Lakeview Elementary School

Please be advised that due to the number of snow days used, school WILL be in session tomorrow, Thursday, March 15th, 2018. It will be a regular school day. Thank you

• Lakeview Students Are on the Same Page

  Every student and staff member at Lakeview Elementary School has something in common — they all recently read the same book.  The school took part in the One Book, One School program sponsored by Read to Them, a non-profit organization promoting family literacy.

   

  “We chose the book ‘Only One You,’ by Linda Kranz,” said Leigh Galione, building coordinator at Lakeview. The book, with vibrant, colorful illustrations, appeals to children (and adults) of all ages and relays the message to be yourself and help make the world a better place.

   

  “The overarching theme is individual uniqueness,” said Galione. “Our mascot, Paws the bulldog, delivered a book to each classroom, and classes had access to a Google Choice Board, which has a variety of book-themed activities to choose from that classes explored throughout the month.”

   

  The book, in which two fish parents tell their child life lessons, teaches children to value individuality and look for beauty in everyday moments of life. Lakeview students made “rock fish” (painted rocks) in art class that they will place in a “dry rock stream” outside of the school. Other activities included mindful coloring; poetry reading; and making Flipgrids, where students created short videos to share with each other.

   

  “There was also an anti-bullying component to this event,” said Galione. The PTO sponsored a Power of One anti-bullying assembly, and students were encouraged to write kind notes to each other and make new friends.

   

  Students and staff alike were enthusiastic about the event. “The entire school bonded as part of this fabulous initiative,” said Galione, “and we are looking forward to continuing this wonderful school tradition each year!”

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• Lakeview Students Donate Breakfast to Food Pantry

  "At Lakeview Elementary School we want all of our children to receive a solid education, but we also want them to grow up to be kind and caring citizens,” said first grade teacher Lisa Ettlinger, referring to the students’ recent field trip to St. John’s Food Pantry. Teachers and students collected upwards of 160 boxes of healthy breakfast foods to donate. “We wanted to show our first graders that it can be as rewarding to give as it is to receive.” The children also decorated hearts, which they attached to each cereal box. “Their theme was ‘A Smart Start Warms the Heart,’ said Ettlinger.

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• Lakeview Elementary Takes Kindness Seriously

  Lakeview Elementary School students and staff embraced the 2018 Great Kindness Challenge recently, when they joined thousands of schools across the country working to create a culture of kindness.

   

  The week-long challenge was sponsored by Kids for Peace, a global nonprofit organization. The idea was introduced in 2011 in California and has since spread to schools across the nation and to more than 90 countries.

   

  Whether it was a kind word, a kind act, or a helpful gesture, the acts of kindness and generosity were apparent to students and staff alike at Lakeview.

   

  Lakeview’s Positive Behavioral Incentive (PBIS) committee worked together in the weeks leading up to the challenge to create unique events that would take place each day. Assistant Principal Elizabeth Blessing spearheaded the event at the school with an explanatory video on the first day of the challenge, January 22.

   

  “Students were challenged to perform as many acts of kindness as they could throughout the week,” said Blessing. The challenge was in keeping with the school’s PBIS initiative “Lakeview ROCKS,” an acronym for Respectful, Organized, Cooperative, Kind and Safe.

   

  Part of the week’s highlights included Wear Red Day, Crazy for Kindness Day and a Dream of Kindness Day, where the entire school wore their pajamas.

   

  “Students embraced every aspect of this challenge and were eager to participate in the school-wide events and lessons throughout the week,” according to Blessing. At the end of the week Principal Jennifer Pontillo created a video thanking the students for their participation in what she said will be a yearly event for the school.

   

  “Even though the Great Kindness Challenge week is over,” Pontillo said, “I know that you will continue to be kind every day because Lakeview ROCKS!”

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• Lakeview’s Fifth Grade Team — Ready for Technology Rollout

  Teachers in the Mahopac School District are preparing students to make the most of all that technology has to offer, with the district’s plan for students in grades four through twelve to have their own Chromebooks expected to become a reality in January. In Lakeview Elementary School, the fifth grade team has been fully engaging students in all aspects of the Google suite and other programs, and they are excited to teach—and learn—even more, as new programs continually make their way to the classroom. These programs engage students in technology and create community both inside and outside of the classroom.

  Fifth grade teachers Mary Kurtz, Cara Bowden, Aida Nikocevic, Mary Moriarty, Andrea Whitesell, Beth Ferrigno, and Courtney Aponte and teacher’s aide Marie Trillas said that students are not only excited by the programs, but become proficient at them almost immediately.

  Students are using everything from Padlets—online, interactive bulletin boards—to Google programs such as Hyperdocs (documents that link to the Internet), Maps, and Mystery Hangouts.  They are also proficient at video programs such as Flipgrid and Screencastify.

  Fostering this type of innovative technological proficiency creates students who have a more global perspective and furthers collaborative thinking.

  Mystery Hangout, for example, is a game that classes from different schools play with each other. “Students play the game and try to figure out the geographic location of students in the other school,” Kurtz said. Programs such as this connect students not only to each other in their own classrooms, but to students in other schools.

  In social studies, students have been using Google’s My Maps to create custom maps that they can share with each other. “Students have been using My Maps to do work on the Aztecs and ancient civilizations,” said Bowden. “And they have really been collaborating.”

  Nikocevic said her students have been using Padlet and plan on using Flipgrid to work on writing their memoirs. Flipgrid is a video discussion platform, where students create a grid as their classroom group and share information and responses. “They make video responses, which have really been engaging them,” Nikocevic said.

  Kurtz, who has a maker-space area set up in her classroom, said one of her students has been using video to film stop-gap animation for a Legos movie. “These types of activities really help in our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) directive,” she said. The student wrote the script, constructed the Lego scenes, and is working on filming the movie.

  While students in grades four through twelve will have their own Chromebooks, students in the lower grades will enjoy one Chromebook for every two students. Lakeview’s fifth grade teachers say that students are more than ready to have their own Chromebooks in hand by January — and they will be ready for whatever new programs are introduced by then.

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• Mahopac Teaches Importance of Digital Citizenship

  As students of all ages increase their use of social media, the Internet, and technology in general, online safety is becoming more crucial. To address this issue, all three Mahopac elementary schools participated in Digital Citizenship Week, where each school held lessons on Internet safety for every student.

  Digital Citizenship Week is sponsored by Commonsensemedia.org, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children get the most out of technology in the safest possible environment.

  “It is really important that students know how to behave when they’re online,” said Mahopac School District Instructional Technology Specialist John Sebalos.

  Sebalos hosted a Digital Citizenship day at Lakeview, Austin Road and Fulmar Road elementary schools, along with each school’s building technology officers and staff.

  “Each student, from kindergarten through fifth grade, got an age-appropriate lesson on safe, appropriate Internet use,” said Sebalos.  “With Mahopac’s innovative and expansive use of technology within the K-5 classrooms, digital citizenship becomes increasingly important.  It sets a model of how we want our students to behave and interact online both in and out of school while being able to collaborate and work in a 21^st century learning environment.”

  For younger students, talking about privacy online is particularly important. “Sharing things like your name, address, school or other personal information is never OK,” Sebalos told students.

  “Through humor and interactive activities, our students were able to grasp the basic concepts of how to behave responsibly online,” said Austin Road teacher and safety presenter Tiffany Ziegelhofer, who was impressed by students’ reception of the day. “They were really attentive and motivated to learn.” 

  For older students, the lesson was more focused on appropriate behavior online and avoiding cyberbullying.

  Addressing a group of fifth graders at Fulmar Road, Sebalos showed a film about Internet safety and then gave out game cards with prompts asking students what they would do in certain scenarios. “I wanted them to work as a group,” Sebalos said, “ so they could really discuss the options.”

  Students were asked to consider what they would do if a person they did not know asked for personal information online; how to handle a fellow student making a rude comment about a teacher on a social media site; and what type of information is private versus public.

  “The students did really well with their responses in class, but the real test will be how they respond when there is no teacher or friend around,” said Fulmar Road Principal Gary Chadwick, who also led a class on Internet safety.

  Fifth grader Gabby said she thought people should use discretion when they are using social media. “There are some things we shouldn’t say online because they just aren’t nice,” she said.

  Fifth grader Jayson said, “You can’t give out personal information online because you can’t trust someone you don’t know.”

  Lakeview teacher Jenn Borst said she thought the day gave students a real understanding of what is expected of them and what is safe. “It was great hearing the children talk about their digital footprint,” she said. “They walked away with a real understanding of private information versus personal information.”

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• Lakeview Raises Over $2K for Hurricane Victims

  Lakeview Elementary School recently held a Read-a-Thon which raised $2,168 for hurricane victims. Donations were sent to Americares. Thank you to everyone who participated and made this event a success!

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