Peek At The Week!
Week of 1/6/19
Our New VISION Statement for Peace Dale Elementary School!!
Graduates of Peace Dale Elementary School are inspired, curious and self-directed learners that are caring citizens, able to use a growth mindset to make positive changes in their lives and the lives of others.
Principal's Message...
Happy first full week of the 2020 year! As always, it will be a busy week.
STAR MOY testing window opens on Monday, January 6th and closes on January 31st. All grades- 2-4 should schedule time to administer this important screener in both Reading and Math. Currently, our district benchmark cut scores call for a percentile rank of 40 or higher to be adequate. Keep in mind that this cut score does not align to RICAS and for alignment, the percentile rank should be above the 60th percentile. This is a screening assessment and we know that students do not "study" for it, but please remind them them that it is an important assessment and encourage them to try their best!
Access testing is another high stakes test that will be administered this month to our English Language Learners. Katie will be administering this assessment, in small groups or one-on-one and her regular schedule will be affected throughout this testing window. Please reach out if you need any help supporting your ELLs during testing and thank you for your flexibility with Katie's schedule, as she works to complete this year's Access testing.
On Thursday, 1/9, TAs will be meeting at 9:30am for our monthly meeting. Our focus has been on understanding those students who exhibit noncompliant or disrespectful behavior and learning strategies to support them. This week, we will look at a district focus- conscious discipline- and specifically try to understand consequences. Here is a link to our resource: https://consciousdiscipline.com/why-conscious-discipline-consequences-work/
After school, we will also meet for our first faculty meeting of the new year! This meeting is meant to anchor our work by gaining clarity around our Mission, Vision and Core Values. Our school improvement team will meet on Wednesday and will help facilitate on Thursday.
Next Thursday, 1/16, our Superintendent will join us for our next meeting together. This meeting is designed to be an open forum. She will begin with an introduction and then provide an open forum for our faculty and staff to ask questions. We will also be discussing updates on our new parking lot project. All PDES staff and faculty are welcome to attend.
On Wednesday, we will be conducting a whole school- Community Book Club Kick-Off Assembly in the gym, beginning after all lunches and sometime around 1:45pm. Please wait for classes to be called down to the gym. Classes will be seated in the same formation as our last holiday assembly. Here is an outline of the assembly-
Community Book Club, Kick-off Assembly, Wed, 1/8/20, approximately 1:45-2:30pm
Project: What & Why: 5 min,--Cadence w/ script, Melissa and Katie support
Book Reveal: Authors' Video- ~10min
Chapter 1 Read Aloud- Kim, ~ 10min
Project Logistics- Cadence ~25 min
(*person dressed in chicken suit will hopefully appear at the end of logistics to wave and possibly give high-fives in the doorway as students exit).
Notice we need a person willing to dress in a chicken suit? Lol. If you are interested, please reach out to me :)
It was really nice to be able to visit classrooms over the last few days. The lessons are challenging, collaborative and fun! I am super impressed with students' writing stamina, ability to collaborate with each other, their levels of reflection and finally their ability to support their classmates by giving each other feedback! Just awesome!
Wishing you all a great week,
~Kim
Important Information...
- Evaluation Cycle should reach out to schedule formal observations, which will begin after November 4th. I will begin informal observations in the next few weeks. Please note that during classroom observations, I will not be available for assistance calls
- IMPORTANT: Please be sure that all regular dismissal information is updated on our PDES Spreadsheet by January 10th. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SsrWldk-H13rg3nC36cBORwUozMjWt2pn08FoDopAco/edit?usp=sharing Also, please be sure that Skyward is updated with all authorized individuals for emergency contacts/release. We will be transitioning to our lanyard system by the end of the month. Please see me with any questions/concerns.
- STAR MOY Assessment Window: January 6th-January 31st, 2020
- School Improvement Team Meeting: January 8th, 2020 @ 8:00am
- Administration Meetings- Leadership Meeting: Monday 1/6/20 from 8:30am-11:00am; Pre-K Team Admin Meeting- 1/6/20 3:30pm; 1/10 NPIN meeting with Joan Crothers 9:30am-11:30am.
- Faculty Meeting 1/9 Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-ngxCHaEI7SORqGUkIynDEozF1tARuHX1GRK1_vbn8/edit?usp=sharing; Faculty Meeting 1/16- Superintendent Savastano visits PDES
- PDES will conduct ACCESS Assessment in room 16 January 14th-January 17th and January 21st-January 24th. Please click the link below to access specific schedule:
- Administration Safety Cares Training- 1/27 @ 3:30pm -Please sign up on Frontline! Everyone is welcome and ALL will benefit from this de-escalation training.
- This week's The Stingray Scoop: https://www.smore.com/mv7z4
Safety Cares
Safety Care Purpose: This 2hr training will teach skills with incident prevention and minimization. Focus will be on the supportive environment, safety habits, staff behavior and self-care, use of reinforcement, antecedents to dangerous behavior (triggers and signals) and de-escalation. This will not include any physical safety interventions. Jan 27th 3:30-5:30pm w/ Breta Unit 1-3 2hr session - Voluntary, all invited, Frontline sign up.
Proud Peace Dale Moments!
Super STARS!
Calendar - Upcoming Events!
January
1/6- STAR Testing Window Opens (1/6-1/31/20)
Leadership Administration Meeting- 8:30am
1/8- Community Book Club Kickoff Assembly
SIT Team Meeting 8am
1/9- Faculty Meeting- Mission, Vision and Goals
1/16- Faculty Meeting-Superintendent Visits PDES
PTO Meeting 6:30pm- Superintendent Visits
1/14- ACCESS Begins at PDES
1/23- PLC
1/30- PLC
1/27- Safety Cares- Voluntary (De-escalation Strategies) 3:30pm-5:30pm (Admin Building)