4/11/17 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Mark Righini for organizing a field trip for his middle school elective class. He and the students went to the Reggie Lewis Center and participated in a Rowing Activity with other schools! Thank you for finding ways to expose our students to new forms of exercise.

 

MCAS Update

Overall things went very smoothly and there were minimal issues. There are a few things we would like to clarify:

1. Proctors should only be using their cell phones to contact administrators with issues. 
2. Students must sign out of the test once they are done. To do so click on the person in the top right corner, click sign out of TestNav, then click save and return later. Once that is done students should restart the Chromebook. 
3. At the end of the session lock the test DO NOT click stop. The session will show students in progress until the final session when it will turn blue once the whole test is completed. 
4. Students should only complete one session per day. It is the proctors responsibility to monitor each session and make sure that students do not go ahead. 
5.  Proctors that have been issued a proctor ticket (only for students who receive a nonstandard accommodation and are assessed one to one) should remember that students MUST sign in as themselves as well as the proctor signing in on separate devices to read aloud.
6. Teachers must resume each test individually on the Pearson Access Next website.
7. Also if students miss a session they will be a session behind the rest of the class on the day they return (i.e. student misses session 1 returns the next day the class takes session 2 and that student will take session 1).

MCAS testing begins this week for students in Grades 6 through 8. It is important that ALL TEACHERS check the schedule every day for changes that may affect them. Even though elementary grades are not testing this week, there have been several changes to the Lower School Schedule. Please check to see if these changes affect you! 

CPT will take place for all grades and specialists unless noted on the schedule. K1-3, & 6-8 will meet regularly and 4-5 will not meet on the days they are testing. Any questions or concerns please let us know ASAP.  Please contact David with any thoughts or questions.
MCAS 2.0 Quick Check

MCAS 2.0 Roles and Responsibilities

MCAS Schedule - Overall schedule & daily schedules please be sure to click on each sheet and check daily

BTU Vote

We will hold a BTU vote on Thursday, April 13th in both main offices from 7:15am-8:15am. We are voting regarding PD for next year. We are proposing 2 days of PD this summer (August 30th and 31st). We are hoping to have a day to discuss race & equity as well as a day for our Instructional Focus. The hope is that with full days we will be able to have time to present content as well as time for teams collaborate and plan using that content. If the summer days do not pass we will have 12 - 2 hr sessions after school spread throughout the year. Please see the attached ballot for further clarification.

ILT

Please join us on Wednesday for ILT from 3pm-4:15pm in room 214.

Curley Family Arts Night

Families, students and staff please join us for arts and community building as we prepare for Wake Up The Earth (WUTE) on April 26th & May 3rd from 5pm-7:30pm in room 014. Please bring drinks and snacks to share as well as an open mind as we prepare for the WUTE Parade. The parade will take place on Saturday, May 6th and the theme is “Water is Life.” We would like to have a large showing of Curley families to march and share artwork. Please reach out to Curley Art Teacher, Jesse Cardoso with any questions jcardoso@bostonpublicschools.org.

April, 2017 Curley Cares Student Awards

Recognize those students who are doing their best to show growth and support the Curley Cares way by using THIS FORM to submit names so students can receive an award at our upcoming Thursday, April 13, 201 7 Curley Cares assemblies.
Please refer to THIS LIST to see those students who have already received awards this school year .
The intent behind Curley Cares is reinforce positive (caring) behaviors and that each Curley K8 student receive at least one Curley Shares award each year.
All Curley K8 staff members - not just for homeroom teachers - can submit student names for an award.
If you'd like to give more than 3 awards, please coordinate with your grade-level colleagues such as specialists or other staff. If it is for a larger group of students (such as a sports team, etc.) please email Kate (kdavis3@bostonpublicschools.org) directly.
Submissions are DUE by 4:00pm on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 .

Middle School Dance

We will have lovely Spring Dance 2017 in the gym on Friday, April 28, 2017, right after April vacation. The kids will enjoy it and we will raise $$ for Canobie Lake. Your team can take advantage of this great opportunity of manning a table where you may sell healthy and nutritious goodies including beverages. If you are interested, please e-mail me. The $ you raise from the sales of the goodies will be yours to keep for your team. The $ from the sales of the wristbands will be collected by Ms. Wessen and will be used to pay for the buses for Canobie Lake. As always, I will have wristbands available and they will be sold for $3.00 each. Your team will be responsible for sending those students that have met certain criteria. I will need chaperones that will actively supervise the students in the gym. If you have suggestions, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

We Care About Our Community!

The Climate Team has prepared some materials to help you all with the logistics and excitement about our Curley Cares March. We doing this march as part of the One Boston Day activities (www.onebostonday.org). Please feel free to invite families and get students excited to march for things they care about. We ultimately are hoping to show ourselves and community that we all have things we care about and that we respect each other for that. Here are some details to think about:
Make caring signs with your students. They can choose anything that they care about!

• Know the logistics of the march and look at the map.
• If you have P&D, check in with the specialist. They will march with your class.
• Remind your students to wear Curley gear or Curley colors on Wednesday.
• Review the expectations of safe marching and respecting all the signs and causes.
• Take photos or your students preparing and marching.
• Share photos with your climate rep or post on social media #curleycaresmarch.
• Get students excited by chanting the Curley Cheer.
• Invite your families to join in! 

Attached are three items:
1) A video to share with students either today or Monday to get them excited about the March
2) A flier with further details about the event.
3) A map of where we will be marching on 4/12

Thank you in advance for your support of this event and showing the community how much we truly care.

Curley Cares March Ad.mp4

March Map

Curley March Logistics

Capstone Project - Thinking about assessments beyond standardized test

The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) is a partnership of MA public school districts working to create a new state-wide school accountability model. A cross-grade team from the Curley is currently participating in the MCIEA sponsored, “Quality Performance Assessment” project, working to create a capstone project that will become a required part of the 4th Grade “Excellence for All” curriculum. It is our hope that this year’s capstone project development process will serve as a model for other grades to embrace in the future, so that all our students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in ways other than a computer-based test. If you have any question about the work reach out to one of the following team members: Patricia Garcia, Laura Strait, Danielle Moran, Sharon Ennis, Craig Melzer, Eileen Cronin 

Curley Cares Fund

We care about our STAFF! Our funds are very low to care for future moments in our lives at the Curley. This is a humble opportunity to care for our colleagues in moments of happiness, worries, and grief. PLEASE MAKE A CHECK PAYABLE TO THE CURLEY CARES FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $20.00 or submit cash to Ms. Mundo, Ms. Kidd, Ms. Iatrou, Ms. Davis.

Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month! Please help promote awareness by "lighting it up blue" every Friday in April by wearing your blue Curley shirt or your Autism Awareness Curley shirt. Thank you!

Interviews

We will be interviewing for a .6FTE Guidance Counselor position for the lower grades on Tuesday, April 11th from 3-6pm and for the new administrator position on Tuesday, April 25th from 3-6pm. Please let Katie know if you are interested in being on one of these committees.

Bulletin Board Reminder

Teachers please update your bulletin boards by Friday April 7th. Use this link to see bulletin board expectations. Use this link to print bulletin board template which should be posted on the bulletin board. Thank you.

Professional Learning By Teachers, For Teachers

Click here to learn more and register now!
The Collaborative is a set of free teacher-led professional learning courses that connect you with fellow teachers from district, charter, and Catholic schools throughout the City of Boston. Together, you will share best practices and refine your instructional practice over five weeks.
What course will you take?

Courses at Codman Academy in Dorchester
Literature Circles 101: Teaching Students to Read Like Adults (Grades 6-12)
Culturally Responsive Teaching: How Does Culture Play a Role in Learning? (Grades K -12)

Courses at the Mission Grammar School in Mission Hill
Every Behavior Tells a Story: Modeling Social Emotional Skills in Academic Contexts (Grades Pre-K - 6)
Anything but Standard: Creative Ways to Engage Students in CCSS Writing (Grades 3-6)

Courses at the Curley School in Jamaica Plain
How to Read like a Historian: Using Document Based Analysis in the Classroom (Grades 5-12)
How to Use Student Talk and Differentiated Checks for Understanding to Elevate Mathematical Thinking for All (Grades 1-5)
Questions? Contact Sasha Zuflacht at szuflacht@teachplus.org

Nurse Passes

Please give students passes to the nurse. We have seen a lot of students coming to the nurse without a pass. The pass serves as a way to keep students accountable and let other staff in the building know students are where they are suppose to be. Thank you.

Front Door

Please do not let students in before 8:15 unless it is very cold, raining, or you are willing to stay in the front lobby with them. Students can not be left in the building unsupervised because this creates a safety issue. Thank you.

Artifacts

Artifacts are due April 15th. Please reread over your formative evaluation. If your evaluator has indicated that you are missing an artifact please add that artifact and update any data that is connected to your goals.

Street Cleaning

April 1st street cleaning will begin. Please check this link to find out when street cleaning will be taken place. http://www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/sweeping/

Substitute Teacher Folders

Please make sure that your sub folders are up to date and have explicit instructions about what duties they have to cover and what procedures they should be following. There have been miscommunications with substitutes where duties have not been covered and students have been unsupervised. This has created safety issues.

Save the Date

Please reserve Friday, June 2nd for our End-of-the-Year and Retirement Party.

Place: Florian Hall

Time: 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Appetizers, Buffet, Music, Dance, Celebrations!

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

• April 27th --- Understanding Disabilities and Services available 
• May 18th --- Middle School Transition/Life Skills 
• June 1st --- Inclusion