Hillcrest Hawk Happenings
The official newsletter of Hillcrest Elementary Staff
Supporting, empowering, & championing every single student, every single day, in every single way.
December 1, 2019
IMPORTANT DATES
TO ACCESS THE MONTH-BY-MONTH CALENDARS for the whole year, click HERE. Please know that these are still works-in-progress, so check back often to see the updates. October has been updated with the mandatory morning meetings -- calendar invitations to follow!
MUST READ
LITERACY HAPPENINGS
- UNIT ASSESSMENTS
Teachers of Reading Workshop: Unit/end-of-trimester assessments are copied and can now be administered to students. Please work with your colleagues to complete an item analysis.
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH HAPPENINGS
If you haven't seen this TED talk yet, you really should:
TEDTalk: How Can We Support the Emotional Well-Being of Teachers?
What Teachers and Sports Coaches Can Learn From Each Other
Teaching Self-Regulation Through Modeling (video)
Reaching Students With Emotional Disturbances
How to Develop a Greater Sense of Motivation in Students
MATH HAPPENINGS
Thank you for your cooperation and flexibility with our end-of-trimester assessments. By now the assessments have been scored, and Anchala is compiling a class-wide snapshot of how your class did based on the different skills that were assessed. You should be looking at individual students' success rate o individual problems and across skills assessed so that you can target those skills with additional instruction and practice before the holiday break, either in your math group or center rotations, or in your flexible groupings during the WIN block. Coordinate with your WIN partner teacher to pull students together who need the same remediation/re-teach.
We have learned a lot about what has worked and what didn't work so well during this assessment cycle, and we will start designing and planning the 2nd trimester assessment earlier so we can build on what we learned a build a better system. Thank you for your input!
SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE/STEM HAPPENINGS
PBIS HAPPENINGS
The SEL theme for the month of December is COMMUNITY. Please look for opportunities to connect classroom learning to the district's monthly theme.
- Grade 5 HAWKS LEADERS
Thank you, 5th grade teachers, for polling your class to select your class representative for our HAWKS Leadership Team! Stay tuned for more information soon!
- December Assembly
We need two 4th grade classes and two 5th grade classes to volunteer to present a song, dance, poem, skit, rap, etc. at the December PBIS Assemblies. Email Rachel Moczarski if you are interested.
- 5th Grade Jobs Board
For students who were not selected as the HAWKS Leader for their class, there are new opportunities for students to get involved in making Hillcrest even MORE AMAZING! Stay tuned for more information on the 5th Grade JOBS BOARD, and how 5th graders can apply for one of the jobs advertised on the Jobs Board in the cafeteria. Students will have to complete job applications, and include the names of two adults in the school who will serve as references for them, so you may have students asking if they can use you as a reference.
SPECIALS HAPPENINGS
Holiday Concert December 19 at 7:00 PM!
To submit something for this section of the Hawk Happenings in the future, submit it by clicking HERE and it will appear in the next Hawk Happenings.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS HAPPENINGS
WHO'S THAT?!?!
In response to last week's "Who's That?", I'm happy to announce that we had ONE person correctly guess the little person on the tiger skin rug! While we had an overwhelming number of guesses for Phil Harrison (INCORRECT!), the real winner is Dan Calabro who correctly guessed Karin Flores!
No photo for this week's challenge: Email Randy yours to be included in a future challenge!
Reminder: Educator Survey re 2021 State Assessments
Dear Educator:
As part of its continuing engagement with NYS educators, the State Education Department is gathering feedback on the design of the NYS Grades 3-8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics Tests via a survey. Beginning in 2021, these tests will be redesigned to measure the Next Generation Learning Standards.
In response to feedback from NYS educators, several important changes have been made to the Grades 3-8 tests over the past few years, including reducing them from three sessions to two. More detail about these changes and information about the current tests can be found in the Educator Guides.
The Department is asking those teachers whose students will be taking these tests to provide feedback in order to inform policy and test design decisions. The survey also contains an open-ended question for any additional thoughts that educators would like to share.
Not every suggested change may be possible as the tests must continue to be reliable, valid, fair and appropriate for students, in line with research-based best practices and federal law. However, grade-level NYS educators continue to be the drivers of these tests. The Department is asking that educators respond to the survey by December 6, 2019.
The survey can be accessed at the link below:
Educator Feedback on the Design for the 2021 Grades 3-8 Tests
Sincerely,
Kimberly Young Wilkins
Deputy Commissioner
Office of P-12 Instructional Support
Reminder: LIGHTHOUSE VISITS
Along with the required visits of new teachers to Lighthouse Classrooms, we want to encourage others to visit their colleagues to share best practices. Request a Lighthouse Classroom visit by signing up using this form.