11/14/16 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Danielle Moran and Michael Bertoni for coaching and supporting the girls volleyball team. They lost in the quarterfinals but our students learned so much about the sport, health and teamwork. Thank you for supporting students around managing a team as well as developing students' skills in collaboration. Thank you!

International Week Update

Please also talk with your Big/Little Buddy colleagues to arrange exchanges during the short week before Thanksgiving. We encourage you to arrange exchanges with other classes as well, depending on what works best for you — we understand that scheduling across grade levels can be a challenge and a few classes are not participating in International Week this year. Please let Amika know if you need help with arranging an exchange!

Bulletin Boards

All bulletin boards should be updated by November 15th and each board should display student work (either final products or process) that ties directly to our instructional focus "Teachers will vary demands and resources, to optimize challenge in writing tasks, so students can express a clear, organized idea." If you need help please check in with your Climate Representative and don't forget to access added resources and description template here.

WIT-Curley Partnership

Wellness in the Schools (WITs) is a national non-profit that inspires healthy eating, environmental awareness, and fitness as a way of life for kids in public schools. Through meaningful public-private partnerships, they work with schools to provide healthy, scratch-cooked meals, active recess periods, and fitness and nutrition education. Their partnership approach drives systemic, long-term change, shifting the entire culture of schools. In November, WITs completed a Needs Assessment of the Curley by touring the facility and interviewing students, staff, and district personnel. The Needs Assessment is used to determine the strengths and needs of our school. WITs have compiled the results of the Needs Assessment and would like to present this report to the community on Tuesday, Nov. 29 (3-5 pm). In order to facilitate school improvement, WITs would like for the Curley community to vote on the top three areas of change based on the report. Please join us to learn more about the outcome of the Needs Assessment and to vote on priority items. Babysitting will be available.

Tenacity

We are hosting another home tennis match in the upper school gym next week. This one is against Irving, Wednesday, Nov 16 from 3:15-4:45. We'll have 4 sixth grade and two seventh grade students on the roster for this one, and teachers and parents will be invited to come out and support the team. Hope to see you there!

$1500 Early Retirement Incentive Out; Deadline January 13, 2017

In order to assist hiring for the 2017 - 2018 school year, the Boston Public Schools is offering a one-time incentive for early notification of termination to members of the BTU Teachers’ Unit.
1. An individual must be a permanent BTU Teacher, have a minimum of ten (10) years of continuous service in the Boston Public Schools, and must meet the minimum age requirement of fifty-five (55) years. 

2. Eligible employees presently on paid or unpaid leave of absence can apply.
3. The application, once accepted by the Office of Human Capital by execution of the Separation Agreement, is binding on both parties and irrevocable.
4. Applicants understand that the termination must be effective between June 30, 2017 and August 31, 2017.
http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20161107/dd/1a/e8/c9/8eeabebfe1475e91be2b1c93/HRS-PP08_Incentive_for_Early_Notification_of_Termination_for_BTU_vF-3.pdf

School Climate

Please join us for out School Climate Meeting on Wednesday, November 16th from 3pm-4:15pm in Room 003.

Visitor Thursday

BPS hosts a Principal Partners event every year. This event assigns one person to a school to act as a "principal for the day." This year we will host Sandhya Douglas, Associate Director of Global Multi Asset Strategies, Wellington Management on Thursday, November 17th.  

Early Release

We will dismiss early on Wednesday, November 23rd for the Thanksgiving Holiday at 12:30pm. A schedule for the day will come soon.

Grades Close (6th-8th)

Grades closed for all 6th-8th graders on Thursday, November 10th. All grades are due to be uploaded by Tuesday, November 15th. Please do not forget to click POST. If there are any issues with you student lists please see Ms. Jackson ASAP.

Reading Progressing Monitoring (Grades 3-8 Only)

Just a reminder, the first progress monitoring event is scheduled for this upcoming week (11/14 – 11/18) for all students reading below grade level, including students ranked “On Watch”, “Intervention” and “Urgent Intervention” for the fall STAR Reading assessment. Progress monitoring is completed independently by focus students, and can be scheduled during the WIN block or other convenient time. To begin the assessment, students log into “STAR Reading”, and begin testing. Progress monitoring should take no longer than 15-20 minutes per student.  Please contact Eileen Cronin if you have any questions.

Buddy Clean Up Information

Hello Curley Community,

Thank you for your participation in Buddy Day and at our Keep It Clean, Curley launch last week at Curley Shares.  There is a lot of excitement around these initiatives and we want to keep the momentum going! Beginning next week, we will launch our buddy cleanups.  Each class will be responsible for cleaning up their designated zone once each month.  You will decide on the time with your buddy teacher.

Here is everything you need to know about Buddy Cleanup:

Materials Needed

Routines and Procedures

Map of Cleanup Zones

Cleanup Calendar

Schedule at least 20 minutes for your cleanup.  Once your zone is clean, you might choose to stay outside and have the littles teach their bigs a game they’ve learned during Playworks class game time. Thank you to Ms Guzman, Ms. Merdkhanian, Ms, Tefera, Ms. Solimini, Ms. Bryson, Ms. Mundo, Ms. Ciardi, Ms. Silverstein, Ms. Hins, Ms. Redden, Ms. Fleming, Ms. Signes and Mr. Melzer whose classes will be cleaning our campus next week. If you take photos of your classes cleaning up together, please send them to us or put them in this folder.  We will add them to the Keep It Clean bulletin board in the lower school entry.

We recognize that these activities can take away from instructional time, but remember there is teaching and learning involved in building cross grade relationships and doing service for our school community.   We welcome any feedback on this new initiative.  We want make it as simple and easy for you to gather with your buddies and keep our campus clean!

 With care,

The Climate Team

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

• 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