WIZARD WEEKLY
Week of October 24th-28th
WORD FROM THE EMERALD CITY
~ Thank you to everyone who helped make last week a success! A special shout out to those of you who volunteered at Fall Festival. You should have received an email this morning from me if you volunteered. If you did volunteer, and you did not receive an email, please let me know!
~ Thank you to Kelly Stowe for organizing the "You've Been Booed" campus activity! Also, thanks to Sunshine Committee for organizing the yummy chili cook off today! Thanks to everyone who brought something! I'm sure that will be a nice treat on this crazy Halloween day!! Hang in there!
~ I sent an email last week, but I just want to make sure that everyone knows about the required surveys on Eduphoria. From now on, if you take a training session through Eduphoria, you MUST complete the survey in order to earn credit. The survey will be open 2 weeks after the conclusion of the training. Make sure to complete it as soon as you're finished, so you don't get busy and forget. This goes for ALL employees who take trainings via Eduphoria. I know the survey has always been on there, and we've gotten those emails, but as of October 20th, you MUST complete them in order to earn the credit.
~ Speaking of training, there is a new online professional development resource we have been trained on called Edivate. This is a resource that will allow for "flipped" professional development sessions. We will be testing it out here in the next few weeks, by starting slow...having you all watch a video, read a short article, etc. This is something that Amarisa is getting trained on as well, and you will hear more about it in the future as we all get our feet wet and learn more about it.
~ Let's reschedule the Documentation training for Wednesday, November 16th. This will allow us to get past the week of parent/teacher conferences and collect some new ideas heading into our first holiday break. Please make it a point to try and attend, since I know from our CARE team meetings that documentation is something that several of you have mentioned interest in learning more about and finding a system that works in order to keep it all straight. Speaking of documentation, please don't shred documentation on Tier 2/3 students at the end of the year. We need this information from year to year in case we ever get to the referral process. Make sure you keep this information and turn it in to either myself or Ashley at the end of the year, so we can get into the appropriate folder for safe keeping.
Campus News
~ The countdown is on to our first holiday break. Thanksgiving will be hear before you know it. I know many of you have already gotten a lot of parent/teacher conferences completed, but just a reminder that next Friday is early release to finish those up! School will dismiss at 11:40.
~ Angela Kennedy will be on campus for curriculum walks on Thursday, November 10th at 1:00. She will be walking into ELAR classrooms, looking for evidence of curriculum alignment, looking at writing folders, reading journals, etc. Just a reminder to always make sure that learning targets are up to date and follow the format. I will __________ by________. A learning target is not: "subtracting." A learning target is a clearly defined statement that tells what the students should be doing and how they are learning it.
~There will be a Cliburn musical performance on Wednesday, November 16th at 1:30 for students. This performance is for students in 2nd-4th grades. If you remember, they came last year and did amazing things using just the piano for their performance. I know this is the 2nd grade field trip, so it looks like it will be just 3rd and 4th in the assembly.
~ The Thanksgiving Feast is this Friday, November 4th. We will have tables set up in the area by the gym for overflow and/or for families to eat together. Please remind your families to arrive before their student's lunch time, so they can ensure they get their meal and have time to eat with their student. We will let the parents order based on the grade level their child is in. For instance, if there are first grade parents in front of the line, but KG parents are behind them, we will let KG parents serve first so they can get their food and eat with their child.
~ Don't forget those positive phone calls!! The end of the semester will be here before we know it!
~ The date of the School Spelling Bee will be Wednesday December 14th at 8:30. Remember, the spelling bee is for 2nd-5th grade students. We will take the top 2 spellers from each class to participate in the campus spelling bee. Leslie will need the 2 names by Friday, November 11th. The word lists will be in boxes. Let Leslie know if you have any questions.
Be Vocabulous!
Continue to discuss the vocabulary with your students! It's making a big difference!
Here is the copy of the s'more newsletter about the vocabulary program. It has all the words listed for the year, so you can plan ahead! It has each word listed and the grade level responsible. The kids really enjoyed this last year, and I think this was something I had more comments from parents about than anything! They would comment about their students knowing the meanings of words that they didn't even know. The vocabulary parade was a big hit too. Even the older kids got into it and had fun being creative and participating.
Please turn in the "Word Up" Levels sheets when you have students who display the appropriate use of the words. Obviously, the younger they are, the more "adaptation" needs to occur in order to receive the levels, but the students who received the tags last year, LOVED it!! I will put the "Word Up Level" sheet on canvas!
As a reminder, the way the "Word Up Levels" work, goes like this...
All students will start as rookies and all students will have a chance to move up as many levels as they would like. Spirit Tags (that PTA is selling) will be used for levels 2 thru 5 and when a student reaches level 2 thru 5 they will receive a spirit tag for that level from the principal.
Teachers will nominate students to move up through the levels.
DATES TO REMEMBER
October 31st:
Staff soup/chili potluck
PLEASE NOTE THE DOCUMENTATION TRAINING HAS BEEN CANCELED THAT WAS ON NOVEMBER 1st- NEW DATE IS Wednesday, November 16th at 3:00
November 1st:
Reading Bee at Greenfield Elementary- Cameran Roberson is our Elkins winner!!
Wednesday, November 2nd:
Kori off campus in early AM to attend Junior Achievement breakfast
Thursday, November 3rd:
Kori off campus in AM at DLT meeting
Friday, November 4th:
Thanksgiving meal for families
Tuesday, November 8th:
LiiNK training has been cancelled K & 1st grade teachers!
Thursday, November 10th:
Angela Kennedy will be on campus for curriculum walks at 1:00 pm
Elk Junior Council Meeting unitl 4:00 in Guidance Room
Friday, November 11th:
Early Release for Parent/Teacher Conferences
Spelling Bee winners due to Leslie
Monday, November 14th:
Grades due by 8:00 am
Kori off campus with K. Stowe for PLC/Data training
Tuesday, November 15th:
Progress reports go home
Kori off campus with K. Stowe for PLC/Data training
Wednesday, November 16th:
2nd Grade Field Trip
Cliburn musical performance at 1:30 (3rd and 4th grades)
Optional Documentation Training after school in the library
Thursday, November 17th:
Kori off (personal day for Kellyn's tonsillectomy)
November 21st-25th:
Thanksgiving Holidays!
November 28th-Decamber 2nd
Book Fair this week
Thursday, December 1st:
Kori off campus from 11:00-1:00 for Principal Luncheon
Literacy Night: 5:30-7:00
Tuesday, December 6th:
Dr, Chadwell on campus - 9:00-10:00
CARE Team Meeting- 1st grade @ 1:20
Thursday, December 8th:
Kori off campus from 11:00-1:00 for Principal Meeting
Friday, December 9th:
Kori off campus at training all day
Angie Lemons off campus at Title 1 Meeting
KORI WERTH - PRINCIPAL
Email: kwerth@ems-isd.net
Website: http://www.emsisd.com/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2336
Location: Fort Worth, TX, United States