4/8/16 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to our PACE Teacher team Kandi Quarterson, Cassie Mountain, Kristin Clark, Krissy Rand, Tristan Maiden, Kristen Mitchell, Ali Hyde and Liz Spring. You have incredibly dedicated to educating us all around support students with Autism. Our students are lucky to have you in their lives and we feel lucky to learn with you as staff! Thanks!

Here is a great video for Autism Awareness Month that was created by Ms. Maiden and Ms. Mitchell. Thanks!

Walkthrough

Tomorrow the Lynch Leadership Academy will be here to walk through the building. They did a similar walk through last spring and this is the final walk through as part of the program I am participating in. I do not want anyone to be nervous or do anything special. They may enter your class tomorrow between 10am-12pm tomorrow. Also they are asking you to complete this short (5 minute) survey that I will review with my coach at our next session. https://docs.google.com/a/bostonpublicschools.org/forms/d/13By5n2Bcv52zqe78Rdot2TJZonRAo9rcraxk2DTvY08/edit?usp=sharing_eid&ts=57045e08

New Partnership with UMass Boston

We are excited to announcing a new partnership with UMass Boston and the Teach Next Year Program. This is a one year masters program that prepares educators to teach in Urban areas. They take courses over the sumer and two nights a week, while doing a full time practicum in a classroom for 180 school days! They are looking for teachers who want to mentor interns across K-8. Please click here if you are interested in taking on an intern (http://goo.gl/forms/OH6LpyweP1) the final decision will happen based on need.

School Climate Survey

Please make sure that the BPS School Climate Surveys go home with students and encourage families to complete them. This information is important to our school! Also we are asking teachers to complete the survey with their students and for themselves as well. We use this data as we plan for next school year! Your voice and opinions matter so please complete it. If families want the online link it can be accessed here: http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/Domain/737 WE ARE TRYING TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF RESPONSES. WE ARE OPEN TO CREATIVE IDEAS TO HELP FAMILIES COMPLETE THESE i.e. homework assignment, bonus points

Library

Beginning on April 25th, volunteers will begin weeding the upper school library in preparation for what we hope will be a rehabilitated space and collection, opening in 2017. The library team is applying for grants to help build a new, up-to-date, high interest and generally fantastic collection of books, supplemented by online resources, and supported by technology, in a fully modern learning space. For more information about our vision, please see the SSC notes from February 2016, or contact Pam Yosca or Ashley Rao.

• Weeding the upper school library means getting rid of outdated, damaged, and otherwise no longer useful materials. Teachers interested in helping out can do so by: 1) designating books to retain in the new library; 2) pulling materials from the library for classroom collections. If you would like to pull books for your classroom, please do so by April 15th. Contact Pam if you want to be involved in weeding, developing ideas for what should be in the new collection, and sharing your vision of how a school library can help your students. Weeding will occur on Mondays-Wednesdays, and after school, and will not interrupt dance classes. The project will likely last several weeks, depending on the size of our volunteer team. Thank you! Pam Yosca & the Curley K8 Library team (Mom to Sam and Robby Waxman, grades 4 and 2)

Spring Dance Grades 6-8

Spring dance in the gym on Friday, April 15, 2016 from 1:05 pm to 2:10 pm. Wristbands will be distributed on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 and these should be sold for $3.00 each. The proceeds will be used to pay for the trip to Canobie Lake. Each team will send one adult chaperone per 30 students and this person will actively help supervise the students in the gym. Each team will determine the criteria for allowing their students to go to the dance. Please contact Maria Amy-Moreno, room 210 for suggestions or questions.

Field Trips

Spring is here and many classes are signed up for field trips in the coming weeks. Please do not forget to give the nurse's office and cafeteria staff 2 weeks notice for any field trips.

Parking Lot

Today several staff were blocking in cars in the Lower School Parking Lot. This is a friendly reminder that we should never block in others in the lot. Also some cars have parked along the driveway entrance at the Lower School Lot and this is also not allowed. Last week an emergency vehicle was unable to pull into the parking lot. We need make every effort to clear spaces for cars to enter and exit. Also it is now April and street cleaning has begun! Here is the link the see which weeks our abutting streets get cleaned http://www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/sweeping/?streetname=MORAINE

Staff Social

The monthly staff social will be happening this Friday, 3 pm at Costello's. Hope to see you all there!

PARCC

Here is the PARCC Draft Schedule (THIS IS A NEW SCHEDULE - OPEN UP AND CLICK THE TABS BELOW) for May as well as the small groups including the adults and location for grades 3-5 & grades 6-8. Please review ASAP. We will need "All Hands On Deck" during this testing window. All PARCC questions/comments should be sent to David Diaz & Laurie Ciardi.

Plant Sale

Don’t let the snow get you down.  Spring is just around the corner: The 16th Annual Curley Plant and Bake Sale is April 30th!  This much loved event is the Curley’s longest running fundraiser.   If you are interested in helping, please email Kristin Jurkoic at kjurkoic@yahoo.com.  Green thumbs are not necessary.

Doors Propped Open

Twice this week doors were found propped open. Staff immediately reported this to the main office. We would like to remind everyone that no doors should be propped open and if you find a door propped please closes it and then report to the main office. Thanks

Autism Awareness

April is Autism Awareness Month! We are proud to say that we educate 70 students with Autism in our school. We are grateful for all the students have taught us and all the adults that support the students in being successful. Be sure to stop by and check out the great work in our PACE  as well as Inclusion classrooms. For more information check out https://www.autismspeaks.org/wordpress-tags/autism-awareness-month

Middle School Progress Reports for Students on IEPs

Middle School Special Education Progress Reports (Grades 6-8) are due on by the end of day on Thursday, April 21st.  Please inform Jessica or Joyce if you are not able to complete them.  It is mandatory that all SPED Progress Reports are completed in SEIMS.

LGBTQ Picnic

The Curley K-8 School will be hosting our first LGBTQ Picnic for families, faculty and allies. Please join us, bring your friends, spread the word, open to all BPS. More information to follow. Please contact Leida Arroyo (LARROYO@BOSTONPUBLICSCHOOLS.ORG) or Sue Trotz for more information 

> Date: Thursday May 19, Place: Curley Play area. Rain date:Thursday May 26 : Time 6:00 pm. Members of City Year will help with activities for the children. (BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC).

Artifacts

All artifacts must be uploaded on EDFS by Friday, April 15th. Everyone should be uploading the most up to date data for your student learning goal. Also please reread your Formative Evaluation and see what else your evaluator said you need by the Summative Evaluation.

PARCC Update Teacher grades 3-5

As we are moving closer to the testing date, I am going to start sharing more information with you regarding PARCC. I know that there is a lot of information out there but I am checking with Mark Racine the District's Director of Technology regularly to make sure that you have all the necessary information. Please take time to revise the following documents :

5 Steps to Preparing you School for the PARCC Assessments 

• Familiarize yourself with the changes from paper-based to online assessments. Compare traditional question types to online assessments using this question mapping tool for elementary students and middle-school students. 
• Give staff & students a practice test in the testing platform. Visit the PARCC Practice Test site to take samples for ELA or Math 
• Familiarize staff & students with accessibility and accommodation features. View the full accessibility manual here or take a practice test using large print, TTS, accommodated screen reader, ASL, or Braille versions by visiting the practice test page. 
• Prepare students by walking them through the PARCC tutorial prior to the actual assessment. Visit TestNav tutorial page to practice in the TestNav app.
• Encourage students to practice typing at home and at school. Visit the Typing page to find free typing resources for elementary or middle grades.
• Please note for step 4, students should be able to log on the TestNav app (located on the lower side corner) using the Chrome books. Students do not need a password and they are able to see their scores when they complete the practice test. The links work best with Safari and Firefox. 

SAVE THE DATE!!!!

Reserve the date, Mark your Calendar, Let's Celebrate - End-of-the-year celebration and retirement party

Thursday, June 9, 2016

5:00-10:00 p.m.

The Florian Hall

55 Hallet Street, Dorchester, MA 02124

Buffet, Music, Surprises

More information in the coming weeks

Curley Cares Funds Committee