NRES Staff Newsletter
Week of January 31st, 2016
Around the Building
Congratulations to 4th grader Lindy Thomas who audition and was selected for the Ohio All-State Youth Choir. She performed this past week in Cincinnati.
Pennies for Patients Update from Susan
Just a reminder that our Pennies for Patients campaign will begin Monday morning at 7:45 with an assembly. It will be over by 8:30.
Staff: You may pay $10 and wear jeans every day for the next two weeks. Susie will be in charge of collecting the money.
Student Plan:
Week #1:
- Homeroom competition. The top earning homeroom will earn a pizza party as long as we as a school we collect the minimum of $550. In order to collect the money from homeroom boxes the week of Feb 1-5, we will ask each teacher to sent their collection boxes to my office at the end of each day. I will make sure they are back in your homerooms at the start of each day.
- On Friday February 5 for $1 per student, they may wear a hat. I will bring around stickers to have students wear with their hats. This money may be considered a part of your classroom collection process.
Week#2:
- For each lunch there will be a jar. The lunch period that collects the most money will be able to watch Mr. Shaffer get a pie in the face from a drawing of the students who have lunch that period.
There is also an online giving option that produces Starbucks gift cards. I'm not sure how this works but I[m sure we'll find out at the assembly.
Please send any questions my way.
Thanks for all your help,
Susan
2 Hour Delay for Staff PD
- District Wellness Program
- HIB review that will include Title IX
- Bell Ringers
- Young Authors
Please let me know if there is anything you'd like to add.
Fall 3rd Grade Reading Scores
I've Shared Building/District Results via Google Drive.
We are right around 63% passing on the TGRG as a district, however only about 24% of our students would have scored above proficient or above.
You may view results for the fall 2015 grade 3 English language arts test in the Online Reporting System tomorrow morning (Friday, Jan. 29) after 8 a.m. The downloadable data file will include:
- Scaled scores and performance levels for the English language arts test;
- Grade 3 Reading Subscores;
- Grade 3 Reading Promotion Status (Yes/No).
Below, you will find the scaled scores needed to meet each of the performance levels for the grade 3 English language arts test. Also, performance level descriptors will be posted here on the portal tomorrow.
Limited 551-671
Basic 672-699
Proficient 700-724
Accelerated 725-751
Advanced 752-870
The grade 3 reading subscore will be used for the purposes of the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. For the 2015-2016 school year, the Third Grade Reading Guarantee promotion cut score is 42. Please note, the grade 3 reading proficient cut score is 50. Any student who scores 42 or higher on the reading subscore will be eligible for promotion at the end of the year. Districts are encouraged to use this data in addition to other district data to guide instruction and provide necessary support to all students, including those scoring below the promotion score, to help them succeed in reading. Third Grade Reading Guarantee resources are available here.
Young Authors
I would like to participate in Young Authors this year. Below is an email about this year's program. As a building we currently have three slots to fill. I would like to discuss this on Wednesday at our 2 Hour PD.
- Young Authors Packet of Information (I've also shared via google drive)
Greetings
I hope you are having a great start to the new year! This year we will be combining the Exemplary Writers’ Program into the Young Authors’ Program. Exemplary Writers’ will be referred to as Young Authors’ from this point forward. The conference will be held on March 11, 2016. We will have an Author for K through 6th grade and another author for 7th through 12th grade. Sessions will be customized for each age group. Student Information must be submitted no later than Wednesday, February 24, 2016. I have attached a packet of forms for you to review. (Packet includes Summary Sheet, Student Writing Guidelines, Artwork Guidelines, and maps of Wittenberg)
Arrival and Dismissal
Students should arrive at the Wittenberg Shouvlin Center at 8:45 AM. They will need to pick up their folders at the registration table located in the lobby. Dismissal will be at 2:10 PM.
Wittenberg Shouvlin Center
200 W. Ward Street
Springfield, OH 45504
Lunch
The cost of lunch will be $8.00 per student and staff member. Students may choose cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, or a PB & J sandwich as their main dish. For their drink, students can choose soda, milk, or water. Lunch automatically comes with sliced apples, fresh cut celery sticks, potato chips, and an assortment of fresh cookies. Please submit lunch counts no later than February 24, 2016.
Payment
PO Numberrs must be provided to the CCESC Treasurer’s Office before the event. All costs associated with the day will be billed to your district. We will not be accepting cash the day of the event for lunches.
Writing Guidelines
Writing guidelines are the same for Grades K-12 with the exception of the writing theme. Please submit writings in Microsoft Word format.
Authors
Grades 1-6 Author
The Author for Grades k-6 will be Michele Jakubowski. Please click the link below to view her web page.
Grades 7-12 Author
The Author for Grades 7-12 will be Tanya Anderson. Please click the link below to view her web page.
http://tanyaandersonbooks.com/wp/
Sessions
Sessions will be chosen randomly for each student. A program schedule will be sent to you in the near future.
Artwork
Artist must currently be in grades 7-12. Please select only one artist per district.
Student Allotment
Student allotment is based on ADM. I will be sending you student allotment for each district next week.
Due Dates:
The following items are due on Wednesday, February 24, 2016
· Summary Sheet (please use attached summary sheet when submitting names of students)
· Lunch Count
· Writings
· Artworks (grades 7-12 only)
A checklist will be sent to you weekly that displays what items have been submitted from your district. Items MUST be turned in by Wednesday, February 24, 2016.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 937-325-7671 ext. 200
We look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful day!
American Red Cross - Pillowcase Presentation Grades 3-5
My name is James Wagner and I work for the American Red Cross. We are excited to bring you our Pillowcase Project. I have attached two documents that will help explain the Pillowcase
Project. We are asking for just an hour of class time to deliver this very important preparedness presentation. This is directed towards only 3rd grade through 5th grade. In this hour we will talk about emergency preparedness and at the end we will give each child a pillowcase and markers to draw what they would put in the pillowcase in case of emergency. We can scale down to 40 minutes, but we have seen this does not give the kids enough time with their pillowcases. We can combine classes to make a bigger group. This program is free!!! We will bring all supplies needed and a pillowcase for each student to take home with them.
Please look over the attachments. Any questions please feel free to give me call. We are looking to schedule the class before April 2016 if possible.
I will be following up in about a week to see if you have any questions or to schedule a date…
Thank You,
James Wagner
Fraud Prevention Update from Payroll
Performance levels set for 2015-2016 state tests in English language arts and mathematics
The State Board of Education has approved the recommended cut scores proposed by more than 100 teachers and content experts in English language arts and mathematics who served on standard-setting committees this school year. These committees proposed five performance levels for the tests, outlining the scores that students minimally must earn to achieve each performance level (Advanced, Accelerated, Proficient, Limited and Basic). Department staff analyzed the results and recommendations and prepared projections for the expected performance of Ohio students on the new state math and English language arts tests. See the cut scores and projected performance here.
The new cut scores indicate that Ohio is raising expectations for what Ohio students must learn in school so they can graduate from high school with multiple options for their futures. We expect that in a few years our students will meet the challenge of the higher expectations — and that a decreasing number of graduates will need remediation to succeed. In the short term, however, we project the number of students who score Proficient or higher, especially in English language arts, to decrease and that more students will score at the Limited performance level. Also, more students will need supports to achieve higher standards.
For the next step in the standard-setting process, measurement experts from Ohio’s test vendor will provide projections based on early returns of state tests to validate the performance levels. For more information about the standard-setting process, see this Web page.
IWonder tool offers collections of websites for student questions
IWonder encourages students to pick a question—for example, Do You Have a Math Problem to Solve, Do You Want to Explore Your Creativity, or Do You Want to Learn More About Money—and then leads them to a series of engaging sites to help them find answers and practice their skills. New sites will be added regularly. Students, teachers and parents are encouraged to submit their favorite sites using the suggest a site link on the IWonder home page.
Learn more with this IWonder video tutorial or take a minute to explore on your own atiwonder.infohio.org. Please send any other questions or suggestions to support@infohio.org.
State Testing Resources: Performance Standards and More
Online participation in state tests is growing
During fall 2015, districts chose to administer 90 percent or more of the end-of-course high school tests in the online format versus the paper format. This is good news as Ohio is moving toward an online testing system in which the paper tests will only be available in certain cases for districts and students unable to test online.
A department survey from October also indicates that in spring 2016, when districts administer many more Ohio’s State Tests, they will conduct about 80 percent of these using the computer-based format. This will be a 15 percent increase in the number of electronic tests administered compared to spring 2015.
Feedback to the department indicates that more districts are confident about administering tests on computers, and they enjoy the efficiencies the electronic versions make possible.
Every Student Succeeds Act Web page now live
This Web page contains information about Ohio’s progress in developing our state’s ESSA plan, which is due July 2016 to the U.S. Department of Education. It also contains information about how these changes may impact your schools and districts. You can sign up to receive notification when updates occur on this page.
Watch the Start Talking! webcast
During December's webcast, Gov. John Kasich, Attorney General Mike DeWine, Upper Arlington Schools Superintendent Paul Imhoff and Belpre City Schools Superintendent Tony Dunn discussed how our schools can partner in Ohio’s effort to fight youth drug abuse.
Taking a multi-pronged approach to drug prevention, Ohio’s Start Talking! program helps to educate families and influence students to head off substance abuse before it starts. Start Talking! offers free tools to help start these conversations and keep them going. Watch the webcast here and find more Start Talking! resources here.
MEMO 621-This week's articles come from "Thanks for the Feedback" (a book), Education Week, Etutopia, Usable Knowledge, Harvard Business Review, Education Update, and several websites. The headlines:
- Effective use of appreciation, coaching, and evaluation
- A healthier set of values for college admission
- The curse of knowledge - a failure of empathy in the classroom
- "I'm just not a math person"
- Humility pays off for rookie managers
- Maximizing wonder and creativity
- A Hans Rosling film on ending extreme poverty in 15 years
- Radio stories, a collection of notable letters, and a speech bank
If you want an HTML version of this week's Memo, please click here:
http://www.marshallmemo.com/issue.php?I=486c165497c77d94f463b9d46479a463
To listen to a podcast of last week's Memo (620), please click here:
For a podcast of the previous Memo (619), please click here:
Things to do:
- Star student write-ups to Rob by Monday, February 1st
- Schedule Winter Conferences-Submit Schedules to Rob
- 3-5 Teacher: Let Rob know if you're interested in the Pillowcase Project
10 Day Forecast
Monday, February 1
- Pledge-Doogs
- Pennies for Patients Kickoff Assembly, 7:45 a.m. in the gym
- 2nd Grade Team Meeting, 10:00 a.m.
- 5th Grade Team Meeting, 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 2
- Pledge-Harris
- Pennies for Patients
- 4th Grade Team Meeting, 10:40 a.m.
- Kindergarten Team Meeting, 1:05 p.m.
- IEP Meeting-Doogs, 4:00 p.m.
- Pledge-Johnson
- 2-Hour Delay for PD (No after school staff meeting)
- Pennies for Patients
- 1st Grade Team Meeting, 12:30 p.m.
Thursday, February 4
- Pledge-Wyen
- Pennies for Patients
- January Star Student Assembly, 7:45 a.m.
Friday, February 5
- Pledge-Doss
- Pennies for Patients
- Elementary Principals Meeting, 10:00 a.m. (Rob Out)
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Monday, February 8
- Pledge-Fairbanks
- Interim Week
- Pennies for Patients
- AASCD meeting, 12:00-3:00 p.m.
- 504 Meeting-Johnson, 2:15 p.m.
- PTO Meeting, 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 9
- Pledge-J. Roberts
- Interim Week
- Pennies for Patients
- Kindergarten Field Trip to Kuss
- NEAT Meeting, Rob Out
- IAT Follow-up-Johnson, 3:45 p.m.
Wednesday, February 10
- Pledge-Clay
- Interim Week
- Pennies for Patients
Thursday, February 11
- Pledge-Kugler
- Interim Week
- Pennies for Patients
Friday, February 12
- Pledge-B. Roberts
- No School-Conference Make-up Day
Old Business-Previously Released Items
Technology Help Desk
Over Christmas break the technology department began using a new FREE helpdesk software called Spiceworks. Spiceworks will allow us to better rack technology needs. We will be using this software for submitting, tracking, and handling your technology needs. The Spiceworks program allow us to communicate better with you on your technology needs and issues. For your part you just need to submit a technology ticket. You will receive email updates automatically as your ticket is handled and completed. This should help us complete your issues quickly and more efficiently. If you are having an issue you just go to our web page www.nelsd.org, RESOURCES, STAFF RESOURCES, TECHNOLOGY HELP DESK REQUEST (3rd item on left). Enter your email address, a SUMMARY of the issue (PLEASE enter your building initials to start summary), a detailed DESCRIPTION of the issue, select your LOCATION, click SUBMIT REQUEST. You will automatically receive an email with your ticket number and other information.
Springfield Tutoring Academy
The Clark County ESC is excited to announce our collaboration with the Springfield Tutoring Academy. The Springfield Tutoring Academy provides after school tutoring in all subjects, dyslexia assessments and Orton Gillingham tutoring. This is a non-profit organization providing a service to students in Clark County. We are sharing this information with you so that you are aware of this valuable resource for students who need extra support outside of the school day. The attached flyer provides more information and can be copied and shared with parents and colleagues.
Second Round of OTES
If you'd like to schedule your second round of OTES please do so by the end of this month. After December I will schedule those who have not scheduled yet. Here's what you need to schedule:
OTES-Round 2 Scheduling- Pre-Conference/Mid-year Review
- Observation-30 minutes
- Post-Conference
See a great opportunity for Professional Development? I'd like to help!
There isn't always money for PD or money to get subs for a lot of people; however having one or two people attend workshops/conferences with the expectation that they will share with others when they return can help foster a more powerful Professional Learning Community within our school.
Sharing would consist of coming back and presenting at a staff meeting and "coaching" those of us who might be interested in going further with the topic/idea.
So be on the lookout for great PD and let me know.
Complete your PHA by June 1, 2015 to earn $35 wellness dollars!
EARN YOUR $35 TODAY!
You can earn $35 today by completing your Personal Health Assessment (PHA) through the EPC Wellness Program. The PHA will take about 20 minutes to complete and consists of questions related to individual lifestyle practices and health history factors that impact your health.
To start earning your wellness dollars visit epcwellness.org and log in using your username and password. New users can select 'Sign Up Today' to register on the wellness website.
EPC Wellness: Participate and Earn Rewards!
Dear EPC Participant,
Don’t miss out on your reward! Make sure to complete the following steps as you participate in EPC wellness:
Step #1: Complete Personal Health Assessment
Step #2: Complete Reasonable Alternative – Your Roadmap for Health wellness workshop (required): $50
- Login to epcwellness.org
- Click on #1 Your Roadmap for Health
- On the Manage Workshops page scroll down the list and find ‘Reasonable Alternative – Your Roadmap for Health.
- Click Sign Up
Step #4: Redeem wellness dollars for gift cards in the Hallmark Gift Card Center
Key Dates:
- Complete steps 1,2, and 3 no later than August 31, 2016
- Complete step 4 no later than September 30, 2016
Please click HERE to review the attached program guide to help answer any questions.
You can also email questions@epcwellness.org for additional help.
Northridge Elementary School
Email: robshaffer@nelsd.org
Website: www.nelsd.org
Location: 4445 Ridgewood Rd E, Springfield, OH, United States
Phone: (937) 342-4627
Twitter: @NRES_Principal