I hope everyone had a great weekend! This afternoon, you should have received an email/robocall via Infinite Campus with your selection from the learning choice survey that was sent out prior to winter break for your child that attends Talley Street. Due to the large number of families requesting to return in-person, only students whose families made this choice will return on the 19th. Students whose families chose “return to in-person flex” will return to the building when there are openings or the district increases the maximum class size for in-person learning.

By tomorrow morning, Talley’s teachers will receive their new rosters. On Wednesday, families can expect a welcome email from the teachers. Additional information will be forthcoming. Thank you so much for your patience as we have worked through this process.

Billy

Welcome to 2021 CSD! Please don't forget to place your pre-order for NEXT week's meals using this link: https://forms.gle/erhEyRZmomc4Rjxa8

Please note:

• Our last day of bus meal delivery will be next week on Friday 1/15/21. We will send extra food home on Friday 1/15 to cover the need for meals on Tuesday 1/19. We would like to thank CSD Transportation for their assistance in feeding #OurKids this past fall.
• For this week: Meal pick-ups will be offered at our 3 CSD TakeOutSpot locations (DHS, Talley St., & F.AVE) on Monday 1/11, Wednesday 1/13, and Friday 1/15. Bus delivery will occur on those same 3 days (MWF). The time frame will remain 10:30 AM -12:30 PM.

Reminders:

• We will no longer be using our pre-order system starting on Monday, January 19 so this week will be the last week for pre-orders for meals. As K-5 students return in-person instruction, we will continue to offer meal pick-ups for our virtual learners at our three CSD TakeOutSpot locations (DHS, Talley St., & F.AVE) on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 10:30 AM-12:30 pm. Students who are learning in our CSD buildings will be offered daily take-home meals as they exit their school. We encourage all students to take their meals, as it helps support our school nutrition program.
• All meals will be FREE until the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

Please check out our CSD webpage (https://www.csdecatur.net/nutrition) and our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CSDschoolnutrition) as we continue to finalize our plans for January 19th and on.

Run With The Dogs 5K race will take place virtually from January 23-31, 2021. The 5K is an annual fundraiser of the Decatur Bulldogs Boosters, which supports the athletic programs at Decatur High School and Renfroe Middle School in Decatur, GA. You can register at http://www.rwtd5k.com. Runners who register by January 11 will receive their race t-shirt by January 23 and be entered into a special prize drawing. The Decatur Bulldog Boosters raise money annually to meet the needs of student athletes, including uniforms and equipment. These funds are used to support 685 student athletes on all 25 teams representing 14 sports at Decatur High and Renfroe Middle Schools. Decatur Bulldog Boosters needs your support now more than ever. We need as many RWTD5K participants as possible! http://www.rwtd5k.com

As you know, we are using a reading and mathematics program called i-Ready. It is time for our second round of i-Ready Diagnostic tests. Please read below for more information. The diagnostic tests will begin next week.

What is i-Ready?

i-Ready is an online program that will help us determine your child’s strengths and areas for growth, personalize their learning, and monitor their progress throughout the school year. i-Ready allows us to meet your child where they are and provides us with data to inform instruction.

The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier ones. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning.

i-Ready Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual strengths and areas for growth. These lessons are interactive and provide strategic supports to keep your child engaged as they learn.

Winter i-Ready Diagnostic Administration

Starting next week, we will be administering this assessment virtually. It is important that you partner with us to ensure that students have a successful experience. Though students are assessing at home, it is important that they do not receive help in answering questions on the assessment. If help is received, then the learning path for students will not match their needs and will engage them in material that is not appropriate for where they are as learners. This link, Supporting Administration of iReady at Home, provides a checklist to prepare for the assessment. Please review the family video from the checklist.

To help prepare your child for the i-Ready Diagnostic, encourage him or her to:

• Get a good night’s sleep and eat a full breakfast the day of the assessment.

• Try their best on each question and try not to rush.

• Try not to worry about questions to which they do not know the answers—remind them that it is expected that they will only get about half of the questions correct.

• Encourage the use of paper and pencil to show work for math questions

Thank you for your continued support and for being a partner in your child’s learning! We look forward to continue sharing i-Ready information with you throughout the year. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jennie Muhlhausen, our instructional coach at jmuhlhausen@csdecatur.net. You can also learn more about i-Ready by visiting i-ReadyCentral.com/FamilyCenter.

Because students are returning to school next week, the Talley Media Center is making some changes to better ensure that books can get into our students’ hands. Please see the updates below, and contact Mrs. Long (along@csdecatur.net) with any questions.

• In-person students will be placing holds and getting book deliveries while they are at school. Students will have a library orientation once they return to school, and parents will receive more information about book checkout from their child’s homeroom teacher’s newsletter on January 22.

• Virtual students will still have the option to pick up holds placed through the media center.

• HOURS ARE CHANGING! Beginning next week (1/22/21), the book pickup hours will be Wednesdays from 11:45 AM-2:45 PM.

• If your child is virtual and interested in picking up books from Talley, please fill out this form.

• When you arrive for pickup, there will be a bin for returns.

• Pickups will be on a cart and labeled with your child’s name.

• Holds must be placed by Tuesday at noon in order to pick them up on Wednesday.

• Check to make sure your books are ready for pickup before you come by following these directions!

• All books will be placed on a three day quarantine before returning to circulation (as recommended by research from the OCLC’s REALM Project) to ensure safety of use.

Talley Street Upper Elementary School

SLT Regular Meeting

Thursday, January 14, 2021

6:00-7:30

https://meet.google.com/inq-trvy-zuo

A Journey of Excellence: The Extraordinary Life of President Jimmy Carter

Students are invited to submit original essays, poems, and artwork related to the theme. For more information and submission requirements, click here.

We're now on Amazon Smile! Log into www.smile.amazon.com and log into your Amazon

account, then select Talley Street Upper Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, then save and the PTO will start getting quarterly deposits!

One important tip - you MUST be logged in via smile.amazon.com while shopping for us to

receive any funds.

Kroger Community Rewards

We are set up to receive funds from Kroger. From your account screens, select Community

Rewards and search for “Talley Street Upper Elementary School PTO." Select it and then you

should be all set. Every time you use your Kroger card, the PTO will benefit!

Box Tops

Box Tops have gone digital! Download the app, Box Tops for Education. Enter your

information, select Talley St., scan receipts and done! We will no longer be collecting paper box

tops. If you have any issues using the app, you can submit (via the app) the item not being

recognized on your receipt for credit.

Publix Partners

Looking for an easy way to support Talley Street PTO?

Who knew Passive Fundraising could be SO easy!! You don' need the key chain card anymore.

Follow the easy instructions on the link:

http://www.corporate.publix.com/community/corporate-campaigns/publix-partners

We’re set up as: Talley Street Upper Elementary School – Decatur, GA

www.csdecatur.net/opening - a repository for all documents, announcements, and communications about how CSD is handling the 2020-2021 school year.

www.csdecatur.net/nutrition - How to order meals

www.csdecatur.net/transportation
www.csdecatur.net/bustracker - How to sign up for the new Predictable Ryde Bus tracking app used for meal delivery, soon for the Fly-brary, mobile book delivery and when in-person learning resumes to track students on their buses
https://virtual.csdecatur.net/tech-help (how parents and staff can put in a tech support request)

https://virtual.csdecatur.net/students - classroom login information

https://virtual.csdecatur.net/parents - Virtual Learning Handbooks