Title I Bulletin
Madison County Schools
Pre-K Staff Development
There will be a Pre-K staff development session on Friday, April 15, 2016. The session will be held at the Career Technical Center between the hours of 12:30 - 3:00 p.m. and all Pre-K teachers, aides, and auxiliary assistants are expected to attend. To receive professional development credit hours, participants should log in to STIPD using #TRC1534. Attendees should be prepared to share the implementation of a strategy, resource, activity, technology tool, song, and/or idea that was learned at the Pre-K Conference (January). A desire to disseminate handouts to the group is acceptable. :-)
ACIPs Reopened during Budget Amendment Period
Instructions for making changes to your ACIP are attached in the email. However, please don't forget that the Portfolio must have a green check mark beside each required component when you complete revisions. Then, click the SUBMIT button that is located in the bottom right corner of the page when you're finished. Upon completion, please send me an email to let me know these requirements have been fulfilled and I'll click the APPROVAL button on your ACIP to indicate you've officially resubmitted the plan as the last step.
REVISED Pre-K Spanish Family Information Form
Important Administrative Deadlines
Development of 2016-2017 Parent Involvement Plan
Principals, as a reminder, it is time to develop a Parent Involvement Plan for the 2016-2017 school year (Refer to Dr. Jensen's notification on the April ACIP Monitoring Agenda). Therefore, please review your school's current Parent Involvement Plan to determine if changes need to be made for the upcoming school year. Don't forget that your Parent Committee must be involved during this process. For monitoring purposes, you'll need to save copies of the following:
- Invitation to the parent meeting
- Agenda
- Sign-in-sheet
- Minutes
- Handouts
If a revision to your current Parent Involvement Plan occurs, please send me the the new plan by April 29, 2016.
School-Parent Compacts Updated for 2016-2017
Administrators, your current School-Parent Compacts, for each grade level, should be reviewed and updated for the 2016-2017 school year (Refer to Dr. Jensen's notification on April ACIP Monitoring Agenda). Please send me a copy of the revised compacts no later than April 29, 2016.
As a reminder, the School-Parent Compact is a commitment from the school, the parent, and the student to share in the responsibility for improved academic achievement. Title I parents have the right to be involved in the development of the School-Parent Compact. Note: Utilization of the attached Sample School-Parent Compact Template is mandated to ensure they contain the required components.
OSR Pre-K Random Drawing
As a reminder, there must be a wide distribution of recruitment notices in English and Spanish (where appropriate). The notices should state that a random selection drawing will be used to choose the children in the OSR Pre-K classroom.
DECE Workforce Development Scholarship
As a reminder, the Department of Early Childhood Education (DECE) has scholarships available for qualified child care professionals working in early childhood centers/programs. Applicants can obtain CDA, AAS, BS in Child Development or Early Childhood Education from an accredited in-state institution. The eligibility criteria is listed below:
- Applicant has to live in Alabama
- Applicant has to be working in an early childhood education setting
- Applicant must attend an accredited college/university in Alabama
- Award based on eligibility of funds
Applicants who meet the criteria may access the Work Force Development Scholarship at this link. For further details regarding the referenced scholarship, please refer to the applicable attached documents in the email.
Enrolling NEW Students in OSR Pre-K Classrooms
GOLD Checkpoint and Parent Conference Form
Pre-K teachers, auxiliary assistants, and aides are already cognizant that OSR guidelines dictate that parent conferences must be held after completing the final GOLD Checkpoint. However, the final GOLD Checkpoint occurs on May 23rd and the last day of school is May 24th. To alleviate the challenges the short window causes, the OSR specialists will allow classrooms to begin finalizing on May 6th IF teachers, auxiliary assistants, and/or aides have the required amount of documentation.
OSR Pre-K classrooms are strongly encouraged to use the GOLD Parent Conference form. According to Jenny Copeland, North Alabama Regional Director, the form is developmentally appropriate, tied directly to Alabama Developmental Standards for Preschool Children, and is customizable. Therefore, we strongly encourage the Title I Pre-K teachers to utilize the same parent conference form for continuity purposes. However, if a different parent form has already been utilized OR parent conferences have already been conducted (in Title I Pre-K classroom), applicable teachers should simply let Dr. Jensen or me know. The following links will be helpful if this is the first time the GOLD Conference form has been used in classrooms:
Calendar of Events
- April 11 - Pre-K Lesson Plans Due
- April 15 - Deadline for Sending Date and Time of Random Drawing
- April 15 - Pre-K Staff Development Day, STIPD#TRC1534
- April 28 - Title I Budget Amendment Deadline
- April 28 - OSR Development Budget Amendment Deadline
- April 28 - Deadline for Making Changes in ACIP (Due to Budget Amendments if applicable)
- April 29 - Deadline for Submitting Revised School-Parent Compacts
- April 29 - Deadline for Submitting Revised Parent Involvement Plan (if applicable)
- May 3 - Hazel Green Elem. School Reflection Projection, 8:30 - 11:30
- May 3 - Walnut Grove Elem. School Reflection Projection, 12:30 - 3:30
- May 5 - New Market Elem. School Reflection Projection, 12:30 - 3:30
- May 5 - Madison Co. Elem. School Reflection Projection, 8:30 - 11:30
- May 6 - Sprouting for Success: North Alabama Infant/Toddle/Preschool Conference, UAH
- May 10 - Madison Cross Roads Elem. School Reflection Projection, 8:30 - 11:30
- May 10 - Sparkman Middle School Reflection Projection, 12:30 - 3:30
- May 11 - Title I District Parent Committee Meeting @ TRC, 9:00 - 11:30
- May 11 - Federal Programs Advisory Committee @ TRC, 12:30 - 2:30
- May 12 - New Hope Elem. School Reflection Projection, 8:30 - 11:30
- May 12 - Owens Cross Roads Elem. School Reflection Projection, 12:30 - 3:30
- May 17 - Classroom Summary Waterford Reports Due (Pre-K teachers)
- May 23 - Teaching Strategies GOLD Checkpoint Deadline
- May 24 - GOLD Individual Child Reports Sent Home to Parents (Pre-K teachers)
- July 27 - Alabama Early Childhood Conference, Albertville, AL
Important GOLD Reminders
Kudos are given to Pre-K teachers, auxiliary assistants, and aides for utilizing videos, notes, On-the-Spot Observations Recording Tool, and/or photos to document daily student performance in Teaching Strategies GOLD. As future documentation continues, the Pre-K collaboration team should be cognizant of several reminders:
- Collecting 2 pieces of documentation daily, per teacher/auxiliary assistant/aide is a MINIMUM requirement. Please make sure there is adherence to this guideline. It is feasible and acceptable to collect more each day. Of course, there may be days when it is not possible to document for a variety of reasons.
- Don't forget to use the GOLD Dimension Charts to plan lessons purposefully. For instance, if a student has 4 pieces of documentation in one objective (perhaps Literacy 15a) and 0 pieces of documentation in other Literacy objectives, this is an indication that a student's growth is not being considered when lesson plans are being developed. There will be further discussion regarding usage of the referenced charts.
- The number of entries for both teacher and auxiliary assistant/aide should be comparable. On any given day one might have more to enter than the other but generally teachers should have more documentation. We would not want to see either teacher having twice the number of entries of the other.
- The best documentation comes from collaboration, purposeful planning, and valuing the quality of documentation over the number of entries.
- Focus should include all Areas, including Science and Technology, Social Studies, and the Arts (exclude Spanish Language, Spanish Literacy, and English Language Acquisition).
- There should be evidence of documentation to support the level assigned to each child based on your observation.
- Each documentation should focus on 3-5 objectives or dimensions for the group of children or individual child observed.
Alabama Early Childhood Conference
The 8th Annual Alabama Early Childhood Conference will be held on July 27, 2016 between the hours of 7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. The event will be hosted by Big Spring Lake Kindergarten School in Albertville, Alabama. This is an easy and affordable way for Pre-K - 2 faculty and staff members to receive high quality professional development. Registration forms can be found at www.neaecc.weebly.com.
Sonya's Corner
Resource 1 - Spring Activities and PreKinders: Earth Day Songs - This link is a great visual or prop to use with the song and could be moved to the music area for more fun! Another great activity can be found at this website.
Resource 2 - The 'Open Ended Questions' attachment would be great to laminate and post around the classroom for a visual reminder throughout the day, especially during read alouds and when you are interacting and playing with the children during Free Choice Centers.
Resource 3 - A picture of a computer program that a teacher in another school system uses to introduce a new word to the children each day is also attached. Sonya believes this will be a wonderful idea to develop vocabulary and language skills.
Resource 4 - Great links to ideas for WEATHER and weather in dramatic play. This could also be used as a part of the morning routine with your weather helper (i.e. Giving a weather report using the map or props and symbols for weather):
Resource 5 - Here are two science experiences your kids will love, but they're also super easy to do and jam-packed full of opportunities for learning. If you've ever grown beanstalks with your kids you know it's something they will never forget; the excitement and anticipation are palpable!
- READ How to Grow a Beanstalk NOW OR PIN for LATER Watching grass grow is certainly nothing like working with little kids! But kids do love to watch grass grow- go figure!