Westwood Weekly
Staff Newsletter - Week of January 21-28
Highlights this Week!
This Week: 5th Grade @ Outdoor Education (Camp Loma Mar)
Tuesday -
-Annual and Triennial IEP Meetinf for Julian B (2:30, A4)
Wednesday - PE Prep Make-Up Day
-SST Meetings (8-11, D6)
-Teacher Collaboration Day
-Triennial IEP Meeting - Part 2 for Shiloh G (3:30, C5)
-LCAP Speaker Series: Social Media - Effects and Challenges (6:00, EDMS)
Thursday -
-Annual and Triennial IEP Meeting for Tristan K (2:30, D5)
-Other IEP for LJR (3:30, B1)
Friday -
-Special Olympics-Basketball (9-2, Monte Vista HS)
-Glitter Tattoos After School
-Annual IEP Meeting for Jose H (2:30, D6)
-Annual IEP Meeting for Rowen L (3:3, D5)
Upcoming Events
-Lunar New Year (1/25)
-Great Kindness Challenge (1/27-31)
-100th Day of School (1/28)
-STEM Fair (2/19) - note date change
LCAP Speaker Series: Social Media- Effects and Challenges
Teachers, Please share this with your familes:
Join us and the rest of the district for a great night talking about the effects of social media on our students. The LCAP Community Speaker Series is coming to El Dorado Wednesday, January 22nd at 6:00 p.m. Join us to connect and collaborate. Spanish translation will be provided.
This Week in AVID
In Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, Zaretta Hammond (2015, p. 14) reminds us that “As educators, we have to recognize that we help maintain the achievement gap when we don’t teach advanced cognitive skills to students we label as “disadvantaged” because of their language, gender, race, or socioeconomic status.” AVID strategies are designed to support all students as they grow their inquiry skills. Try integrating one of these AVID collaborative structures into your planning this week!
Jeanne Johnson - AVID Instructional Coach
Google Classroom Add Code: 7uwcLg or eavk628
PBIS Information
Life Skill of the Month - Caring/Kindness - Thanks to everyone who already signed up with Teach Kindness. Step 2 is to complete the Reflection Exercise and to start teaching and rating lessons! The Reflection is located under the 'My Challenge' tab of your Kindness Dashboard. Thank you to Christine, Patsy, Joni, and Justina for getting this done! You can also check out related lessons and activities in our Cool Tools for Schools resource.
Focus Area of the Week – Bathrooms - Please review the lesson plan with your students. As a reminder, all classes were expected to complete the Common Area checklist, and return to Nancy by last Friday, 1/17. Actively acknowledge students who engage in appropriate behaviors in/out of the classroom using Wows and frequent verbal praise.
Teacher of the Year Nominations - DUE TOMORROW!
STEM Fair Information
Please find attached the packet for our upcoming STEM Fair scheduled for Tuesday, February 18, from 6-7 pm. (Be sure to include this information in your classroom newsletters/communications).
Packets should have been sent home before the break. The entry form is due the first week back this Friday, January 10. The midway check form is due two weeks later on January 24th. Projects are due in the classroom on Monday, February 17th. This will allow time for projects to be presented and graded before being transported to the MUR.
All students, Kindergarten through Fifth grade are invited to participate in the Westwood STEM fair but it is mandatory for every 4th and 5th grader. Students in grades 3-5 must use either the scientific process or engineering design process in creating their project. An explanation of both the Scientific Process and the Engineering design process is included in this packet. Models, collections, reports, and demonstrations are not acceptable types of projects for grade 3 through 5. Grades 3-5: Please choose eight projects from your class that you feel are the best and submit the names to me by 2:30pm on Monday, February 17th.
Students may work on a project with another child or in a small group with a maximum of three. Fourth and fifth grade classrooms will receive a packet for each child while grades K through three will receive a few. Please let us know if you need additional copies. Also, the package is available online and a Google Drive folder labeled "STEM Fair". There is a Spanish version available online also.
Grades K-2 will submit a class science or engineering design project to have on display. The district is encouraging classrooms to display their EIE units on STEM Fair night, highlighted with a project board in a sampling of student projects. One EIE unit per school site may be displayed at the district showcase on March 21st.
As usual, the top two finishers and an alternate will be chosen from grades 3, 4, and 5. These winners will be announced that are Westwood STEM fair on the evening of Tuesday, February 18th. These top finishers will be invited to participate in the annual District STEM Showcase being held on Saturday March 21, 2020.
Please contact Kelly or Melinda if you have any questions.
ELPAC
Dear Teachers,
The Summative ELPAC (English Language Proficiency Assessments for California) will be switching to a mostly Computer-Based ELPAC assessment. The administration window is from February 3 - May 31, 2020. Although we hope to be done by mid-March. As the time get closer, I will let you know when we will be testing at Westwood.
English Learners should use the online Computer-Based Practice questions to become familiar with the format and types of questions on the ELPAC.
TK, Kinder, 1st grade students are tested one-on-one on all 4 domains.
The Listening, Speaking, and Reading domain are administered by a district examiner individually using a computer. The Writing domain is administered individually by a district examiner using paper and pencil.
2nd Grade students are tested one-on-one on 3 domains, and in a group for writing only.
The Listening,Speaking, and Reading domains are administered by a district examiner individually using computer. The Writing domain is administered by a classroom teacher in a group setting using paper and pencil.
3rd - 5th Grade students are tested one-on-one for Speaking only.
The Speaking domain is administered by a district examiner individually using a computer. Students take the Listening, Reading, and Writing domains on a computer, administered by classroom teachers, in a group setting.
Both Computer-Based and Paper-Based ELPAC Practice Tests can be accessed online. The Computer-Based Practice Test has DFA (Directions for Administration) that should be used as a companion document to the online Practice Test. The DFA includes scripts and example test questions for giving the practice test to students.
Follow this link to access the DFA's for the computer based practice tests: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HY6OFfFI1VGBiGsl9GcDJUE3Ol5kZNst (The script is only really necessary for the Speaking domain.)
Here is the link for students & teachers to access the Computer-Based online Practice Tests: Practice and Training Tests: https://www.elpac.org/resources/online-practice-and-training-test/
If you would like to print out paper practice tests in order to focus on the task types, they can be accessed here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AYQBGW5KEU4SuSRwKPu5jNUZy8u9dkkR
I am happy to go through this with you in person after school. I am also available to come to your class and do a lesson with your students. Just let me know!
Thank you for supporting English Learners!
SEE NANCY IF YOU ARE AVAILABLE TO TEACH INTERVENTION FOR OUR ENGLISH LEARNERS
Marathon Symposium - FREE PD!
MARATHON SYMPOSIUM --- FEBRUARY 22, 2020 --- REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!: The 2020 Marathon Symposium registration is now open. This one-day, "Bring Your Own Device" event will be held on February 22 at Valley View Middle School in Pleasant Hill. A $25 deposit, collected at registration, will be refunded when you check in to the event on that day. The link for registration and information can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/77653693287
This one day event was designed with several purposes:
- To build collaboration and communication between staff members in MDUSD and its neighboring schools/school districts in the areas of innovative, student-centered learning, including a focus on integrating STEAM into all curricular areas.
- To introduce and share resources from and between educators and other professionals who are using them now.
- To provide professional development that is fun and engaging, with hands-on and integrated activities that apply to various grade levels and areas of curriculum.
Megan Gerdts
Instructional Coach - Ed Tech K-12
Growing Up Asian in America: Art, Essay, and Video Contest
Staff,
Please share this information with eligible students and their families:
To whom it may concern:
My name is Ham Pham and I am contacting you from AACI, a Bay Area non-profit. I am emailing to share about our annual art, essay and video contest, Growing Up Asian in America (GUAA), for K-12 Bay Area students.
This year’s theme is: Why I Count! And in celebration of the contest’s 25th anniversary, we will be giving out 25 cash awards to students:
· One (1) $1,000 Grand Prize winner
· Ten (10) $500 Best in Class winners
· Fourteen (14) $250 Honorable Mention winners
We ask if you could pass along and distribute to any staff, parents or students interested. Entries are due on Friday, March 6, 2020 by 5p.m. and rules and submission instructions are included in the guidelines. To conserve resources, AACI is going paperless. We ask each individual organization please print in-house or e-mail the PDF guidelines (GUAA contest guidelines here or on our website: www.aaci.org/guaa.)
We appreciate your assistance in outreaching to students and look forward to receiving their entries. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.