**Please check the Meeting Schedules (in the sidebar) and the calendar at the bottom for information regarding this week's meetings and events. Laptops are not required unless requested. Thank you for leaving them in your classrooms.
***Please bookmark the Mindset link so you can access it easily.
~from the Elementary Office
Newsletters (core and encore) will be sent home this Friday by 4:00 pm via instructional leads on behalf of the grade level. Please use the first edition templates provided (core and encore). This template is different than the regular template. Most of the information is already included. Instructional Leads and Encore Teacher received more detailed information on Friday. All School important dates have been added. If you have grade level specific (e.g. Parent Education Sessions), please add those.
If you need support embedding your newsletter, organizing your core or encore site pages, or setting up composer to send the newsletter, please check the step by step guide. If you are still struggling, check in with Nate and his team. Please give Krista, Tracey, and Leigh editing access and let them know when your newsletter is published (Thursday, August 26th by 10 am latest), so they can review it before team leads send it home Friday, August 31st, 2018.
~from the Principal
We still have several ES Parent Permissions and Agreement forms (Appendix A of the ES Student-Parent handbook) that have not yet been returned. We cannot move forward until all forms are returned and reviewed to determine whether or not we can take photos and video, document learning using SeeSaw, or allow access to the many other applications we use. This includes pictures on your Weebly page, in the Update, and in the Mindset, as well as livestreaming the assembly, sharing our traditional welcome video, and using applications such as RAZ kids. Currently, we only have one class that has returned all their forms.
Your support in ensuring all forms are returned as soon as possible is necessary for us to move forward. We ask you to please call those parents who have not returned the forms and request their return tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. If you have lost track of who has and hasn't returned the form, stop by the office and Barbara can let you know. You can access parent numbers via Veracross. Thank you!
~from the Principal
Our first Parent Education Session takes place one week from today. Please share your professional team presentations with Leigh, Tracey, and Krista a minimum of three days in advance of your presentation. Leigh has shared the templates for your slides and well as directions for sharing and storing them in the team drive. Instructional leads need to confirm set up in the MPR via a work order. Please complete these by this Friday. Erika will organize coffee, tea, and snacks for the MPR. These will be the same for all presentations. Krista, Tracey, and Leigh will attend all presentations and join the interactive sessions (Leigh (ELA), Krista (Math), and Tracey (U of S). Paul Slocombe has also been invited to attend all events.
Please contact parents who have not yet signed up and encourage them to attend. If you did not receive an email containing your class sign up list, please see Erika and she can share it with you.
31- Announced Fire Drill at 9:30 am
31- First ES News Letter Published (Encore and Core)
31- Elementary Welcome Back Assembly (2:50 start)
September
4-6- Yearbook Photos
3-7- Parent Education Sessions Upper Elementary
(formerly BTSN)
10-14- Parent Education Sessions Lower Elementary
(formerly BTSN)
11-15- Fall MAP Assessments (Make Ups 18-20)
17-21- International Week
21- International Day of Peace luncheon, parade and assembly
~from the Associate Principal
These first few weeks are crucial for building clear routines and expectations for how we demonstrate social responsibility. Commonly understood and consistently applied expectations need to be modeled and actively supported by all members of the community (teachers, assistants, administration, parents and students) in order to build our student capacity in developing pro-social behaviors. If we all do our part, overtime a gradual release will occur. Thank you for upholding the following expectations yourself, with your students, and with your colleagues. Together, we achieve more.
Walking students to classes, recesses, and lunch
- All students are accompanied by an adequate number of adult supervisors to ensure classes move together. This is for all transitions
- All students are collected from recess by the teacher of the class following recess. Students should not be wandering the halls in small groups. Classes move together. The exception to recess pick up is World Language. A special schedule has been arranged for this and shared with teachers.
- Core teachers, please identify a pick up location (on the playground and in the cafeteria) for your class, and practice lining up with your students.
- Students may be allowed to talk (as we do) as long as they use appropriate voice levels and are not disturbing learning.
- Model and have your students practice walking on the right. We do this to provide space for oncoming traffic. Students, like faculty and staff, may walk side by side (maximum 2 people) if they are able to stay to the right allowing for oncoming traffic.
- No snacks allowed on any playground. The only exception to this is if you are supervising an entire class while seated at tables or in an outside area for a nutrition break. In this case, you must ensure the area is cleaned and trash is thrown away before play begins.
- Children should not leave classrooms with snacks.
- Teachers must give the provided passes (see photo on left) to students who need to use the bathroom or see the nurse during recess breaks.
- Our hallway duty supervisors will send students without passes back outside.
- Students return the pass to the duty teacher when they return to the playground. Please remind them to do so.
- Passes must also be used during After School Activities and Hosted Clubs.
- A pass is for ONE student only. The only exception to this is if a child clearly needs one escort buddy to get to the nurse because they are hurt and need assistance.
- We encourage you to use the same system in your classrooms or a system which ensures children go to the bathroom one at a time (except when you offer a full class bathroom break).
- Everyone must be on time for duty. Your colleagues are depending on you.
- When on duty, walk your zone for the entire time. Proximity is a great way to encourage pro-social behavior.
- Take your passes for cafeteria and recess duties. Only allow one child at a time to use a pass. The exception is if the visit to the nurse requires someone to accompany them.
- Ensure students line up by class at the end of recess and wait with the until the teacher responsible picks the them up.
- Teachers picking up students must be on time. The recess bell rings at 11:00 pm and 1:15 pm respectively. Please be on the playground at this time. Your colleagues are depending on you. The five minutes following is required for transition to the next class so that learning can begin at 11:05 pm and 1:20 pm.
~from the Associate Principal
Our first assembly is this Friday. Here is the Assembly Seating Chart. Labels have been placed on the chairs at the end of each theater row to identify assigned class seating. Teachers and assistants (core and encore) have been assigned seats. If you were missed, please let me know.
Help our students understand and demonstrate appropriate behavior by:
- arriving on time. We will start at 2:50 pm, so please be seated by 2:49 pm.
- carefully check the Assembly Seating Chart to know
- where you sit (core and encore teachers and assistants).
- where your class sits.
- remaining seated unless you or your students are performing on stage. Please be proactive. If you know a student will be heading up on stage to perform or for their birthday, please seat them closer to the side.
- not standing on the sides of the theater during the assembly.
- discussing, modeling, and upholding expectations for respectful audience behavior in advance of the assembly which includes:
- sitting in your chair with your feet on the ground (not on the chair in front).
- listening attentively to the speakers on stage.
- refraining from side conversations.
- clapping at appropriate times.
- following up immediately with students who are not modeling respectful behavior.
~from the DTL
At the start of the year, we dedicate time to better understand our students’ strengths and needs in order to inform our instruction. Please remember to review the data discussion notes from the spring to refresh your memories as well as the data dashboard to learn more about your current students. Curriculum Leads are available to support you in understanding the hows and whys of these beginning of the year assessments. It is important that we all administer these assessments in a common way to ensure consistency. Each assessment should be given in the context of a reading, writing, or math workshop in order to set the students up for success. Please input all data (Math, F&P, Writing, WIDA, and LSS) in the data dashboard by Friday, September 28.
Mathematics Benchmark Assessments
~from Ashlee Christians (Mathematics Lead)
Mathematics benchmark assessments can be found under the Mathematics Mindset tab under Assessments. These assessments consist of a few questions representing the key critical areas from the previous grade. Please print out a copy for each student. Rather than giving students the entire assessment to complete in one session, please spread out the assessment over a few days, giving students only one problem at a time as an exit ticket after a math workshop focused on the critical area. Please have your benchmark assessment completed by Friday, Sep. 7.
Literacy Assessments
~from Kathy Cromartie (Literacy Curriculum Lead)
- All links can be found on the Literacy tab on the ES Curriculum site.
- If you would like a refresher on how to administer F&P or writing prompts, please see Kathy.
- Kindergarten will assess with F&P and writing prompts twice a year (January and May)
- Grades 1-5 will give the Narrative writing prompt twice a year (September and May)
- Grades 1 & 2 will assess fiction reading with F&P 3 times a year (September, January, May.)
- Grades 3-5 will assess non-fiction reading with F&P twice a year (September and May) with the option of assessing in January if necessary.
Fountas and Pinnell Reading Inventory Grades 1-5
- Grade 3-5 EAL/LSS students who may be reading below an Instructional Level J, should be tested before Friday, Sep. 7 to inform our MAP testing roster and parents.
- Assistants will receive substitute pay for 6 periods in grades K-2, but there will not be an additional substitute. Assistants and/or substitutes will be provided for 6 periods in grades 3-5.
- Grades 3-5 please fill in one team blank schedule for testing times and give to Erika in the office a week before testing.
- ALL teachers need to fill in a leave form with the 6 hours (on one slip) to ensure that the assistant gets paid for the hours.
- If your grade level is missing books or forms in your F&P kits, please print additional copies from this shared folder, which can be found under the Literacy resources tab on the ES Curriculum site.
Narrative Writing On Demand Assessments Grades 1-5
- Please administer the on-demand Narrative writing assessment by Friday, Sep. 7.
- Score the Narrative writing assessments using your grade level rubric, which can be found under the Assessments tab on the ES Curriculum site.
- Check writing exemplars on ES Curriculum site to align scoring and score 2-3 together as a team.
MAP Grades 3-5
- MAP assessments will occur Sep. 10 - 14. Please see the MAP schedule here.
- Leigh will visit SLCs the week prior for a proctoring refresher.
ES Assessment Calendar
Have an article, website, tool worth sharing? Send it to Krista and share it with your colleagues here.
~from the LI Team At AISB we aim to provide a variety of opportunities for students to present and visualize their learning in, fun, creative, and innovative ways. Green screening allows students superimpose any background (in both static and motion form) to transport them from ‘the studio’ to any location they choose. Reporting from the inside of a tornado? No problem! Taking a trip into space to talk about our solar system? Of course! |
Have an article, website, tool worth sharing? Send it to Krista and share it with your colleagues here.
~from Krista
How to Weave a Growth Mindset into School Culture- by Katrina Schwartz [Mind/Shift]- This article looks at growing confident students and growing as teachers.
Learning is a Learned Behavior: Here's How to Get Better at It- by Ulrich Boser [Havard Business Review]- This article discusses how the deliberate use of practice and dedicated strategies to improve our ability to learn, enables us to develop expertise faster and more effectively. In short, we can all get better at getting better.
~from Leigh
Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Can (and Should) Inform Responsive Teaching
August 28, 2018, 3:00 p.m. eastern daylight time
As brain science continues to evolve, so does our knowledge about what contributes to user-friendly classrooms—and what does not. Differentiation is rooted in the assertions that students differ as learners, that the differences matter in student success, and that students benefit from having teachers who study their similarities and differences, and then plan instruction that is most likely to support the learning of a broad range of students.
Differentiation calls on teachers to consider how they can craft five classroom elements that typify virtually all classrooms in order to teach responsively. Those elements are learning environment, curriculum, formative assessment, instruction, and classroom organization/operation. In this webinar with Carol Ann Tomlinson, coauthor of the book Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom, Second Edition
Science Resources
~Found under Unit of Study tab in Mindset
The Wonder of Science: Paul Andersen's website w/phenomena, progressions, standards, etc..
Amplify - Online science curriculum
Mystery Science - Online science mysteries based on NGSS standards
Science Notes - our learning with Paul Andersen
Professional Library Highlight:
Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today
By Richard Gerver
Part philosophy and part practical guide on how to develop a truly creative curriculum that empowers children (and teachers) and prepares them to face the challenges the future holds: the rapidly changing employment patterns and the global environmental, economic and social crises ahead of us.