10/17/16 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Alisa Fleming for organizing middle school volunteers for the Fall Fling. The students did a great job setting up, face painting and supporting the parents. Thank you for staying for the event and helping them out. Thank you also for instilling in our students the importance of service learning!

Shout out to Anna Youman and Genet Mehari for supporting our students at the Sole Train 5k! You motivated both students and adults, you emphasized the importance of celebrating what we were excited about and setting personal goals! Thank you!

SSC

The first SSC meeting will be on Tuesday, October 18th from 5:30pm-7:00pm.

School Climate

The School Climate team will meet on Wednesday from 3pm-4:15pm in room 003.

Guidance Office Announcement 

Dear Staff, I will be out of the office 10/20/16 until 10/28/16 attending a Urban Leadership conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This means, the Guidance Office is closed during this time. If you need assistance during my absence (i.e. crisis management), please contact an administrator. Thank you! Sugeily

International Week is coming!

Please join us on Wednesday, October 19, from 2:40-3:00 PM in Linda Griffith’s Science Room 002 (Upper School ground floor) for a brief meeting to help with this year's International Week.

For those of you new to our staff, International Week is the Curley K-8 School’s annual celebration of countries and cultures around the world. Each homeroom chooses a country to study and then hosts/visits other classes (passports in hand) to share what they've learned. Hopefully you’ll consider exchanging with your Big/Little Buddy class again this year.

International Week will begin on November 14^th and more information will be sent out soon! Please talk with your colleagues, email amika45@comcast.net or join us next Wednesday if you have questions or suggestions.

UDL

Here is a good article with some ideas about increasing UDL practices within your classroom. https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/5-examples-of-universal-design-for-learning-in-the-classroom

Math Updates

We are getting a number of email inquiries about how to access the Pearson platform for 

Investigations 3, CMP3, and CME materials. We now have a single sign-in process that connects our Apsen/SIS platform with the Pearson platform.  The directions for this access are pasted in below. Teachers, students, and administrators should be able to log onto the Pearson online platform throughwww.bostonpublicschools.org/backpack using district email addresses and passwords.  Once logged onto backpack, the Pearson icon should be visible, and clicking onto that icon will get you into the Pearson platform.

The link between backpack and the Pearson platform allows for the daily updating of student rosters and access to Pearson digital materials.  In order for student rosters to be uploaded students must be assigned to a math class in SIS since these accounts are not organized by homeroom. Please note that badges for students in Grades K2, 1, and 2 available for downloading in SIS (see “create badges”) allow these young students to log onto backpack without entering their email addresses and passwords.  

We are currently working to ensure that administrators as well as teachers have access to the full set of curriculum and formative assessment materials available digitally as well as the formative assessment results. If teachers or administrators cannot find the Pearson icon once they log onto backpack, please be sure they are assigned to the appropriate schools, as only schools receiving Pearson materials have access to the Pearson platform. If co-teachers cannot find the Pearson icon, please be sure they are identified as co-teachers on SIS.   

For any difficulties logging onto backpack and locating the Pearson icon, contact the OIIT help desk. For any difficulties once logging into the Pearson platform, contact Pearson tech support at 800-234-5832.

PD

Here are some supplementary documents to support you all from PD today that Steven mentioned.

Halloween

The Curley K-8 will not have a Halloween celebration during the school day. As a community we are focused on health and wellness and therefore we ask that all candy remain at home. We are also asking that students leave all costumes, masks and face painting at home as well. Thank you in advance for your support around this matter.

October 2016, Student Curley Shares Awards

Please use this form to recognize up to three of the students you work with who exhibit consistent or improved understanding of the Curley Cares rules as demonstrated by a specific deed, general conduct, overall academic perseverance and/or improvement, or some other form of participation. 

Awards will be presented to students during our October 20, 2016 Curley Shares assemblies. 

All submissions are  due by 4:00pm on Tuesday October 18, 2016

Please contact your climate team representative with general questions about the student awards; if you have any problems accessing the form, please contact Kate Davis.

Open Circle

We'd love all of you, especially those new to the building, to join us in Ms. Burke's room (017) before school for a meet and greet breakfast Friday Oct. 21st. We hope everyone has already received a teacher resource guide for their grade level. If we missed you, please let Christina Burke (cburke4@bostonpublicschools.org) and Eva Banks (epromponas@bostonpublicschools.org) know ASAP and we will provide one. We would love to know how teaching Open Circle is going for you so far and discuss anything that has been a challenge for you up to this point. 

STAR Math Assessment  Window(Gr. 3-8 Only)

The fall screening window for the STAR Math Assessment is 

October 11 – 21.   The STAR website can be accessed by all students using the STAR bookmark on Chromebooks. Student user names and passwords are the same as STAR Reading. Students can use blank scratch paper and a pencil while testing, but no calculators or reference materials are allowed.

Just a reminder, students must sign into Chromebooks using their email address and password – not as “guest”.  The math test is similar in format to the reading assessment taken last month. Grade level teams should arrange to share access to Chromecarts so that all students are tested during the screening window.  Please contact Sean Guthrie if you have any questions.

Pathway Programs, October 2016 - June 2017

Many staff have asked when Pathways will begin. Below is the information. Please let Katie Grassa know if you are applying so she can follow up with OHC and recommend you.

Hosted by: Human Capital
Target Audience: BPS Staff, including Central Office, School Leaders, Teachers, and Paraprofessionals
Upcoming Pathway Programs for Moderate Disabilities, Severe Disabilities and ESL are now posted on My Learning Plan, including program information and application procedure. Application Deadline: Wednesday, October 17th
ESL Pathway - click here
Severe Disability - click here
Moderate Disability - click here

Picture Day for grades K-8

Picture Day this year for grades K-4th will take place Tuesday, October 25 from 8:15 am to 2:20 pm. On Thursday, October 27th, grades 5th-8th will take their pictures from 8:15 to 2:20 pm. Picture Day is rain or shine. If it’s raining photos will be in the the auditorium. Mrs. Powers and Mrs. Vasquez will place the picture forms in your mailbox by Friday, October 7, 2016. Please go the link Picture Day for more detailed instructions. We will also have a schedule by the end of the week. Please see Mrs. Powers or Mr. Diaz if you have any questions.

SPED PD Options

Below are some PD options being offered at the Curley during our contractual PD dates. Staff may want to include one or more of these into their team PD plan. Here is the link to sign up   https://goo.gl/forms/BwtGbumLgXBfLUMF2

• Oct 20th --- Goal Writing for Special Education Teachers 
• Nov 17th --- The IEP Process/Meeting Expectations 
• Jan 19th --- Paperwork/IEP Progress Reports 
• Feb 16th --- Tier 1 and Tier 2 Interventions/curriculum modification 
• March 16th --- Behavior Supports 
• April 27th --- Understanding Disabilities and Services available 
• May 18th --- Middle School Transition/Life Skills 
• June 1st --- Inclusion 

Build BPS

BPS is looking to hear from various communities regarding the 10-Year Educational and Facilities Master Plan. There will be a Open House for communities on October 29^th-30^th from 9am-5pm at the Bruce C. Bolling Building. For more information go to http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/buildbps