Monday Morning Motivation
Central Elementary Staff News----August 1-5
Our First Week!
Dear Staff,
Since you all have plenty of reading to do, I am going to make this short and sweet!
Your dedication has been amazing! There are not enough words to describe how proud I am of you for diving in this weekend and putting your classrooms together.
Instead of a Plainfield Home Tour, we need a PCSC Classroom Tour. You all have outdone yourselves to prepare for our students. If you get an opportunity, walk around and see the incredible creativity.
Julie
A Week at a Glance
Central Calendar
MONDAY, August 1
- Teacher orientation breakfast will be held at 7:30 a.m. at Plainfield High School (I have been told meeting will last 8:00-9:00.)
- At conclusion of this meeting return to Central LGI for our school meeting. We will begin in the Cafeteria at 9:30 a.m.--maybe even sooner. We will be done no later than 10:30 a.m.--maybe sooner
- Supply Drop Off Night Grades K-2 from 4:00 p.m.- 5:00 p.m. and Grades 3-5 from 5:00p.m.-6:00 p.m. Fridgid Frog will be in our parking lot, too.
- I am going to meet with Car Rider Parents in the Gym to explain our procedures to keep parents from parking on US 40
TUESDAY, August 2
- First Day of School 8:30-4:00
- Dismissal-Car riders, walkers, daycare, and YMCA CC kids at 3:35
- Dismissal for bus riders-3:40
- Our plan is to have 5th grade Bus Buddies on Tuesday.
- STAR Assessment window opens and runs until 9/2/2016. We will begin August 8th
WEDNESDAY, August 3
- K Expectations convocation in gym at 10:00 a.m.
- 1st grade Expectations convocation in gym at 2:00 p.m.
THURSDAY, August 4
- 2nd grade Expectations Convocation in gym at 2:00 p.m.
- 3rd grade Expectations Convocation in gym at 9:00 a.m.
FRIDAY, August 5
- 5th grade Expectations Convocation in gym at 10:15 a.m.
- 4th grade Expectations Convocation in gym at 2:50 p.m.
Announcements and Reminders
New this year the YMCA aftercare students will have their own bus, which will leave Central and pick up VB & BW students before going to CC. Therefore, car riders, walkers, daycare, and YMCA students will dismiss at 3:35 (with a goal of 3:40 in a week or so). Courtney C. will gather these students upstairs at a designated meeting place and walk the downstairs where she collect K and 1st graders. They will walk out the door by Kindergarten restrooms and head to the first bus in line. This bus will leave earlier.
Pay attention to your duties located in your binder which you will receive at our faculty meeting.
Parent Security meeting with Administration in our cafeteria August 8 from 6:00-7:00
Back to School Nights: Grades K-1 August 15th from 6:00 p.m.-7:00p.m., Grades 2-3 August 16th from 6:00p.m.-7:00 p.m. and Grades 4-5 from August 17th 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
Below is a link to Clever. Clever is essentially a password portal. You (and students) will use your computer username and password to log into the Clever Portal. Inside of the portal you will have links that should (not tested) automatically log you into sites like Discovery Education Streaming, Khan Academy, Learning.com (elementary), etc. Right now Khan Academy is there. It is still a work in progress, but I want you to be aware of it.
Clever Login Link https://clever.com/in/plainfield
Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship: Lilly Endowment is accepting applications to an annual fellowship program that provides support to K-12 educators in Indiana to pursue an imaginative project that infuses their busy lives with personal renewal and intellectual revitalization. Previous fellowship winners have traveled worldwide to understand the cultures reflected in their increasingly diverse student populations, traced their own ethnic identity and family tree, and pursued their interest in the arts, scientific exploration, and the natural world. The program is open to licensed K-12 educators working in public and private schools in Indiana. Applicants must have at least three years of professional experience in education. Deadline is September 1, 2016. http://www.teachercreativity.org/
Sub Caller Information
Elementary Sub Caller Guidelines
Sub Finder Information: Nicole Crum
Email: ncrum@plainfield.k12.in.us
Phone: 409-9251
The following is from Nicole Crum:
The sub finder will find the subs for both teachers and instructional assistants. Please do not arrange them and let me know that I need to contact them. I will try to grant requests based on sub availability. The earlier the request, the better chance to get the sub you prefer.
I would prefer an email and/or text for a request for record keeping purposes, but understand it is not always an option. When making a request, please include the following: Name of teacher, school where he/she teaches, grade level taught, date(s) of sub needed, the reason for your absence, and field trip and/or recess/lunch duty information. The extra information is only needed for the days you are absent and will not apply to all teachers.
If a morning emergency arises, please do your best to have the sub finder called by 6:00 am.
If a call is received after 7am, you will be required to call your building’s Principal. Late calls make for late subs.
I will begin making sub calls at 6:15 am each morning as needed since subs have to report by 8:20.
I will have unlimited texting available to be able to communicate with the teachers when an emergency arises.
All emails, texts, & phone calls will be answered during the school day up until 4pm unless I am waiting on a sub to return a call.
The sub phone will be answered by voicemail from 4 – 6pm everyday.
After 4pm, a teacher can email me a request, text, or call and leave a message on my voicemail.
After 6pm, I will begin answering my phone and returning messages.
Please, no phone calls after 9:00pm. After 9:00, all calls will go to voicemail.
All email and voicemail will be checked between 9:00 & 10:00 each night.
All middle of the night calls will go straight to voicemail and be checked in the morning beginning at 6am.
All secretaries and principals will have a sub list emailed each evening and revised each morning if needed.
Please try to send in your sub requests early so a sub can be reserved and an IA will not have to be taken away from their job to sub. I do not mind filling requests weeks or months ahead. Please try to plan ahead this year. It makes less stress for everyone.
CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION
Keep in mind we will have the following new programs available as well as our same benchmark assessments and interventions:
- Rocket Math grades K-5
- Math Seeds software program K-2 (We do have some licenses available for some of our struggling 3rd grade students.)
- STAR Early LIteracy for Kindergarten
- STAR Math and Reading 1-5
- Reading A-Z
- Seeing Stars
- Read Well
- English in a Flash
- Moby Max
- Sidewalks
- SRA
- Guided Reading
- Decodable Readers
- Successmaker
- Reading Eggs/Express
- Learning.com
Kindergarten Testing Changes for 2016-2017
- Top 25 percent and bottom 25 percent will be given the Phelps assessment
- Students who score in the bottom 25 percent will also be assessed using DIBELS in addition to STAR Early Literacy
- DIBELS materials and training will be provided to kindergarten teachers
FIrst Grade Testing Updates for 2016-2017
- Bottom 25 percent will use DIBELS
Handwriting programs for primary elementary classrooms: This summer administrators discussed the pros and cons of D’Nealian handwriting style versus traditional manuscript /Zaner-Blosser style. Kindergarten and first grade teachers were consulted on this issue. We learned that LQA uses Hand writing without Tears program.
Since cursive writing is not taught to mastery due to the shift toward keyboarding, it was decided that schools could continue to use the D’Nealian program for the 16-17 school year. The district will make a formal change to either the Handwriting without Tears or the Zaner Blosser Ball and Stick traditional manuscript style for the 17-18 school year.
It was noted that several of our student learning stations were created by teachers using the D’Nealian style of print. Teachers will not have to change those learning stations as children are expected to master interpreting different styles of font as they encounter print on various mediums.
The stations that will need to change would be those that are designed to assist students with the design of letters and practicing letter formation as part of the writing process. We will revisit this topic to explore the future of formal primary handwriting with the question, do we move toward Zaner Blosser traditional manuscript or Handwriting without Tears primary handwriting programs? No matter the move, there will need to be formalized professional training and communication with teachers, preschools in the area, and parents who have been accustomed to the D’Nealian program.
1. 70/30 Grades: The district is moving toward grades that reflect mastery of the Indiana Academic Standards. Teachers should use quiz, test, or product grades that have been taken after students have had time to learn content and process standards. A student’s grade should be a minimum of 70% test/quiz/project/product of taught material and a maximum of 30% homework and effort grades. K-2 already uses a standards based report card that is grounded in mastery of the standards, teachers in grades 3-5 will need to consider this initiative when determining student final grades. Overall, when I review your gradebooks, I think we do a nice job with this.
Teachers' Toolbox from DOE
Teachers’ Toolbox from the DOE is a content focused resource for classroom instruction.
The Toolbox is separated by contents and levels; each content specialist has the opportunity to provide classroom resources, strategies, and updates.
- July 2016
- http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/ccr/teachers-toolbox-june-july-2016.pdf
2016-17 Back to School Writing Tools/Support
https://www.tes.com/lessons/UnOAOxosDgjxZg/2016-17-back-to-school-writing-tools-support
September 2016 Instructional Practices FOCUS
https://www.tes.com/lessons/hf3ZY7IpReMVaA/instructional-practices-focus
August 2016 Phonological Awareness-Phonemic Awareness FOCUS
https://www.tes.com/lessons/FKzWe32kSn2-9A/phonological-awareness-phonemic-awareness