Cordata Weekly Bulletin
9/10/2018
Good morning, Cordata family!
Have a fantastic week ahead!
The week ahead - 9/10 - 9/14
Classroom teachers, it's okay if that is taking you a bit more time than is in the calendar, but please keep a close eye on the calendar and keep working towards these goals. Building common language school-wide is important! Please see Carissa or Dan if you need support with SEL in your classroom! We're here to support you!
Upcoming Dates
- Sept. 14 thru 16 - PTA fundraiser at Menchies, more information to come
- Sept. 18 - Hearing and Vision testing at Cordata
- Sept. 18 - Optional staff meeting to review beginning-of-year policy and law training ppt
- Sept. 20 - Cordata pub crawl! Stay tuned for more info from Sunshine committee
- Sept. 25 - Individual Student Picture Day
- Sept. 27 - DESSA assessment window opens, through 10/7
- Sept. 27 - Open House for kindergarten through 2nd grade - Tentative time is 6:00-7:00 pm, but stay tuned for more information
- October 5 - Pumpkin Fun Run
- Nov. 2 - all day parent-teacher conferences (other Thursday afternoons in November are available as well)
- Nov. 8 - afternoon and evening parent-teacher conferences
Other News and Information
- Classroom teachers, this time of year, I like to collect copies of your schedules. Please put a hard copy of your classroom daily/weekly schedule in my mailbox.
Classified staff, please make sure that Minh has an up to date copy of your daily schedule as well. - There are still opportunities to ride the bus with students! See Analisa or Minh if you would like to ride along, see our neighborhoods, and support kids on buses. Bus 30 will continue to have a daily rider for another week or so, but our others are doing so well, we will send a rider occasionally. Kids love to see you ride the bus, you'll feel like a celebrity!
- A reminder about the policy/procedure information for ALL staff:
We are all responsible to review and be aware of the information in the beginning of year training on relevant laws, policies and procedures. You have two choices - Take some time to view the powerpoint and read the accompanying notes on your own, then sign off on the sheet in my mailbox (look for the clipboard!), OR come to a staff meeting on Sept. 18 at 2:45 where I will go through the powerpoint with you. Either way is totally fine! - Parent Teacher Conference dates are now on the calendar. These will primarily take place on Nov. 2 (all day, no school for students), and Nov. 8 afternoon and evening. Other Thursday afternoons in late October and November may be used as needed. The folks in Family Engagement will be scheduling our conferences where interpreters are needed. Once this is done, we will open up scheduling to all families. Please mark these dates on your calendar.
- The windows for district testing are now open for Phonemic Awareness, MAP, and BAS. Thank you to all of the folks helping to administer and facilitate that testing! On Sept. 27, we will open the window for DESSA assessments. For those not yet familiar, the DESSA is a school-wide social emotional screener. It helps us to identify kids who need additional support in the area of social/emotional learning and behavior. A full DESSA for select kids then helps us to diagnose more specifically the areas in which we can support. Watch for more info to come from Carissa when the window opens.
In closing . . .
Above is a draft of the Key Strategies portion of the Bellingham Promise . . .
At our district leadership meeting last week, he asked administrators to think about the implications of such a change. How would our work shift if we used equity, diversity and inclusion as filters for the decisions and plans that we make? Where do we already do so, and where can we improve? What would be the impact on our students of color? our students with disabilities? our students who are bilingual and/or bicultural? our students who represent mainstream culture?
These are excellent questions for all of us, and apply deeply to the important work of Social Emotional Learning, which you are focusing on so heavily at the start of the year and will continue to prioritize all year long. To be conscious of cultural responsiveness is to "acknowledge the role culture plays in teaching and learning and intentionally invite students' heritage, background, and personal stories into our lessons and curriculum."
Thank you for taking the time to build relationships and community within your classroom! This is and essential part of the work of equity, diversity and inclusion!