Hillcrest Hawk Happenings
The official newsletter of Hillcrest Elementary Staff
Supporting, empowering, & championing every single student, every single day, in every single way.
December 8, 2019
IMPORTANT DATES
TO ACCESS THE MONTH-BY-MONTH CALENDARS for the whole year, click HERE. Please know that these are still works-in-progress, so check back often to see the updates. October has been updated with the mandatory morning meetings -- calendar invitations to follow!
MUST READ
IMPORTANT REMINDER: Staff Celebration
DEADLINE TO RSVP is THIS TUESDAY 12/10! Here's hoping you will be able to attend!
FIRE SAFETY
- We will need to get fire drills in before the end of the year, so be prepared!
- Please see THIS SLIDE of some fire safety regulations that we need to be aware of and need to check our classrooms for over the next two weeks before break.
Key Reminder About Keys
This is a reminder that all district supplied keys have the capability of locking down any door district wide that has an intruder core on the inside of a classroom, office or common space. The district supplied key also has the capability to unlock/lock any faculty bathroom and faculty lounge across the entire district.
PRINCIPAL'S PRIDE DISPLAY
PARENT - TEACHER CONFERENCES THIS WEEK
Please be sure to have parents sign in to your conferences this week. We appreciate how many of you have been flexible in scheduling your conferences in order to maximize participation. Our goal, as always, is 100% participation.
Classroom teachers: please share your conference schedule with the related service providers who share your students. This way Reading, ENL, Speech, PT/OT, clinicians, etc, can try to attend the conferences, too.
'TIS THE SEASON
NO TIME FOR SLOWING DOWN
We all feel the holidays and the break from school approaching, but this is no time to slow down and coast to the end of December. No way! In fact, quite the contrary: now that the first round of benchmark assessments have been completed, this is the time to RAMP THINGS UP before the holidays. How can you use the Aimsweb, F&P and math assessment data to target instruction for individual students, small groups of students, and your class as a whole?? We have 2 solid weeks ahead of us -- through targeted small groups and one-on-one conferences, can each student in your class move a level by the end of December?
These 2 weeks are critical for student growth; when we come back from break, we have 6 weeks until February break, and then 4 weeks until the ELA assessments, and another 2 until the state math assessment (subtracting one for Spring Break). Will your students be able to demonstrate proficiency on grade level standards by then? What would it take in these 12 weeks in order to get them ready?
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year????????
While we may be looking forward to the holidays, and all that may mean to us, it's important that we keep our excitement and enthusiasm in check. We may be looking forward to special meals (or FEASTS!) with family and friends, social events and parties, "Secret Santas" and gift-giving, re-living heart-warming memories of holidays past...but for many families in our community, it is not "the most wonderful time of the year." Each commercial on television, each time someone asks "what do you want for Christmas?", each decoration they pass in town, each carol played on the radio, reminds them of the struggles they face and the gap between the ideal holiday of their dreams and the reality of their current situation. Please be mindful of this as we enter into the holiday season. Remember, too, that this time of year can bring added stress to many families, which can impact us at school in many ways. Parents may not be as responsive, or as positive in their responses, as they would like to be. Children may feel the stress at home and come to school carrying additional "invisible" baggage.
Also, between November 1 and January 15, there are about 29 holidays celebrated by 7 of the world's major religions. While most of our families likely celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, we can't make the assumption that they do, or that they celebrate them in the same ways as me and you. Relationships are the most important part of our work with families, and it is very easy to have a negative impact on the relationship by making assumptions: that someone celebrates a certain holiday, doesn't celebrate a certain holiday, that someone will struggle during the holidays to make ends meet, that someone has enough resources to celebrate like you and me, etc.
Enjoy all that the holidays have to offer, but please be mindful that not everyone experiences the holidays in the same way.
Gingerbread
LITERACY HAPPENINGS
- UNIT ASSESSMENTS
Teachers of Reading Workshop: Unit/end-of-trimester assessments are copied and can now be administered to students. Please work with your colleagues to complete an item analysis.
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH HAPPENINGS
Re-connect with your "Why": Ways to Reclaim Your Joy in Teaching
Teaching Fractions Using Legos
Teaching Fractions With Paper Plates
Outside Play is Crucial for Emerging Readers & Writers
Learning outside for just one lesson a week boosts learning and behaviour, say researchers
Cool comic approach to explain Why Boys Develop Sexism From an Early Age by Interactions with Adults
FROM DR. FOSTER:
Mary asked us to share this summary of some of Mike Schmoker's recent thoughts on improving K-3 literacy. Many of the ideas apply for us in grades 3-5 as well:
Mike Schmoker on Improving K-3 Literacy Instruction
“Third-grade reading proficiency matters – enormously,” says writer/consultant Mike Schmoker in this article in Education Week. “It is eerily predictive of academic and career success; students who don’t reach this benchmark are four times less likely to graduate from high school on time.” But the literacy instruction that leads up to this point often neglects the most important components, he says, which is why only about half of third graders are reading at grade level – even fewer among low-income and minority students. Schmoker believes this is what it would take to get virtually all students up to par in the early grades:
• Intensive, sustained, systematic phonics – There is strong evidence that teaching children to crack the phonetic code (ideally by the end of first grade) is the essential foundation – but there’s no reason phonics can’t coexist with plenty of time reading and listening to fiction and nonfiction texts.
• Well-executed whole-class instruction – Schmoker says that having students work in small groups reduces the amount of effective instructional time by a factor of three or four. That’s because students who aren’t working with the teacher are often “ambling slowly from station to station, aimlessly turning pages, or talking quietly to a partner instead of reading.” There is a time for small-group work, but the way group work is used in many classrooms greatly dilutes the teacher’s impact on learning.
• Reading/general knowledge – Students need lots of exposure to literature, history, and science knowledge and vocabulary, which are essential to comprehension.
• Vocabulary instruction – Rich vocabularies are acquired mostly through extensive reading and listening, says Schmoker, but teachers need to supplement this with targeted, embedded vocabulary instruction.
• Discussion – “To become confident, articulate speakers,” he says, “Students must engage in frequent, purposeful discussions about what they read.”
• Writing and writing instruction – When students write, they build their capacity to “think logically, express themselves clearly, and understand, analyze, and retain content,” says Schmoker. Frequent writing leverages all these crucial skills – and down the road, it is vital to students’ college and career opportunities.
“How to Make Reading Instruction Much, Much More Efficient” by Mike Schmoker in Education Week, November 19, 2019, https://bit.ly/35tw4SU; Schmoker can be reached at
MATH HAPPENINGS
ST Math Meeting this week
MATH MEETING THIS WEEK on Wednesday morning at 7:40 for grades 4 & 5 -- Topic is ST Math. Please make every effort to arrive on time.
Pictured here: Dr. Mauricio coaching students in Ms. Galiano's class with the application problem.
SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE/STEM HAPPENINGS
PBIS HAPPENINGS
The SEL theme for the month of December is COMMUNITY. Please look for opportunities to connect classroom learning to the district's monthly theme.
FOCUS ON SAFETY:
We are going to be giving out SAFE bracelets for students who are demonstrating SAFE behavior throughout Hillcrest. If you receive a bracelet in your mailbox, you can distribute it to a student who you feel are creating a SAFE COMMUNITY in our school (or give it to your Honorable Hawk to decide who should earn it so that more students can be aware of other students' positive behaviors.)
CAFETERIA CREW MEMBER OF THE MONTH IS:
MS. BLANCA AND MS. NUMILA!!!! Please congratulate them when you see them! :)
SPIRIT WEEK coming Dec. 16-20!
Watch for a flyer this week!
PBIS MEETING being added to the calendar for this Wednesday the 18th -- we would like to discuss individual student incentives (like the HAWK SQUAWKS of the past) so please come join the conversation if you have ideas and opinions to share about how to motivate individuals to demonstrate our HAWKS values.
- December Assembly
We need two 5th grade classes to volunteer to present a song, dance, poem, skit, rap, etc. at the December PBIS Assemblies. Email Rachel Moczarski if you are interested.
- 5th Grade Jobs Board
For students who were not selected as the HAWKS Leader for their class, there are new opportunities for students to get involved in making Hillcrest even MORE AMAZING! Stay tuned for more information on the 5th Grade JOBS BOARD, and how 5th graders can apply for one of the jobs advertised on the Jobs Board in the cafeteria. Students will have to complete job applications, and include the names of two adults in the school who will serve as references for them, so you may have students asking if they can use you as a reference.
SPECIALS HAPPENINGS
Holiday Concert December 19 at 7:00 PM!
To submit something for this section of the Hawk Happenings in the future, submit it by clicking HERE and it will appear in the next Hawk Happenings.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS HAPPENINGS
WHO'S THAT?!?!
I received a few entries this week, but I wonder if you can guess:
WHO's THAT?!?!?!
Submit your guess using this Google Form.
Reminder: LIGHTHOUSE VISITS
Along with the required visits of new teachers to Lighthouse Classrooms, we want to encourage others to visit their colleagues to share best practices. Request a Lighthouse Classroom visit by signing up using this form.