Cat Tracks
Spring Shadows Elementary Wildcats Staff Newsletter
September 16-22, 2018
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month September 15-October 15! How will you educate?
Our Vision
Our Mission
Core Beliefs
- Each student has unique intellectual, emotional, social, and physical qualities.
- We embrace a child’s individual values, interests, and personalities.
- Parents are confident in their child’s social and intellectual educational growth.
- Educators lead their craft by preparing learners in our fast changing world
Ms.Guykens winner of the Landon Mini Grant! Congrats!
Ms. Dortch -Open House
Ms. Carrabba- Open House
Mr. Cabrera- Unstoppable!
Principal's Message
Dear Wildcats,
Wow! What a powerful learning week we experienced last week with both our students, staff, and parents! I witnessed some powerful relationship building and home/school compacts being created during our open house. It's true- it does take a village!
As a community- we have declared our goal to improve on state accountability standards by one letter grade from 70 to 80. We know that it takes all of us to make that a reality. To be tightly supportive of your students' needs, the instructional leadership team will participate in weekly instructional rounds. Our first area of focus is that we are analyzing our content and language objectives.
An effective objective must have the following components:
- TEK related.
- It is data driven. It addresses what students most urgently need to learn as demonstrated by assessment and analysis of your weekly data.
- It is manageable and measurable. It calls out one piece from a bigger topic or skill set students need to master- yet small enough so that students can master it in one lesson, then be able to move on to another part the next day. This will allow a clear way for the teacher to measure whether scholars have learned the objective. (Get Better Faster, Bambrick-Santoyo, 2016.)
For those of you in K-2nd TCRWP, your objectives have been written for you by the Humanities department- so that is a big support and help.
Naturally, writing the objectives is just one step. The next step is to review it with your students in the language of instruction and that they know and have clear expectations of what is considered developing, proficient, or exemplar products.
We will go deeper into this learning during vertical meetings on Wednesday. In the meantime, continue to have an open mind, heart, and learner's journey spirit as we move towards instructional greatness!
Wildcat Love and respect,
Rachel Martinez
ReDesign Team Kicks Off!
Chick-Fil-A Partnership!
TCRWP in action!
Calendar
3rd Grade Extended Planning (Group 4)
Specials Group 1
- Constitution Day
- Check for Content & Language Objectives
- 7:30-4:00 Ann off Campus
- 8:00-12:00 Cindy off Campus
- 8:30-10:00 ILT Meeting
- 2:45-3:45 Team Leader Huddle
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
PLC Thursdsay Schedule (Group 4): All Teams meet in Conference room with Jennifer Hickey (PLC-Training)
- Rachel off campus @ Community Superintendent Principal Mtg.
- Afterschool Begins
- 12:00-4:00 Cindy Off Campus
- 2:45-3:15 1st Grade Swim Meeting
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
5th Grade Extended Planning (Group 1)
Specials Group 3
- 6:00 am First Run Progress Reports
- 2:45-4:00 Vertical Teams PLC
Thursday, September 20, 2018
4th Grade Extended Planning (Group 5)
Specials Group 2
- 12:00 Print Progress Reports
Friday, September 21, 2018
Kindergarten Extended Planning (Group 2)
Specials Group 5
- Spiral Day
- Progress Reports Go Home
Ms. Klauer- Packed House
Mr. Vargas informational Open House
Relationships are key with Ms. Shankar
Shout Outs
- Special Shout out to 3rd Grade for completing MAP, DRA testing & Input, and managing to juggle changes in curriculum! Way to hustle team- you are truly Exemplar!
- Thank you Ann for bringing Author Kat Kronenberg to SSE & kicking off our Reading Rally! Our scholastic book fair was a big hit!
- Kudos to Elizabeth, Jakerian, Jasmine, and Herbert for their Chick-Fil-A representation at their grand opening event!
- Way to go April, Martha, 1st Grade during PLC, Arielle, Genevieve, Vivian, Krystal, Sarah, and Zetta for allowing us to start off with instructional rounds and learning in your classrooms! Your courageousness and openness to feedback drive our learner's journey spirit!
- Specials team is trying an outside of the box interdisciplinary time for students! They are in the process of iterating it to maximize on student learning! Way to go team!!
- Big shout out to every one of you for contributing to our Open House and making it a huge success.
Library News
Thanks for all your help and support last week! We had a lot going on in the library which could only be accomplished with all your help! Book Fair did pretty well -- more beanbags are coming!
This week is back to normal - EXCEPT I am off campus on MONDAY. Please do not send individual children to the library to exchange books. I will be on campus from 6:30- 7:30 am - I will open up the computers and then leave computer & Destiny login information if the computers go to sleep or error out. I know some of your children have read all their books and you want to bring them to exchange. Its your library - just remind them of the same library rules as when I am there. : )
Soaring People - Needed! I would love to have all the Soaring people for our Reading Incentives by the end of this week. Ms Castaneda has her class person done!! Reminder be sure you have Your Name and Your Grade Level on the person.
Heads up.. I will be exchanging Tuesday class Sept 25th to Monday Sept 24th due to an change in my Monday meeting. This will only involve teachers who come on Tuesdays.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks again for your support!
Ann : )
Spring Shadows Elementary
Email: rachel.martinez@springbranchisd.com
Website: https://cms.springbranchisd.com/sse2/
Location: 9725 Kempwood Drive, Houston, TX, United States
Phone: (713) 251-7100
Twitter: @twitter_rachelmartinez4