The PRES Press
Principal's Monthly Newsletter, January 2018
A Message From Principal Amy Fishkin
Happy New Year!
Online Dismissal Program... is live at PRES!
Starting on Tuesday, January 2nd, we began using our new online dismissal program, called School Dismissal Manager (SDM). You should have received an email on Friday, December 22 with your family login information. Please call the main office if you have not received this email or are having any trouble accessing the School Dismissal Manager program.
To access SDM on a daily basis, you can download the app on your mobile device or go to our PRES website, click on Our School, and choose School Dismissal Manager from the dropdown menu. This web-based program, allows you, the parent, to schedule and update your child(ren)’s dismissal plans at the click of a button. It is intended to replace notes, emails, and phone calls to the office since all the information you enter can be viewed by school staff electronically.
If your child will be attending an after-school program on a regular basis, remember that you can create a recurring dismissal plan, rather than entering a daily exception every week. Any permanent pick-up plans should be entered as a recurring dismissal plan. We have added "CCD Tuesday Pick-up" to the list of exceptions for those families picking up their child on Tuesdays for CCD. There will be a second pick-up line in the Gym on Tuesdays for students attending CCD only.
We encourage you to begin using School Dismissal Manager for your child's daily dismissal changes. It is quick, safe and easy to use! Amy Fishkin will be demonstrating the program for parents, and answering any questions about School Dismissal Manager, at the next PRES PTA meeting on Wednesday, January 10th at 7:00 pm. We will continue to honor paper notes through Friday, January 19th.
Show Your School Spirit at our Next CARES Assembly
C.A.R.E.s is the PRES school-wide positive behavioral support system that encourages students and staff to care for themselves, others, and the school wide community. Learn more about our CAREs program by visiting our Character Education page on our school website. You will also find links to our Bus Safety Contract and Lunch-Playground Expectations.
Congratulations to our PRES chorus, band and orchestra for their incredible performance at the Winter Concert on December 4, 2017! We also want to congratulate our PRES 4th-5th grade chorus on their "coffee concert" at Mt. Kisco Presbyterian Church on December 20, 2017!
Grades 3-5 Enrichment at Pound Ridge Elementary School
A School-Wide Enrichment Model in grades 3-5 is up and running at PRES. Our tiered support teachers, as well as classroom teachers in grades three through five, teach interest-based learning courses during the scheduled core instructional period. Students are introduced to a variety of course offerings and have the opportunity to choose a course based on their personal educational interests. The courses are offered to all students on the grade-level regardless of academic ability. Examples of our enrichment offerings include: readers theater, graphic novels, debate, coding, building architects & engineers, and international games. Students will receive differentiation to help meet their goals within the scheduled enrichment course. This idea is based on Renzulli’s Enrichment Triad Model.
An Overview of the Enrichment Triad Model
The Enrichment Triad Model was designed to encourage creative productivity on the part of young people by exposing them to various topics, areas of interest, and fields of study, and to further train them to apply advanced content, process-training skills, and methodology training to self-selected areas of interest. Type I enrichment is designed to expose students to a wide variety of disciplines, topics, occupations, hobbies, persons, places, and events that would not ordinarily be covered in the regular curriculum. We would like to thank the Bedford Schools Foundation for their support funding our enrichment program.
School-wide Enrichment Model (SEM)
There has been extensive professional research that supports using SEM to meet the needs of all students. Starko (1986) found that students involved in a SEM enrichment group reported over twice as many creative projects per student as those in a comparison group and that they showed greater diversity and sophistication in projects.
It is our hope to challenge our gifted population as well as our general education, special education and remedial students by exposing them to rigorous, interest-based learning opportunities. It is our belief that even students with academic challenges will thrive in an interest-based setting and their engagement will in turn have a positive academic outcome that will carry over into the classroom setting. Students that fall within the gifted realm will have the opportunity to explore projects above and beyond what is offered in the general classroom setting.
Our Mission Statement for School-wide Enrichment at PRES
Our mission is to…
Integrate Renzulli’s “a rising tide lifts all ships” approach to school improvement by challenging all students to reach their full potential by fostering creativity, developing higher-level thinking, encouraging risk-taking, and promoting lifelong learning.