Hawk Talk
Volume 2, Issue 14 Week of December 7-11
Important this Week
- Taylor, Atkinson out
- Penguin Patch Shop opens--check your schedule
- Guidance Lesson-Pellegrino
- ILT meetings begin at 3:20
- Jeanie @ District Leadership
- Penguin Patch Shop
- Penguin Patch Shop
- PE PLC-Neubauer out 1/2 day
- 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade meeting after school in the library/Leadership postponed
- Penguin Patch Shop
- Counselor Meeting-Durst out 9-10:30
- ARD day
- Kinder Team Time
- Yearbook/Club picture retakes
- PTO Movie Night--Volunteers welcome! 6:30-7:30
- Happy Birthday Karole Gross
- First Lego League Qualifier Tournament at Nolan Catholic High School-We have 3 teams competing!
Hugs
- Kim Davault for helping with a friend on Friday!
- 4th grade for being so flexible!
- Andra for giving us another practice drill! (LOL!)
- Sarah for handling morning announcements!
- Jana for your continuous support
- Cindy Ply for serving as our PTO rep
- Courtney for conducting our Guided Reading Training
- Heather Nivens for your leadership
URGENT AND TIMELY
Action Required - BEST Kit Information: Due to the lack of available water for washing science items at the Science Depot, we are asking that ALL items returned in the BEST Kits be clean and ready to be stored. This has become a huge issue that requires each campus to do their part. Thank you for your cooperation.
Classroom Visits: Seth Hickman and Stacia Pearce would like to visit classrooms across the district in order to make informed curricular decisions that best serve BISD. Our goals of these visits are to gain valuable instructional data, look for exemplar classrooms that could serve as models, and drive our district professional learning needs.
Holiday Clothing & Toy Drives, or Fundraisers: We want to recognize your students and staff for their charitable actions during the winter break, as we did for the week of Thanksgiving. Please tell your staff to share pictures (with approved permissions) with a small blurb, with Mikala Hill or Katelyn Tyler, so we can post them to the district Facebook page.
From Seth Hickman: The district purchased Clay Piggy's online software to instruct our students in financial literacy this year. Teachers are expected to set aside time in computer labs throughout the year for students to "play" Clay Piggy. There is no time in the regular pacing guide devoted to direct teaching of the financial literacy standards, which are tested on GoMath assessments and STAAR, so teachers must use some of their computer lab time for Clay Piggy. The specialists, your on-campus resource, were trained in how to use Clay Piggy and were asked to train your teachers. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Fobs for all staff members are being reset so that they can have access beginning at 6:00 a.m. each school day for all campuses. Evening hours will remain the same.
Curriculum Documents Direct Link on Staff Portal
In order to help make the curriculum documents more accessible, there is now a direct link to them from the Staff Portal. You can find them clicking on the Curriculum Assessment Instruction link.
4th Writing Assessment - An additional writing assessment has been added to the testing calendar for Dec. 8 or 9 to specifically address revising and editing. This will give your teachers and students further data on the students’ learning. The teachers received an email several weeks ago informing them of this opportunity. They will use the Motivation Writing Form A questions, but no composition. More specific information about the assessment will be sent to your teachers.
Global Hour of Code: Burleson ISD will be participating in the global Hour of Code initiative during the week of December 7-11th. We are asking each campus to do something during that week to encourage students to code.
Please review the attached document and let us know if you have any further questions.
Take Care of Texas and Samsung Austin Semiconductor invite K-5 students to submit their artwork showing how they help keep the air and water clean, conserve water and energy, and reduce waste. One grand prize winner will receive a Samsung laptop, and 15 students will win a Samsung tablet. The teacher of the student who designs the overall best artwork will also be awarded a Samsung tablet.
More information can be found here: http://takecareoftexas.org/kids/art-contest The contest begins January 4, 2016; entries must be postmarked on or before March 2, 2016.
Rather Prize:
Do you have an idea to innovate Texas education? The Rather Prize offers a $10,000 educational award to the best idea to improve Texas education. This award is open to teachers, students, and those who have attended a Texas educational institution within the past three years.
To submit your idea, please send an email to: submit@ratherprize.org. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 20, 2016. For more information, please visit Rather Prize.
Writing Plan
Jeanie and Jana