Principal’s Charge 

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPALMs. Patricia Wells 

Dear Parents and Guardians: 

Welcome back to another year of teaching and learning. Panorama Elementary is ROARING!!!! with excitement, as we move into the 2012-2013 school year. 

 It is the Motto of Panorama Elementary School to: Equip Our Students to Read, Study, learn and go to College.” 

As you have already noticed this year we are off and running, making sure that our students are prepared and equipped to gain the skills and knowledge to meet the various challenges that lay ahead for them, which is the  Maryland State Assessment Test ( MSA ). For the school year 10-11, we met  Adequate Yearly Progress ( AYP ) and need your support to continue on the path of student success. We need you to support our students by making sure that they complete their homework and return it, volunteer within the classroom, and give daily reminders of positive behavior as well as communication with your child’s teacher. By enforcing and planting these types of seed, we will continue to have student success here at Panorama ES. 

THANK YOU!!!!! 

This year is an exciting year as we are in preparation of kicking off our 25 Books Campaign. The purpose of the 25 Book Campaign is a way that we will have students reading more and create a culture of literacy in the school. The campaign unites the whole school around reading. Our staff and students read books and talk about them. This creation of a reading culture motivates students to read and works to increase students’ love for reading.  Please work with us by taking your child to the local library, reading with them and in helping your child read books that they can read independently. Help your child make selections based on their own personal interest, because we will be letting some of students share their books with our students throughout the year. 

It is our goal to: 

·        Motivate students to read one million words each year.
·        Build vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
·        Reinforce classroom learning experiences with publicly celebrating success
·        Use this incentive to help drive mastery of important literacy skills
·        Develop students’ confidence in their ability to apply all the skills involved in reading.

     Not only will we have our 25 Book Campaign, but each month I will be introducing and reading a book that contains a message that students will benefit from hearing. I will be incorporating skills and strategies that our teachers will be implementing within the classroom; the first strategy that we will focus on is prediction. This strategy will be discussed by students at every grade level. There will also be activities posted on my Principal’s Bulletin Board, located outside the main office along with excellent samples of student work. The book of the month for September is Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Fincheler and Kevin O'Malley.

 Through the Principal’s Book of the Month it is our goal to: 

• Introduce books whose messages will resonate with the whole school community Unite school leaders, teachers, students, and other school community members in creating a culture of literacy in our school.  
• Reinforce the social components of literacy by providing common themes and topics. Provide a common context and language for discussing difficult issues portrayed in the text.  
• Connect reading to real-life issues for students.  

So, join us as we prepare for an awesome year of promoting a culture of literacy here at Panorama Elementary. 

 Patricia2.Wells@pgcps.org  

MESSAGE FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPALMrs. Martha Booros 

Our school has launched the “Get on your Bus Safely and watch your step”. 

• Our program is promoting bus safety.  School bus transportation is provided only to students who behave appropriately while riding the bus. Failure to comply with these guidelines for student conduct will result in the behavior being reported and followed up with disciplinary action that may include long-term suspension from riding a Prince George’s County school bus.  These guidelines include  keeping the noise down and speaking in a soft conversational tone.
• Following the directions of the driver the first time given. Going directly to their seat and remaining seated while the bus is in motion.  
• Keeping hands, feet, and personals to themselves. Use appropriate language at all times.  
• No eating or drinking on bus.

Parents please continue to encourage bus safety to your child.  Thank you for reading the bus article.  

MESSAGE FROM THE SPECIAL NEEDS COORDINATORMs. Charlene Wright 

Welcome To Holland
by Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.  It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum.  The Michelangelo David.  The gondolas in Venice.  You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy!  I'm supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan.  They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language.  And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place.  It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips.  Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." 

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever  go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

*     *     *

©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.  Reprinted by permission of the author.

We are so proud to be the only elementary school in Prince George's County with a Regional Special Education Program for students with Multiple DIsabilities! 

We follow the same VSC with our students with modifications and assistive technology. 

We can and we do! 

Thank you!