PKMS Update 3.2.20
A Close Look At How We Did & Will Do Our Work
HELLO, PKMS FAMILY
Last week was a great in how we concluded our month-long celebration of African American and Black Culture - Thank you to Ms. Simon for her work with the Paramount Theater and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company to present an educational program that highlighted African-rooted dance and artistic expression - Thank you to Natalie Bolden and Nu Psi Zeta Sorority, Inc for your continued partnership with the Peekskill Middle School
March is Women's History Month and each morning we will honor and celebrate an influential girl/woman
Our appreciation continues for your engaging learning environments, dedication, planning, collaboration, assessment of students, focus, and hard work.
This week’s quote speaks to our Social Emotional Learning Theme of Friendship: “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are”
As has become a part of the PKMS culture, please allow these words to inspire you as you design and redesign lessons, tasks, and questions, and reflect on practice.
Remember, to SMILE (Show My Infectious Lovable Energy) as it is the first thing students, families, and colleagues see.
Let's Keep These Thoughts in Mind:
- Laugh a little. Laugh a little more.
- Gladden the heart of a child.
- Always operate from a honest place.
- Give a soft answer
Turning Up The Heat!
Thank you to the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and Paramount Theater
Thank you to Officer Greenan and the Peekskill City Police for providing a safe escort to and from the Paramount Theater
Dr. Mauricio and Board of Education for acknowledging the work Ms. Simon, Ms. Silverman, and the mentors have done for our My Brother's Keeper program
Thank you to Eileen Alvarenz and Kerryanne Donohue for their work with our Environmental Club - great things to come
Thank you Stephanie Dabbs for her work with our students in the Cooking and Crafting Club
Thank you to Norah Carney working with our students in the Ray Blue Band Clinic - Thank you for maintaining that professional partnership
Thank you to Byanca Davie for her work with All Girls United Club
Thank you to Anthony Di Cuio for his work work our sports intramurals
- Thank you to everyone who is working on their after school groups for our Empire State Grant program
- Thank you to our Clinical Team for continuing to support students, families, and staff
- Thank you to staff for parent and family outreach and meetings conducted this week
- We thank Ms. Detres, Ms. Fervan, Ms. King, Ms. Mahy, Ms. Settembre, Ms. Tual, Ms. Zupa, Mr. Harrison, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Hatch, and Mr. Coster for their work during our After School Program - We are also thankful to Andrew Weisman and Parketha Evans for providing a snack and drink (they will provide this until May 7)
- Thank you for the RtI Meetings and Discussions this past week
- Thank you to our security: Chemay, Nigel, Merriweather, Billy, and David for their work
- Thank you to Tim, Mike, Mark, Kristen, Billy, Keith, and Manny for their work
- Thank you to Parketha Evans and her Food Services Team
Password Changes
As I mentioned during today's town hall meeting, our students will be asked to change their Google password on the following Wednesday:
Grade 6 students will change theirs on Wednesday, Feb. 26
Grade 7 students will change theirs on Wednesday, March 4
Grade 8 students will change theirs on Wednesday, March 11
NYS ELA, Math, and NYSESLAT Testing
- March 5th - NYSESLAT Field Test - Periods 1 & 2 - Periods 2 & 3 and or Periods 7 & 8 - More Info to Follow
- March 24th - March 31st - NYS ELA Computer-Based Exam - We will have staggered administration so as to minimize building impact - More info to come
- April 6th - May 15th - NYSESLAT Speaking
- NYS CBT ELA Schedule: Grade 6 on March 24 and 25, Grade 7 on March 26 and 27, and Grade 8 on March 30 and 31
- NYS CBT Math Schedule: Grade 6 on April 20 and 21, Grade 7 on April 22 and 23, and Grade 8 on April 24 and 27
- April 30th - STEAM Fair - See Dr. Campolongo
- May 4th - May 15th - NYSESLAT Listening, Reading, Writing
- May 12th - Earth Science Lab Practical Exam
- May 15th - Career Day - See Dr. Campolongo
- May 18th- May 29th NYS Grade 8 Science Performance Assessment
- May 30th - GOTR 5K @ FDR Park in Yorktown Heights - Please see Ashley Aucar or Stacy Leitner for details
- June 1st - NYS Grade 8 Science Written Assessment
EMPIRE STATE GRANT AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM
Just To Name A Few:
All Girls United - Beats and Video Editing - Broadcasting - Cooking - Fencing - Girls on The Run - Girls Who Code - Hudson Valley/NY Presbyterian - NYSESLAT Work - Parent Workshops - Photography - Regents Prep - School Beautification - Swimming - Yoga & Wellness
STUDENT ASSISTANCE SERVICES
Student Assistance Counselors: Ms. C. Lewis & Ms. K. Geider @ 914-737-4542 x 2106
A Humanities Lens
Students writing poems about their favorite place following the style of poet Nikki Giovanni - learning about the choices people made during the Holocaust and what they teach us about the power and impact of our choices today - identifying the main issues of WWI through text dependent questions - using vocabulary lists to classify people, places, & events of WW1 in Political, Economic, & Social categories - reviewing the criteria and topics for our ancient China project and select presentation dates - learning about Confucius - understanding key details about the USA's First President - learning how to conjugate the irregular verb "estar" in the present tense with the proper pronouns - learning new vocabulary words and the preterite tense with the exceptions of -car, -gar and -zar
The Arts Live Here
Students designing and sketching their plan for all 4 sides of their container, viewing a variety of examples prior to using work time to sketch their ideas, and determining their own measurements and make their paper templates - designing their own box that represents their personality, sketching a design that represents themselves, properly rolling their slabs and cut the appropriate wall, base and lid slabs, and identifying when their slabs are the correct stage of the drying process and then they will be able to construct their box - using Loops in Garageband - recording a 16 measure - using the Loops from the favorites file they previously created -demonstrating proper care of their respective (swabbing of clarinets, oiling/greasing of brass) instruments - playing grade-appropriate scales and warm-ups- identifying structure, notes, rhythms and anything noticeable in their Quest of the Knights Templar - identifying and implementing dynamics and articulations in Encore! - recognizing melodies throughout an arrangement of a famous classical piece - comparing and contrasting themes by analyzing musical scores - applying knowledge of previous bow and rhythm patterns to new scales and patterns - singing and signing proper Solfege by matching pitch - identifying and performing whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes by performing rhythm activities
A Health-Conscious Mind & Body
Students identifying and demonstrating the proper cues for throwing and catching a frisbee - applying the skills of throwing and catching into a game of Ultimate Frisbee - reading and discussing the rules to Ultimate Frisbee - demonstrating respect and good sportsmanship towards teammates and opponents - understanding the value of alternating between cardiovascular - focusing on cardiovascular endurance/core strength and endurance
We Got STEM!
Students discussing Interactions of Body Systems - exploring forces (acceleration and speed) - examining weathering - analyzing the basic parts of technological system to make improvements to a design solution - developing fundamental drafting and design skills using a computer aided design software program - creating functions to use as shortcuts in their code - responding to a writing prompt about coding and memorizing certain commands - creating a program that completes basic math operations - reviewing the guidelines of the technology research assignment - writing and evaluating numerical expressions with exponents, using the order of operations - identifying all parts of a coordinate plane - understanding signs of numbers in ordered pairs as indicating locations in quadrants of the coordinate plane - Analyze language to create and solve a proportion to find the tax and total price, find the discount and sale price, and find the gratuity and total price - analyzing and performing rotations and dilations on the coordinate grid
Town Hall - Student-Building Work
This week’s quote speaks to our Social Emotional Learning Theme of Friendship: “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are”
March 2 - Grade 6 Town Hall - Awards
- Tuesday - Friday (Work Completion Days – Please structure it so that students can complete homework, work on projects, and get work from other teachers - Fun Days - Students who have met behavioral expectations will enjoy recess or whatever classroom activity designed)
- April 20th - Town Hall - High School Great potential group will present to 7th & 8th Grades
Collaborative & Department Work
- Full Department Meetings from 3-3:40PM: 3/9, 4/20, 5/11, 6/8
- March 3rd- Full Department Meeting @7:45AM - Please see Department Leaders for Agenda
- March 9th - Full Department Meeting 3-3:40PM - See Department Leaders for Agenda - Math Department will be meeting with Dr. Sobrin - ELA will talk about upcoming ELA Exam led by Michelle and Ms. Simon
Grade-Level Work
- RtI Meetings where applicable - Leslie Detres will communicate specifics
- March 4 - NYS Computer-Based Test Training in Usual Locations - We will explore on chromebooks
GOT DATA???
Interim Assessment II will be administered:
Math Department - TBD
Science Department - April 2
Social Studies Department - April 1
We thank everyone who continue to create authentic, challenging, and standards-based assessments - We thank you for the analysis and task/lesson design to enhance learning - #datadriveninstruction
Must ask: Are Our Students Learning
What do my students need to learn? Why?
What have my students learned? How do I know?
What are my next steps? Why?
Task Predicts Performance
Questioning - are we posing low-level questions that address the standard or are we challenging students to think critically while addressing the same standard
LEVEL OF MASTERY THAT WILL BE REACHED IS DETERMINED BY WHAT SORT OF QUESTIONS STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO ANSWER
Work Dates
- March 2nd - Faculty Meeting @3PM - NYS Testing Information
- March 5 - NYSESLAT Field Test -Listening/Reading/Writing - Grades 7 & 8
- March 5 - Data Team Meeting @7:45AM in Room 230
- March 10th - PKMS' Board Presentation of our School Comprehensive Education Plan (SCEP) @7PM in the Ford Administration Building - We'd love for you all to join us as we present
- March 13 - Superintendent's Conference Day - NO STUDENTS
- March 13 - Middle of Year F&P Assessment due date - thank you to all who administer the tool - Thank you to Michelle and Margaret
- March 17 - SLT Meeting @ 7:45AM in Library
- March 19 - New Teacher Meeting @7:45AM in Conference Room
- March 20 - Department Leader's Meeting @ 7:45AM in Conference Room
- March 24 - March 31 - NYS ELA Computer-Based Exam - We will have staggered administration so as to minimize building impact - More info to come
- April 6 - May 15 - NYSESLAT Speaking
- April 20 - April 27 - NYS Math Computer-Based Exam - We will have staggered administration so as to minimize building impact - More info to come
- April 30th - STEAM Fair - See Dr. Campolongo
- May 4 - May 15 - NYSESLAT Listening, Reading, Writing
- May 15 - Career Day - See Dr. Campolongo
- May 18- May 29 NYS Grade 8 Science Performance Assessment
- May 30th - GOTR 5K @ FDR Park in Yorktown Heights - Please see Ashley Aucar or Stacy Leitner for details
- June 1 - NYS Grade 8 Science Written Assessment
Work Reminders
- Take attendance for each of your instructional periods
- Ensure 504 and IEP Plans are being supported
- Ensure grade content colleague planning - reflecting Rubicon Atlas
- Ensure Gradebook and Teacher Webpage/Google Classroom reflect current information and assignments
- Communicate with families and maintain that communication in PLP
- Data Driven Instruction Model
- Always Ask: Have They Learned? How Do You Know?
- Training One Another
- Discussing Student Performance Information
- Designing Tiered Instruction
- Reflecting on Daily Practice
- Reviewing Assessments from All Content Areas (Formative, Summative, Interim)
- Discussing Progress Monitoring Efforts
- Pacing through Rubicon Atlas
- Lesson Plans Should Be Designed with the following in Mind
- Questions Posed - What is the level
- Tiered Instruction
- Guided Instruction
- Driven By Data
- Clear and Articulated Assessment Throughout (assessments must contain spiraling back questions)
- Groupings (Fluid)