A monthly newsletter for the entire Confluence Academy community

MARCH 2008 Issue No. 14

Students in Confluence Academy’s Math Unlimited Program recently participated in the First Annual Lego NXT Mindstorm Robotics competi-tion on the cam-pus of Missouri University of Sci-ence and Tech-nology in Rolla. The 43 students were joined by 10 parents and the Math Unlimited team led by Mr. Polite and teach-ers Ms. Elam, Ms. Nave and Ms. Allen-Anderson.

Three teams participated from Con-fluence Academy: two in the Stair Climbing Competition and one in the Best in Show competition. The teams placed 2nd and 3rd in the Stair Climb-ing competition and they received a

3rd place plaque in the Best in Show competition. All of the stu-dents received medals along with team plaques.

Following the competition the students and parents were given an exten-sive tour of the campus by Sean Cross, their robotics coach and current MST student. Every-one really enjoyed the tour and thought that it was very in-

formative and many of the students stated that they would like to attend college at MST.

The students and families attended a university sponsored luncheon and award ceremony following the tour.

Mr. Will Perkins, Director of Pre-College Programs, was the keynote speaker.. He spoke about the impor-tance of a college education in today’s economy and scholarship opportuni-ties available for minority students in the fields of math, science and engi-neering.

The students returned very excited and energized from the day’s events.

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Confluence Connections

Robotic Challenge Fun And Fruitful

Letter from the ChairmanDear Confluence Families and Friends,

I just returned from a trip to Israel --- where I visited schools, Kibbutz’s and the major towns and border areas. The trip helped me realize how fortunate we are to be in a city and state not surrounded by enemies. All of Israel’s neighbors continue a never ending feud with Israel. Nevertheless, Israel is a country where education flourishes, people work hard, much produce is grown and shipped all over Europe and the United States, and the country is one of the three most suc-cessful high tech countries in the world.

I was quite impressed with some of their schools and social service activities. In the schools are students from Ethiopia, many Arab children, many immigrants, and families whom have lived their entire lives in Israel. Children go to school 6 days a week with only one day off. They work very hard and often have long distances to travel to get to school. Students often stay quite late in the evening to complete the programs they need.

This experience made me feel that we at Confluence are on the right track. We have a long day and an extended school year. We have high expectations and high goals for all of our children. But with the emphasis on academics and achievement, we also allow time for children to participate in a wide range of other activities (such as chorus

and orchestra, trips to the opera, special photography opportuni-ties at the Sheldon, athletic competitions, community service ac-tivities and others). I am proud of what Confluence Academies have been able to provide for our students and families. And we are fortunate to have remarkably dedicated teachers and staff who really make all of this happen.

So, parents, we encourage you to work with us so we can con-tinue to this successful educational resource. Our day is longer, but we see that children are learning, and we see progress in student achievement. We are thankful for the parents who vol-unteer their time in the schools. And I know that our staff dedi-cates a lot of time working with all children to help them reach their potential.

The future of our Confluence children is worth the extended days and school year.

As Confluence parents, we thank you for all of your support and assistance. Confluence Academy cannot accomplish what it is doing without you.

Sincerely,Dr. Susan UchitelleChairman, Confluence Academy

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Coming in August 2008

Confluence Academy’s New College Preparatory High School:

Confluence Preparatory Academy

Children participate in an ethnic dance class at the Mul-ticultural Youth Center in Yokne'am Megiddo, St. Louisʼ sister city.

Competitive Minds

Brainy Game PlayAre you smarter than a Confluence 7th or 8th grader? Try this quiz: 1. Biologists classify muscle tissue into three basic types. Can you name them? 2. There were only four cabinet posts when the federal cabinet was originally formed un-der President George Washington. What were they?

With support from the “That’s a Great Idea” mini-grant program, Michelle Pedersen and Terrance Green have begun Scholar Bowl, an academic competition targeted to junior academy students. Students work independently and as a team in answering academic type ques-tions that are posed by a moderator. Here’s how it works: Individuals “buzz in” and answer the toss-up questions. The team correctly an-swering the toss-up is then able to confer as a group to answer a bonus question.

Students have enjoyed the competi-tion, as well as the team spirit that has come from working together. Organizers plan to expand the pro-gram to all three campuses next year.

Reading Cool Books Is Confluence Cool!

Basking in BooksThe South City campus hosted its first “Reading Assembly” with none other than Confluence Board Chair-man Dr. Susan Uchitelle as its first special guest reader.

Dr. Uchitelle read from Ann Grifal-coni’s, The Village of Round and Square Houses to the 2nd graders in the Meramec Library Media Center. In this folklore from Cameroon, a grandmother explains to her listeners why their men live in square houses and the women in round houses. Before reading, Dr. Uchitelle showed the students the location of Camer-oon on the world map.

Dr. Uchitelle treated kindergarteners and 1st graders to Beatrice Schenk DeRegniers’ May I Bring a Friend?, a rhyming fictional story about a well-mannered little boy who is fre-quently invited to visit the king and queen, and always asks to bring his animal friends as guests.

Kansas City Here I Come

History and Fun in KCTo commemorate African American History month, 24 Confluence stu-dents from the South City Campus visited the nationally-acclaimed Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Jazz Museum, and the College Basketball Experience on a trip to Kansas City.

The students learned about the many contributions of the players in the Negro Leagues, including stars Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and St. Louis native, Cool Papa Bell. Each student received a baseball cap and other souvenirs from Bob Kendrick, Director of Marketing at the NLBM.

They also discovered how jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington shaped modern music.

At the College Basketball Experi-ence & National Collegiate Basket-ball Hall of Fame, in the new Sprint Center, the students learned about the rich history of men’s collegiate basketball, had fun with the interac-tive activities and played a little basketball in the huge arena.

Thanks to Bert Bazemore, Student Support Manager at South City, who organized the trip and chaper-ones Christopher Young-El, Ter-rance Green, and Dion Edwards.

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Receive Confluence Connections electroni-cally. Send an e-mail to:

terragreen@stlouis.edisonschools.com. Let us know your name, your child’s

name, grade and campus. Answers: 1. Smooth, Striated, Cardiac, 2. Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treas-ury, Secretary of War and Attorney General

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Students of AchievementProfiles: Jermisha Martin, Meiasha Belton, Thomas RogersThis month, Vice President of Student Achievement Vanessa Garry had a conversation with three Walnut Park students who are doing their best to succeed.

Below are excerpts from the interview.

What is your favorite subject?

Jermisha: Social Studies, because I get to learn about the history before me.Meiasha: Math. It is easy!Thomas: Math, because I can learn my numbers and manage my life.

Benchmarks are given each month. They ask you questions about math, reading and language arts. How do you do on the Benchmarks?

Jermisha: I do okay – a 70 percent on reading or math.Meiasha: I get a 100 percent on math and an 80 in reading and 90 in language arts. I do well because I study.Thomas: I’m doing well. Getting an 80 or above.

What college will you attend?

Jermisha: Clark in Atlanta, because it seems like it is a good college and it has good dorm rooms.Meiasha: I have not thought about it yet.Thomas: I want to go to Yale, Princeton and Har-vard. The reason I want to go to these colleges is be-cause they are top ranked and so I can get a degree.

If you could improve one thing about our country, what would you improve?

Jermisha: Stop factories from polluting the land by recycling. Thomas: Pollution.

Why do you think education is important?

Meiasha: You are not going to get anywhere if you don’t have an education.Jermisha: If we did not have education, no one could work, people would not go to college or know how to read or count their money.Thomas: If you did not have an education, you would not do anything or be anybody without an education.

Mark Your Calendars PTO Meetings All meetings begin at 6 p.m.

South City Campus – Tues., Apr. 8Old North Campus – Wed., Apr. 9Walnut Park Campus – Wed., Apr. 9

There is NO school on: Friday, April 18Student Learning Contract Meetings:

MAP Testing: April 8,9,10, 15 and 16

There WILL be school on: Friday, April 25

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Charting A Route To Excel On MAPMark your calendars for April 8, 9, 10th and April 15 and 16th. These are the days that Confluence Academy students will take the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) – the annual tests given to all third through eighth grade stu-dents in communication arts and math. This year, students in fifth and eighth grade will also be tested in science.

At Confluence Academy, we take the MAP very seriously and work extra hard to ensure your child performs his or her best. There are several things you can do at home to help your child reach MAP proficiency:

• READ, READ, AND READ SOME MORE! Reading fluency is this single most important factor in your child’s success. Students should be reading for at least 20 minutes each night. And of course, they need to understand what they read. Ask your child to summarize the story’s main idea, and give a few supporting details. You want to involve your child in the reading – ask what they liked about what they read, what kinds of stories they pre-fer, and let them see you reading too!

• Work several math problems each night. Most important is that your child can explain the steps he or she used to solve the problem. Make a trip to the grocery store an opportunity to compare prices and make up problems. Encourage your children to see the importance of math in their everyday life. Your student’s Math Unlimited binder is a great resource for you to use in working with your child at home.

• Encourage your child to look beyond the easy answer and to give some thought to the academic challenges they face. So many times students just race through assignments to finish quickly. With a little more thought and a little more focus, they could be doing much better.

• Ask your child about his or her Benchmark scores. The tests are taken monthly, and provide your child’s teacher with a report on areas of strength and areas where additional practice is needed. Our goal is for the students to score between 80% and 100% on these tests.

Your help is appreciated and is invaluable in helping your child perform at his or her best!

Confluence Academy is proud of our talented, committed team of educa-tors. We want you to get to know them! Many of our teachers have es-tablished class pages on the Conflu-ence web site, where they share in-formation about themselves and class activities. Learn more at: www.confluenceacademy.com

Meet Our TeamThis month, we feature Debra

Triplett, a Fifth Grade teacher

at the South City Campus who

strongly believes that, “All

children can and will learn.”

“I have a passion for education and feel that my calling is to educate and

advocate for the unique individuals that pass through our public school

systems. I feel that education is the

key to empowering children to be-

come productive and upstanding

citizens. It is my duty to help each

child meet and exceed the expecta-

tions of others by bridging the gap

created by their learning differences,

socio-economic backgrounds and cul-

ture. I take my calling seriously.”

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At The Core Of Confluence

Our Core Value for the month of March is Wisdom. As we continue to prepare our students for the MAP test we would like for all Confluence students and families to make wise choices in their daily lives. Wisdom is fundamental to all other learning processes. Our students must not only make wise choices at school, but at home and in their communities. At Confluence Academy we promote all of our eight core val-ues, (Wisdom, Justice, Courage, Compassion, Hope, Respect, Responsibility and In-tegrity) but we feel that Wisdom leads the way to utilizing the other seven values.

When Confluence Academy started five years ago with its first 245 students, they were all in grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade. We now have three campuses with students now in the 8th grade. We also plan to open our high school in the fall of 2008. As our students get older, it is very important that they also grow. It is imperative that our students understand the importance of using wisdom in their daily decision mak-ing process during their teenage years. We all know the statistics concerning urban youth who are not making wise decisions. Juvenile detention centers are filled to capacity with good children who did not make wise deci-sions. Many students across America are not living up to their ability in school due to un-wise decision making.

Many times television and music play a role in our students not making wise decisions on a daily basis. Take the time to find out what types of television shows and music that your students are being exposed to. Quite often students simply mimic what they see or hear through the media. This normally leads to unwise choices that can cost them their freedom or their lives.

At Confluence Academy we are dedicated to not only producing bright students, but also good citizens. We do not want ANY of our students to end up in juvenile centers or jails during any phase of their lives. We plan to see all of our students go on to col-leges and trade schools once they leave our Confluence family. Wisdom and wise choices are key elements in making sure that ALL of our students become productive citizens in society.

Please speak to your student on a daily basis about using wisdom in all of their daily decisions. We must remember that our students are our future. We will depend on their wisdom to take care of our families and our society as a whole.

William R. PoliteConfluence Academy Principal on Special Assignment

MONTHLY CORE VALUE: WISDOM

Wisdom and wise choices

are key elements in making

sure that ALL of our stu-

dents become productive

citizens in society.

Great Books Competition Goes On!Congratulations are in order to each of the Elementary and Junior Academy student teams that successfully participated in the first Great Books competi-tion! After reading challenging reading materials during the month of January and February, teams of students that were nominated by teachers to represent their school, participated in a competition.

Each team worked hard to see who could answer the most questions on the game board about the characters and events in the books they read correctly.

Each member of the winning teams were awarded $10.00 gift cards to Borders bookstore so they can continue reading books of their choice.

The Elementary team from Wal-nut Park and the Junior Academy team from Old North won the first round of competition. The

next round of competition will be on April 1st at 2 p.m. for Elementary students

and April 2nd at 2 p.m. for Junior Academy students.

Join us in reading the next round of books for the competition!

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Old North Junior Academy Team

Walnut Park Junior Academy Team responds to a 400 point question

Walnut Park Elementary Team

Artists See Music In ColorsCongratulations to two Walnut Park campus students who were among 100 finalists in the St. Louis Sym-phony Orchestra’s Picture the Music Art Contest. Ta’ Jai Gude was recognized for her piece Love is Magical and Tatyanna Robinson for Let the Sunshine In at an awards ceremony at Powell Symphony Hall.

The contest has students listen to specific selections of symphonic music and then create colorings and draw-

ings. A panel of distin-guished judges selects the finalists. Ta’ Jai and Tatyanna’s works are now part of a traveling art exhibition that will be featured at several locations in the St. Louis region.

This is the third year Confluence students have been finalists in this contest. Spe-cial thanks to their art teachers Pat May and Bryan Rickert.

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W a n t e d ! Fa m i l i e s J u s t L i k e Y o u r s !

Do you know anyone who would be interested in attending Confluence Academy? We are looking for Families Just Like You because you are one of the reasons that Confluence Academy is special!

During the coming year, we will be offering grades K-8 at the Old North St. Louis and Walnut Park campuses, K-7 at the South City campus and grade 9 at our new college preparatory high school.

We welcome your help in getting the word out about Confluence Academy’s wonderful schools. Refer a family who has a school age child and if that child attends, you will receive a $5 Wal-Mart gift certificate! Complete the form below and return promptly to your school. Thank you for referring a Family Just Like You!

Complete this form to refer a family

that’s just like you! Remember, if

they enroll a child, you’ll get a $5 gift

certificate to:

I want to refer the following family to Confluence Academy:

Name

Address

Phone:

Child!s Name"" " Age

Child!s Name"" " Age

Child!s Name"" " Age

Families Just Like Mine

My Name

My Child!s Name

My Child!s Teacher