FRIDAY FOCUS
March 8, 2013
WHAT 'YA NEED TO KNOW...
3/12 PTO Meeting-Welcome Mary Anne Nuskin-Earl Warren Principal
3/14-3/16 CUE-Please confirm with your subs!
3/19 Drop and Hold Drill-Please review with your students the correct way to Duck and Cover.
•Foundation for Learning Pledge Drive has officially begun! Please remind parents of the drive in your newsletters and include a blurb about how technology plays an important role in your classrooms. I will forward you a "Smore" that includes the Pledge drive letter (that has the donation link) for you to forward to your parents) Additionally, here is the link for the donation page.
https://app.etapestry.com/cart/SolanaBeachFoundationforLe/cart3/index.php
A DROP IN THE BUCKET...
•Thank you to Katie, Mary Ellen, Terry Decker, Terri Davis and Lisa Platt for taking the time to come and visit SSF! What an amazing visit! So many amazing things happening at SSF! Of course there was evidence in ALL classrooms that the District Adopted materials were being used (Katie was so happy!) The use of technology and mobile devices was evident everywhere we went-Can you say 21st Century Skills and the 4C's? Talk about a schoolwide initiative on steroids! (Terry Decker was in technology heaven!) It was fun to see so many of the Common Core Math Strategies, presented by Dinah Brown, being used in our Primary Classes (Both Terry and Katie were pleased that our teachers felt these inservices were meaningful and that they were able to come back and begin integrating the strategies into our instruction!) Evidence of differentiation was in every classroom and absolutely seamless. (Mary Ellen was blow away at the accommodations and modifications that were being made throughout our classrooms-almost to the point of not even realizing that they are accommodations and modifications-it's just what we do for kiddos!) And of course Lisa Platt and Terri Davis took back lots of great ideas to share with their grade level teams (You should have seen Terri Davis snapping pictures everywhere she went!)
I know the visits can be stressful (for me too!) but the benefit for the observers is huge! I'm proud of our school and all that we do to ensure student success~I hope you are too! It's nice for our District Office folks to be able to see first hand how their efforts are being transferred to the classroom and to instruction! Thank you to everyone for sharing your classrooms with all of us!
•Kudos to Julie Union, our newest School Board Member for making it a priority to get out and visit all of the sites! What a pleasure to be able to share the history of Santa Fe and to talk about the strengths of our school and our current and future focus areas! She was blown away by the level of student engagement throughout the school! It really is amazing to walk around an entire school and not see one student off task! WOW!! And thank you to Nancy Lynch for accompanying Julie Union...and for not filing a restraining order against me for assault! (<:
•Thank you to Natalie, Mary, Marilyn, Robyn, Vicki Pilling (and her staff) for working so diligently as a team to support a student in Kindergarten!
•Kudos to Lydia Noble for coordinating and expanding Maggie's Club! Did you see the great article in the San Diego UT about our program?
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/05/solana-beach-theapy-dogs-reading/
AND THEN THERE'S S'MORE...
Have a great week! Thank you for getting your report cards to me! I loved reading and commenting on our students' progress! I am so proud of the hard work and the accomplishments that our kiddos are making!