The Skipwith Communicator

Week of 2/16/2015

Quote of the Week:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” -- John Quincy Adams

Next Week: Upcoming Events/Calendar: 2/16- 2/20

Weekly Highlights: Presidents Day, staff development, RTI mtg, faculty mtg, Access testing, Safety mtg, Parent Teacher Conferences, and pictures.

Google calendar:

Monday Staff Development Day

8-9 Gr 2-5 Interactive Achievement Reports Library

8-9:30 Gr K Kicking Up KG Review Bookroom

9-9:30 Gr 2 Cogat Testing Library

9:30-10 Gr 5 Writing Test Library

10-11:30 Gr K-5 Information to Use Library

11:30-1:00 Lunch On Your Own

1:00-2:30 Gr 5 Activities from Morning Session Bookroom

1:00-2:30 Gr 2 Scoring, Recording & Reporting MidYr Classrooms

1:00-2:30 Gr 3-5 Comparison of MAPS & Benchmarks Library

PKG and 1st will not be in the building Monday.

February at a Glance:

Monthly Highlights:RTI mtg, student holiday, national PTA day, 2nd CogAT testing, Parent conferences, and All Pro Dads.

Math Coach and Team Meetings:

We will have scheduled ½ day grade level meetings with our math coach Terri Okes in February.

Please review the schedule and plan for a substitute for these meetings. All teachers need to attend!

The meeting will focus on...

  1. Reviewing the benchmark data.
  2. Reviewing the pacing guide to see what other areas/resources your grade level may need to focus on.
  3. Questioning techniques that will enhance student learning.

IMPORTANT ATTENDANCE REMINDERS:

  1. Please take your attendance by 8 am in PowerSchool. If you are unable to take it in PS, take it on a paper class roster.
  1. You should be printing your class roster every time you have a change, so there will be a roster available if you have a sub.
  1. Make all Absences Absent –U, only changing to present if the student comes in with a TARDYCHIP.
  2. When sending any student notes to the office include:
  1. The students First & Last Name
  2. Your name
  3. The date you received the note

Also make sure this information is left for Subs.

  1. Send a reminder to your parents to call the Office between 7:30-8:00 am when their child is going to be absent or late that day. If you receive an email from a parent concerning an absence, let them know they must also call in the absence. If the teacher is absent we will never receive the note.

TESTING GUIDELINES:

  1. Signed 2014-2015 District Test Security Agreements (TSA) should have been completed via Talent Ed at the beginning of the school year.We cannot keep any printed/digital copies of the benchmarks and they cannot be sent hometoparents. Upon request, parents may review the benchmarks in a schoolsetting.
  1. Second grade benchmarks are to be hand-scored at the school level and recorded on the Second Grade Semester Elementary Item AnalysisSheets.

February 18 –27: Benchmark Test review period -

  1. Completed Grade 2 benchmark tests may be signed out to grade 2 teachers for scoring when ALL 2nd grade students have completed that test. STC’s must verify that they are all signed back in on or before February 27, 2015.
  1. The benchmark test review period runs from Feb. 18-27, 2015. Until that time, teachers are encouraged to examine the IA reports available to them; including pinpointing skill gaps within content areas. Drilling down to the specific question level should be available following the end of the IA testing window (which ends February 17th.
  1. When reviewing with students after Feb. 17, 2015, it is permissible for teachers to drill down to individual questions based upon the targeted area(s) noted in need of improvement. This information can be projected directly from the IA site or via a class set of paper and pencil tests (printed by the STC) and checked in and out by the teacher.

Second Grade CogAT testing window – February 17 – 27: Please see the following information

Writing Assessment News:

Grade 5 HATS - Multiple choice test on March 17 on Interactive Achievement

ACCESS TESTING:

Testing will be February 17 – 27. Please see the attached schedule!

February – April Testing schedule

Feb 17- 27 – Access Testing – Dede and Nota will be here ALL week testing ESL students

Feb 17 – 27 – 2nd CogAT testing

March 16 – 20 – 5th HATS Multiple Choice Writing tests

March 30 –April 1– 3-5 Spring MAPS testing (Reading and Math)

Technology News:

COWS will be back in their regular pasture!

Technology

Hi All,

The deadline for submitting a Henrico 21/ Student 21 project is a bit earlier than I had mentioned. To ensure that I have time to review the submissions, the due date is Monday, March 2nd. There is a link for submitting projects on my blog. Please let me know if you will be submitting or have already submitted a project.Also, please remember I am here to help and support you through this process. I would love for you to showcase all the awesome things your schools are doing. Thanks! Gina ITRT

LAMP Report:

LIBRARY: In February the library will hold a Create a Library Stamp Contest!Encourage your students to show their love for libraries!Kindergarten will continue to enjoy a variety of fiction and nonfiction stories. First grade will continue making good choices picking out books and enjoying seasonal stories. Second grade will learn, review and reinforce their knowledge of Famous Americans. Third grade students will begin a collaborative research project in which students will research Famous Virginians in the Library, use their research to create a script with their classroom teacher and last but not least create a digital interview under the guidance of our ITRT. Fourth grade students will work on primary and secondary resources and Fifth grade students will continue to work on researching the Midwest using Google tour-builder.

ART: Youth Art Month is coming in MARCH! This is how we are going to celebrate at Skipwith:

  1. Art Dress Week March 2nd-6th (more information to come)
  2. Art Trivia Week March 9th-13th
  3. Music and Art Night – Mark your Tread! Students will collaborate to create a large clay tile mosaic. Each tile of clay in the mosaic will be created by students stepping on clay with their tennis shoes and imprinting unique textures and designs. The clay will be fired and during class, students will paint the tiles and they will be assembled into a large scale permanent work of art to hang at Skipwith. VOLUNTEERS WILL BE NEEDED TO HELP SO GET YOUR PTA POINTS BY JOINING US ON MARCH 12TH = SIGN UP IN THE LOUNGE COMING SOON

MUSIC: For Music, Grades K – 3 and Grade 5 will be doing songs and activities that go with Valentine’s Day and Black History Month. These songs and activities will help to teach rhythm patterns, listening (singing a capella, and listening for the music to start and stop), part-singing (class is divided into 2 groups and each group has to sing 1 part while the other group sings a different part at the same time), Call and Response, Solo singing and Choral singing, different styles of singing, and dancing (and its connection to Math). In addition, 3rd grade will have some Social Studies connections as they will be singing songs about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

4th Grade will continue to “race to success” with their recorders. They are racing to pass all 9 Recorder Karate belts before the end of the school year. The Recorder Karate belts help to motivate the students to learn to play 5 notes on the recorder. This is a fun way for me to do part of their county music testing, in which they must play all 5 of those notes correctly in order to pass their tests. In addition, they will be showing off their skills during Music and Art Night, when each class competes in a race to see which class plays their recorder the best.

PE: We are very excited about this year's program and hope that you and all of your kids will love it, too. Once again, the training program will be a free, incentive-based, incremental mileage program.The goal is to have children run or walk 2-3 miles per week over a ten-week period on their way to completing a full marathon (26.2 miles).
Children will be able to color (3-5 will keep their own logs/K-2 will color during PE) in the cobblestones along Monument Avenue as they accumulate miles and will be able to redeem their incentive coupons at the 5, 10, 15, and 20 mile marks. We are looking to kick off the week of January 19th. All participating children have the option to run the last mile of their "marathon" on Saturday, March 29th at the Virginia 529 Kids Run. (If children choose to run their last mile on race day, they will have to register for the event.) However, there is no obligation to participate in the Kids Run in order to complete this program.

CREW MEMBER OF THE WEEK:

Professional Attitude - Great job by Lauren Chitman with her data collection and explanation in our RTI meeting this past week. Lauren had ALL necessary information and maintained a positive attitude throughout the meeting. She not only shared the areas the student needed assistance but made it a point to express the student’s strengths. What was most impressive was at the end of the meeting when the parent asked a very tough question regarding the child. Lauren did not hesitate with her answer and had agreat professional response which was both true and eased the parent’s worries. The parent left the meeting without a doubt the school was acting in the best interest of her baby!

Jump Rope for Heart – We had a smaller turnout for the Skipwith Jump Rope for Heart event than we anticipated but it was a terrific event. Watching our students work through the exercise events not only brought smiles to everyone’s face but warmth in our hearts. It was priceless to see these students as they enjoyed the activities. It was well organized and everyone loved the event. Thanks to Ms. Byane for organizing the event and getting everyone involved. Ms. Bayne does a wonderful job each day sharing the importance of exercise and fitness. The children love Work out Wednesdays and the Jump Rope for Heart. A big thank you to the all faculty members who support our school’s fitness program and this past week’s Jump Rope for Heart event. Way to go, Ms. Bayne

Living out this week’s quote -Mrs. Tinsley encourages our student’s each week by living this week’s quote,“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Jill goes out of her way to collaborate with each grade level team, students and our ITRT as shown in the lesson recorded on her blog. Awesome work by Mrs. Tinsley and all the grade levels and students who participated. Your actions have inspired me and I am sure others. Please visit her blog to see the wonderful things our students are doing.

Announcements/Celebrations:

Please let me know if you have any family or individual celebrations you would like to share with us.

Congratulations to Morgan McMullin Skipwith’s 2014-2015 Teacher of the Year and Brittany Finch, Skipwith’s Christie Award Winner 2014-2015.

Calling ALL teachers! Each teacher and grade level have wonderful lessons and activities going on here at Skipwith. These ideas need to be shared and celebrated each week. Please work with your team or independently to share one of your grade level activities with me and I will add a new section to our Skipwith Communicator, “Our Action Inspirer”.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:Remember to “BRAKE” and wish these folks a happy birthday!

Kimberly Lewis 2/17, Todd Smith 2/20, Zeke Mitrovic 2/26