Dutch Fork Elementary
Academy of Environmental Sciences - Week of October 16th -
DFES Beliefs
- We believe all people deserve to feel safe, valued, and loved.
- We believe all children are naturally curious about the world them.
- We believe learning is a social process.
- We believe inquiry fosters an environment of noticing and questioning.
- We believe in learning from multiple perspectives.
- We believe in learning from authentic primary and secondary sources.
- We believe in encouraging learners to be risk takers.
- We believe reflection should lead to change and growth.
- We believe learning should lead to social action.
- We believe our actions should be aligned with our beliefs.
Shout Outs
- Our first grade team participated in practice (last Wednesday) in which they were observed by colleagues and visitors as they engaged in curricular conversations centered around formative assessments. This team illustrated the power and potential of collective agency to accelerate student growth.
- S. Somerall for planning and organizing our literacy night presentation for families. She provided practical examples and suggestions to build parents' capacity to grow their children as readers. She carefully structure time for parents and students to converse about books, making plans for reading at home, the importance of choice, access, and time to foster the reading lives of our students.
- K. Tisdale and M. Ridgeway for a highly successful book fair. They chose a different vendor which meant less gimmicky items that had little to do with reading. Our DFES readers purchased books in droves. Additional thanks to our many staff members and PTO volunteers that assisted last week as well.
- K. Donald's 3rd grade class for setting the bar for our learning celebrations this year. The class shared what they were learning about parts and wholes from various contexts. Their time was short but their message was poignant and powerful.
DFES Goals 2017-2018
- Excellent customer service
- Effective use of small group instruction
- Building teacher capacity with environmental education content
Effective customer service with our internal audience (you our faculty and staff)
Through reflection and looking at matters from different perspectives I recognize the importance and the need for excellent customer service for you our internal audience.
As principal I have a duty and responsibility to serve as a buffer to filter out extraneous practices or habits that compete or interfere with our top priority...which is effective instruction that yields positive student achievement.
One way of serving as a buffer is to limit and reduce the high volume of emails sent to homeroom teachers. I spent time this past Friday speaking with Mr. Gantt, our instructional team, and front office staff about this matter. Consequently the SMORE newsletter that I send each Sunday will include updates for PBIS, SPED, content areas, registrar, cafeteria, etc. when appropriate. The goal is to make the weekly newsletter a one stop shop for upcoming events and updates.
This does not mean that the afore mentioned staff members will not send out emails because it is necessary that they do so. We think that it will be much more efficient, less confusing, and less time consuming if the weekly newsletter were a little more comprehensive.
This also means that there should be exceptionally fewer occasions where emails are sent by our administrative team, instructional team members, and office staff members in which there is a relative quick turnaround time to respond to emails or to take action on emails with little notice. You are encouraged to hold me personally accountable to this but to also notify me personally if this expectation is not being fulfilled by those listed above.
So the trade off is a slightly longer newsletter but fewer emails that have to be read. We hope you appreciate the changes.
Supervision of Instruction
One of my primary responsibilities as principal falls under the category of supervision of instruction. This means that I have to help our teachers connect the dots between professional development and classroom practices.
This year following professional development I have asked homeroom teachers to identify an action step, when that step is to be completed, and to identify success criteria. Moving forward the last five minutes of Thursday curricular conversations will be dedicated to reflection. This time will also be used to allow teachers to identify actions steps while we are together during curricular conversations rather than having to do so at a later time.
We hope our teachers find this to be helpful and less stressful as there will not be a need for us (me) to send reminders or deadlines for sharing action items following curricular conversations.
Director of Elementary Education Visit
New Staff to Visit Center for Inquiry (CFI)
Over the last four years we have taken certified staff to visit our sister school in Richland District 2 to learn from distant teachers and peers. The goal being to gain insight on evidence of teaching when adopting inquiry as a way of being rather than a prescriptive way of completing projects.
In an effort to support our new certified staff the following colleagues will visit CFI Monday: A. Gehm, P. Martin, B. Ybarra, P. Finney, and G. Berbaum. They will be accompanied by S. Somerall and hosted by H. Mills. Substitutes will be provided for each teacher. Please make a note for planning purposes.
Monday, Oct 16, 2017, 07:30 AM
Center for Inquiry - Richland School District 2, Summit Parkway, Columbia, SC, United States
1st Grade Field Trip to EdVenture Children's Museum (Creech, Knowles, Walker)
Monday, Oct 16, 2017, 09:00 AM
EdVenture Children's Museum, Gervais Street, Columbia, SC, United States
Vision and Hearing Screens
Sunday, Oct 15, 2017, 08:15 AM
DFES Mini Theater
Administrators Out of the building Tuesday
I will be out of the building to attend a Title I Principal's meeting from 9:00 a.m - 10:00 a.m. Mr. Gantt will be out the building to attend a Placement Chair meeting from 9:00 - 12:00 p.m.
S. Beckman will be your point of reference for the one hour block that I am out of the building.
District Leadership Team Meetings
Members of our school's Magnet leadership team - J. Sparkman, D. Gibson, S. Sazehn, K. Hill, N. Jefferson, A. Umberger, and J. Scott will meet in the conference room at 3:15.
All remaining staff will meet with S. Somerall in the media center.
Tuesday, Oct 17, 2017, 03:15 PM
various
1st Grade Field Trip to EdVenture Children's Museum (Creech, Eskew-Martin, Sparkman)
Wednesday, Oct 18, 2017, 08:30 AM
EdVenture Children's Museum, Gervais Street, Columbia, SC, United States
Scott out of the building Wednesday
The Cub Reporter
Early Release Day Thursday
- We will have our first early day this coming Thursday.
- 4K students will not attend school this day.
- We will have a short luncheon for our faculty and staff from 12:30 - 1:00. A variety of subs to include (veggie and traditional subs) and salad to be provided.
Thursday, Oct 19, 2017, 07:15 AM
DFES
K-2 Learning Celebration
- Our first K-2 learning celebration is scheduled for Friday. We will use this time as a teach-to to share expectations given this a new context for our kindergarten students and relatively new context for our 1st grade students.
- The original learning celebration schedule was shared with everyone back in mid September. Grade levels are asked to complete the sign up by this Friday.
Friday, Oct 20, 2017, 08:15 AM
DFES Mini Theater
5th Grade Field Trip to Camp Gravett
Friday, Oct 20, 2017, 08:00 AM
Camp Gravatt, Camp Gravatt Road, Aiken, SC, United States
PTO Fall Festival
- We are excited about plans for our fall festival this Friday. Our PTO board and volunteers will begin set up in the gym around 1:30 Friday. Coach Guerkink will meet the third grade class scheduled for PE at the gym door.
- For those who plan to attend or volunteer we need you to park in the rear of our campus. We anticipate a high turnout and would like to minimize families having to park across the street to attend this event.
Friday, Oct 20, 2017, 06:00 PM
DFES
PBIS Updates from Mr. Gantt
- We will provide a brief update on the PBIS store during our luncheon Thursday. We have discussed modifications to make the PBIS store more efficient and better organized during recess. We will solicit input Thursday during the luncheon as we are modifying plans for the PBIS store.
- The first UnbeLEAFable student celebration is scheduled for Friday, October 20th. Our UnbeLEAFable Student Celebrations recognize students who have shown good character, known as UnbeLEAFable Acts of Kindness. Faculty/staff members have been encouraged to nominate a student for a kind act that he or she has shown. Students will be recognized by their families with the reading of their UnbeLEAFable Act of Kindness and a certificate of acknowledgment. Further details to be sent Monday.
- The PBIS Committee will meet on Thursday from 11:30 - 12:30.
Parent Conferences
School-wide calendar of events
Event Checklist
We created the event checklist to ensure that all I's are dotted and all T's are crossed when planning a school wide event. The checklist will now be a standard feature in our weekly staff newsletter for you all to access.
The check list should be completed at a minimum of two weeks prior to an intended event. Calendar events will only proceed if this checklist is completed within the outlined timeframe. This helps to ensure that we are adequately prepared and those impacted know what to anticipate.
Winter MAP Testing
We began drafting the schedule this past Friday and are working on details for small group testing so that we avoid the challenges from fall testing.
Further details are forthcoming. All communication regarding MAP testing will come from me or a designated person from our instructional team. Stay tuned.
We develop students who care about the around them and build critical thinking skills through natural curiosity and wonder.
Email: jscott@lexrich5.org
Website: www.lexrich5.org/dutchfork/cfm
Location: 7900 Broad River Road, Irmo, SC, United States
Phone: 803-476-3901
Twitter: @dfes_principal