September 6, 2020 Principal Message
Jeffreys Grove Magnet Elementary
Parent Support
We want to thank parents for supporting the tireless work of our staff. Please offer grace to your child's teacher and other school personnel. Educating our children continues to be our number one priority and mission as a school and district.
Thank you to all parents for supporting your child(ren) and teachers as they navigate this new school year, new learning environments and new expectations. Thank you also for your flexibility as we continue to work through adjustments that the beginning of the 2020-21 school year will bring us.
As we enter the fourth week of school, we would like to share a few pieces of advice that you may find helpful. If you haven't done so already, we would encourage you to try to create a space for your child that allows them to focus with limited distractions during synchronous (live) instruction and while working to complete asynchronous (non-live) assignments.
We know this is no small feat and we appreciate that you've taken the time to set up learning spaces, establish strong routines and be there for your child(ren) so that they are set up for success.
We are going to encourage you to support your child with learning, while still allowing them to engage in productive struggle. We know nobody wants to see their child struggle but allowing for struggle also allows for significant learning to take place. We encourage you to strike a balance of letting your child do the work and struggle through it while accessing the teacher for support. We are not saying that you cannot help your child, we're simply asking you to allow your child to access his/her teacher for the support they are trained to provide. We want your child to ask you questions and we want you to support them, but we also need them to recognize that their first line of support should be the teacher. If we were in the building, they would have to rely on their teacher.
This upcoming week, our teachers will continue the second week of live instruction in all academic subject areas. They will move from reviewing to introducing new content and it will be important for teachers to see what your child can do, not what you and your child can do. Teachers are skilled at making observations and analyzing student work products to determine where students need support and enrichment. This data is valuable as they formulate student groups and plans to provide differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all learners. If parents are doing work or providing a large amount of support to help students complete work, this provides the teacher inaccurate data regarding the skill level of your child. Therefore, the teacher may not know how much support your child may need.
Parents, thank you for recognizing that productive struggle is the first step toward learning.
Adapting to the School Day
We also know that you understand your child the best and what they can tolerate. During this time, please prioritize what works best for your family. We feel that developing the whole child is important (academics along with the arts and PE) but we understand if you need to alter the schedule for your child to work up to the full day.
We would ask that you prioritize the live times to make sure your child gets core content in Math, Science, Social Studies and ELA. If they are able to continue and join a specials class that is great, but if they cannot continue and need a break, then that is okay.
If your child needs more time to submit independent assignments, we encourage you to communicate with your child's teacher about this. We are all working together to figure out the best fit for our students.
Istation Updates
This year your child is reading in all areas of our school curriculum. Because we understand that reading is a key to success in school, we will monitor your child’s progress using Istation’s Indicators of Progress (ISIP™) Early Reading assessment.
We will be using the Istation program because ISIP Early Reading:
• measures the skills that are most predictive of future reading success
• measures progress in each area in a manner that is appropriate to the domain
• provides a comprehensive snapshot of reading ability
• engages the student with animated, game-like activities
ISIP Early Reading is a computer-adaptive assessment. Your child receives items based on his or her individual ability. Every item presented is based on the response to the previous item.
The ISIP Reading assessments immediately deliver reports to teachers that show your child’s reading progress and identify instructional needs. With the information from these reports, your child will receive individualized instruction to target those areas for improvement.
Istation helps to identify student ability in these key areas:
• Phonological and Phonemic Awareness (rhyme; initial, middle and final sounds;
segmenting and blending sounds)
• Phonics (letter knowledge, alphabetic decoding, spelling) • Vocabulary (academic
words in the language)
• Comprehension (listening/language comprehension, reading comprehension)
• Fluency (accuracy and rate, monitoring for comprehension)
In addition, at the conclusion of each reading assessment period, your child’s teacher will communicate successes during that period.
Tools to help you at home:
Here is a video that shows you how students login into istation. Spanish version
*Remember students should always be in their own rapididentity (portal).
This link will also show you how to prep for using istation independently at home.
Istation ISIP at Home Remote Guidance English for Parents
Istation ISIP at Home Remote Guidance Spanish for Parents
With our commitment and your help, we truly believe that your child will reach his or her full reading potential!
There is also a Parent Portal that parents or guardians may use to view and track their child’s progress throughout the remaining of the year. In addition, the Parent Portal includes skill-building lessons and printable materials that can be shared and performed together with your child at home. This information will be shared with you once we have completed the first round of assessing.
Counselor's Corner
Hello JGE Community,
Happy September!
I'm having a great time visiting classes during their morning meetings and seeing all of our Eagles!
Want to know what I've been talking about during the morning meetings or want to know more about the Positivity Project (P2)?
Click on the newsletter link below for more info!
Attendance
Single Subject Acceleration - SSA
Contact Information
Technology Distribution Update
Technology Support for Families
Our district is committed to supporting students and parents with all their technology needs to ensure they can make the most of learning in school and at home.
The resources on this site show students how to log in to their Wake IDs and student email, how to set up and use Chromebooks and Internet hotspots, how to connect to WiFi, how to use learning systems such as Google Classroom and Canvas, and much more.
We will continue to add new resources and updates. Don't see something you need? Let us know!
School Information
Website: wcpss.net/jeffreysgrovees
Location: 6119 Creedmoor Road, Raleigh, NC 27612, USA
Phone: (919) 881-4910
Twitter: @JeffreysGroveES