What a team we have at Emory. This week, our families had so many wonderful things to say about all that you do for their children. Thank you. Please enjoy a relaxing weekend with your friends and families- you deserve it!
Staff PD:
We DO meet as a full staff this Wednesday, May 24th at 1:45 in room 23. We have a few new things to share, though the bulk of the meeting will be creating class lists.
Enrollment/Site-Reassignment Update:
This Wednesday, May 24th, we will place students onto class rosters. I do not anticipate having decisions made about teacher grade level placement. I am sorry for the worry this is causing. Thank you to those of you who I met with this week. I appreciate your flexibility, creativity and focus on our students. We are still closely monitoring enrollment and I will wait to make grade level placements to minimize the possibility of making any changes. We have seen slight changes to enrollment across most grade levels. I appreciate your patience and understanding. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or would like to chat about this process or anything else.
Last Day for……
As we wind down the school year, we have many programs, etc ending this week:
Reading Intervention Groups (Ms. Michael)- FINISHED May 19th
Imagine Learning-May 26th
Independent Reading Club-May 26th
PLC/Rotations-May 26th
ELD-May 26th
ELD Celebration Breakfast:
Like last year, we will celebrate our English Learners who have made progress. With certificates from Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez’ office, we will honor our English Learners who moved up a proficiency level on the CELDT test and our students who reclassified as English Proficient. There will be a breakfast in their honor this Thursday, May 25th at 8:15. By Wednesday, your students will receive an invitation to the breakfast in your mail box.
Reading Assessment Data Entered- May 26th:
New Instructions for entering Fountas and Pinnell data into Illuminate.Please let me know ASAP if you need any assistance completing your assessments or entering your data by our deadline. I am so excited about the growth that you have seen in your students. You (and they) have worked hard this year.
Coach’s Corner:
The end of the year count down has begun and it’s the perfect time to reflect and set goals for our personal and professional growth. As you look back on this year, consider all the things you could celebrate and be proud of, as well as an area in which we would like to grow. It is easy for us to focus on the many challenges we faced and dwell on our struggles, so make sure to take the time to think about all of your success, and remember that you made a difference this year!
District Retiree/Service Awards Tuesday, May 23rd Burress Auditorium at 6:00 p.m.:
Please join me this Tuesday at Burress to celebrate Connie, Angelica and Sabina’s service to our students and families.
Shared Leadership:
Hope to see you at our next Shared Leadership meeting on Tuesday, May 30th.
Agenda Items
Learning Center
ELD- next year
Bell Schedule
School Brand- Science Academy?
Other
As a reminder all are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Summer Learning Academy:
Check out
Summer Learning Academy with over 40 sessions and 25 different topics! You can choose which sessions you’d like to attend from topics in
Science, Literacy, Technology, and
a lot of other topics. Click here to view the
brochure. Please
sign-up here. You will NOT need to sign up for the sessions you want to attend. It’s conference-style, you can decide when you want. Just let us know you’re coming. Please wait to sign-up if you’re not sure you’re able to make it.
Parent Class Request 2017-18:
As we approach the end of the school year, you may start to hear from families about their teacher preference for the next school year. Do or don’t have these conversation as you are comfortable. Please let families know that they may submit a teacher request form with Ms. Dani, but that making a request does not guarantee placement. Please DO NOT tell a parent that you will make sure their request is honored.
Resources to Explore:
If you have time, you may want to explore a few of the resources listed below. Some you may be familiar with or already using.
Defined Stem
from their web site…”Defined STEM provides online, authentic project-based lessons for PreK-12 students and teachers. Our engaging real-world content empowers students to develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they need to be successful”. You can search their resources by Common Core Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.
I created a free trial. You may get your own or use my login information (below)
Username: jgrondek@sbusd.org
Password (case-sensitive!): STEM8783
Mystery Science
Thanks to Maria, some of you may have check out or started using Mystery Science. It looks interesting and is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Mystery Science Five Minute Questions
Thanks to RoseAnn for sharing this resource. “It looks great for K-5 teachers and it’s free forever. Sign up and you get a short video every week. I think it will inspire kids to keep asking questions. It looks like a good 5-minute break or any transitions in your day.
Report Cards:
A report card provides a means by which to communicate student progress. In order to build consistency about student progress below you will find answers to frequently asked questions about scores and expectations from Jennifer Oliveira
Q: Sometimes my comments disappear. What can I do about that?
A: Using a text editor, like Word or Google Docs, is a good way to get your ideas out about your students, then copy and paste your comments to the report cards. If you leave the window open in the Illuminate report card, there is the possibility the application/website might “time out” and log you out prematurely. Make sure you SAVE often.
Q: Do I have to complete a report card for students every trimester?
A: As a means of communication, the trimesterly report card provides important information for state and federal accountability as well as to a new school in the event a student moves.
Q: How does it look if I’m using the Units of Study from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project?
A: All of the Teachers College Units of Study for Reading and Writing Workshop are aligned to Common Core State Standards. For the Reading Units, you can find the standards addressed in each session in this document, K-5 CCSS Correlation, which breaks down each unit and each session. For the Writing Units, on the first page of each session the standards are listed at the bottom of the page. They can also be found in the inside back cover of each unit. You can use a variety of resources to determine if your students are meeting grade level expectation in the standards. For example:
- Reading and/or writing notebooks
- Reading and/or writing folders
- Learning progressions, checklists, and rubrics
- Published writing
- Running records
- Post-it notes
- Conferring and notes
- Small group observations
- Informal assessments
- Formative assessments
- Post-assessments
Q: I taught the 3rd grade units first, but I teach 4th, 5th, or 6th grade. How does that look on my report cards?
A: Your responsibility is to communicate how your students are doing with grade level standards. In the reading units, the first few sessions in Grade 3 Unit 1 are geared toward the Range of Reading and Text Complexity (RL and RI 3.10). You can look at that as you would normally and ask yourself “Has this student mastered that standard at our grade level (RL and RI 4.10, 5.10, 6.10)? How do I know?” This continuum will help you see each standard set for K-8. Look at the cluster and notice how your students are performing against the standards. The Reading Foundational standards apply K-5.
Q: Why do we need to grade ELD?
A: Besides communicating progress to parents, a score in English Language Development is an important part of our accountability to the state, used most recently in Federal Program Monitoring (FPM) this year.
Q: Can I add something to Additional Learning Areas and Learning Behaviors?
A: An optional space is provided to add a score for an area you, your grade level or your site has agreed upon. The area must be established in the first trimester, and it cannot be changed. In order to be equitable, a team or school agreement can be made about what the field should say and how they are being assessed for each student.
Summer Shared Leadership:
I invite all interested colleagues to join us at summer Shared Leadership Meeting Monday, July 17 from 9:00-12:30. Agenda details to follow. You will be compensated for your time.
Professional Development/Teacher Prep Week:
You are due to return to work on July 18th. You will have Tuesday and Wednesday available for teacher prep. We will meet together as a staff on Thursday and Friday. I am awaiting details regarding the District Kick Off and will share them with you when available.
Summer Book Club:
Our Summer Book Club Books have arrived!!! Sharing Book Talking Science was selected to be our next read. If you are interested, stop by and let me know. We will meet to discuss the book on Monday, July 17th from 8:00-9:00 a.m. If anyone wants to host a summer book club meet up, please let me know.
Student Google Accounts:
STUDENT Google accounts no longer expire as of July 1st each year for any students remaining in the District. Accounts for 6th graders will be cleared as of July 1st. Reminders for Student Accounts:
- Teachers may want to consider making copies (in Google Drive) of any student Google Drive files that you may like to retain as exemplary work to share with future classes and students. Remember that files shared with you, but not “owned” by your account, will disappear if the original owner deletes them in the future.
- While not required, the following link provides instructions for any teacher wishing to move all student work files into their own staff Google Drive:TEACHER MOVE OF ALL STUDENT GOOGLE DRIVE FILES
Quote of the Week:
