Alvarado Elementary School
Volume 7, Issue 1 September 12, 201331100 Fredi Street, Union City, CA 94587/ (510) 471-1039 Marcus Lam, Principal
Principal’s Message
Welcome back to the 2013-2014 school year. Our school year started off very well with several teacher professional development days before the first day of school to help frame and direct our staff’s work for the school year. With a focus on preparing for a transition to the Common Core State Standards, our teachers are ready for this challenge!
I have been excited all summer to begin my first full year at Alvarado! I look forward to creating new relationships with families I have not gotten to know and continuing to develop relationships with families I established last year! I value our families and community as crucial participants in the education of our students and will continue to promote this through our work in developing strong relationships with our families and community, creating opportunities for families to be involved, and finding ways to include and inform everyone in the changes in standards that await us. There will be many continuing traditions and new experiences ahead of us, so please do what you can to be apart of Alvarado Elementary from “2013 and beyond!”
Marcus Lam, Principal
School Start and End Times
7:00 Kids First Program Opens (Cafeteria)
7:30 Breakfast Service Begins
7:45 School Gates Open
7:55 5 Minute Warning Bell Rings
8:00 School Day Starts
2:05 Dismissal Bell Rings
2:25 Campus Closes (Gates Locked)
6:00 Kids First Program Closes (Cafeteria)
Back to School Night
Please join us for Back to School Night on Wednesday,
September 18th. This is an important opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and hear about their instructional plans and procedure for the school year.
Grades K, 1, 2 6:00pm to 6:45pm
Grades 3, 4, 5 6:45pm to 7:30pm
This evening we will also have a Back to School Fair in the cafeteria where families can come meet the administrative team (Mr. Lam and Mr. Puckett). Families will also be able to pick
up information about the school, access their child’s lunch
services account, and complete an online survey to receive Thursday Envelop information through email.
Parent Teacher Club News
Check out our page on Facebook for updates:
Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
There has been a lot of talk about the Common Core State Standards. We are a year away from it’s full implementation in California so our focus this year will be on continuing to teach our students to our current California State Standards but with an eye on looking at how we can shift our instruction to adjust to the CCSS. The reality is that what we teach our students with the CCSS will not change, but the depth, understanding, and perhaps order of the standards may be different.
So what are the CCSS? These are academic standards for students that are agreed upon and implemented by 45 states across the United States. We will have many opportunities to learn about and become acquainted with the CCSS throughout the school year. For now, here is a video that describes the CCSS:
To help understand the difference between our current standards and the CCSS, here is a comparison.
Current Standards / CCSSMarcus buys 5 apples. He eats 2 apples and sells 3 for 50 cents each. How much money did he make selling his apples?
Solving this problem only involves computation of the numbers given in the question. / Clinton buys apples at 25 cents each. He ate 2 apples and sells the rest for 50 cents each. He made $2.50. How many apples did he buy?
Solving this problem involves thinking about the situation and using some problem solving to manipulate the numbers and apply to algorithms for the answer.
More examples to demonstrate our shift will come in future letters and family events!
Volunteering In The Classroom
Families that are interested in volunteering in the classroom need to make arrangements with the classroom teacher. Twenty-four hour notice is needed for such a request. Making this arrangement is important because teachers need time to prepare tasks for volunteers and to ensure that a parent volunteer is coming at an appropriate time. In addition, visitors in the classroom can be disruptive to a classroom learning environment, so allowing the teacher prepare themselves and the class is helpful to the learning process.
Staying Active at Alvarado Elementary
Staying active and involved in our students’ education is
important to everyone. Figuring out how is the challenge! We would like to invite our families to be active and involved in the
following ways:
•Volunteering in your child’s classroom
•Volunteering around school
•Attending Parent Teacher Club Meetings
•Attending School Site Council Meetings -3rd Wednesday/month
•Leading an after school student activity (See Mr. Puckett)
•Attending and participate in school events and family nights.
•Maintain consistent communication with your child's teacher.
•Talk with your child each night about their day. Don’t accept “Nothing” as an acceptable answer!
•Sit with your child and review their homework, talk about
returned completed work, and have conversations about what
they read.
•If you have an idea, we’re all ears!
I’d like to impress upon you the idea that you are your child’s biggest influence and how you value their education will reflect
on how they value their own education.
Student Attendance and Reasons For Absences
If you know your child will be absent from school, please call the Attendance Absence Line - 471-1039 and press 3 during the message. All messages regarding student absences are received and processed during the day. Leaving absence messages also frees up our staff to assist those in the office during the “morning rush.”
Please remember, per District policy, students absent for three consecutive days need to bring a doctors note when they return. After ten absences in a school year, students need a doctor’s note for absences to be marked as excused for illnesses.
Before deciding whether your child should miss school or not, please consider these recommendations for reasons to keep your child home:
•Fever - above 99.6 degrees
•Diarrhea or vomiting
•Strep throat - until 24 hours after start of treatment
•Head lice or nits - until all nits are removed
•Chickenpox - until all lesions are dried
•Rash with fever or red eye
Classroom Parties and Celebration Treats
All classrooms are limited to a maximum of two celebrations per month to be scheduled by the teacher. This practice is also up to each teacher to implement. Any treats brought to school must be pre-arranged with the classroom teacher and will not be allowed past the office until given confirmation by the teacher to deliver the treats.
Early Pick-Ups and Late Drop-Offs
Teachers have lots to teach in a limited amount of time. Every minute of instructional time is precious. Please avoid appointments and activities that would require your child to miss time during their school day (8:00am to 2:05pm).
Drop-Off, Pick-Up, and Parking
Bringing our children to school and picking them up are the two busiest times of the day, thus two potentially dangerous times during the day. We need everyone’s full cooperation to help keep everyone safe. Our goal is to receive every student at school and send every student back home SAFELY.
Drop-Offs: The white zone in front of the school should be kept clear for cars to drop students off. When dropping your child off, please:
•Do not park and leave your car unattended in the white zone.
•Move all the way forward in the white zone before letting your children out.
•Do not allow your child to cross the street by themselves.
•Follow staff instructions during drop-off time.
•Drop your child off at 7:45am when the school gates open.
Pick-Ups: Traffic to pick up children begins as early as 1:30pm! When you arrive, cars line up going down Fredi Street (coming towards Smith).
•Do not park and leave your car unattended in the white zone.
•Wait patiently in the line of cars going down Fredi Street (heading towards Smith Street)
•Move all the way forward before stopping to pick up your child.
•Do not stop your car and have your child run across the street.
•Follow staff instructions and procedures during student pick-up times.
Parking: Parking is a challenge around Alvarado Elementary. If you plan to walk your child onto campus or pick them up from their classrooms, plan to park and walk a couple blocks.
•Staff parking lots are for STAFF ONLY. Please be respectful of our staff and not occupy the limited number of spaces reserved for them.
Other celebratory items such as balloons, flowers, presents, etc, will not be allowed in the classroom as it becomes a distraction to the learning environment.
Dates to Remember:
9/18 Back to School Night
Grades Pre-K, K, 1, 2: 6:00pm – 6:45pm
Grades 3, 4, 5: 6:45pm – 7:30pm
Back to School Fair (Cafeteria): 6:00pm – 7:30pm
9/27 Mornings with Marcus (8:15am – 9:15am)
9/27 Jog-A-Thon (Volunteers needed!)
9/30 Full Day Kindergarten Begins
10/10 Picture Day
10/16 School Site Council (6:30pm – 7:30pm)