Monday Morning Motivation
Central Elementary Staff News----February 20-February 24
The Strength of Public Education
Dear Staff,
As a leadership team, we have been reading Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. One quote which resonated with many of us in our discussion revolved around effort and the fact that people with a growth mindset believe that even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements. "They may appreciate endowment, but they admire effort, for no matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment." Teaching our students to embrace effort, failure and success will be the key to helping them reach their goals.
On this Presidents' day, it is interesting to pause and think about those ordinary people who attended public school and grew up to become leaders in our country. Although my son kept telling me that determining who went to public school is a difficult question to answer, the following is a list compiled after our research.
Many recent American presidents went to public high schools. Presidents Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower, and Truman all graduated from public high schools.
Presidents before 1930 though were raised in the 19th century, before universally available public high schools existed in a lot of the country. Notions of formal education were quite different in that time than they are today. For instance, Herbert Hoover did not attend high school, yet he went to Stanford University, and several earlier presidents like Abraham Lincoln barely or never attended school at all.
I have always loved the American dream found within our public schools. The fact that an excellent education can be the key to pulling an ordinary person out of their poor circumstances and propel them into extraordinary positions. This success does not happen without hard work, self-control, and determination. As teachers, you are the people who inspire the children in your classrooms to dream of becoming anything they want to be. Learning how to persevere through academic struggle and challenges happens every day in your classrooms. You are the developers of true grit (stay tuned for more on this). Behind every great athlete, actor, educated professional person is a coach, director, and teacher who influenced that person to believe they could be more.
The teaching and learning I am seeing during my observations is nothing short of inspirational. Your passion, patience, and preparation are those things pushing our children to see beyond the classroom. Thank you for all you do for our students.
Have a great week!
Julie
POSITIVE NOTES FOR STAFF TO CONTINUE THIS WEEK
Two Weeks at a Glance
Central Calendar
MONDAY, February 20
- No school
TUESDAY, February 21
- 9:00 a.m. Fire Drill
- Data Meetings review student interventions (in team leader's room)
WEDNESDAY, February 22
- 8:45 Assistants to meet in LGI to go over ISTEP Proctor Roles
- Secretary online enrollment training (9:30-11:00)
- Grades 3-5 ISTEP Review Protocols and Schedules during preps (9:40, 1:00, and 2:20 in team leader's room)
THURSDAY, February 23
- Art Show in the gym from 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
- Math Bowl Competition
FRIDAY, February 24
- Principal Meeting at Central Office 8:00-9:00
MONDAY, February 27
- New IA training with Dr. DelVecchio
- PTO meeting 7:00
TUESDAY, February 28
- ISTEP begins--Please follow schedule and be aware of testing in the morning
- Brag Tags
WEDNESDAY, March 1
- Day 2 of ISTEP
- Math textbook committee meeting 4:10 in the board room at the Central Office
- Brag Tags
THURSDAY, March 3
- Day 3 of ISTEP
- Show CCC video
- Brag Tags
FRIDAY, March 4
- Day 4 of ISTEP
Announcements and Reminders
Information going home--I understand that there has been some confusion about information going home regarding camps, clubs, etc. Do these things get sent home to every child individually in their Friday folder? After talking with the Central Office and Mr. Helmuth at Van Buren, we have come up with a practice, which will streamline what we do and make it less confusing. All clubs, camps, programs, etc, which have been board approved and feed directly into Plainfield School sponsored activities will be sent home to every child. For example, wresting club/camp that is run by the High School Varsity coach will be sent home with every child. Our robotics club, cheer club, running club, K-Kids can now be passed out to every age appropriate student because these programs feed into programs at the upper grade levels. However, programs that don’t feed directly into Plainfield programs such as Good News Bible Club, AAU Basketball, Aquatic Center activities, etc. will not be passed out to every child. We can announce and put them in newsletters, but cannot pass out to every child.
- ISTEP Materials are being stored in the conference room for better security. Please note that you can use the LGI for conferences. I apologize for the inconvenience.
- Math Common Assessment for Third Quarter is scheduled for the week of March 6-10th and results must be uploaded by Monday March 13th. In PowerSchool
CAQ3
- Please continue to take still photos for the yearbook. For example, we did not include bus buddies in the yearbook as a club, but it would be very good to have photos of students doing this important job for us.
- 5 School Days Until ISTEP Window Opens! Part 1 is February 27- March 10, 2017
- IREAD Test Window March 13-March 17, 2017
Substitutes Please reach out to Nicole Crum if you need a sub several months away. It will only be to your benefit to secure a substitute teacher early. FYI, the 8th grade breakfast will be held on May 12th. Thank you.
Legacy Foundation Grants-begin thinking about the next grant cycle which will be due early April
Central Celebration will be March 23rd
Maker Boxes will be at Central Elementary April 3, 2017-April 21, 2017
Teachers, continue to work on collecting evidence for Domains 1 and 3
Teams begin to brainstorm a list of materials you would like from Title One next year for math or ELA. These will be discussed at Data Team Meetings
ISTEP-- Display of Reference Materials
Display of Reference Materials
Please note that guidelines are in effect regarding the display of reference materials during testing at all grades. Testing spaces must be appropriately prepared for the administration of standardized assessments.
The following kinds of materials MUST be covered or removed from walls or bulletin boards during testing in all rooms or areas in which students will be assessed:
1. All posted materials, such as wall charts, visual aids, posters, graphic organizers, and instructional materials that relate specifically to the content being assessed. This includes, but is not limited to, the following items:
i. Multiplication tables
ii. Tables of mathematical facts or formulas
iii. Fraction equivalents
iv. Number lines and coordinate planes
v. Writing aids
vi. Punctuation charts vii. Spelling or vocabulary lists
viii. Phonics charts
2. All reference materials that a reasonable person might conclude offers students in that classroom or space an unfair advantage over other students.
3. All support materials that teachers might remove if they were giving their own unit tests in those subject areas.
Curriculum and Instruction
This forwarded site came across the science educators group this morning. It is a GREAT RESOURCE for STEM related activities. Each lesson is well thought out with great plans for teachers. The activities are categorized into career paths, grade spans and difficulty levels. Additionally, each lesson is broken down into the NGSS Three-Dimensions: Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas and Crosscutting Concepts.
The three-dimensions is a new concept for teachers who are not on the elementary science committee and for teachers who are not writing science curriculum maps.
Staff Celebrations!
- Great job Central Robotics team for finishing 4th on Saturday!
- Awesome attendance in February--97.26 percent (second highest in the district)
- Great job K-Kids (Anne and Courtney)--Since we were the only school in Plainfield participating in the Heart and Sole drive, we will be getting $250 worth of science and environmental ed. books for our library.
- Super reading! Below are the winning classrooms for Readathon! They earned a "Shark bites and Milk Storytime" party.
- Mrs. M. Johnson's Class
- Mrs. Menser's Class
- Mrs. Stevenson's Class
- Mrs. Hollingsworth's Class
- Mr. Pickard's Class
- Mrs. Weaver's Class
- Mrs. Mosier's Class
- Mrs. Tobey's Class
- Thank you Shonda, Courtney and Lauren who participated on the Technology Committee. They will presenting more information on the district 5-year plan at our next faculty meeting.
Happy February Birthdays
- Kim Laswell (7)
- Dillon Robinson (15)