Cat Tracks
Spring Shadows Elementary Wildcats Staff Newsletter
February 11-17, 2019
TEAM WILDCATS UNSTOPPABLE
Counselor Appreciation Month
Our Vision
Our Mission
Core Beliefs
- Each student has unique intellectual, emotional, social, and physical qualities.
- We embrace a child’s individual values, interests, and personalities.
- Parents are confident in their child’s social and intellectual educational growth.
- Educators lead their craft by preparing learners in our fast changing world
Living our Core Beliefs!
Character W/O Question Celebration
January Perfect Attendance Winners
Student Goal Setting
Community Building in Action
Spectacular Wildcats
Dancing the Night Away
We run as ONE!
Principal's Message
Love is in the air! I have to say- many thanks to the entire staff for making our parent night event a huge success! Our parents were over the moon and couldn't stop thanking me as they left the event. It really meant a lot to them to see you out on the dance floor, some of you taking the kids out to dance. That is making a huge connection and sense of belonging for our community.
This coming week brings another opportunity for you to connect with your parents and students through conferences. Last week I sent out a parent conference reminder and tips. Please look over them prior to your conferences. A parent log is required and you will need to turn that in to Olga by March 1st.
This coming week, we have our 4th and 5th grade practice staar exams. We will be practicing as if it was a real exam with testing administrators, so please make sure to stay quiet next to 5th grade rooms on Tuesday and Wednesday. 4th grade will be administering the PS Writing on Tuesday and 4th Bilingual will continue with field testing on Wednesday.
As we head into the last 3 months of the year, this is the time to produce the most impact with the time we have. Giving explicit feedback during small group instruction and independent practice is essential.
In Get Better Faster by Brambrick-Santoyo, it is advised that you can take a quick action step to make this more powerful to catch all students. Knowing how pressed you all are for time, this action step will be much quicker and simpler system for giving student feedback on the spot. This easy solution is simply to assign symbols to the most important feedback you can give students.
Action Step: Pen in hand (any color except red), mark up student work as you circulate or work directly with students in small group.
- Use a coding system to affirm correct answers.
- Cue students to revise answers, using minimal verbal intervention. (Name the error, ask them to fix it, tell them you'll follow up.)
Annotating guided or independent practice allows you to provide equally manageable feedback for content. Giving feedback on literacy analysis is one of the harder things to do briefly, Brambrick-Santoyo offers an example of a simple system to use to annotate student writing in literacy:
RACCE: Restate answer, Answer question with a complete inference, Cite evidence, Give Context for that evidence, Explain thee new insight and it's relevance to your argument.
I challenge you to create a feedback code: simple cues you can use to write on student work to spur student self-correction this coming month.
With love, respect, and admiration,
Rachel Martinez
Calendar
Monday, February 11, 2019
Kindergarten Extended Planning
Group 2
- Mobile Dairy Classroom
- 8:00-10:00 ILT Meeting (Conference Room)
- 2:45-4:00 Team Leader Virtual Huddle (Fill out TL Huddle Google Update)
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
1st Grade Extended Planning
Group 3
- Rachel @ Principal's Meeting in the a.m.
- 7:30-12:00 4th Grade Writing Release STAAR
- 7:30-12:00 5th Grade Math Release STAAR
- 3rd and 4th Grade Specials will switch
3rd grade will go from 10:00-10:45
4th Grade will go from 10:45-11:30 - 3:00-4:00 Afterschool
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
2nd Grade Extended Planning
Group 4
- 7:30 - 10:00 4th Grade Bilingual Writing Field Test
- 7:30-12:00 5th Grade Reading Release STAAR
- 2:45 - 4:00 Teacher/Parent Mid-Year Conferences/GPC's
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Group 5
- 11:30 Early Dismissal
- Mid-Year Parent Conference/GPC's
Friday, February 15, 2019
Group 1
- Spiral Day
- 11:30 Early Dismissal
- Mid-Year Parent Conferences/GPC's
Library News
This is the last week of Rocket''s Read Nation. PLEASE try to get minutes in from EVERY STUDENT!! If they haven't started yet... they can start this week. Homework every night - read 30 minutes. !
There will be no reading update this week.... BUT I ideally need all minutes by Friday. Feb 15th but I have until the 20th to get our total minutes into Rocket Read Nation. With Monday off, encourage them to get their minutes in by Friday. They actually can read yet on Friday. I can't wait to see the total minutes!!!
Reminder... it is a DIFFERENT SCHEDULE this week - most classes just have 15 minute check out time. Please check this schedule on this LInk - Schedule
Thanks again for your support!
Ann : )
Shout Outs
Student Supports and Products
I-Station Data Wall
1st grade Word Wall
Tight Scheduling
Anchor Charts
Hands on Projects
Graphic Organizers
Learning Exemplars
Ms. Brown Read Aloud Time
Ms. Urrutia's Small Group
Ms. Ochoa's Small Group
Ms. Zetino Confers with Students
Ms. Alvarez reads and thinks aloud!
Ms. Gomez TCRWP in action!
Remember to Sign Up for Sunshine and PTA!
Join Sunshine & PTA for $30 (certified staff) & $25 (non-certified staff). You can pay cash or check to Mrs. Berryman or Mrs. Gentry. Checks can be made out to Spring Shadows Elementary.
We are trying to get 100% participation in Sunshine & PTA!
When you join, you get an SSE Unstoppable T-Shirt, 5 Jeans Passes, 4 Late Arrival Passes, and 4 Leave Early Passes.
Please review the PDF attachment to see our SSE Sunshine Bylaws that the team revised and agreed upon at our last meeting. This will give you more information about Sunshine and what your dues are used for.
Sunshine SEMESTER JEANS PASS for $30
The one caveat is that your jeans are to be worn with a nice shirt and shoes (not a t-shirt).
See Mrs. Berryman or Mrs. Gentry to pay for your pass!
Spring Shadows Elementary
Email: rachel.martinez@springbranchisd.com
Website: https://cms.springbranchisd.com/sse2/
Location: 9725 Kempwood Drive, Houston, TX, United States
Phone: (713) 251-7100
Twitter: @twitter_rachelmartinez4