Brooklyn Park Post
Week of October 28th
Week-at-a-Glance
Rigorous Instruction, Enriching Experiences, Positive Relationship, No Exceptions..
Walk Through Focus this Week: Math
Monday 10/28: Sportswear
- Team Rally @ 8:10 am
- Laurie and Kim out all day
- Artist in Residence in 4th Grade
- Norma out all day
- Regional Superintendent Visit @ 1:00 ( Kate Gilbert)
Tuesday 10/22: Special Ed Meetings
PLC-Arts Integration 101
Rodney and Karyn out all day
Artist in Residence in 4th Grade
Library visits Pre-K
Norma out all day
Wednesday 10/30:
Norma out all day
4th Grade Reading Assessment @ 9:00
Artist in Residence in 4th Grade
Collaborative planning: Intermediate Math and Primary Reading
3rd Grade @ BSO
Karyn out pm
Thursday 10/31: Halloween Parade
- CDM MTG @ 7:40 am
- Artist in Residence in 4th Grade
- Norma out all day
- Halloween parade 9:30-10:15- Follow the 2 hour delayed opening for Cultural Arts
Friday 11/01: Sports Day
- Leadership Meeting @ 7:30 am - Resource only
- Norma out all day
- Karyn out am
- Artist in Residence in 4th Grade
Brooklyn Park will be Bully Free
Halloween Dance
The Importance of Community- thank you PTA
De-escalation Strategies
Math Updates:
We saw some great Number Sense activities in the classrooms this week! They are short but powerful and help students understand how numbers work! We want to create flexible mathematical thinkers so continue kicking off your math lessons with them.
Number Sense Data:
Classrooms visited: 10
Students seated in a designated area: 9
Hand Signals used (for Number Talks): 5
Collaboration between students: 8
Risk free/all answers excepted: 10
Teachers repeat and clarify answers: 10
Student Strategies shared: 10
Appropriate wait time: 8
5-10 minutes in length: 10
The data shows that as a building, we are delivering number sense activities effectively! Students feel safe to take a risk and know they can lean over to a partner for help if they needed! Number talks incorporate hand signals ( I agree, I disagree. I have 1 answer, etc.) but can certainly be used with number sense activities too! Our PreK students were using them! We will look at how to choose, sequence and share student strategies that aligns with the CRA model in collaborative planning!
District Assessments for grades 2-5 will be given next week. Don't forget about the reviews that are in the curriculum for you to use with your students. Keep in mind when to use them so you have time to reteach if needed! Intermediate teachers will have math collaborative planning on October 30th! Thank you for working so hard to create a classroom of problem solvers!
Reading Updates:
During Collaborative Planning, intermediate teachers had an opportunity to meet with Anna Harding from the Office of Accountability to review and analyze data in Performance Matters. They looked at trends and compared F&P levels to the Quarterly assessments. They also looked closely at who our gap students are, and briefly discussed what the next steps will be to meet the needs of these students.
Focus-Resource team will be supporting teachers in the classrooms.
Social & Emotional Updates:
Unity Day was a success! Thank you to Casey and team for all your planning. The students enjoyed putting their thumb prints on the white pumpkin, creating a pumpkin for the pumpkin patch, the orange smiley stickers, and all the fabulous classroom lessons. Hope the teachers enjoyed their orange juice and orange decorated donuts! It was great seeing the entire community join together wearing orange to help fight bullying!
From the Principal's Desk
Halloween at BPES
Halloween has been a special holiday to the BPES Community. Many community members attend who have never had a child attend BPES and some are alumni of the school. Please see below:
1. I strongly encourage all staff members to dress-up and enjoy the day. I ordered my Batman costume and I am looking forward to having fun with the students.
2. Halloween is a regular instructional day, there are no parties. Please inform your parents via Dojo and encourage them to support our upcoming Penny Wars for Chromebooks instead of snacks and cupcakes. Additionally, parents can donate pencils, stickers or classroom supplies.
3. Students come to school in their costume. Parents will not be able to interrupt instruction for make-up or other costume changes.
4. We will use the Early Dismissal Schedule for C/A to support the Parade.
5. Expect the kids to "be active". Plan accordingly..
Halloween Parade
The Halloween Parade will start at 9:00am. Students will walk down the recess hallway and walk outside the door. Students will walk two loops around the parking lot. Students exit the recess door and enter the cafeteria door. The parade lasts about 20 minutes. Susan will have music playing.
Instructional Notes and Highlights
- As we talk about Equity, we have a Computer Lab that is not being used. I taught in East, West and South Baltimore with none of the schools had access to computers or technology. We have a computer lab that needs to be used to prepare our students for middle school and beyond. I have some suggestions:
- Use the Computer Lab for Guided Reading.. I saw Nauman teach a Jacob's Ladder Lesson with students researching on the computer.
- Use the Computer Lab for final Writing Drafts or Math Instruction. The Leadership Team will discuss next week at Leadership. We are also open to ordering additional materials to make the Computer Lab more instructional friendly. Please email me ideas, we can't close the gap without each other.
Information about November 8th- Veterans Day
Thank you for your service day here at BPE on Friday 11-8-19 from 9-10 we will be joined by Veterans, Police officers and Firefighters to enjoy our gratitude, coffee and donuts. During the visit, students and visitors will be making greeting cards for the military troops who will be overseas and not at home for the holidays! Students will wear red, white and blue.
Information about ELL
As of November 11 (2nd MP):
+Claudia will take over instruction for all grades. She will be here Monday-Thursday.
+Nannette is NOT retiring (yet), but will continue in the new position of mentoring recently hired ESOL teachers. In that role, she may frequently be seen here on Fridays, in that BPE will be her base (only on that day), when she is not roaming the county, helping new teachers.
On a related note, just a reminder that ESOL teachers do have their own curriculum. As much as we'd love to have Claudia push in to help support in the classroom, she will soon be providing mandated instruction for nearly 60 students; so her push-in options will be very limited.
Staff Shout Outs
- Our TAs for subbing for another week. I appreciate you
- Special Education for supporting
- Ms. Smith, and Alvarado for their observations
- Nauman for leading the Essential 55
- Leadership/Resource Team for leading Friday's meeting
- Teachers and staff who attended the Halloween Dance
- Aileen for staying with two students after school
- Norma and Dianna for our Unity decorations