Tiogue Faculty & Staff Bulletin
At-A-Glance December 1, 2018 #14
December is upon us...

We welcome Wendi Arnone to our faculty! She has been awarded the .4 Special Education position. If you have not met Wendi, she will be at Tiogue 5d/wk in the morning.
HOUR OF CODE IS BACK IN DECEMBER!! 12/3 - 12/7
Let me know if you need any help organizing for your grade or classroom. Gr. 4 will again open their classrooms to work with your students. Esther is also a great resource on CODING!
Tara and Kristen have set up times to rotate in their classrooms during the week.
Let us know if you have any questions. See schedule here. I will be visiting rooms during the Hour of Code. Please share pictures with Don and with me so we can post them.
Message from Don:
Reminder: Join CS4RI and over 100 million students across the nation for an Hour of Code
Computers are everywhere, changing every industry on the planet – but only 35% of all high schools nation-wide teach computer science. The good news is that we are on our way to change this in Rhode Island! If you have heard about the Hour of Code before, you might know it made history since more than 100 million students have tried an Hour of Code.
This year, let's make it even bigger: we are asking you to join the Hour of Code 2018 and get involved with an Hour of Code event during Computer Science Education Week, December 3-9, 2018. You can read more about the event or use the How to Teach an Hour of Code guide to get started. If you are not sure where to find info.

**Thank you to Lisa Lukowicz, Milena Burton, Christine Viccione, Tara D'Aleno, Shawna Maxwell, Rachel Houlihan, Courtney Hughes, and Charleen Ricci for organizing, working and reading during our Title One Event**

Update on ASPEN GRADEBOOKS
Some elementary teachers have reported that they are getting an error message when posting grades. If this is happening to you, please check a setting in your account by doing the following:
Click on your name located in the right top corner
Click Set Preferences
Select Gradebook
Scroll to the bottom - to Grade Scale
Click on spyglass and select Elementary grading scale
Click Ok
This will fix the problem.
You might need to log out and log in again.
Any issues, please let me know.
Thanks, Lynne
Important Information and Key Dates
*FACULTY/STAFF*
November 2018
November 30 - Grades Closed for the Trimester
December 2018
December 2 - Hanukah Begins
December 3rd-7th - HOUR OF CODE; Fourth grade is hosting
December 5 - Don visiting Hour of Code Rooms; Holiday Shoppe today during lunches
December 6 - LifeTouch Picture make up & retake day; Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times
December 7 - DENTAL SCREENINGS AT TIOGUE
December 8 - PTA Breakfast with Santa - 8:30am and 10:30am
December 10 - First Budget Mtg. of the new school year; joint mtg. between School Committee and Town Council and Local Legislators
December 12 - Data Mtg. w/ grades 3-5 today (RICAS Review and other data); Holiday Shoppe today during lunches
December 13 - Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times; Holiday Concert at night in the gym
December 17 - PTA Mtg. 3:30pm
December 19 - Melissa Bailey will be at Tiogue if you are interested in learning about College Bound Saver Program 10am-2pm (see link to her documents here); Data Mtgs. w/ Grades K-2 (RICAS Review and other data)
December 19 - Holiday Shoppe today during lunches; Faculty Mtg. 3:20pm (Agenda: Conscious Discipline and Don Cowart Presenting)
December 20 - Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times; Report Cards go home today
December 22nd through January 1 - Winter Break
Our Mission and Motto:
At Tiogue School, we believe that students can achieve their personal best and become responsible and productive citizens by embracing all learning opportunities each day.
"Everybody is somebody at Tiogue"
*PTA INFORMATION*
We would like faculty/staff representation at each PTA meeting. Talk with your team and colleagues about scheduling a time to come to a meeting this year.
Upcoming PTA Meeting Schedule:
12/17/18 at 3:30pm
1/28/19 at 6:30pm
2/25/19 at 3:30pm
3/18/19 at 6:30pm
4/22/19 at 3:30pm
5/20/19 at 6:30pm
June TBD at 3:30pm
SCHOOL STORE Every Other WEDNESDAY beginning on 9/26/18. This week on Oct. 24th
RICAS State Testing Results have been released
We will take an in depth look at the data, trends and growth index for each student over the next several months.
At the district level, we have already begun to examine some correlations to STAR results.
We have a lot of work ahead, but I am sure that we are going to move up in a positive manner.
To see the public RICAS site, click here. RIDE has already put out "released items" for our use as well.
Tiogue Holiday Party
Friday, Dec. 21st, 4pm
1650 Nooseneck Hill Rd, Coventry, RI 02816
When: Friday, December 21st
Time: 4-6pm
$15 per person
Professional Development Corner
YEARBOOK UPDATE FROM TARA
I will be around next week during my specialist times 9:40-10:22 and my lunchtime 1:15-2:15 to take candids for the yearbook. If you have some photos that you want to send me that would be great!! If not I will try to be as quiet as I can without jeopardizing your instruction. Please feel free to email me any photos you wish. If you have a special event coming up please let me know so I can come by and take a few photos for the yearbook!
Finally, If you were not here on our original picture day if you could stop by the gym on December 6, 2018 in the morning to have your photo taken that would be great. If your are a specialist who travels in between buildings if you could have your photo taken here that's fabulous as I cannot access other building photos!
Thanks,
Tara
High Importance: Please consider joining the Tiogue PTA
Articles and other news
Behavioral Specialist and Math Intervention Schedule:
Kim Sturdahl will be at Tiogue on Wed., Thursday and Friday of this week.
MATHEMATICS: Mary V. will be at Tiogue this week!
-Article of the week-
December 1, 2018: QR CODES- How to Create a QR Code for Just About Anything &
How to Create a QR Code for a Google Form
November 22, 2018: How Meta-cognition Boosts Learning - By, EduTopia
November 17, 2018: Metacognition & Achievement - From Mindset
November 10, 2018: 14 Phrases that kids say that may show they are anxious.
November 3, 2018: The Ultimate Guide To Twitter- Should you use it?? Pros & Cons
October 27, 2018: 13 Common Phrases to Avoid in your classroom - by, Edutopia. There are other very good SEL articles under this one on the web page.
October 20, 2018: The IEP Process - FAQ Created by R.I.D.E. - I will share with parents too. This is guidance that was first created in 2010, but revised in the summer of 2018. A copy is also placed in our Tiogue Shared Folder for 2018-19.
October 13, 2018: From Practical Ed-Tip of the Week:
ViewPure is one of my longest standing recommendations for viewing YouTube videos without distractions. At its basic level to use View Pure just copy the link of a video into the "purifier" on the View Pure website and then click purify. Your "purified" video will be displayed on a blank white background. You can password-protect links to videos that you share through ViewPure (click here for directions). In the last year ViewPure expanded to offer curated collections of educational videos.
October 7, 2018: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding - Edutopia
Previous articles can still be found in the other bulletins.
SEL/Restorative Practice's Corner
SEL/Conscious Discipline/PBIS and other important info.
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Week 14: We will view a Conscious Discipline Video during our December faculty mtg. Take a look at the video below. Dr. Becky Bailey, Creator of the Conscious Discipline, reviews "Wiring the Brain for Success" and brain science!Don Cowart is also speaking with us about RI/MTSS on 12/19/18.
Coventry Resource & Senior Center DECEMBER NEWSLETTER - This month's edition has a section on Addiction and Elder Rights, Care and Abuse - good resource for some of our families
Truancy Letters Sent Home & A positive note
Our attendance initiative and push is working!
Last month (October) we had roughly 65% of our students w/out an absence. The November numbers are shaping up to about the same. This is a huge change in the positive direction compared to the last several years at Tiogue.
That said, we still have about 20 students flagged as chronically absent. Those students and their families have been contacted in one way or another.
Carol and I have sent home numerous attendance letters to all students that have reached the 10% absence rate up to this point in the school year. Chuck Jones is also involved in these cases. I will update individual classroom teachers as needed.
Evaluation update
I would like all first observations done prior to Dec. 18th.
PDP information should be placed into the Frontline System at this point.
Here is a link to the District Evaluation Web Area.
SLOs and SOOs were due in the System by 11/30/18.
Nurse's Corner of important information
INFORMATION:
*Dental Screenings continue on December 7th*
Thank you,
Gina D'Aguanno RN