11/24/15 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Mr. Petmezis and Ms. Signes for going above and beyond to support students social emotional needs. We appreciate your collaboration and willingness to make changes to best support all of our learners. Thanks!

PD/Stipend Opportunity

Are you interested in learning more about designing cognitively demanding tasks? How about expanding access to rigorous standards-based AWC or Algebra I instruction? We are excited to release the applications for teachers to participate one of two unique professional development opportunities during the February Recess (February 16-19, 2016): February Institute and the UnboundED Conference. Selection for both stipended positions recognizes excellence in teaching and provides the opportunity for motivated and successful educators to enhance their craft and share best practices with fellow teachers. Both positions are posted on TalentED and will close on December 14, 2015.  Please click here for more information.

International Week

Don’t forget to schedule time(s) with your Big-Little Buddy colleagues to visit one another’s classes. Classroom exchanges start tomorrow. Some teachers have asked about arranging additional exchanges… by all means, feel free to do so! Amika will be in school on Monday and Tuesday to take photos; if she doesn’t get to you, please take some yourself and post them to the International Week folder.

Awards

We know it is a short week but we have a lot happening the first week in December upon our return from the Thanksgiving break. On Thursday, December 3rd we will have Student Shares and Staff Awards during PD after school from 3-4pm. (In hind sight it may have not have been the best timing.) Please nominate your students and staff members by Wednesday, November 25th. We need enough time to get everything printed and organized by 12/3. Thanks!

• Here is copy of the Curley Staff award form as well as the link: https://docs.google.com/a/bostonpublicschools.org/forms/d/165UqG9KhO2u0xL8lGbNv4HaLpAGnU-i6BhTLlECwaN0/viewform?usp=send_form If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out in Google Forms.
• Here is a copy of the December 3, 2015 student awards form and link: https://docs.google.com/a/bostonpublicschools.org/forms/d/1jaN_sdL-jUlbIeQbvs7XGcXGXTye_8PsKOZzbUAMSoY/viewform?usp=send_form If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out in Google Forms.

November 25th

We will have an early release on November 25th. This means that we will dismiss students starting at 12:25pm and all adults can dismiss starting at 12:45pm. There will be no after school programming on this day including CASP, Tenacity and City Year. Students should be doing school work on this day. If your team is hosting a fun event it should happen towards the end of the day and not throughout the entire day. If your students are not eating lunch in the cafeteria on Wednesday please contact Rina Santillan @ rfernandez@bostonpublicschools.org. Here is the schedule for the day.

Elementary SPED Progress Reports

These are due online by December 2nd. If you need support please contact Jessica or Joyce. All SPED teachers are required to complete these.

ACCESS Certification

Training for ACCESS needs to be re-completed by the entire staff by Monday, December 21, 2015. To complete the training go to the wida website: https://www.wida.us Log on (if you can't remember your password remember that your email may have been yourname@boston.k12.ma.us ) all accounts previously created are still active. To create a new account: Type in username: massachusetts, password:patriot and create a new account.

Once you log on you need to go to the paper-based Grades 1-12 training. Make sure you are under the Test Administrator tab (not coordinator). You will find a checklist that needs to be completed as well as the link for the tests you have to take. Once the test is completed please turn your training certificate to Kathy or Madeline. Kindergarten teachers need to take the Kindergarten training and test. All SAR and PACE teachers need to take the Alternate Access Training and test. If you have questions please contact Waverly.

Supporting Our Students with Hearing Impairment

There are students in your school building who utilize hearing aids and/or cochlear implants.  It is important that these students wear their devices throughout all waking hours and that proper function be maintained in order for the child to make effective progress. If a child with a hearing aid and/or cochlear implant gets a head injury, please proceed with the following protocol:

1) As with all students, send student to school nurse.

2) Proceed with required protocol for informing parent/guardian. 

3) Then, email/call the Alyse Zucker, Educational Audiologist) and Deb Aviles, Teacher of the 

Deaf/Hard of Hearing.

a. We will call the parent and hospital/dispensing audiologist to discuss next steps for the hearing device.

Children with cochlear implants and hearing devices require a team of people to support his or her needs.  Thank you for being part of the team in keeping our students safe!

Nurses

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send your child will a pass to the nurse. This pass should include their full name and a brief description of the symptoms. Our nurses care about 907 students and need to record each visit. We are asking teachers to take and extra moment to assure that the child has a proper pass before heading to the nurse.

ILT Walkthrough Trends

The ILT conducted a walkthrough last week of classrooms looking for UDL engagement strategies in practice. The notes teachers took were low inference and no identifiable information was shared amongst staff and administration. (Teachers can read the full minutes which are posted in the ILT folder on the drive.) This data will help to guide the work of the ILT moving forward. Many positives came out of these observations and it was clear that we have made improvements as a school! The ILT is proud to share the following trends and we hope that teachers continue to grow and improve around finding ways to engage students.

• observation data points can fall into multiple checkpoints under UDL Guidelines 
• posted goals during lessons and children referring to them 
• positive feedback from adults to students 
• evidence of positive classroom culture 
• many pieces of evidence on fostering collaboration and community 
• evidence of group and collaborative work 
• a lot of evidence of choice 
• more evidence for UDL guidelines 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 than 9…. 
• content was real life based (authentic) 
• teachers were asking questions 
• different motivators represented across grade levels 
• more student talk than teacher talk 
• different learning styles addressed 
• constructive noise 

What does the Data tell us? The things we have worked on we are doing well and there is evidence of it in these observations.

A2 ANet Testing

The assessment dates for the A2 are fast approaching. ELA assessments will take place the week of December 1st. Math assessments will take place the week of December 7th. A login roster for each teacher will be emailed by Friday, November 20th. Please be sure to review your roster and notify Adrian Ward-Jackson of any necessary changes. The logins and passwords are the same as the A1 assessment.

Bulletin Boards

A new instructional bulletin board should be up by Monday, November 30th. We know that not all boards have been hung up yet and we apologize for this. Please know that we have not forgotten about you! There has been regular reminders sent to facilities to get these boards hung and we are waiting on space in a specific persons schedule to make this happen. You need a special insurance to be able to hang these. Make sure that you are hanging work up inside you class! Also all boards should be accompanied by this form.