Talley Street Update
January 6, 2020
From the Principal
Greetings Talley Street Community!
I hope everyone had a nice and restful break! I am excited to begin the second half of the school year! As we begin the second half of the school year, please remember the following.
- The school day begins at 7:45. All students should be in homeroom by 7:45. Doors open at 7:20.
- Any change of dismissal plans should be called in to the school. Please do not email. Teachers often do not check email until after students have left for the day. We want to make sure that all students arrive home safely.
- Right hand turns are only allowed into Talley's parking lot during morning and afternoon dismissal times. Please assist by turning on your signal at the flagpole.
Have a great week!
Billy
Billy Heaton
Principal, Talley Street Upper Elementary School
City Schools of Decatur
School News
Calling all Talley Street Upper Elementary Writers!
Does your student enjoy writing? Are they constantly journaling, creating short stories, sharing poems, etc? The Young Georgia Authors Writing Competition is a yearly state-wide writing competition open to any student enrolled in a Georgia public school, grades K-12. Participation is completely voluntary for students, but we hope to get many quality entries! Please encourage your young writer to enter the Young Georgia Authors Writing Competition.
Here's how it will work:
any genre is allowed (short story, poetry, essay/literary criticism/analysis, journalism, academic/research reports, personal narratives, any other original student writing)
writing piece must be created by the student without the help of others (including the teacher)
entries should not be work completed for a class assignment- unless they received no support/feedback
1900-word maximum length
individuals only, no group entries
can be typed or legibly hand-written
One submission per student turned into their homeroom teacher in by January 17 - be sure student's name and Homeroom teacher are clearly written or typed on writing piece (this is a hard deadline)
one winner will be chosen per grade level by a team of scorers to represent CSD at the regional competition
Please reach out to Julie McFaddin (jmcfaddin@csdecatur.net) with questions.
Registration is now open for an afterschool book club!
Music Class Update
Talley Street Musicians,
if you have a recorder at home please bring to music this week. I am excited to begin the second half our year making more music!
Tanya Jessup
Mid-Year Assessments
MAP Testing
We are approaching the time of year where we begin to think about what information we need to support students’ growth for the second half of the year. In the past, every student has taken MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) in December. We will not be doing that this year. Our grade level common assessments will be used to gauge where all students are in their learning. The mid-year MAP will be used as an additional assessment to monitor more closely progress for those students who are receiving intervention services. Intervention services include EIP, Special Education, and Tiers II and III of the RTI process (Response to Intervention).
iReady Diagnostic 2
i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment designed to provide teachers with actionable insight into student needs. By adapting to student responses and assessing a broad range of skills—including skills above and below a student’s chronological grade—the i‑Ready Diagnostic pinpoints student ability level, identifies the specific skills students need to learn to accelerate their growth, and charts a personalized learning path for each student. This personalized learning path is accessible to students on-line at and outside of school. Every student will participate in this diagnostic assessment in late January/early February.
What information does MAP give vs. iReady?
MAP gives us information about how much growth students are making towards their personal growth goal based upon a national norm. iReady gives us information about where students are in mastery of Georgia's state standards and supplies instructional resources for grade level, below grade level and above grade level needs. Both assessments provide useful information and can serve different instructional purposes. All students will experience both assessments, just not all at the same points throughout the school year.
School-Related Photos for Yearbook
Please send photos of any school related events to: talleyyearbookphotos@gmail.com. Contact the yearbook chair for more information:
Kellei Johnstone
404.985.8151
Lost and Found
Talley Street PTO
Box Tops, Publix, and More
Amazon Smile:
A little late after the flurry of holiday shopping but we're now on Amazon Smile!!! There will be more information in the Newsletter but you can log into www.smile.amazon.com and log into your Amazon account, then select Talley Street Upper Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, save and the PTO will start getting quarterly deposits! One important tip - you MUST be logged in via smile.amazon.com while shopping for us to receive any funds.
Kroger Community Rewards:
We are set up to receive funds from Kroger. From your account screen, select Community Rewards and search for “Talley Street Upper Elementary School PTO”, select and then you should be all set, every time you use your Kroger card, the PTO will benefit!
Box Tops:
Box Tops have gone digital!! Download the App, Box Tops for Education. Enter your information, select Talley St., scan receipts and done! If you still have hard copy box tops, we will be collecting them behind the front desk. There is a box labeled Box Tops for Education. Have your kiddo bring in box tops and look for the Large Envelope/box near the front desk. They’ll be collected twice a year.
Publix Partners:
Looking for an easy way to support Talley Street PTO??
Who knew Passive Fundraising could be SO easy!! You don't need the key chain card anymore. Follow the easy instructions on the link: http://corporate.publix.com/community/corporate-campaigns/publix-partners
We’re set up as: Talley Street Upper Elementary School – Decatur, GA
From the District
News from City Schools of Decatur
Facilities Planning Public Input Meeting: January 15, 2020
As we wrap up the previous long-range facilities plan, we begin to look forward to the future of City Schools of Decatur and how we can best meet the needs of our students and staff. We will be tapping the skills of Cooperative Strategies, who previously helped CSD with our grade configuration and redistricting work, to help lead our community input process.
Our first community meeting regarding the future of CSD facilities planning will be Wednesday, January 15, 2020, at 7 p.m at Talley Street Upper Elementary. We hope you can join us and voice your views on how we can best move forward.
About Talley Street Upper Elementary School
Important Dates
January 7--students return to school
January 20--no school, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
February 17-21--winter break
March 16--no school, teacher workday
April 6-10--spring break
Social Media and Contact Information
Talley Street Principal
Talley Street Upper Elementary School PTO
Talley Street Upper Elementary School Parents
Talley Street Artists
For more about the Talley Street PTO, visit their website here: https://talleypto.org/
Email: bheaton@csdecatur.net
Website: csdecatur.net/Talley
Location: 2617 Talley Street, Decatur, GA, USA
Phone: 470.283.7340