Cat Tracks
Spring Shadows Elementary Wildcats Staff Newsletter
January 27 - 31, 2020
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
Principal's Message
We are on our final week of January! So let us make this a great one! As you know by my GroupMe posts, I was at the TCRWP Principal Training at Buffalo Creek on Friday. We reviewed quite a few items but I wanted to touch base on a few key areas for us in either Year 1: 3-5th grade, or Year 2: K-2nd grade.
First, I want to say how proud of you I am. As I walked through the classes at this school, I realized how much you have implemented key areas for a literacy rich environment and instruction. I realized how hard this implementation is and how beautifully and smoothly you have made it appear in your classrooms. Yes, we have different levels of implementation, but we have had a great start!
Classroom Libraries:
- Inviting, the showcase of your classroom, with each reading level having their own baskets, clearly labeled, and books in any particular basket are all aligned to each other by levels. The baskets that are prominent in a classroom reflect the current unit of study.
- Books that are not leveled are organized by topic or genre. These can be kept in baskets or on shelves with labels such as "light sports stories."
- Charts are placed front and center in the meeting area of the classroom. There are about four charts being developed or used at any one time in a reading workshop and approximately the same number in writing workshop.
Read Alouds:
- At this point in the year, each teacher is reading aloud daily for at least 15-20 minutes. The teacher will weave a short (or easy) text or two as well as a chapter book (upper grades) through a reading unit of study.
- The teacher prepares for a read aloud by reading the text and noting the main work that readers are asked to do. The teacher plans the work needed and how they will highlight the work. The teacher plans points of stopping, jotting, and turn & talking. Usually, these pauses do not lead to whole-class conversations but sometimes the teacher will support a brief whole-class conversation before reading on.
- Read Aloud books become a resource that is dipped into continually all year. So if the teacher wants to demonstrate the way readers compare and contrast characters, he might compare the main characters from the current read-aloud with characters from earlier read-alouds.
Record Keeping:
- A teacher's record-keeping system should reflect the whole-class goals that are embedded in the unit, so the records show the teacher's efforts to track each reader's (and small groups) progress along the trajectory of the unit's goals.
- The teacher is aware of the reader's progress, not only as they do or not move up text difficulty, but also as they develop their abilities along particular skill sets.
- The teacher does every possible kind of teaching to move readers along the pathways to more skilled reading. Small group work, is urgent to push reading into doing the work they need to do!
- In mini-lessons, small group work, and conferences, teachers will often use either the ongoing class read aloud, a prior read aloud, or a very short new text to demonstrate the step by step work kids need to do while working on a skill.
Action Item: As we go into February, start reflecting on these 3 key areas of literacy. For those of you that do not directly teach literacy, pay close attention to bullet points that can easily transfer to your areas of teaching. By this point, each classroom should have a vivacious connection to literacy and books. Review the Spring Staff Development offered by the District and select choice session to attain your personal goals. We will be doing a school wide instructional round within the next couple of weeks to give individual feedback to teacher's during your Reading/Writing Workshop time.
May you enjoy this beautiful week with love, learning, and joy for sharing the light you were gifted.
Wildcat Love and respect,
Rachel Martinez
What's Due?
- Lesson Plans for January 27- February 7th : Monday, January 27, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. ( Jan. 27-Jan 31st completed, February 3rd-7th week-outline/objectives).
- MAP Make-Ups: Review the schedule here.
- Spring Afterschool Meeting on Monday @ 2:45-3:00 p.m. in the conference room.
- Friendly Reminder that we have The SWEETHEART DANCE on February 7th from 5-7 p.m. All volunteers must be on hand by 4:30 p.m. for their stations. We will open doors slightly early if we are ready to go! Remember- this is one of the afterschool ones we all stay for. :) Please make your plans and be ready to dress up & have fun!
Calendar
Pennies for Patients Continues
Monday, January 27
4th Grade Extended Planning
Garcia Announcements
- TELPAS Basic Training Opens
- ILT Meeting 8:30- 10:00 a.m. (Mr. Hernandez's room)
- 2:45-4:00 Team Leader Meeting
Tuesday, January 28
5th Grade Extended Planning
Garcia Announcements
- Spiral Day
- 3rd & 4th SSE 2019 STAAR MATH Release
- See to Succeed Field Trip
- Afterschool 3-4
- Elementary Grading Guidelines Workshop 3:00-5:30 (Denson)
Wednesday, January 29
Kindergarten Extended Planning
Garcia Announcements
- 2:45-4:00 Vertical Meetings (Meet in Library)
Thursday, January 30
PLC Day
Garcia Announcements
- Rachel Off Campus
- 3:00-4:00 CIT Meeting
3:00-5:00 TEKS Alignment- Rigorous Standards and Learning Progressions
Come and learn how to use the Learning Progressions with your students. This session will help your students with the STAAR test. @ Valley Oaks (Possibly 1 rep per grade level 3rd-5th).
Friday, January 31
1st Grade Extended Planning
Garcia Announcements
- Rachel Off Campus
- Spelling Bee (District)- Priscilla
- End of MAP window
Shout Outs
The Force!
- Many thanks to Cindy, Trini, and Maria Gonzalez for arriving early and supporting the delayed & commotion on Friday morning due to the Explosion. Thank goodness everyone was okay.
- Many thanks to Demetra, Yezenia, Jasmine, and Adriana for providing a Donuts for Grown-ups morning on Friday despite the delay!
- Ms. Simpson is coordinating and pushing the Pennies for Patients and can't wait to hear how much kids are collecting!
- Lunch Duty is always a tough duty! However, it is a delight to see when we ensure kids are meeting our expectations and we say it aloud and notice it! :) Thank you Monitors for all you do to keep our kids in line in the cafeteria.
- Thank you Specials team for always being so supportive and flexible as we push for our kids in all areas!
- Hooray to Ms. Parada and Ms. Urrutia who will be spearheading a new program in 2nd grade called United Way's Reading Buddies program to support readers at GHI levels!
Yes- we can be competitive in pushing ALL kids up! ALL MEANS ALL!!!
And so much more not mentioned!!! Keep PUSHING!!!!
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