Cat Tracks
Spring Shadows Elementary Wildcats Staff Newsletter
October 29 - November 4, 2018
Ms. Urrutia's class celebrates Red Ribbon Week!
Our Vision
Our Mission
Core Beliefs
- Each student has unique intellectual, emotional, social, and physical qualities.
- We embrace a child’s individual values, interests, and personalities.
- Parents are confident in their child’s social and intellectual educational growth.
- Educators lead their craft by preparing learners in our fast changing world
Principal's Message
Dear Wildcats,
There is quite a bit to celebrate after taking a quick pulse on the progress of learning for our students. Here's a quick recap: 2018 PSA1 (click on the highlighted link). We celebrate that we have made literacy a priority and we are seeing consistent positive improvements in our student's learning! Way to Go!
Based on our results: What specific best practices and effective teaching strategies will we emphasize during this teaching/learning cycle?
We will be having data conferences all this coming week, so know that I will be asking this question for you for each subject.
Also, just to remind you of the technique we want to continue to emphasize how we ask our students to practice. Our students are asked to practice- however, "Contenders practice until they get it right. Champions practice until they cannot get it wrong (pg. 46)." In other words, follow these basic principles:
- Define "perfect"- determine what ideal practice looks like.
- Plan before you practice- build an effective script before you take it live.
- Practice- take it live.
- Follow up and repeat- observe implementation to make sure the action is performed as flawlessly for students as it is behind the scenes.
Let's practice until we are perfect on the following areas:
- Walking in line in the breezeways or hallways during all transitions (door to door).
- Exemplar and Aggressive Monitoring (in the classroom & all areas). That means we are always walking around and aggressively looking to give feedback to your students in the now. What it looks like: Teachers walking around the room, checking on student work, giving feedback, correcting misconceptions. What it does not look like: teacher sitting and teaching from his/her desk or guided table.
- How are you randomly calling on students? How do you ensure all students have an opportunity to collaborate, thus process the information and learn?
As a community- we have declared our goal to improve on state accountability standards by one letter grade from 70 to 80.
Wildcat Love and respect,
Rachel Martinez
Calendar
2nd Grade Extended Planning
Group 5
- 8:00-10:00 ILT Meeting
- 2:45-3:30 Team Leader Huddle
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
3rd Grade Extended Planning
Group 1
- After-School 3-4
- 1:00 Math/Science Data Conference 3rd Grade
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
4th Grade Extended Planning
Group 2
- Halloween
- 10:45 3rd Grade Reading Planning with Cathy Roth
- 1:00 4th Grade Math Science Data Conference
- 3:00-4:00 Baby Shower for Katie Gentry
Thursday, November 1, 2018
PLC Thursday
Group 3
- 10:00-11:00 2nd Grade Math/Science Data Conference PSA 1
- 11:00-12:00 4th Grade Reading Data Conference PSA1
- 12:30-1:30 3rd Grade Reading Data Conference PSA 1
- 1:30-2:30 5th Grade Reading Data Conference PSA 1
Friday, November 2, 2018
5th grade Extended Planning
Group 4
- Spiral Day
- 1:00-2:00 5th Grade Math/Science Data Conferences
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Daylight Savings Day (Fall Back)
Library News
Thanks for your understanding last week with a sub and meetings. Hopefully it went well!
This is not a complete update as I was not able to do much of an update after Wednesday morning. I will give a complete update next week.
Great news as minutes are getting recorded - this week we got Ms Gomez's class of minutes for four weeks. EVERY child had over 1,000 minutes and is able to get a poster - Congratulations!
As of Wednesday morning..
The SSE Readers continue to soar as classes are getting their reading logs recorded. SSE Readers now have 102,212 minutes!! Wonderful!!!
I am sure that the number was higher by Friday.
Think about... when would you like to have your students create a class book. If you have some writing assignments that are getting edited which would make a great writing piece for a book, let's plan!
Thanks again for your support!
Ann : )
Shout Outs
- Many many thanks to Priscilla, Katie, Demetra, Yezenia for holding down the fort on Tuesday morning as Team ReDesign & Cindy were pulled out for various mtgs! It takes a team to make the dream work!
- Many many thanks to every single teacher for working with a special schedule on Tuesday and Wednesday for lunch/recess! Way to go!
- Kudos to Nurse Simpson for manning the front office from 7:00-7:30 all this week as Bea and Rachel B. spent time with their new grandbabies.
- Kudos to Elizabeth for working with our consultant Vivian Pratts to do instructional rounds that will help us refine our craft!
Elizabeth planked for almost 3 minutes for TEAM ReDesign!
Janet led her team in their Writing Conference!
Yezenia had 100% participation with AL Houston.
2nd Grade leads the way in Red Ribbon Activities!
Genevieve and Zoila take it to the next level of Crazy! :)
I attended the Kym Coleman Foundation with Cookie Michaels!
Remember to Sign Up for Sunshine and PTA!
Join Sunshine & PTA for $30 (certified staff) & $25 (non-certified staff). You can pay cash or check to Mrs. Berryman or Mrs. Gentry. Checks can be made out to Spring Shadows Elementary.
We are trying to get 100% participation in Sunshine & PTA!
When you join, you get an SSE Unstoppable T-Shirt, 5 Jeans Passes, 4 Late Arrival Passes, and 4 Leave Early Passes.
Please review the PDF attachment to see our SSE Sunshine Bylaws that the team revised and agreed upon at our last meeting. This will give you more information about Sunshine and what your dues are used for.
Sunshine SEMESTER JEANS PASS for $30
The one caveat is that your jeans are to be worn with a nice shirt and shoes (not a t-shirt).
See Mrs. Berryman or Mrs. Gentry to pay for your pass!
Sunshine Sponsored Events
SSE Social Event @ Yard House - October 26th (More information coming soon!)
SSE Sunshine Coffee Cart - October Date TBD
Spring Shadows Elementary
Email: rachel.martinez@springbranchisd.com
Website: https://cms.springbranchisd.com/sse2/
Location: 9725 Kempwood Drive, Houston, TX, United States
Phone: (713) 251-7100
Twitter: @twitter_rachelmartinez4