Waterville Primary School
Sharing Great News with our AWesome Staff!
Events for the Week of March 21st-March 25th
Pi Day!
Pi Day Champion memorized 29 digits of Pi!!
Third Grade Rocks the School House!
Formative Assessment Techniques
Formative Assessment Strategies for:
There are so many amazing and free tech resources that allow us to consistently formatively assess our students throughout the natural flow of the lesson in order to make real time adjustments. Below are 3 more that I have had experience with and recommend or have just found and am anxious to share their potential with all of you! Please give them a try and let me know how they go! (resources this week found at: http://www.edutechchick.com/)
StoryboardThat– by using the cartoon creations of StoryBoardThat, students can illustrate their knowledge of a specific event, figure, or process. The best part is students can combine pictures and narrative to tell a story. If students can explain it to another person, they truly have grasped the concept. Save yourself some time and check outStoryBoardThat’s extensive teacher resources. THIS IS SOOOOO COOL!!!!! Limitless possibilities for this!! http://www.storyboardthat.com/
Creately: – this powerful tool allows students to create up to 5 diagrams for free. Representing knowledge in a different way than it was presented requires critical thinking skills, which enhances student understanding. Diagram options include flowcharts, diagrams, and infographics. Think about exploring this with possible options for students to use to demonstrate learning and understanding of content/topics with choice!
Buncee: this tool is awesome for teachers and students to create multimedia products. No longer do you have to use a static worksheet, Buncee really makes products come to life. See the examples here for some inspiration and ideas on how to use it in your classroom.
If you use any of these strategies, please share with me how it went! Student work samples are also welcomed! Thank you for your commitment to professional growth!
Can we have live entertainment everyday?!
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Ballroom dancing in the cafeteria!
Dates to Remember
Monday, March 21st-24th: Right To Read Week Begins!
Monday, March 21st: IS Meeting @ 8am
Tuesday, March 22nd: Dayna Ryan OTES obs @ 10:30am
Thursday, March 24th: RTI Day (schedule was emailed)
Friday, March 25th-Sunday, April 3rd: Spring Break
Monday, April 4th: Welcome back to School!
Monday, April 4th: Grades can be viewed by Parents, Progress Reports sent home
Monday, April 4th: Spring Benchmarking with STAR and SLO assessments begin
Friday, April 15th: Final STAR SGP and SLO data due to Jamie at end of day
General Information
*Grades can be viewed on April 4th. Please send Quarterly RIMP reports and Progress Reports (IEPs) home with students on Monday, April 4th, as well. Thank you!
*Our supply of white paper is quickly dwindling! Please do not make copies for next school year. Let's conserve what we have and make it to the end of the school year first with what we have.
*Comment period is now open to submit feedback for revisions to ODE regarding the Math and ELA learning standards:
*Save the date........Monday, June 6th!
CREATE! was conceived to provide educators with an opportunity to explore and discover real-world,
standards-based lessons that incorporate creativity, technology and 21st century skills.
Lessons containing these characteristics result in engaging, inspiring, student-centered learning.
Let our presenters show you how they are leading the evolution of teaching and learning
in order to more effectively prepare our students for the 21st century and beyond.
We will let you know when the "Call for Presenters" opens and when registration opens.
Claire's Day Nominations
C.A.R.E. Award Nominations 2016
Claire’s Awards for Reading Excellence (C.A.R.E. Awards) were established in 2002 by the Claire’s Day, Inc. committee and its founders, Brad and Julie Rubini, in honor of their daughter, Claire Lynsey Rubini. Claire was an avid reader when she died of a misdiagnosed heart condition in July 2000. She was just 10 years old.
The C.A.R.E. Awards recognize students who demonstrate marked improvement in their reading skills over the course of a school year. The awards are given to students at one of several ceremonies at the annual Claire’s Day family book festival which will be held at the Maumee branch library on Saturday, May 21, 2016.
Schools may nominate one child from each class per grade level for grades K-8. To coordinate the nominations, the principal designates one building representative to serve as the school liaison to Claire’s Day, Inc. This liaison and the principal will announce the C.A.R.E. program to teachers and reading specialists, who submit their nominations to the school liaison. This process reduces duplicate nominations from each school.
Nominations are accepted at www.clairesday.org between 3/14/16 and 4/15/16. Most nominators report that they spend only 15 minutes completing the form. We will accept the first 800 nominations.
Two weeks prior to the family book festival, schools will receive a notice regarding the award recipients and the scheduled time for their students’ awards ceremony. Each school liaison is responsible for notifying the parents, students, school officials, and the teachers of the presentation time.
To make this a meaningful experience for the students, the C.A.R.E. certificates are presented in front of the audience of family and friends by Brad Rubini and a school representative. School officials, including board members and principals, are strongly encouraged to attend the ceremony.
Every child who receives a C.A.R.E. award also receives a certificate to select one free book written and/or illustrated by a participating Claire’s Day author or illustrator. This certificate must be used at the Claire’s Day family book festival.
Questions regarding the C.A.R.E. Award may be directed to
Diana Bush, Claire’s Day Chair, at 419-242-7323 or contact@clairesday.org
STAR and SLO Data
AIR Parent Meeting
Practicing with the student test samples
A great way to help their students prepare for the AIR test!
Phonics First Professional Development
The district will again be offering the week long training in the implementation of the Phonics First approach to reading instruction. Please let me know ASAP if you are interested in attending, pending the week of the training will work with your summer schedule.
I would highly recommend this training as it employs the Orton Gillingham principles of instruction that is multi-sensory, language based, sequential-yet flexible, and truly for all learners! The Phonics First approach will serve as a research based supplemental to what you may (or may not) already know and implement during your direct reading instruction time. PLEASE consider being a part of this training and then using it in your classroom each day. Thank you!
Sumdog
It's free to take part and there are prizes to be won!
Students can play online either at school or at home using the website or the app.
In order to join in the fun, teachers can enter their class here:http://www.sumdog.com/enter_contest
For any questions, contact info@sumdog.com
Updated OTES timeline
Formal OTES timeline:
First observation completed by 1/15/16
Second Observation completed by 3/25/16
SLO Scoring Template due to Jamie by 4/15/16
Final STAR testing for SGM due to Jamie by 4/15/16
Entire process completed by 5/1/16 (written report provided to teacher with results of evaluation)
Informal OTES timeline:
Staff only needing: Professional Growth Plan, Observation, and Meeting:
Observation and meeting completed by 2/26/16
SLO Schedule-UPDATED
SLOs:
Here is the timeline for SLOs this year...
11/9: SLOs Due to Building Principal: COMPLETED!
11/10: Elementary Committee Meets to Review SLOs: COMPLETED!
11/13: SLOs returned to teachers:COMPLETED!
11/18: SLO's needing revisions returned to Building Principal-COMPLETED!
11/20: Revised SLOs reviewed by committees-COMPLETED!
11/21: Revised SLOs returned to teachers-COMPLETED!
04/15/16: Final SLO growth template/results due to Jamie by end of day
AIR Testing:
Below are three links related to testing. The first is simply the log in for AIR. You may want to bookmark that as we will be using that frequently in the months to come.
The second is a link to the PDF of the test administrator user guide.
The third is an actual test administrator certification course. It is pretty good. AIR works basically the same as it did last year with some minor modifications.
Log In URL:
URL
User Guide
Test Administration Certification Course:
Certification Course