Otter Outlook
January 11, 2018
In this issue...
A Message from the Principal
Staffing Update
Ocee Elementary Strategic Plan Update
Need to Know!
Family Book Club Night
Student Hardship Transfers - Deadline February 28
What's Happening in the Learning Commons?
Ryan's Resource
From Our PTA
ScienceX
Bingo Night, Basket Raffle and Silent Auction
Young Authors
Munchkins with Moms
Community News
Reminders
Dates to Remember
Jan. 12 - 6 Flags Reading Program Begins
Jan. 12 - 3rd AR Period Ends
Jan. 15 - Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday - NO SCHOOL
Jan. 16 - 4th AR Period Begins
Jan. 18 - 26 PTA Basket Raffle Preview
Jan. 18 - Munchkins for Moms A-L, 7:10-7:40 a.m.
Jan. 19 - Munchkins for Moms M-Z, 7:10-7:40 a.m.
Jan. 19 - 2nd Grade ScienceX in-house field trip
Jan. 22 - 26 PTA On-line Silent Auction (ends Jan. 26 @ 5 p.m.)
Jan. 24 - PTA Cultural Arts Program - 8:15 a.m. K-2, 9:15 a.m. 3-5
Jan. 26 - 2nd Semester Newcomer Panel - 7:30 a.m.
Jan. 26 - Bingo Night (1st session 5-6:30 p.m.; 2nd session 7-8:30 p.m.)
A Message from the Principal
Good Afternoon Ocee Families!
It has been a great first week back at Ocee Elementary School! Our students were all smiles and hugs on Tuesday morning, and their enthusiasm has carried through the entire week. As always, we jumped right back into providing high-quality instruction from the first bell! Today, we had several Ocee Otters participate in the Ocee Tech Fair. It was impressive to see such innovation from our scholars, and we truly appreciate Ms. Hutcheson, Ms. Scholberg, and all of our volunteers for their support of this wonderful event.
In addition to celebrating our innovators, we also started our winter screening for reading and math. The Fulton County School district has purchased a program called FastBridge that allows us to gather important formative data about our students' progression in both subjects. We use this data to inform instructional practices as well as determine what interventions may be needed to support our students. This is not information that is sent home or used for any grading purposes, but gives us a temperature check throughout the year. We are excited to use the data to support our student's growth for the remainder of the year!
Remember that Monday is a holiday. We hope you enjoy the long weekend, and we look forward to welcoming back our Ocee Otters on Tuesday morning!
Best Regards,
Ryan Moore
Principal & Ocee Parent
Staffing Update
Congratulations Ms. LaPorte!
Please read below for a message from Ms. LaPorte:
I am pleased to introduce myself to you as Ocee’s Assistant Principal. I have been an educator in Fulton County Schools since 1994. I spent 15 of those years in the classroom, teaching 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, as well as middle school math and in the talented and gifted program. I was honored to be selected as Ocee’s Teacher of the Year in 2015. I believe in providing an academically challenging environment for all students so they can reach their full potential. A particular passion of mine is effective mathematics instruction, as I want all young students to see the beauty that can be found in mathematical thinking. In coming to this role of Assistant Principal, I bring two years of experience as a Curriculum Support Teacher, as well as six years previously in the AP role, all here at Ocee. I am thrilled to take this next step in my journey as an instructional leader. As your assistant principal, I will work with Ocee’s teacher leaders to ensure that our focus stays on learning at high levels each and every day. This school has been very important to me since I first came here 14 years ago, and I am so honored to step into this key role and serve the Ocee community. I’m excited to get started!
Ms. Nugent is Full-Time!
In addition to Ms. LaPorte's promotion, we have also secured Ms. Kathy Nugent as a full-time paraprofessional at Ocee Elementary School. Ms. Nugent had been splitting her time between Cogburn Woods Elementary School and Ocee as an ESOL paraprofessional. Ms. Nugent will continue to support our ESOL program, but we also have plans for her to support different grade levels in math. This is an exciting move for Ms. Nugent, our staff, and our students! Congratulations Ms. Nugent!!!
RTI/504 Support Position
Response to Intervention is an important facet of the K-12 environment, and we are fortunate to be able to create a full-time RTI/504 Support Position at Ocee moving forward. This position will be a part of the administrative team, will support our RTI and 504 processes, serve as a communications liaison for the school, and will work with students to support their learning needs.
Many schools may have to look elsewhere for a person to fill this role, but we are lucky to have several talented individuals at Ocee Elementary School who have demonstrated the talent and drive to fill this role at the mid-year point! Our administrative team is conducting interviews this week, and we look forward to announcing our new RTI/504 Support Specialist in the next few days. This is an exciting opportunity for our staff, students, and Ocee community, and we know that having a full-time person dedicated to this role will take our school to new heights!
As always, feel free to reach out with any questions: mooregr@fultonschools.org
Ocee Elementary Strategic Plan Update
The graphic below displays our draft outcomes and initiatives for each of the FCS Strategic Plan pillars. As a way to gather your input, we have created a new email address for you to pose questions and comments about the strategic plan, oceestrategicplan@fultonschools.org. Our school governance council will monitor the input from this account in the coming months to help guide our finalized draft.
We appreciate your support and input on this important process that will provide a clear focus on instruction and supporting all of our stakeholders.
Need to Know
Family Book Club Night
Calling all 2nd graders and their parents: Join us for our first ever Family Book Club Night!
February 6, 2018, from 6:00-7:15pm. Please look for detailed information and a registration form in your child’s Thursday folder. It is also attached here for your convenience.
Student Hardship Transfers - Deadline February 28
Beginning January 1, 2018, parents of Fulton County students can apply for a 2018-2019 hardship transfer to another Fulton County school or request renewal of an existing hardship transfer. Allowable reasons are FCBOE employee, medical, curriculum difference and child care (elementary and middle school only). for more information, contact: FCS Student Assignment Office at 470254-5550 or go to the FC website. Information regarding Open Enrollment transfers will be released on May 1.
What's Happening in the Learning Commons?
I’d say that our Ocee Learning Commons is truly the Learning and Creative hub of the school! Just look at the many types of student learning going on!
Ryan's Resource
As we continue to support staff growth, provide focus through our strategic plan, and align our budgetary items to our strategic initiatives, I thought this article about Google's staff development strategies was particularly relevant. While I wouldn't say that Ocee Elementary and Google are synonymous, it is interesting to see the alignment between their staff development priorities and our current trends at Ocee!
I hope you enjoy this week's article: https://www.inc.com/michael-schneider/the-3-simple-strategies-google-uses-to-help-its-employees-learn.html?cid=landermore
Sincerely,
Ryan Moore
From Our PTA
Science-X
We are almost halfway through our Science-X in-house field trips, with just 2nd grade, 1st grade and kindergarten remaining. This is the inaugural year for the program, and it has gotten nothing but rave reviews from teachers, parent volunteers, and students! The remaining dates for the Science-X in-house field trips are:
-2nd grade: Friday January 19th
-Kindergarten: Friday February 9th
-First grade: Friday February 23rd
If you have any questions about the program or are interested in volunteering, please send an email to sciencex.ocee@gmail.com. These experiences are funded solely by PTA contributions, so we thank you for your continued support!
Bingo Night, Basket Raffle, and Silent Auction
Are you ready for some BINGO?!? Everyone’s favorite event, Bingo Night, is coming up soon. This year’s event will take place on Friday, January 26th. In your Thursday folders today, you will find registration forms for Bingo Night, order forms for Basket Raffle tickets, and information on our very first Silent Auction, which will run prior to Bingo Night. Please be sure to send in your registration forms as soon as possible if you plan on attending Bingo Night. The sessions DO sell out, as we are limited by the fire code in how many participants we can allow. Get your forms in ASAP in order to secure a spot! If you have any questions, please contact our VP of Family Events, Derek Scheidt @ derek.scheidt@coldwellbankeratlanta.com
Young Authors
Do you enjoy receiving the Young Authors book written by your child each year? The children are almost finished with their part as authors, now it’s time for the parent volunteers to act as publishers and finish up these precious keepsake books. The following classes are in desperate need of volunteers to complete their class’ books:
Kindergarten: Ms. Cassetori, Ms. Harbrecht, Ms. Park, Ms. Scaccia
1st Grade: Ms. Rhyne, Ms. Roberts
2nd Grade: Ms. Caldwell, Ms. Chun, Ms. Poleon, Ms. Thompson
An informational meeting will take place on Feb. 8th at 9:30 am, where you will be given all the supplies and instructions you need to do this job. This is a great volunteer job for a working parent who would like to help but is unable to during the school day, because you can work on this little by little in the evenings or on weekends at home.
Many hands make light work! If a few parents from each class work together assembly line style, you can get them done very easily. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Marcy Morantz at mdmorantz@comcast.net or Rose Hussey at rose.hussey@gmail.com.
Munchkins with Mom
Our annual “Munchkins with Mom” event will take place on January 18th & 19th, and we could use some help with set up and serving. Ocee dads, are you able to help either of those mornings? If so, please sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054ca4ab28a2fd0-munchkins or contact Lisa Patchin at lisa@patchin.com
Community News
Reminders
Outstanding Character Educational Excellence
Ryan Moore, Principal @oceeprincipal
Shannan LaPorte, AP
CST
Anna Aronowitz, Counselor
Email: fowlerjj@fultonschools.org
Website: www.oceeotters.com
Location: 4375 Kimball Bridge Road, Alpharetta, GA, United States
Phone: 470-254-2960
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OceeElementary
Twitter: @oceeotters