Cat Tracks
Spring Shadows Elementary Wildcats Staff Newsletter
August 5-9, 2019
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
Collaborative teaming for another great year of fantastic learning!
Principal's Message
Welcome back to another great year of student learning! I'm excited to share this journey with you. We are soon engaging in activities to ensure we are mastering our T-2-4 goals! Last week I was able to visit with all our new staff members, mentors/buddies, team leaders, instructional leadership, and staff working on labeling their books. It was truly great to see each of you! For those of you I will not see until August 12th, I can't wait to welcome you back.
As you know I will be at TCRWP Writing Institute in New York learning along with Noe and Priscilla. We will be excited to bring back and share our learning with you. You know we all are lead learners and as chief lead learner I'm modeling that we should always keep looking for opportunities to support our student learning. Our SSE community is very blessed in that your administrative team will both officially be TCRWP trained in Reading and Writing.
On that note, I want to include a literacy celebration that I want to share with you. This year the district chose a select set of schools to participate in TCRWP Affiliate School Training. We are one of five schools chosen this year. What does this mean for us? It means we get personalized training from TCRWP staff (from NY) that will give us 10 PD trainings this year; 5 for K-2 and 5 for 3rd-5th! What a celebration!
Other updates:
Enrollment: We had a robust registration start and we are currently at 639 students enrolled. That is an increase from our projected 580. Our Kinders are very healthy at 25 students in each class. No other classrooms are over capacity at this time.
Staffing: We are excited to share some organizational shifts. To better meet the needs for Response to Intervention (RtI), we have developed a team that will solely work with Tier 3 Interventions according to MAP data for Reading and Math. The team will be led by Katie Gentry (RtI Coordinator) and includes Vivian Urrutia and Hasiyet Keyim. Dr. Keyim will remain as a 5th grade teacher until our newest Wildcat team member Mr. David Nosrat signs his contract. Please join me in congratulating this new much needed team as they support our CIP and District Goals.
We currently have a library teacher vacancy! Our journey to hire 2 very highly qualified candidates fell through. To attain this position, a candidate must have a Master's Degree in Library Science. If you know of anyone, please let them know to apply and send me an email. We are anticipating in starting the year out with a retired substitute.
We also say adios to Bea Castillo. She is joining the Landrum Middle School family as a Lifeskills assistant. We wish her well on her new journey and much gratitude for taking care of us like only she did.
Please enjoy your weekend and see you very soon!
With love, respect, and admiration,
Rachel Martinez
Calendar
Monday, August 5th
- New Teacher’s will attend Content Day at Stratford High School.
- TCRWP Labeling Party from 10:00-2:00
- Building Open from 7:00-6:00
- Review (re) Design Powerpoint for Classroom Prep Action Items
Tuesday, August 6th
- 7:45-9:00 Potluck Breakfast (Provided by Office, ILT & Care Team) and Opening Activities
- 9:00-3:00 Teacher Workday- All teachers bring a check or cash for $25 for Sunshine Fees, this includes your T-Shirt purchase. $15 for Paraprofessionals.
- Lunch on your own
- Building Open from 7:00-6:00
Wednesday, August 7th
- 8:00-4:00 District Curriculum Day @ Stratford High School (or otherwise designated)
- Lunch on your own
- Take your computer
- Building Open from 7:00-6:00
Thursday, August 8th
- 7:30 Breakfast (Provided by Kinder & 1st Grade)
- 8:00-9:30 Essential Work of Teacher Teams (Gardner)
- 9:30-9:45 Break
- 9:45-11:00 ESL Supports with TCRWP (Yared Marquez)
- 11:00-12:00 Lunch on your own
- 12:00-3:30 Team Collaborative Planning (Language Arts)
- Building Open from 7:00-6:00
Friday, August 9th
- 7:30 Breakfast (Provided by 2nd & 3rd Grade)
- 8:00-9:30 K-2nd Math (Worley), 3rd-5th Science (Burken)
- 9:30-9:45 Break
- 9:45-11:15 K-2nd Science (Burken), 3rd-5th Math (Worley)
- 11:15-12:15 Lunch on your own
- 12:15-3:30 Team Collaborative Planning (Math & Science)
- Building Open from 7:00-6:00
Saturday, August 10th
- Building Open from 7:00 – 5:00
Preparing for Learning & Welcoming our Students
Please see the following:
- Bulletin Board Assignments (They have changed. If you need a key to the bulletin boards, get with Ms. Trini Belmontes, head custodian.)
- (re)Design Your Space Powerpoint- There are some new considerations as you plan for your room and hallways. You can access it here: (re) Design Your Space . Make sure to review it because there are action items you must complete. Please download and click on presentation style so you may watch the embedded videos.
Shout Outs
Level Up Presenters!
Bilingual Institute
New Staff Tour
Region 4 Math Academy
Level Up Peeps!
All smiles at Level Up
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