Field Trip Tomorrow !

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 we will be departing Seabury to go to the Burke Museum in Seattle. We should return by 1:30. Please make sure your child comes to school with a SACK LUNCH and a DISPOSABLE DRINK such as water or juice. Please also make sure your child is dressed appropriately for weather. We will be eating outside if weather permits. Thank you for your assistance.

That having been said, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you wonderful parents for adjusting your busy schedules to take care of your child last Thursday, Friday, and Monday. As a parent, know how challenging it can be to work outside the home and have your child not have school due to teacher in-service days. As a professional educator, it is challenging to have to spend days away from the classroom, and my family, in order to attend out of the area in-services.

Here's a little bird's eye view of my last week and this week's in-service days:

This year's in-service for the Washington Association of Talented and Gifted (WETAG) was east of the mountains. Even though we left in a windstorm on Thursday afternoon after school and traveled for 6 hours (from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m.) in a van full of our faculty with Mrs. Wollum as the driver and I as the co-pilot, we managed to arrive safe and sound.

The marathon drive over the mountains to WETAG was certainly well worth it for the WETAG conference was filled with valuable and innovative information. We were with other gifted educators who understand gifted students. We had seminars from university professors who teach gifted education (a rare commodity) and who understand the challenges of teaching numerous twice exceptional gifted students in a class of profoundly gifted students. My time in these classrooms went from 7:30 in the morning until nearly 6:00 p.m.and I can truly say it was time well spent. All of the seminars were excellent. I have already implemented numerous WETAG gems into the classroom. Truly, this WETAG conference provided numerous outstanding ways in which to enhance your child's Seabury education.

The conference was over late on Friday afternoon and we all got in the van and headed back to Tacoma in the dark. We hit snow as we crossed the pass. While the snow was beautiful to see, it couldn't compare to seeing my home once again.

Monday was another productive, yet very long day for the faculty and administration. Many of us arrived at school prior to 7 a.m. It was a full day. Mrs. Wollum and I left at 6 p.m. I hear it was a beautiful day on Monday; but we teachers were inside all day working hard on enhancing Seabury's excellent curriculum and on starting our two year Self-Study.

Mr. H and I are Seabury's Self-Study Co-Coordinators. In case you were wondering, yes, Seabury is fully accredited by the State of Washington. Every 7 years we work extremely hard to renew our PNAIS accreditation. It is a two year process and involves an unbelievable commitment of time and talent from the faculty, staff, administration and the Board of Directors. These teacher in-service Self Study days that we attend throughout the year are long, and require a lot of work, yet they are extremely worthwhile. The school's Self Study process is of enormous value to the continued exceptional quality of education that Seabury provides for your child. So thank you for assisting us as we strive to achieve our goal.

Have a wonderful evening and I'm looking forward to the sack lunches, disposable drinks, appropriate clothing for the weather and of course, our awesome all school field trip in a bus to the Burke Museum!

Mrs. Gellert's Math Class: Only page 5 of the math packet.

Please note that your child will receive tomorrow his/her next week's spelling test words. Every Tuesday is our Spelling Test Day. I was so involved in teaching today that I completely neglected to pass out the individualized spelling lists! YIKES!! It is thanks to the awesome and amazing parent volunteer who comes in every Tuesday and Thursday to assist with the individualized spelling program that these lists were ready to be passed out today. I wish I could compliment her by mentioning her name, but school policy will not allow any student's name, parent's name nor their initials to be mentioned in our school websites or blogs. So just ask your child who the amazing spelling volunteer is who gets the individualized lists ready for me each week. Thank you!! Please be looking for your child's spelling list tomorrow!