Birdneck Briefing
August 31, 2018
Upcoming Dates and Events
Sept. 4 - First Day of School
Sept. 7 - 9:10 Students and teachers Pre-K, 1, 2 Family Meeting with Mr. Yoshida and Mrs. Jordan. Cafeteria
Sept. 7 - 8:20 Students and teachers Grades 3,4,5 Family Meeting with Mr. Yoshida and Mrs. Jordan.
This is your Captain Speaking!
Hello Birdneck Family,
You all did an amazing job this week preparing for opening day. Your rooms and the building looked awesome and I saw how happy the families were as the came to meet their teachers.
We are ________ and we are ___________!!!! By now I know you can fill in the blanks above. Please continue to share the positivity and message we've been trying to get across with your students and their parents. You can start off on the right foot by sharing your expectations and our "family" theme with your children in your family meetings the first few weeks back. Every homeroom classroom should be conducting family meetings that are purposefully led by the teacher.
Congrats to Chad Leuthauser who memorized our Vision and Mission. He won a STEM activity package that he may share with you if you can recite the Birdneck vision/mission to him. Haha....
Vision: We are dedicated to nurturing an inclusive environment to ensure engaging, student-centered learning resulting in confident, independent learners.
Mission: We build relationships to encourage, inspire, and empower students and each other to meet the challenges of today and to foster the love of learning.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and are able to get some rest so you can come in charged up and ready to lead the learning.
Captain out,
RV Yoshida
Join our PTA
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
Join the PTA! Our goal is to have 100% Staff participation!!!!!!!!!
Support Birdneck Elementary students by joining the PTA. Don't miss out on the benefits from joining the PTA. Receive over $300 in savings... all for just $5 for a membership. Check out the PTA website at http://birdneckpta.weebly.com/
AMET
Training will open on September 17th and the deadline for training will be in February.
The safety of our staff and students is of utmost importance. That's why we're pleased to offer the SafeSchools Online Training System to our employees. We're confident you'll find these courses to be informative and helpful towards maintaining a safe learning environment.
Share Homework Help info with parents
The purpose of this memo is to announce that Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) will continue to use the Homework Help program provided by the City of Virginia Beach during the 2018-2019 school year. Through Homework Help, students receive after school assistance from state certified teachers. Homework Help operates from 3-9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Students can access Homework Help at the following City of Virginia Beach website: https://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/libraries/kids/Pages/homework-resources.aspx.
Homework Help information cards will be delivered to each school’s main office within the first week of school. The link for Homework Help will be displayed on both the VBCPS website and each individual school website under the student/student resources drop down section. It is hoped this homework assistance program with extended and weekend hours provides students with the flexibility to obtain homework assistance.
For questions regarding this program, please contact Monica Robinson, academic support coordinator, at monica.robinson@vbschools.com.
Innovative Learning Grant
The Innovative Learning Grant application is available on vbcps.com under Hot Topics and is due Oct. 12, by 4 p.m. Each approved grant awards up to $2,000 for innovative learning projects that benefit students. In order to fund these projects, the Education Foundation board raises money to include a percentage of sales for Amazon.com purchases made through AmazonSmile.
Check your email for more detail.
Constitution Day
The purpose of this memo is to share information on Constitution Day. Public Law requires that Sept. 17 be designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. Constitution Day commemorates the day on which the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia in 1787. Traditionally, each year since 1952, the President proclaims the seven days beginning on Constitution Day as Constitution Week. Constitution Week will be from Monday, Sept. 17 through Sunday, Sept. 23. During this time, all citizens are encouraged to celebrate our Constitution and reaffirm the rights and obligations of citizens.
All educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on that day. Schools may determine what kind of educational programs are appropriate for their students. Some informational resources pertaining to the Constitution that may be useful in planning educational activities are listed on the USED’s website. The team at iCivics has a curriculum unit with lessons, visit the website here. Information about citizenship and civics is also available at other nonpartisan websites including the Bill of Rights Institute.
If additional information is needed about Constitution Day, please contact elementary social studies coordinator, Molly Lewis at Molly.Lewis@vbschools.com, or secondary social studies coordinator, Kris Troch at Kristine.Troch@vbschools.com.
SUBJECT: 2019-2020 ELEMENTARY LANGUAGE ARTS VIRGINIA BEACH OBJECTIVES’ FEEDBACK
The purpose of this memorandum is to share an opportunity for administrators, literacy leaders and teachers to provide feedback on the draft of Elementary Language Arts Virginia Beach Objectives, which will be implemented during the 2019-2020 school year due to the adoption of the 2017 English Language Arts Standards by the Virginia Department of Education.
Feedback will be gathered through a Schoology self-paced course for grades K-5. The access code to the course is 9GCV5-N89QP. Teams may work together to provide feedback, however each form must be submitted individually. Please encourage literacy leaders and teachers to submit feedback by Tuesday, Nov. 6.
If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Padilla, instructional specialist, at Kelly.Padilla@vbschools.com or263-1144. Thank you for your continued attention to this matter.
Shout Outs!
If you would like to give a SHOUT OUT to a colleague, it is as simple as sending an email to RV to be added to our Shout Outs each week!
Great job Mrs. Jordan, our Math and Reading Coaches and our PBIS team on your presentations this week and thank you for our professional development.
Shout out to all of you for preparing your rooms and having such a positive attitude.
I would like to send a shout out to Michele McNeil and Melanie Shortt for cleaning up and organizing room C-2. The two of them took on a tremendous task in clearing out one of our extra rooms in the building. Thank you!!! You both are awesome!!!
Shout out to the custodians and office staff for their amazing efforts behind the scenes.
They probably don't get a chance to see the Smore, but a HUGE shout out goes to Grace Bible Church. Thanks so much for the ice cream treat and the wonderful welcome back gift!
Vision and Hearing Screening will be on October 10th. Grades K and 3.
Sick Leave Bank
INVITATION TO INNOVATION: LOOKING FOR INNOVATORS TO PARTICIPATE IN DESIGN THINKING EXPERIENCE
The purpose of this memorandum is to share an opportunity for administrators, instructional staff and students to participate in two prototyping networks in 2018-19 as part of a partnership with 2Revolutions, an education design lab, made available by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Earlier this year, 2Revolutions began work with Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) and our wider community to help build, launch and support future of learning models designed to provide authentic and deep learning opportunities for students. Over the past seven months, this work included a project management team, composed of four VBCPS central office staff, and a community advisory group, composed of 20 individuals from VBCPS, the community, higher education and the military who met to plan and complete a landscape analysis to identify the assets and barriers to innovation within VBCPS and the community. In addition, six community-based visioning sessions were held in the spring to further identify potential focus areas for the work.
As a result of the landscape analysis and community-based visioning sessions, we are initiating two prototyping networks. The focus of the networks and their guiding questions are as follows:
1. Ensuring Equitable Access to Opportunity: How might we think creatively about both the supply of and the equitable access to high-quality, future-oriented learning experiences for all students?
2. Building Transformational Mindsets: How might we leverage the design process to understand, brainstorm, prototype and test new strategies to help stakeholders build more innovative, integrative mindsets needed to support transformation?
Next steps include identifying 9-12 staff (18-24 total) from VBCPS to participate on each prototyping team. Please share this information with staff who are passionate about equity and developing growth mindsets. To ensure we have a broad and balanced team, interested staff are asked to email Dr. Robertson, Donald.Robertson@vbschools.com, on or before Tuesday, Aug. 21. Interested applicants will then receive a brief survey to complete as part of the selection process. All selectees will be notified by Sept. 1.
Synergy Training
BIRDNECK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BIRDNECK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Twitter@BNESeagles
BIRDNECK MISSION
Mission: We build relationships to encourage, inspire and empower others to meet the challenges of today and to foster the love of learning.
BIRDNECK VISION
Vision: We are dedicated to nurturing an inclusive environment to ensure engaging, student-centered learning resulting in confident independent learners.
BIRDNECK BELIEFS
We believe in a collaborative community in which teachers, administrators, students, and parents work together for student success.
We believe in creating a safe, nurturing, and positive environment in which all students can strive for excellence and achieve their individual potential.
We believe we will prepare our students for success by providing 21st century learning and developing within our students critical thinking, effective communications and problem solving skills.
Website: http://www.birdneckes.vbschools.com/
Location: 957 South Birdneck Road, Virginia Beach, VA, United States
Phone: 757-648-2120