The Bailey Times
Week of August 14, 2017
We had a very successful first week of school! Thank you to everyone for making our week so awesome! Smiling faces, happy kids, happy parents, smiling teachers = great school year! Everything you do during the first month or so of school sets the climate for your classroom as well as our school. Making children feel loved, safe, appreciated and that they are contributing members of the classroom is the first step toward helping to grow a mindset in our children that will allow them to reach their potential! The rewards of your hard work in both academics and behavior management during the first month of school will far outweigh your tired mind and body because you will reap the rewards all year. Your parents will believe in you and trust what you say if you consistently communicate what is happening in your room and when you work with their child you are consistent and fair.
As we move forward we have 2nd and 4th curriculum night on Tuesday and 1st, 3rd, and 5th on Thursday. I know you are already working hard to put this night together as this is your biggest opportunity to show your parents that you are in charge of your classroom, your academics, classroom management, etc. They are looking to you to be the expert! Parents can be intimating but for the most part, they are intimated by you and put on a good front so that you will not recognize it! I know you will do well! I have some information below to be sure is covered on this night!
Please make sure that you read through all of the Bailey Times as this replaces having faculty meetings all the time.
A couple of things to tell you:
1. Powerschool Parent Portal will open August 21st
2. Elementary Fee of $25.00 can be paid online - you can send this link to your parents who may wish to pay online by email:
https://osp.osmsinc.com/ColliervilleTN
3. Eclipse paperwork for children to participate is due by Friday, August 18th.
4. Don't forget to let parents know that the Student Handbook is online at the BSE website: http://baileystationes.colliervilleschools.org
5. We are looking to purchase iReady Math Workbooks for 1st - 5th which has an online teacher companion as a resource for you in Math. We are working to learn Eureka Math and will have more information available to you as we move forward. This workbook is a practice and problem-solving workbook that will go along with anything you are doing in the classroom. The web address for this workbook is at http://www.curriculumassociates.com/products/subjects.aspx?topic=CM0
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Personal Leave and Sick Leave
- The following five conditions, however, require “the approval of the director of schools or the director’s designee” in order to use personal leave:
- If personal leave is requested by more than 10% of the teachers in any given school for use on the same day;
- If personal leave is requested during any established student examination period (state, district, or school testing);
- If personal leave is requested on the day immediately preceding or following either a school holiday or a vacation period;
- If personal leave is requested on a day scheduled by the Board for professional development or in-service; or
- If personal leave is requested on a day scheduled for parent-teacher conferences.
· Employees desiring the use of personal leave under any of conditions above are required to follow the procedures below:
o Secure the approval of the principal/supervisor;
o Forward the principal’s approval, along with a letter from the employee explaining the extraordinary circumstances, to the Chief of Staff; then
o Await final approval from the Superintendent’s Office.
Growth Mindset
There is a blog that Megan shared with me last year that goes chapter by chapter through our book study. The teacher also has lots of great advice to help you navigate teaching your students about mindset as well as your parents! URL: http://hellosunshineteachers.blogspot.com/search/label/Mindsets
The other great thing about this blog is that she is all about sharing some Sunshine! That is how we started our year with the song, "You are my sunshine" and as we move forward we want to send home sunshine notes to our students and I will give out sunshine notes to all of you throughout the year! It takes time and effort but will be well worth the time given to reward students and staff for things that they are doing!
Below is a great handout to send home to parents discussion growth mindset and how to praise our kids to develop this type of mindset. Let parents know that there is a growth mindset book for parents if they wish to read it. I have also included some great resources for parents. We will hopefully have some coffee chats ready for parents to attend starting in October/November.
Solar Eclipse
We do have parents with concerns about this viewing and we are taking their concerns seriously. One thing that all teachers will need to do is make sure that students understand how important it is to wear the glasses and not take them off. We are looking at options for our kindergarten because they are so young and this will just be their second week of school and if they should stay in the building and watch it on the Promethean board and still will get to see the darkness for that moment, etc. Another part of this is that many parents will probably come to the school to be with their children during this time of the day. You will need to be very diligent in making sure that our children are safe with lots of people on the school grounds. We don't have a lot of control over this, so we will do the best we can. I am still talking with Jeff Jones on some areas of concern and will update you when I know more! I will talk some on the morning announcements about this.
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Check out some of these articles I read this past week from Twitter. You may find something that interest you.
Focusing on Mastery over Grades - Great Article from George Couros
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Parent Night - Please Read!
1. Birthday Celebrations - see Student Handbook for information if you are unsure of our policy as a school. We want to celebrate our students big day but just not with food! They can send in little bags of toys, pencils, stickers, etc. but just not a big thing of cupcakes. Our new students will not know this and it is very hard to tell parents, sorry you can't take those balloons and cupcakes to the classroom. So, please make sure they are aware and put it in your newsletter with a link to the student handbook.
2. Elementary Fee of $25.00 is for instructional needs for our students and it includes technology, workbooks, Science and Social Studies Weekly, Scholastic News, TNHistory for Kids, Science Spin, Books for book studies, etc. They will be able to pay online at https://osp.osmsinc.com/ColliervilleTN - you can send this link out in your newsletter or email.
3. Grading Changes and Conduct Changes - Just let parents know that the first nine weeks in each subject area there will be a minimum of 6 grades for each subject area and then moving forward to the 2nd - 4th nine weeks there will be a minimum of 9 grades in ELA and Math and 6 grades for Social Studies and Science. Let parents know that summative tests will occur in both the first part of the nine weeks and the last part so as to give students opportunities to bring up grades, etc. Stress that mastery is what we are looking for and a growth mindset. Let parents know that we hope to have coffee chats in October on Growth Mindset for parents here at school. Conduct - let them know that students will receive an E, S, or N and go over how you encourage great behavior in your room and how you conduct your behavior management in the classroom. Make sure that parents understand that when a choice slip goes home that there have been many opportunities for the student to make wise choices, better choices and that you have been working with the student and may even be calling home to make sure that you are aware of anything going on in the student's life that might be contributing to the behavior, etc.
4. Join PTA - please have envelopes out for parents to join PTA. Let them know that we are working on getting a new playground at BSE and most of the money raised this year is for that endeavor!
5. Solar Eclipse - Remind parents that we will be viewing the Solar Eclipse on Monday, August 21st at around 1:15 pm. Parents can come to the designated viewing place on school grounds if they wish and to please sign the release for participation or if they would prefer their child to view the eclipse on TV there will be viewing in the cafeteria or library depending on the number of students - the release still needs to be signed no matter what they are wanting their child to do.
6. Powerschool - Let parents know that the powerschool portal will be open on August 21st and that they can review grades starting on that date.
We love you! Cooper and Anderson
BSE Mission and Vision 2017 - Please sign up for this group if you are interested!
It is time for BSE to revamp its mission and vision to match what we are doing as a school today! We have a great mission and vision and it may be that we just need to tweak a couple of things. The biggest reason that we need to look at our mission and vision is to have conversations about it and talk about how we go about fostering what we think is important and are able to share this information with our stakeholders. If you are interested in being on this team, please just let me know by sending an email. We will not meet until sometime in September so that all of us have a moment to get school off the ground and our kids in the right mindset!
Thank you to the teachers that have already signed up to participate in this group! It really will not mean any work but mainly just discussion!
Flowers from Mrs. Roper
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Take care of yourself!
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Principal Reading/Tutoring with your students this year!
Month at a Glance
Monday, August 14th
- PTA Board 9:30 Cafeteria
Tuesday, August 15th
- Bus Driver Breakfast 8:45 Cafeteria
- 2nd and 4th grade Parent Night 6:00 Cafeteria
Wednesday, August 16th
- Bear Fair Meeting for those interested at 8:15 in the library
Thursday, August 17th
- I will be at a rezoning meeting from 10:30 - 12:00
- 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade Parent Night 6:00 Cafeteria
Monday, August 21st
- BEP Count Due at 9:30
Thursday, August 24th
- Faculty Meeting: Eureka Math
Monday, August 28th
- BEP Count Due at 9:30
Tuesday, August 29th
- PTA Meeting 6:00 Cafeteria - Ice Cream Social - Introduction of all teachers
Wednesday, August 30th
- West Tennessee Principal's Council - out of building today
Thursday, August 31st
- Leadership Meeting @ 7:45 Library - all are invited