Bobcat Bulletin
February 17, 2020
This Week's Events
Monday 2/17
- No School
Tuesday 2/18
- No School
Wednesday 2/19
- WIDA Testing 2nd - 5th Grade (Listening)
- Kindergarten Registration 1:00 - 7:00 pm
Thursday 2/20
- WIDA Testing 2nd - 5th Grade (Reading)
- Kindergarten Registration 9:00 - 1:30 pm
- Devon at OVS all day
Friday 2/21
- WIDA Testing 2nd - 5th Grade (Writing)
- SRSS Window Closes
- BAS Window Closes
- Devon PM Business Day
Next Week's Events
Monday 2/124
- WIDA Testing 2nd - 5th Grade (Speaking)
- 31A Due
Tuesday 2/25
- Devon at OVS in AM
Wednesday 2/26
- Math Coach (Impacted Teachers already Notified)
- ET in MakerSpace 3:50 - 5:35
Thursday 2/27
- Math Coach (Impacted Teachers already Notified)
- ROAR Assembly 2:00
- ROAR Assembly 2:45
Friday 2/28
- Leap into Reading Read-in
Looking Ahead
March 5
- 3rd Grade Music Informances 5:30 - 7:30
March 10
- No School - PD Day
March 13
- Author Visit - Alan St. Jean
March 16
- Family Game Night
March 19
- 5th Grade Music Concerts 6:00 - 8:00
March 24
- Amerman Hosts BOE Meeting 7:00
The Power of a Smile
This article was shared with me at the beginning of the week. To say it hit me in the soul is an understatement. When I get home at night, no matter what kind of day that I have had. It is so important for me to remember, that I need to great my family with a smile. This simple gesture makes a difference. I hope you think of the impact a simple positive greeting can have not only at home, but in the classroom as well.
Entering BAS into Illuminate
Please click Entering BAS scores into Illuminate to access the slides with directions for entering BAS into Illuminate.
In Illuminate, please put a / for those students that do not need to be tested since they were a year above grade level in the fall, and leave it blank for those students that were not tested because they were not here during the window.
Building Access Next Week
FYI - March is Reading Month 2020
NHS ATHLETES TO READ AT AMERMAN - You have the opportunity to have a very special guest reader for your students in March. We are partnering with the NHS Athletic Department. They will send student athletes to us on Monday, March 23rd. They are able to come at 9:30 and 10:00 and will bring a book to read aloud to your class.
Follow this link to sign-up or decline this offer: March 23rd NHS Athlete Guest Reader Sign-up
This document has all the school-wide dates and events that you will want to know about and may want to share with your families. Closer to March we will share it out in the weekly Bobcat Broadcast.
2020 MIRM Optional Fun Calendar
This calendar is full of activities for readers to do all month long. It is an optional calendar that you can share with your students and families.
Check this link out for all our goals and incentives this year. We hope to have Pizza Cutter coupons again.
We’re hoping that at least 80% of the building will meet their reading goals for the month because when we do, Mrs. Caudill will come dressed as a Star Wars character for our March ROAR Assembly. Follow the link for more details.
And here’s the link to all of this year’s themed goal sheets: Reading Logs
Remember goals can be by minute, by title, by page or by book. It is your call as the teacher and what will work best for your students this year.
Members of the Bobcat Boost Team will be around the last week of February so your class can randomly select the genre for your door. Read the link for more details.
LC Corner - Curriculum, Literacy & Learning...oh my!
Differentiation and Assessments
If you watched the EDWeek video in last week’s LC Corner, you saw Larry Ferlazzo’s common sense take on differentiation being about knowing your students and recognizing that differentiation is a different way of thinking and not just a list of strategies. In the video Larry references the work of Rick Wormeli and his book, Fair Isn’t Always Equal. In that book Wormeli defines differentiation instruction as, “doing what’s fair for students. It’s a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students’ learning at every turn.” (pg.3 2006). Ferlazzo also mentioned the work of Carol Tomlinson who has written about differentiation being the ability to differentiate in three areas: content, process, and assessment.
When the Galileo Leaders had the opportunity to hear Rick Wormeli speak this past fall, he challenged all of us to think about assessment differently. And his challenge went beyond accommodations such as reduced number of answers, giving the answers orally instead of writing them or chunking out the work. If we want our students to be higher-order thinkers and/or deep thinkers, we need to structure assessments that challenge learners to show that kind of thinking. Depending on the skill/concept you are teaching, assessments can and should be more open-ended not just recall, matching and listing. Some would argue there should be a balance. When a student has truly mastered multifaceted concepts such as Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. (CCR.R.5 - Grade 3 ELA) or Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. (Math Practice 8) the learner should have multifaceted ways to show that mastery. These assessments will contain answers that will definitely vary and we as educators need to be clear from the start what we want our learners to learn. We need to teach and communicate to them how they will know they are successful.
That is a lot for us to soak in and may require a paradigm shift for some of us, especially if we were taught in a way that there was always a correct answer. Here is another short video to help us in our journey to understanding that differentiation in assessment needs to start with how we are asking the questions.
There are no words in the video, so you really have to watch it.
When There is a Correct Answer?
While in the example above it was not specific to a core subject, how could you reword one of your questions in science, or reading, or math? What ways could a student show mastery of a concept that does not use paper and pencil? Could you come up with 5 different ways to assess the same concept/standard?
31A - Due February 24
Classroom teachers, it's that time of year for us to report information for section 31A. I will be emailing you what I need on Monday, February 10. It will be due back to me no later than, Monday, February 24. Please be on the look-out for that email on Monday.
SRSS Data
Don't forget the SRSS window is now open. Please make sure you are as objective as possible so we can be as accurate as possible when planning for the needs of our students. A number of the students Keely sees are currently green on the SRSS. Please click here to access the form.
Steam Fair 2020 - Sign-Ups Needed!
STEAM Fair 2020 Our Planet: Solving Today's Problems to Open a World of Possibilities for Tomorrow is coming this April (4/22/2020)! We would love to have any and all STEAM/Science/Art presentations and projects that you may have! FOSS Science, Mystery Science Labs, IQWST Science, Science Fair, classroom science and Maker Space projects are all welcome.
NEW THIS YEAR! This year we will be giving awards in the following categories - Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Awards are: Most Creative, World of Possibilities (best aligned to STEAM Fair Theme) and Judges Choice.
Sign up here to be part of STEAM: STEAM Fair Sign Up
Welcoming Rituals and Optimistic Closures
I am seeing some wonderful examples of both of these throughout the building! Thank you so much for implementing these into your daily routine...they're an integral part of our Social/Emotional goal for the year. Please see the links below for more examples of Welcoming Routines and Optimistic Closure Routines:
- Click here for the the CASEL Three Signature Practices Playbook. It has LOTS of suggestions for Welcoming Rituals and Optimistic Closures
- Click here for more Welcoming Routine examples
- Click here for more Optimistic Closure examples
Dismissal Duty
Week of 2/17
- Bus - LaManna
- Loop - Wilson, Mooney, Charboneau, Warum
Week of 2/24
- Bus - Parnin
- Loop - Tiba, Hartnett, Rohrhoff, McDougall
Random Useless Facts
The rumbling sound your stomach sometimes makes is called a “borborygmi.”
- President William Howard Taft, weighed 332 pounds, got stuck in the White House bathtub the first time he used it.
- Daffy Duck’s middle name is “Dumas”
- On average, there are 8 peas in a pod.
- Douglas MacArthur’s mother used to send letters to his military superiors suggesting they promote her son.
- P.J. Tierney, developer of the modern diner, died of indigestion in 1917 after eating at a diner.
- A McDonald’s Big Mac bun has an average of 178 sesame seeds.
- Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
Now that I've been observed...how do I upload and label evidence into pivot again?
1. Upload, name, and code evidence to a specific indicator.
2. To check where you have evidence by indicator.