Dutch Fork Elementary
Academy of Environmental Sciences - Week of September 17th -
District Goals 2018-2019
- Focus our work decisions on/around our district strategic plan.
- Identify areas of achievement to improve.
- Provide Chick-Fil-A and Moes like customer service for internal and external community.
- Strengthen the structure and quality of communication both internally and externally.
- Promote a work and learning environment where students and staff feel safe physically, emotionally and socially.
DFES Goals 2018 - 2019
- Exceed family expectations in our communication, follow through, and sharingstudent progress.
- Strengthen grade level data team processes to accelerate student growth and achievement in mathematics.
- Implementation of student-led conference across all grade levels (as identified in DFES strategic plan).
DFES Beliefs
- We believe all people deserve to feel safe, valued, and loved.
- We believe all children are naturally curious about the world around them.
- We believe learning is a social process.
- We believe inquiry fosters an environment of noticing and questioning.
- We believe in learning from multiple perspectives.
- We believe in learning from authentic primary and secondary sources.
- We believe in encouraging learners to be risk takers.
- We believe reflection should lead to change and growth.
- We believe learning should lead to social action.
- We believe our actions should be aligned with our beliefs.
Constitution Day
Constitution Day is on September 17th. The following is the language from the Federal Register announcement of the U.S. Constitution mandate:
- The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement announces that, pursuant to legislation passed by Congress, educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17th of each year.
The following resources were shared by the S.C. State Department of Education:
http://www.constitutionday.com/ is a link to the Constitution Day website
https://constitutioncenter.org/constitution-day/ has activities for kids
https://www.scbar.org/public/students-educators/constitution-day/https://www.knowitall.org/collections/constitution-day
PTO Fundraiser Kickoff
The fundraiser packets were originally scheduled to be delivered and placed in homeroom teacher boxes last Friday. However due to inclement weather delivery of those packets did not happen. We have been made aware that the packets are currently at the West Columbia UPS with arrival tentatively scheduled for tomorrow.
At this point you can anticipate packets being placed in boxes by the end of Monday and no later than Tuesday. Packets can be sent home Tuesday, September 18. A Remind message will be sent to notify parent/families once packets have been distributed.
Dates:
Start Date/ Live Kick Off: Sept. 17th Mini Theater (Mon.) 1:00pm 4K-2nd grade and 1:45pm 3-5 grade
End Date/Parent Turn in Oct. 1st (Mon.)
Tentative Delivery Date: Nov. 5th (Mon.) parent pick up from 3-6 in the cafeteria
Products:
Believe Kids Catalog: this is a catalog of household gadgets, cups, wrapping paper, and gift ideas
Otis spunkmeyer Cookie Dough
Daily Prizes:
Daily Collectible: these are little characters called adopt a pet that the children can collect and share with each other. In order to receive these teachers will collect tickets from the students to be turned in. The teachers will place the tickets in the PTO folders and return them to the front office. The prizes will be given out daily in Ziploc bags with the students name on the bag. PTO will place these in the teachers mailbox.
Principal Taxi: Students who sell 10 items will have their put into a drawing to be pushed to lunch in a rolling chair by Mr. Scott or Mr. Gantt
Tag on Prize:
Gametruck Party with a popcorn bar.
Students who sell 20 items or above will be included in this fun prize. Students who earn this prize will be able to come out to the soccer field to play in the video game truck and make their own popcorn treat bags. This will be held on Oct 19
9:30-11am.
9:30 to 10:15 k-2
10:15 to 11:00 3-5
PTO will compile a list of participants by grade level and teacher name. These will be placed in your mailbox by Oct. 12th.
Teacher Incentive:
50% student participation in homeroom classes will earn their teachers $50 shopping spree in the catalog.
Monday, Sep 17, 2018, 01:00 PM
Mini Theater
MAP Testing Schedule: Take 3
Testing this week will impact our related areas schedule given the the computer will be utilized.
With the computer lab being closed for testing this will be the last week where related arts schedules will be impacted. Those changes include the following:
Tuesday:
- First Grade: Mrs. Knowles' class will go to Music
- Kindergarten: Mrs. Poston's class will go to Art
- 5th Grade: Mrs. Jefferson & Strings 1 will go to PE
- 2nd Grade: Ms. Blackwell's class will split between Spanish (1-4 students), Art (5-8 students), PE (9-12 students), Music (13-16 students)
Wednesday:
- 4th Grade: Ms. Abu Abdo's class will go to Spanish
- 1st Grade: Mrs. Sparkman's class will go to PE
- 3rd Grade: Mrs. Goforth's class will go to Art
- Kindergarten: Mrs. McWhirter's class will go to Music
- 2nd Grade: Mrs. Gustafson's class will split between Spanish (1-4 students), Art (5-8 students), PE (9-13 students), Music (14-17 students)
District Leadership Tuesday
On the 3rd Tuesday of each month all elementary schools send representatives to attend district leadership meetings at various sites. This time allows district instructional staff members to share content information that is expected to be related back at each respective school.
The link below includes DFES certified staff members by district leadership teams, grade-level unit leaders, PBIS committee, and Data Team facilitators.
A link is also being included for leadership team members to add meeting minutes. To provide a turnaround time to ensure information is relayed please add your information to the document by the this Friday. The collective minutes will be included in the upcoming staff newsletter. This will be our practice for the year.
SLO/GBE Timeline Update
The deadline to complete SLO/GBE for certified staff was originally scheduled to be completed by Friday, September 21st. That timeline has been extended. Once known we will notify everyone impacted. This too will be discussed during grade level unit leader meetings this coming Tuesday.
K-2 Curriculum Night
Our schedule for the evening is as follows:
- 6:00 - 6:10 Welcome/Title I updates
- 6:10 - 6:15 Transition
- 6:15 - 7:15 Teacher facilitation
Given we lost most of last plans for the classroom level and use of students may have been hampered. Lets maintain sharing with parents a context for how students are learning should remain in place.
Additional reminder for K-2 teachers to share the R2S presentation with families.
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2018, 06:00 PM
DFES
Scott Out of Office Wednesday
DFES Spirit NIght at Blimpies
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2018, 05:00 PM
Blimpie, Dutch Fork Road, Irmo, SC, USA
3rd-5th Curriculum Night
Thursday, Sep 20, 2018, 06:00 PM
DFES
Data Team Updates
In an effort to bolster our school's work and commitment to Data Teams we have modified our plans and efforts.
Grade level data teams will meet the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Thursday of each month in our professional development room. Heidi and I were able negotiate the schedule for her to be with us on the 4th Thursday of each month. This gives us 3 consecutive meetings without interruption.
Facilitators please send me a copy of agenda's you had in place and worked on by Wednesday. All grade level data teams will meet this Thursday in our our professional development room (Sally Somerall's space).
Vision/Hearing Screening
Thursday, Sep 20, 2018, 08:30 AM
Mini Theater
Brytebites
D5 is partnering with BrightBytes, an educational research organization, to learn more about you and your students’ technology access and use for learning.
The goal of this project is to gather data on technology access, skills, and your school’s technology environment, in order to understand the connection between technology use and student achievement.
Our data collection window was originally scheduled to run from September 17, 2018 - October 5, 2018.
Details of this roll out will be hammered out during Tuesday's meeting with grade level chairs.
Each school is assigned 3 unique questionnaire URLs. One link is designed for teachers and administrators; another is designed for students (Grades 3-5); and the last is link is designed for parents.
Your questionnaire links are listed below:
Teachers & Administrators: www.BByt.es/QK3FT
Students (Grades 3-5): www.BByt.es/QK3FL
Parents: www.BByt.es/QK3FP
Our participation will make the difference for our technology department to have a complete understanding of our school’s technology use versus a limited one.
Birthday Wishes!
- 9/19 A. Umberger (Resident Scientist)
- 9/20 N. Jefferson (5th Grade)
- 9/21 T. Peneva (strings teacher)
We develop students who care about the world we live in and express critical thinking through natural curiosity and wonder.
Email: jscott@lexrich5.org
Website: www.lexrich5.org/dutchfork/cfm/
Location: 7900 Broad River Road, Irmo, SC, USA
Phone: 803-476-3901
Twitter: @dfes_principal