Mosaica Online Happenings
April 29 - May 3 2013
Upcoming Dates to Remember
- Friday, May 10th: CO student Field Trip to Elitch's Amusement Park
- Friday, May 10th: Advisement Meeting @ 2pm Eastern in Julie's office
- May 13th-23rd: Q4 Performance Series Benchmark Testing
- Thursday, May 30th: Parent Ed Meeting @ 8:30pm Eastern in Julie's office
- **Beginning August 28th, all adjunct teachers must submit invoices to Brenda McCullers on the 14th and 28th of the month**
Upcoming Quarter 4 Final Performance Ed Testing!
K-2nd grade:
- Monday May 13: Reading Foundations (K-1), Reading (2nd grade)
- Tuesday May 14: Math
- Wednesday May 15: Language Arts (2nd grade only)
- Thursday May 16: Science (2nd grade only)
- Friday May 17: makeups
3-10th grade:
- Monday May 20: Reading & Math
- Tuesday May 21: Language Arts & Science
- Wednesday May 22: makeup
- Thursday May 23: makeup
Staff Spotlight- Hadar Goldberg
I was born in Israel and although I moved to the States at age 3 I always kept a very strong connection to my Israeli roots, spending all of my summers with my grandparents there growing up. I grew up in South Florida and went on to college at Florida State University and studied Anthropology and Women’s Studies. Not so surprisingly, I found myself unemployed after college and had to get a little creative in my career path. After a short time in law enforcement as a Fish and Wildlife Officer, I began working at a boy’s detention center in Central Florida. It was here that I recognized that my true passion was working with children. I pursued my teaching certificate and eventually moved into administration all at the middle school level. After my son was born, I had a difficult time returning to a brick and mortar setting and was lucky enough to find an opportunity with Mosaica. I worked for a couple of years jointly in Design Team and Online and this year I am a full time online instructor. I have two beautiful babies, Daniel (4) and Maya (16 months) and a great husband that has been very supportive of all my crazy endeavors throughout the years. I feel exceedingly lucky for the gifts that life has given me.
Thank you Hadar for being an amazing teacher and we look forward to having you as an Advisor also:)
Mercury Sunshine!
*Please keep Elaine Gaughf-Smith in your thoughts-She is currently undergoing chemotherapy - you can do it Elaine!
*As always, please keep Barbara Noel-Williams in your thoughts- she is a WARRIOR in her fight against cancer!!!!
Let me know of any concerns or celebrations within our Mercury family!
Club Corner
Art Club has just finished a big week of crafting! Craft and Art are close relatives though not often considered the same thing. Usually, crafts are thought of as beautiful things a person creates, which also have a specific purpose. A good example of a craft is a ceramic mug. A mug can be painted and sculpted beautifully, but in the end it's most important job is to hold your hot cocoa! This week our craft was to design a bird feeder out of a milk carton. Art Club members Eve and Sarai Scolari created wonderful bird houses that the birds are sure to love!
This week we feature the bird house created by Sarai!!!
TEACHER TIP OF THE WEEK!
Human beings put more weight on negative information. Wise teachers balance every piece of corrective feedback with ten positives.
Love and Logic ® Teacher-isms by Jim Fay and Charles Fay
What Is Going On In Other Mercury Locations?
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Mexico City
Alaska
Muskegon Heights, Michigan
Hyderabad, India
Ohio
You will receive updates here that will pertain to our students in any of these locations!
- be sure to consult the various calendars in D2L for these locations
Teachers PLEASE be sure you are keeping your D2L grade book updated. Whenever a program needs grades for a progress report, we export the D2L grade book current average. Thank you!
Upcoming Events/Holidays:
Puerto Vallarta:
- May 1st and 6th: Mexican Holiday
- June 13-18th: Final Exams
Mexico City
- May 1st: Mexican Holiday
- May 10th: Mother's Day Holiday
- June 1st: Seniors Graduate
- June 13th: Last Day of School
Muskegon Heights
- May 10th: 1/2 day vacation
- May 27th: Memorial Day Holiday
- June 25th: Last Day of School
India
- May 1 - National Holiday
- June 20 - last day of school
Data Discussion...
1. Log in to Scantron Performance Series (http://www.edperformance.com
(See IMAGE Scantron login BELOW)
1. Access your student's individual record, and click on the Performance Testing tab
2. Select Suggested Learning Objectives from the left-hand column
From here you can choose the subject areas and sub-categories you'd like to view, and then the number of objectives to be included in the report. Taking time to analyze gaps now will ensure your students are successful on their final assessment. Please let Carrie Polk (cpolk@mosaicaeducation.com) know if you have any questions!
CCSS:
As we become more familiar with the Anchor Standards within each content area for the Common Core State Standards, let's take a peek at just how student skill expectations progress over time. This is an example from the K-2 Arizona Reading Standards for ELA- Informational Text. We'll focus on the Anchor Standard of Key Ideas and Details.
(SEE standards progression sample IMAGE BELOW)
If we carefully read the description of the student skills as they progress through Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, we should notice that as the teacher support, or scaffolding, decreases, the complexity of the text increases. Additionally, how students interact with the text increases in regards to their depth of understanding and interaction with the content. So, the CCSS are not so different in what students are expected to learn, but HOW students interact with their learning materials changes dramatically.
Source: Arizona's Common Core Standards- Educator Toolbox
http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/educatortoolbox/
Next week we'll take a look at the Anchor Standards for Mathematics.
State Testing....
California:
Corona April 22-24
Wildomar April 29 – May 3
La Mesa May 6 - 8
**Note that some CA testing will take place outside of these dates, dependent upon student location
As we begin to prepare for the end of the school year!
See below for final exam dates for Middle School and High School. ALL students will take exams on the dates below unless prior approval has been given to take them early or be exempt.
California:
Last day of school: June 18
Math and World Languages – Exams on Thursday, June 13
Language Arts and Science – Exams on Friday, June 14
Paragon/SS and Electives – Exams on Monday, June 17
Make up Finals – Tuesday, June 18
Arizona and Colorado:
Last day of school: June 21
Math and World Languages – Exams on Tuesday, June 18
Language Arts and Science – Exams on Wednesday, June 19
Paragon/SS and Electives – Exams on Thursday, June 20
Make up Finals – Friday, June 21
Online Paragon Nights!
Tuesday June 11, 2013 @ 8:30 p.m. Eastern
The event will be facilitated by Hadar Goldberg & Gabby Bray!
And last but not least..... Your joke of the week
If there are ten cats in a boat and one jumps out, how many are left?
None, they were all copycats!