Cat Tracks
Spring Shadows Elementary Wildcats Staff Newsletter
January 22-26, 2018
Our Vision
Our Mission
Core Beliefs
- Each student has unique intellectual, emotional, social, and physical qualities.
- We embrace a child’s individual values, interests, and personalities.
- Parents are confident in their child’s social and intellectual educational growth.
- Educators lead their craft by preparing learners in our fast changing world
Principal's Message
Dear Wildcats,
What a quick week we had last week! I'm glad to see our weather warm up again. I'm also really proud of the "hit the ground running" work you did on Thursday as well as Friday. Thank you for your ever learning heart to refine your craft and provide best instructional practices for our student's learning journey.
This week's announcements are here for you.
- New Wildcat: Please join me in welcoming Genevive Zetino, new 5th grade Associate teacher. She most recently finished her student teaching at Cedar Brook Elementary in the fall. She should officially join our school staff this coming week. If you see her, introduce yourself and welcome her.
- PLC: Objective for this week: PLC: Teachers will discuss, plan, and implement learning for January Guaranteed 3 TEKS chosen by grade levels as measured by Mastery Connect platform.
- MAP: Be prepared for your MAP testing session prior to administering the MAP. Ensure students take their time and use accuracy to accomplish their mid year review.
- Early Dismissal: Be prepared to bring your laptop for our Early Dismissal PD at 1:00 p.m. sharp in the library. Melissa Stadtfeld will join us as we continue to using MAP data to shape our instructional practice.
- Copy Machine: SBISD provides each campus a allotment of copies. We are allotted 1 million copies per year. If we go over that allotment, the campus must pay for the overage use. We are also believers in authentic teaching and bringing learning to life. Therefore, please limit running off worksheets for instructional use. We do have paper, please be creative in your use of it. Remember- we still have 11X18 paper (gifted to us but cannot be used in our copy machine) and that can easily fold in half to make books, take notes, create calculations, etc.
Again, thank you for all you do! You make me so proud!
Wildcat Love,
Rachel Martinez
Deadlines/Priorities
- Award Ceremony Templates are due to Olga Loera by Jan. 8, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.
- Each homeroom teacher shall schedule their running records for your students during small group instruction. Guided Reading levels will be recorded on google data sheets no later than Feb. 2, 2018.
- Plan ahead and begin scheduling parent conferences for the week of February 5-9th. Early Dismissals will be on Feb. 8 & 9 at 11:30 strictly for parent conferences.
Calendar
- 1st Grade Swim Program Begins
- Online Teacher of the Year Voting
- MAP Testing (Schedule)
- Cindy G. off campus (7:00-12:00)
- School Connectedness Meeting (9:15-9:45)
- ILT PLC (1:00-2:00)
- Dismissal 2:30
Tuesday, January 23, 2018: 4th Grade Extended Planning, Day 6
- MAP Testing (Schedule)
- Online Teacher of the Year Voting
- Cindy G. out (9:30-11:30)
- YES Prep to Visit 5th Grade during Specials (1:30-2:15)
- Dismissal 2:30
- PBIS Meeting (2:45-4:00)
Wednesday, January 24, 2018: No Extended Planning
- Registrar Meeting (8:00-100)
- Spiral Day
- Online Teacher of the Year Voting
- MAP Testing (Schedule)
- Awards Assemblies (8:00-11:00)
- 2nd Grade Barnyard Trip (9:00-10:30)
- 5th Grade Transition Meeting (11:00-12:00) tentative
- Dismissal @ 12:30
- MAP Winter Supports/Reports (1:00-4:00)
Thursday, January 25, 2018: 5th Grade Extended Planning. Day 1
- MAP Testing (Schedule)
- Online Teacher of the Year Voting
- Dismissal @ 2:30
- Team Leader Meeting (2:45-3:45)
- Elementary Program of Studies (3:30-5:30)
- Cindy G. off Campus Training (4:00-6:00)
- 5:00-6:00 5th Grade Transition Meeting (Cafeteria)
- MAP Testing (Schedule)
- Rachel @ Community Principal Mtg.
- Online Teacher of the Year Voting
- Admin. Meeting (1:30-2:00)
- Dismissal @ 2:30
Staff Shout-Outs
- Specials thanks our super staff: Ashley, Rashmi, Romina, and Cindy for chaperoning the overnight field trip for the 4th grade girls at the Children's Museum! Your outstanding dedication changed the life experiences for our girls! Girl Power!
- Many thanks to Bea for helping Dr. Cavazos attain materials for the training- even though it was last minute!
- Many thanks to Bea and Olga for organizing over 700 awards for our Awards Ceremony on Wednesday.
- Thank you Trini for coming in during the winter freeze to make sure the campus was safe to return.
- Extremely huge applause to Elizabeth Gasca for coordinating for every single teacher on campus to have some PD time with Dr. Cavazos on Thursday!
- Let's give Cindy Gardner a round of applause and congratulations. She has been appointed the 1-4 Summer School Coordinator for the District! Woohoo!
I know there are many unsung heroes out there that I did not get to mention. If you see someone out there going above and beyond and want me to recognize them on cat tracks, please send me an email.
PBIS and Project Class
Project Class: Skill for Teacher Use: Reasons
Research shows that children appreciate reasons and effective teachers give reasons. Reasons are important because they motivate students to change.
Some of the "Best" Reasons:
- show the child the relationship between his/her behavior and what happens as a result of the behavior.
- Indicate the benefits for the child.
- Are brief and age appropriate.
- Are tied to the goals of the child.
Good reasons to give students for learning and using the Social Skills:
- They will help you do better in school.
- They will help you achieve your goals in life.
- They will help you get along better with others.
- They will learn more.
PBIS:
Tuesday Meeting after school in Mrs. Almaguer's room. The meeting will begin at 3:00. PBIS cadre, don't forget to meet with your team prior to the meeting to gather the information needed.
Library Notes
Congrats to our SSE Readers -339,922 minutes logged in which is 112,792 minutes since the Rockets' Read Nation contest started. Last year we had 200,000 minute and I think the children have read but with the shortened week last week they didn't have time to log in minutes.
Please try to have all minutes logged by this Wednesday. I now have until Thursday to put in the our numbers. I would like to get top reader certificates to you for the ceremonies on Wednesday so I am looking at the current numbers. I will send an email about that so let me know if you feel it isn't correct.
I will do a complete reading update after all the minutes get in on Wednesday.
PIctures on Rockets: I did get a number of pictures of children with 1000, 2000, 3000 & 4,000 minutes on the rockets. I had a group of parents so excited seeing their children's pictures on the rockets and looking at where their child's class rocket was last week. Please try to get your students with over 1,000 minutes to the library for pictures. One parent was sure their child was reading and she couldn't find her child.
Bookworm Festival Saturday Feb 3rd: We did get a bus - now we need to fill it up. I have about 20 slips confirmed. I will be encouraging students this week and getting parent permission to those who have confirmed. If you are a parent - it is great free opportunity to see 8 authors and illustrators! Please encourage our parents to go if they are able -if not allow their child to go on the bus. It is from 10-Noon - our bus will be leaving about 9:30 am and coming back about 12:15pm.
Thanks for your support!
Ann
Spring Shadows Elementary
Email: rachel.martinez@springbranchisd.com
Website: https://cms.springbranchisd.com/sse2/
Location: 9725 Kempwood Drive, Houston, TX, United States
Phone: (713) 251-7100
Twitter: @twitter_rachelmartinez4