JWL's Tiger Tid-Bits
March | April 2019
Spring is coming!
Just like each flower blossoms in its own time, in its own way, and with its own spectrum of colors, I see our students blossoming, too! As they continue through the curriculum presented as the year progresses more and more "light bulb" moments are occurring as the students realize how their new learning connects to previous learning.
To keep their learning active and vibrant here are a dozen tips from www.educationcorner.com:
1. Develop an atmosphere of reading
2. Provide options for their learning to continue outside of school
3. Encourage open and sincere communication
4. Focus on their interests
5. Introduce and encourage different styles of learning
6. Share your enthusiasm for learning
7. Make learning fun through game-based learning
8. Focus on their learning, not their performance
9. Help your child stay organized
10. Recognize and celebrate achievements
11. Focus on strengths
12. Make everyday a learning day
Remember, at J.W. Long each student excels in every subject every day by displaying Tiger PRIDE!
Respect for others
Integrity
Determination &
Enthusiasm!
Career Day is Coming!
If you are interested in coming to campus to talk with your child's class, and/or others, please contact Robyn Hedke by emailing her at robyn.hedke@terrellisd.org to get signed up.
This is for you to share about your career and/or military service.
Tardies
If students are tardy they miss breakfast and the beginning of their instructional time.
Upon our return from spring break, parents must park and escort their children into the front office if they are tardy to get them signed in.
TISD offers Community Education Opportunities
Available classes include
- CPR
- Citizenship
- Cooking
- Financial Literacy
- ESL
- GED
Box Tops
By being able to raise funds is important for our campus so that we are able to purchase special items for students. This includes goal rewards for grade levels and campus celebrations in general.
HOW BOX TOPS WORKS:
BUY: Find Box Tops on hundreds of products >
CLIP: Clip Box Tops from each package.
SEND: Send the Box Tops to school in a baggie or on a collection sheet >
EARN: Box Tops are each worth 10¢ for your school.
Parent Awareness of Social Media
Parents, please be aware of what your children are accessing and viewing online.
Below is a button link to an article titled, "How to Keep Kids Safe on Social Media."
School is out March 11 - 15th for Spring Break!
Your access to seeing "live" student information.
Your Parent Portal account will allow you access to your student's grades and attendance to check on their progress between progress reports and report cards.
Goals & Focus
Growth Mindset
How mindset affects learning
Children who understand that the brain can get smarter—who have a growth mindset—do better in school because they have an empowering perspective on learning. They focus on improvement and see effort as a way to build their abilities. They see failure as a natural part of the learning process. In contrast, students who have a fixed mindset—those who believe that intelligence is fixed—tend to focus on judgment. They're more concerned with proving that they are smart or hiding that they're not. And that means they tend to avoid situations in which they might fail or might have to work hard.
Many studies show that children who have a growth mindset respond differently in challenging situations and do better in school over time.
Use growth mindset language
Everyone falls into fixed mindset thinking sometimes. The first step toward fostering a growth mindset in our children is to become aware of language that signals one mindset or the other.
Here are some questions to think about:
- How often do you notice and praise effort, strategies, and progress?
- What thoughts did you have this week when your child struggled? How could you frame their struggle in a growth mindset way by helping them understand that this is when their brain is growing most?
- What thoughts did you have when your child excelled? How could you frame their success in a growth mindset way, e.g., by talking about the process that went into their success?
- What kinds of fixed and growth-mindset statements did your child make?
Action Ideas
- When you hear or provide praise, ask yourself "What is being praised?" Is it effort, strategy, persistence, focus, and improvement, or does it sound more like a fixed trait or ability?
- When you or your child makes a mistake, ask yourself “How does my reaction influence my child’s future behavior?” Does it encourage learning and growth, or does it encourage them to avoid challenges in the future?
- When something you or your child says or does signals a fixed or a growth mindset, write it down! You may be surprised how often mindset statements come up. Keep a chart on your fridge for a week then see if it changes at some later time.
- Use the Raise the Bar Parents conversation tracker to schedule some time to talk about your child’s effort and progress this month.
Here is a website for parents (English & Spanish) that helps explain and provide research behind how a growth mindset helps students excel academically.
Literacy at Home
This information was taken from this article.
- Help your child pick independent reading books. To test out a book, have your child read a page or so aloud to gauge her accuracy and fluency.
- Foster your child’s independent reading. You can encourage your child’s independent reading by helping him establish a daily quiet reading time, by making sure that he is reading books that are at a comfortable level, and by talking with him about the books he reads.
- Read aloud to your child. Even when children are able to read by themselves, they still benefit from hearing an adult read complex material aloud to them. This way, your child will learn new vocabulary and increase her fund of general information.
- Listen to your child read often. Ask your child to read aloud to you from his favorite part of a book. Try reading with him so that you read a page and then he reads one. Hearing your child read aloud will allow you to hear his progress. It also gives you a chance to praise him.
- Help your child to correct her own reading errors. When you are reading with your child and she makes a mistake, ask her if what she reads made sense, encourage her to reread a part or help her cover up part of a word to help her figure it out.
- Play games with your child. Playing games contributes to your child’s literacy development. Word games obviously help your child to read and spell, but card games and logic games help him to learn patterning, categorizing, and problem-solving skills that are related to reading comprehension.
- When he begins getting homework, help your child to create a homework routine. You can help by making sure that he has a clean, quiet space in which to work, that he works in the same place every time, and that he has the necessary supplies.
- Help your child with her homework, but don’t do it for her. If your child has questions, you can certainly answer them. If she can’t think of what to write, you can help her brainstorm her ideas aloud before she writes. However, if you find that your child is relying on you for answers, if you think you may be giving too much support, or if your child is very frustrated on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to talk with your child’s teacher.
- Communicate with your child’s teacher regularly. By doing this, you can discuss successes and concerns, gain a better understanding of the curriculum, and gain ideas for what you can do at home to support your child’s literacy development.
Attendance
Today we know that at least 7 million students are chronically absent, meaning they miss 10 percent or more of school days – or as few as two days a month. This may not seem like much, especially in the early grades. Yet we have seen that starting as early as kindergarten and preschool, a child who misses too many days will struggle to read well, do math and develop the social skills needed to succeed in school.
In fact, students with high numbers of absences are much more likely to drop out of high school. By ninth grade, missing too many days of school is a better indicator that a student will drop out than eighth-grade test scores. This is especially true for those students living in poverty who need school the most and are sometimes attending the least.
The information above was taken from the Parent Toolkit website.
Here at JWL we currently have 11 of our students that have more than 18 absences to date, and 61 students have more than 10 absences to date.
Parents, if your child has more than 10 absences your child has been assigned Thursday School to make up some of the missed learning time. It is imperative that they attend. The attendance committee will be meeting in April to review students with truancy and discuss next steps.
The info below is from the Attendance Adds Up website:
"Your child’s daily, on-time attendance is critical to their success in school. And while some challenges to your child’s school attendance are unavoidable, it’s important to understand the impact of each absence.
A student is considered chronically absent if they miss only two days of school per month (18 days in a year), whether the absences are excused or unexcused. This is true for children as early as elementary school, when they are at a higher risk of falling behind in reading. Even one year of chronic absence can cause a child to fall behind academically and decrease a child’s chances of graduating from high school, which can have long-term consequences on their financial independence, physical well-being and mental health.
The good news? Attending school every day increases a child’s chances of success in school and in life."
For information regarding how to improve your child's attendance, please click the link.
Dress Code
Students are to wear collared, single color shirts with black, navy, or khaki pants, shorts (if weather appropriate), or skirts.
For cooler days or classrooms, hoodies or sweaters are allowed that are also solid or single colored, Terrell Tiger spirit wear, or military.
For cold weather, outer wear can be any style, but it cannot be worn in the building. Students may wear it until arrive in the classroom where they will be asked to put it in their lockers or on the backs of their chairs. Leggings are also only supposed to be single solid color when worn to school to stay warm.
Also, jeans are only for Fridays or specially noted days such as College Day with college shirt.
For more information regarding the dress code please refer to the Student Code of Conduct and Handbook link located here on our TISD website.
Volunteering
Our campus is open to our families; we invite you to come and join us for various events and celebrations throughout the year. We have many opportunities for our families to get involved at our campus. Volunteer opportunities include, but are not limited to: reading and working with students, supporting the office by completing tasks such as making copies and laminating class projects, and monitoring and participating in school events including, but not limited to lunch/recess, field trips, and PTO. Visit www.terrellisd.org/volunteer to learn more about becoming a volunteer. You may also find our campus calendar by visiting http://www.terrellisd.org/calendar-long.
**Parents, I want to clarify, to apply for a volunteer badge it does NOT cost for the initial background check. I understand there is a fee amount listed on the background check; however, that is not for the initial check.
Stay connected with Remind
In efforts to keep you well informed, I invite you to join our communication outlets. You can text the code @jwlongelem to the number 81010 to subscribe to our campus Remind thread. This is how I as the principal communicate directly with parents to give updates, reminders, and special notices. (These messages can be translated to your language of choice through the Remind app. Click here to access the app.) Speaking of sharing, if you like to tweet on Twitter, follow us look for our tag #TigerPride to see the amazing things happening across Terrell ISD.
PTO Membership & Support
Our meetings are held the second Thursday of each month at 6pm.
PTO Meeting
Thursday, Mar 21, 2019, 06:00 PM
300 Creekside Drive, Terrell, TX, USA
Transportation
Bus: GoldStar Transit
If you need to address bus transportation changes, please contact the campus at 972-563-1448; we will contact Gold Star with the given changes.
Car Pick Up
Please refer to the map posted below regarding which lane to drop off & pick up your students.
Walkers, Bikers, & Day Care
No parents are to walk up to the doors of the building. Walkers will be escorted to their respective areas by staff members. Students may only be walkers if they live in the adjacent neighborhoods (Creekside Estates or Town North), and we have a written note from parent giving permission for student to walk to specific address (their home) in these neighborhoods.
Day Care
If your student rides a day care van, please write a note to your student's teacher with the full name of the day care facility.
Transportation Changes
Also know that all names of people you grant permission to pick up your child(ren) from school need to be listed in our student database. Please be sure you've updated this information to expedite the pick up process in the office.
Thanks!
Child Nutrition
- Student meal accounts: Parents will need their student's ID number to set up their Lunch Money Now account. Please call the Terrell ISD School Nutrition Department at 972-563-7504 for help with this process. To access menus or complete a meal application, please go to http://www.terrellisd.org/school-nutrition.
Lunch Visits
- We encourage parents and guardians to join their student for lunch from time to time. Due to limited space and for the safety of our students, parents/guardians are to eat with ONLY their child at the reserved visitor tables on the stage. Thank you for your support and understanding.
- Also note that occasional lunch drop offs are understood as students may forget their lunch from time to time. If dropping off a lunch for your student please do so before their scheduled lunch time. If your child does not have a lunch at their scheduled lunch time, we will have them get a lunch through the cafeteria line. Lunch time is an extremely busy time in the front office; when lunches are dropped off, a contact is made to the teacher's classroom. The teacher is to have the student retrieve his/her lunch on the way to the cafeteria. You may also contact your child's teacher via Remind message to confirm the child has received their lunch.
School Uniforms
- Any solid color polo or button-down collared shirt are allowed. Large logos are not permitted.
- Bottoms must be khaki, navy, or black. Bottoms include pants, skorts, capris, knee length skirts or shorts are allowed. Jogger style, skinny fit, and cargo style pants/shorts are not allowed.
- On PE days, students need to wear closed toed shoes, preferably tennis shoes.
Spirit Wear on Fridays
Contact Us
Email: melissa.nichols@terrellisd.org
Website: http://www.terrellisd.org/jwlelementaryschool
Location: 300 Creekside Drive, Terrell, TX, United States
Phone: 972-563-1448
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terrellisd/
Twitter: @TerrellISD