MMM
4/22/19
Jae Goodwin (19th)
Lissa McKinnon (20th)
Brett Berkman (23rd)
Donna Cebula (24th)
Wendy Hagarty (27th)
I hope that you were able to spend some time with your family and friends and that you are ready for the final few weeks of the school year, which will fly by. This last part of the year is always packed with fun spring events, field trips, and, yes, testing!!
MCAS Updates
This week we will begin MCAS testing. Thank you for all of the hard work that has gone into preparing our students for this.
Grades 3 and 4 will test on Monday and Tuesday. Grade 5 will test on Wednesday and Friday. With 2 grades testing at once, and the 5th grade group being large, we are using offices and rooms all over the building to accommodate testing. Please make sure our hallways are silent out of consideration for students testing. Nobody should be talking in the halls during testing (adults and students). We try to be diligent with the MCAS signs. If rooms are testing, signs are up, and we take them down as soon as we are done. Often the main office area has students testing for the entire day. Please keep this in mind (and note the signs) as you travel through the lobby area. When kids are testing in Amy's office and it's quiet, they can hear EVERYTHING that is said outside of the office doors.
Technology maintenance: One thing that we've learned in preparing the chromebooks for MCAS is that if they don't get shutdown all the way on a regular basis, the system requires a factory reset. This interfered with our ability to run Test Nav (MCAS testing APP). Sharon Papke came over and did the resets. Please make sure the chromebooks are shut-down all the way as part of regular daily maintenance.
This Friday is a Panda Paw Pull. We will still plan to have that, however, if we still have 5th graders taking the MCAS, we will need to do a last minute cancel. If that is the case, we will find a time next week to hold it instead. We'll make the final call by 2:00 on Friday. Thank you for your flexibility.
EVERYONE please note the scheduling changes due to MCAS- many grades are impacted.
east wing playground
Over vacation, Utliplay was scheduled to install rubber paths to make the East wing playground ADA compliant. Unfortunately, due to the weather, they were not able to complete the job. They will be back Monday to finish, which means that the East wing playground will be closed Monday and Tuesday. I know that it is an inconvenience, but, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate over break.
esl writing assessments
The Dunning ESL team will be administering the biannual ESL Writing Assessment to all Kindergarten to Grade 5 students identified as English Learners during the following testing window: April 22nd - May 6th
This district-wide assessment is administered twice a year and is designed to take 45-60 minutes. We use the data from the writing assessment to monitor our students’ English language development, readiness to succeed in an academic English speaking environment, and to inform teacher instruction.
report card window
PARENT PLACEMENT INFORMATION FORMS
Also, please do not discuss placement at parent conferences. If parents have any information that they would like to share, they should do that via the placement form. Thanks!
END OF YEAR EVENTS
Reading Standards Mastery assessments
Reading Standards Mastery assessments will appear on student dashboards in iReady on the dates below.
Grade 3: Standards Mastery iReady Assessment May 28th - May31st, 2019 (focus on 3.2 and 3.9)
Students must complete this assessment prior to continuing any online instruction. Two standards are being assessed in each grade level and iReady expects this should take students approximately 30 minutes.
Here is a resource from iReady that explains standards mastery and provides additional resources for using these results to inform our practice.
CARE & SHARE
Please remind your students to bring in items for Care & Share. Our monthly food collection makes a huge difference in our community, while teaching our students the importance of giving. As an added incentive, the class that brings in the most each month will earn 15 minutes of extra recess on the new playground!
- April: Pasta
- May: Juice Boxes
- June: Cans of Tuna Fish
DATES FOR THIS WEEK
Monday 4/22:
- Grades 3 & 4 ELA MCAS
Tuesday 4/23:
- Grades 3 & 4 ELA MCAS
Wednesday 4/24:
- Grade 5 ELA MCAS
Thursday 4/25:
- Early Release, Parent Conferences
Friday 4/26:
- Grade 5 ELA MCAS
- Panda Paw Cash-In, 2:30 pm
panda paw cash-in dates
COMMUNITY MEETING DATES
Wednesday, 5/15 at 9:30, Grade 4
Thursday, 6/13 at 9:30, Grade 5
STAFF BREAKFASTS
05/03/19 - Rooms 6, 7,16, & 18
05/17/19 - Grade 5 Cara/Tess
05/31/19 - Kindergarten/Hannah/Daphna
06/14/19 - Specialists/Gary/Michele Klein