4/6/17 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Danielle Moran for earning Honorable Mention in this year's Boston Teacher of the Year process. Danielle works hard each and everyday to support and challenge her students, she is a team player, coaches volleyball and she has been a leader in the move to Excellence For All! Congrats on being recognized for all you do to support the Curley K-8.

Shout out to Michael Bertoni for helping out when there was a confusion with the schedule! Thank you for caring about our students!!!!

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 on Tuesday 4/4/17. It is important that ALL TEACHERS check the schedule everyday for changes that may effect them. CPT will takes 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

We Care About Our Community!

The Curley Community is excited to announce that we are launching a Community Caring Project this spring.  We will kick off the project by hosting a school-wide Caring March on April 12th at 1:30pm.  All staff and students will participate and families will be invited to march with us. More details coming soon!

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.

Staff Social

Please join us for the April Staff Social on Friday, April 7th from 3pm-6pm at Costello's on Centre Street.

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