The Hornets' Weekly Buzzzzz!
Important information for the week of March 21st
Together EARHART Achieves More
CORE BELIEFS
· Our main purpose is to improve student academic achievement.
· Effective Instruction makes the most difference in student academic performance.
· There is no excuse for poor quality instruction.
· With our help, at risk students will achieve at the same rate as non-at risk students.
· Staff members must have a commitment to children and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence.
OUR BELIEFS...The Earhart Way
#2. Increase the Quality of Instruction
#3. Increase the Culture and Climate
It's Not Bragging if you can back it up ~M. Ali
What's Buzzing this Week...
This Week...
- Fire Drill
- STAAR Testing Mtg.
- 3 wk. Progress Letters go home (Remember, parents must be notified of their child's progress, especially if a child is failing)
Tuesday: (3-22):
- TELPAS Online Testing (2nd/ 3rd Grade)
- TEI Expert Training @ Stevens Park (4:45 P.M)
Wednesday (3-23):
- TELPAS Online Testing (Grade 5)
Thursday (3-24)
- TELPAS Online Testing (Grade 4)
- Brighter Bites produce distribution (3:45 - 4:30 p.m.)
- PTA Mtg @6 p.m.
Friday (3-25) Inclement Weather Day - No School
Easter Weekend...Enjoy!
Saturday (3-26)
- No Saturday School
Upcoming:
- No After-school programs the week of March 28th
- 4th and 5th Grade STAAR Testing begins, March 29th
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UPDATES and REMINDERS...
It was confirmed during the last school board meeting that all DISD elementary schools will return to regular hours for the 2016-17 school year. For our campus, this means we will no longer have the extra hour in our school day.
Open Transfer Period:
Just a reminder...
...the open transfer period is March 8th - April 22nd (See the attached memo to this email).
STAAR Testing:
STAAR testing begins, Tuesday, March 29th for students in grades 4 and 5. As a school community, it is OUR responsibility to ensure students have the best testing environment. It is not only the teacher of record's responsibility, but the entire Earhart community. All of us must encourage and rally behind our students. Our students are counting on us; and I know our T.E.A.M. will unite and answer the call.
We will have our first testing meeting, tomorrow after-school. During this meeting, we will go over the test security manual. This is a mandatory testing meeting for teachers, counselor, community liaison, and coaches. Please make the necessary arrangements so you are here for the entire meeting.
In order for the first round to be a success, we need everyone's support and commitment.
SSI/Summer School/Early Start:
We will have 3 programs happening this summer: SSI, Summer School, and Early Start). If you are interested in applying to work in any of our summer programs, please send me an email stating which summer program(s) you are interesting in working. Read below for more information on our summer program offerings:
SSI (Student Success Initiative): SSI is for any 5th grade student who does not pass the STAAR Reading and Math assessments during the 1st and 2nd round. These students will continue to receive accelerated instruction for 2 weeks in June and will prepare to take the STAAR assessment for the 3rd and final round, June 21st -22nd.
Summer School: Students attending summer school must meet a certain criteria (T.B.D.) I will update you with more information. Summer school will take place for the entire month of June.
Early Start: The Early start program will take place July 25th - August 5th. This two week program will offer a project based learning curriculum which will prepare students to think and problem solve at a high level.
What's Happening in the Hornet's Nest!
PreK transforms to a new theme.
Teacher Training
The Bookworm
Citizenship Assembly
Small Group Writing
One on One with Ms. Leyva
DISTRICT GOALS
- Goal 1: All students will exhibit Satisfactory or above performance on State assessments. Students below Satisfactory performance will demonstrate more than one year of academic growth;
- Goal 2: Dallas ISD schools will be the primary choice for families in the district;
- Goal 3: The achievement gap by race, ethnicity and social economic status will be no greater than 10 percentage points on all academic measures;
- Goal 4: 95% of students will graduate. Of the graduates, 90% have qualifying scores for community college, college, military, or industry certification;
- Goal 5: 95% of entering kindergarten students are school-ready on a multidimensional assessment;
- Goal 6: All students will participate in at least one extracurricular or co-curricular activity each year.
Good First Instruction - EVERYDAY!
The expectations is that Good First Instruction is happening daily. Be sure your LO's and DOL's are posted for all subjects. The TEK/SE number should be written as well. I should not walk into any class and see "crayola curriculum"...instruction is to be aligned to the TEK/ SE.
Also, movies/ cartoons are not allowed to be shown during the school day. We must follow district policy regarding movies, etc.
We will continue to conduct spots from Monday thru Friday.
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK...
AVOIDING COMMON ERRORS IN APPLYING CAROL DWECK’S MINDSET THINKING
In this article in Education Update, Laura Varlas takes stock of how Carol Dweck’s 2006 book, Mindset, has been applied in schools. Three critical observations:
• Effort. Some educators think Dweck is saying they should reinforce effort, not outcomes. Not so! says Dweck: “Our work shows that you can praise the outcome as long as you also talk about the process that led to the outcome… Telling kids just to try hard is not helpful. It doesn’t tell them all the strategies, resources, and input they’ll need to get there.” British educator Chris Hildrew agrees, “If our students fail a test, it’s not helpful to say ‘at least you tried hard,’ because clearly it was the wrong kind of effort.” Better to ask, “What strategies did you use? What didn’t work? What can you do differently next time?” Another approach is giving students commentary on their classwork, saving grades for summative assessments, and working with students to see where they’re at, what they don’t understand, and what they should try next.
• False mindsets. Some teachers give lip service to the growth mindset but secretly hold fixed beliefs about some students’ ability to succeed. Or they might frown on mistakes rather than treating them as integral to learning, or make the work easier so students won’t have to struggle. Dweck talks about the confusion-clarity cycle: “You get confused when you face something new. Then it becomes clear, and then you are ready to face the next round of confusion and work through that… Often, when kids feel confused about something, they feel like they’re back to square one.” She suggests giving a pretest and using it later to show struggling students the progress they’ve made.
• Triggers. All of us, teachers and students, are a mix of fixed and growth mindsets, says Dweck. Acknowledge that. Fixed thinking is part of you but it’s not you! She and her Stanford colleagues are searching for what activates fixed thinking – for example, encountering frustration about not having the knowledge or skill to do something well. Washington, D.C. principal Dawn Clemens and her colleagues urge students to train their brains to take a logical rather than an emotional stance toward learning problems: “I need to study these things for the next test” versus “The test was unfair and my teacher doesn’t like me.” And here’s a strategy for working with a student with a negative mindset: give his or her “fixed side” a name (Dwayne) and then use it to convey a growth message: “Let’s see if we can get Dwayne to really listen to this feedback and plan what to do next.”
RESOURCES...
STAAR Resources:
- https://olc.region10.org/pd/mod/folder/view.php?id=11332
- Inside Secrets to STAAR Powerpoint - In Google Folder
Math Resource