Principal's Corner
October
Message from Mrs. Sivadasan
We have had a great start to the school year and the month of September has brought new learning and new routines for our students. As always, our students have stepped up to the new challenges of the school year, and I continue to be humbled by an amazing staff of educators that make learning relevant and engaging for our students. Your children are in exceptional hands! As a school, we are purposeful about the environment we create for our students, and families and about the experiences are students have academically as well as socially/emotionally. Staff and Administration alike come together to design a vision road map for the year that guides the work we do along those lines. Please take some time to see what we have in store this year and I look forward to another great year of learning.
-Mrs. Sivadasan
Academics
Guided Reading
- Staff engaged in Who's doing the work? book study
- Guided Reading groups focus of K-5 teachers and the work of our instructional coach this year
- Professional development centered around Guided Reading groups and using Fountas and Pinnell scores to provide targeted instruction to students
New Social Studies Curriculum
- District has shifted to the C3 Framework (Inquiry based instruction in Social Studies). This framework uses The Inquiry Arc, which is based on 4 different dimensions:
- Developing Questions & Planning Inquiries
- Applying Disciplinary Tools and Concepts
- Evaluating Sources & Using Evidence
- Communicating Conclusions & Taking Informed Action
- 2-5 Google Expeditions (virtual reality exploration)
- Museum Trunks
Math, Writing, and Science
- Focus on conventions
- Writing PD with Matt Glover
- Curriculum Mapping
- Science Kits
- Instructional strategies to support our ELL students
- Tier 2 math interventions (Math buddies for 1-2 grade students, ASAP math for 3-5 grade students)
- Applying for ASAP grant in reading for 4-5 grade students to provided Tier 2 targeted reading intervention
- Collaborative planning between general education and special education staff
- Designing a master schedule that allows us to double or triple dip intervention supports for struggling students
PBSES (Positive Behavior Social Emotional Support)
Second Step
- Continued implementation of Second Step curriculum in all K-5 classrooms to help students learn how to positively solve problems and regulate emotions
- Levy dollars helped us hire full time counselors and PBSES coaches at all elementary schools. Our counselor and coach will work together to help support students and teachers with things like- classroom management strategies, whole class or small group counseling lessons (organization strategies or friendship issues), and classroom lessons
- Piloting Second Step anti-bullying curriculum
- Maintaining school wide PBSES systems
- Working on restorative justice practices with students
Cultural Competency
- Continuing to work to create a school environment that is inclusive and representative of the diverse community we serve
- Having a diverse parent panel of Endeavour parents present to our staff around their own cultures and what its like to navigate the American school system
- Staff will receive professional development from two nationally renowned speakers specializing in cultural competency
Multi-Tiered levels of support for students
- We are implementing three differing levels of support (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3) to help ensure we are supporting our students by offering timely and targeted interventions.
- Each Tier will be monitored by a group of trained staff members who will meet no less than once a month to monitor and determine action steps for each level.
Equity and Cultural Competency
Construction Update:
We continue to wait on permits for the construction to begin, but our construction crew has been given permits to begin demolition. Our old uncovered playground has been removed as well as several feet of surrounding blacktop (see pictures below). The loading dock behind our cafeteria has also been demolished. Our vestibule is almost complete and should be fully operational shortly.
YMCA Play Every Day has also been coming three times a week to all of our lunch recesses and providing fun and enriching games for students to participate in.
As always, safety is our number one concern and as a staff we have been planning for construction for the past 7 months. We have plans in place for needing to exit the building in an emergency and will be practicing this with students during our routine safety drills.
*Please refer to my Principal's Corner e-news from June, August, and September for a review of what I have previously communicated regarding construction.
I will continue to update you as information comes my way. Please see below for pictures of the construction work so far.