What's+New+for+2016-2017?


 * Changes for 2016-2017: **

The biggest change for this year is the addition of an outdoor playground component to the PALs volunteer program. This is available all school year. Volunteers can choose between indoor and outdoor duty for each day. Details on outdoor/playground volunteer duties can be found on the What is a PAL? page.

A second change this year is in the way students exit the cafeteria at the end of each lunch period. The kids no longer line up and exit to the playground all at once. They get dismissed table by table and each table walks on their own across the hallway past the conference room, down the stairs near the gym and out the door at the bottom of the stairs. A noon aide stands at the stairwell to help prevent kids from running while inside the building. (This change was given a trial at the end of last year and worked out well.)

The other changes made near the end of last year will also continue into this year. On each day there will be two noon aides in the cafeteria and three out in the playground (was previously one inside, four outside). Each grade will play on only one playground, not both (K and 5 on upper playground, grades 1-4 on lower playground). This keeps all of the kids in a more reasonably sized area for improved student safety.

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 * Change history: 2015-2016 **

PAL volunteers noticed two changes in the cafeteria for the 2015-2016 school year. The first was a change in noon aide staffing. Our wonderful Lisa Colagiovanni took on a new role in the school as an assistant teacher in Mrs. Apollos' kindergarten class, so we only saw her in the cafeteria this year at kindergarten lunch time. Lisa's Colagiovanni's replacement in the noon aide staff is Lisa Schreiber.

The second change that year was in the way students exited the cafeteria at the end of lunch. Instead of lining up at the glass doors to go directly outside from the back of the cafeteria, students lined up at the front of the cafeteria and were led by a noon aide across the hallway and down the stairs to exit at the back of the school. Principal Charles made this change for improved student safety, so that the kids wouldn't have to cross the loading dock driveway to get to the playground. The kids lined up by classroom and the most well-behaved classroom got to lead the line outside.

Towards the end of the year, Principal Charles changed the staffing schedules of the noon aides such that two noon aides would be in the cafeteria every day and three out in the playground (was previously one inside, four outside). She also specified that each grade would play on either the upper or lower playground, not both. This kept all of the kids in a more reasonably sized area for improved student safety.

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Change history: 2014-2015
===Most changes made in the fall of 2014 were changes to the noon aides' cafeteria procedures, with a few to the PALs program itself. Most of the changes were reversed later in the school year. A summary is shown below.===

1. Update 12/11/14: the following change (shown struck through) was reversed effective 12/8/14. The kids are once again required to raise their hands for permission to get up from their tables during lunch. There are no restrictions with regard to how many can get up at once, so you can call on any child who raises their hand. Principal Mahoney has decided that this year the kids are no longer required to raise their hands in order to get up from their lunch table to go to the bathroom, get condiments, etc. This is a big change BUT it is being given a soft roll-out in that Mr. Mahoney has also decided to not make any kind of announcement about it. As a result, many kids are still raising their hands while others just get up from the tables on their own. So if a kid *asks* you whether they need to raise their hand you can tell them the truth that they don't have to, but many kids do not know about this change and the noon aides would rather it stayed that way. So if anyone raises their hand please call on them just like you always have and don't volunteer the info that they don't need to raise their hand any more. I find that whole situation rather odd but that's how it's playing out.

2. There are no more colored cups on the tables to indicate who is behaving and who is not. Rachel Levesque says this change is on a trial basis.

3. We now have a volunteer roster page as part of this PALs wiki. If you put your name on one of our paper signup sheets at the beginning of the year, your name is already on the roster. If you didn't (or you are not sure) click here to check and/or add your name. If for some reason you don't want your whole name displayed there feel free to edit it to remove first name, last name, change to initials, nickname, etc. Only people listed on the roster will get my monthly update/reminders for PALs because I don't want to harass people who aren't interested (exceptions made for volunteers who don't want their name displayed for security reasons but ask me separately to be on the distribution).

4. The monthly signup pages on the wiki now include info showing which noon aide will be in the cafeteria on any given day. So if there is an aide you don't know very well whom you would like to meet, this info could help guide you as you select your days to volunteer.

5. Some of the monthly signup pages on the wiki now include training/observation shifts (one per week from mid-Sept through October). This is for new volunteers who would like the support from an experienced PAL the first time they come or for people who are considering volunteering but want to see what it's like before committing to a shift of their own.

6. Update 11/10/14: the following change (shown struck through) was reversed effective 11/10. The kids once again exit the cafeteria through the back door to go directly outside like last year. Principal Mahoney has decided that the kids will line up in the opposite direction from last year at the end of their lunch period. So instead of lining up at the back door of the caf and going out to recess through there, they are now lining up near the bathrooms and filing out through the school hallways and down the stairs to the exit at the bottom of the stairs near the gymnasium. This is because Mr. Mahoney feels it was too dangerous to have the kids cross the loading dock on the way to the playground. This next part still applies on indoor recess days -->> This year the PAL volunteers are not leading the student lines through the hallways because that puts them in a position to be responsible for behavior management and student safety, so Debbie and the noon aides have been doing that.

7. Update 12/11/14: the following change (shown struck through) was reversed effective 12/8/14. The noon aides are now back to giving a 5-minute warning as a general announcement so the kids know to finish their lunch and throw away their trash. The line-up procedure at the end of each lunch seating has changed too. The new official policy is that the noon aides no longer give the 5-minute warning followed by a general announcement to line up. The noon aides have been asked to go table to table and give 5-minute warnings and line-up permission one table at a time. Since each noon aide has their own style of behavior management, there are variations in exactly how this is being implemented. This next part remains in effect, though -->> Also, instead of having one long line, each grade is now lining up by classroom. Before leading the line out to lunch recess, the noon aide tells the classrooms the order in which they are allowed to file out based on which classes are behaving best. Update 11/10/14: Now that item #6 has been reversed, the following part of the line-up procedure changes too. When the indoor noon aide lets the classes out the back door of the caf, they are guided to the playground by the outdoor noon aides. So the indoor noon aide stays in the cafeteria and no longer has to lead them out. This means that Debbie and the PALs volunteers no longer have to watch to see that the classes file out in the order determined by the noon aide. The noon aide then leads the first classroom out and the others follow in order. Debbie and/or a PAL volunteer makes note of the classroom order assigned by the noon aide and watches to make sure they go out in the right order.