Wednesday and Friday. We will need to limit the number of students to 25. If it gets too crowded we will ask them to wait or come back the next day. Please remind your students that they can't bring food or drinks to the library, and that the students are welcome to come after they finish eating. Thank you! Jackie We are still looking for a part-time school office assistant (3 hours per day) and a part time Playworks yard duty supervisor (4 hours per day). Let me know if you are interested, or have questions about the positions. We are still short staffed. School Business: Daylight savings time ends. Don't forget to set clocks back an hour on Saturday night. Thursday, 11/11 is Veterans Day. We do not have school. Conferences: The week of 11/15 is all minimum days so that teachers can conduct conferences. Sixth grade will be at Outdoor Education that week as well. Please contact your child's teacher to set up a conference if you have not done so already. Drop off/pick up reminders: Please don't bring scooters or bicycles on campus. Leave them by the others at the bicycle rack by the gate and walk to pick up your child. Also, on minimum days, do not allow your children to play on the upper blacktop. The 6-8th graders are at lunch recess when the younger students are being dismissed. You can walk through the playground to get to the Nelson gate, but please don't have conversations or linger in that area. This is for everyone's safety. Thank you! Water Update: The A wing, B wing, and most of the C wing are completely dry. Belfor Construction will be replacing our baseboards over the next few days. I am beyond grateful that there was no damage to the walls and no need for construction. Picture Day Volunteers Needed: We have our makeup picture day the morning of November 18th. We need two parent volunteers to work from 8:20 to 12:30. Please contact Patricia Buddington if you can help. Fliers: PEF seasonal newsletter, Thanksgiving week Football camp, Legarza Sports Camps, Pacifica American Little League, Vaccination information (English/Spanish), Art contest details, November lunch menu, Spanish and Portuguese translations of my letter.
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Jeanne BellingerPrincipal of Ocean Shore. Check back here for weekly updates and messages from the principal. Archives
June 2022
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