4/25/17 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Azariah Mamousette, grade 4 student, for qualifying in 10 swimming events at the National Swimming Competition in Florida. Azariah swam his way earning 10 metals and earning the first place overall honor being named the High Point Winner of his age group. This accomplishment came with a cool trophy and a new bag! Azariah is a National Champion and he is currently the #2 swimmer the country! Don't forget his name, we are predicting that he will be a star at the Summer Olympics in 2024 location TBD (it won't be Boston hehe).

Shout out to Ianncarlos Torres, 3rd grade student, for being selected as a Citydance Raising the Barre Award winner based on his focus, talent, and enthusiasm for dance. This award entitles him to an 80% scholarship for the entire 2017-2018 year with Boston Ballet School (including summer) as well as access to special events and opportunities for this cohort of students. Congrats to Ianncarlos for his continued hard work and efforts in dance!

Look for Survey from MCIEA

The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) is conducting a survey regarding the use of assessment in all member schools. Please look for this survey in your email this Wednesday, April 26th and respond as quickly as possible. All replies are anonymous and will be used to better understand how to use assessment in ways that inform instruction and provide an authentic understanding of student learning.

School Climate Survey

BPS TEACHER CLIMATE SURVEY - THE SPRING 2017 TEACHER SURVEY IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE !!! 

Please remind teachers to location the surveys in their email inboxes and complete the survey online by May 15, 2017. 
BPS PARENT CLIMATE SURVEY- THE SPRING 2017 PARENT SURVEY IS NOW AVAILABLE IN ALL LANGUAGES ONLINE !!!  Please communicate with your families the importance of completing this!

School Safety

Just a reminder that as the weather gets warmer that we should never prop doors open. Staff should be wearing their ID badges throughout the day. If you see someone in the hallway without a badge or visitor tag you can stop them and ask who they are. You may also direct them back to the main office. reporting suspicious behaviors asking visitors to see their bad be proactive
safety in numbers and have support with you

City Year

The City Year End of Year survey window is open! A unique link has been sent to all the teachers that have City Year corps members serving in their classroom. The survey will be live until May 12th.  If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to Francesska Jean-Pierre at fjean-pierre@cityyear.org.

BTU Vote

Here are the results of this morning's BTU vote:
Teachers:
Option 1: 11 (18%)
Option 2: 51 (82%)

Paraprofessionals:
Option 1: 5 (30%)
Option 2: 12 (70%)

Total votes: 79

According to the BTU contract, a 66.6 % majority vote is required to move after school PD hours to dates when school is not in session.

This means that both paras and teachers voted to convert afternoon hours of PD into summer hours. Teachers will report for PD on Wednesday, August 30th and Thursday August 31st for PD from 8am-3pm. Paras will report on Wednesday, August 30th from 8:00am-2:00pm.

LGBTQ+ Picnic

Please join us for the LGBTQ+ picnic on Thursday May 18th from 6:00-7:30pm. All families and community members are welcome!!!

ILT

Please join us on Wednesday, April 26th for ILT from 3pm-4:15pm.

MCAS Update

We are taking a break this week after vacation! Some students may be completing Make Up Sessions. We will resume testing next week!

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

Parent Cafe

The guidance office in conjunction with Children's Services of Roxbury (CSR) is coordinating a parent cafe information session to share about summer opportunities for your students. The session will take place in the auditorium on Tuesday, April 25th 2017 from 8:30am- 10:30am. All parents, guardians and caregivers are invited to attend the event. We are mailing home a flyer to families, and would also like to send a copy home with students. If you have a strong line of communication with families with which you can share the information about this event so we can better reach out, please help! Thank you!

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.

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.

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 the new administrator position on Tuesday, April 25th from 3-6pm. Please let Katie know if you are interested in being on this committee.

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

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