1/31/18 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Karen Wiesen-Chan for her openness to new ideas to support our students with Special Needs. Also her quick catch on a paperwork error that would not have benefitted a student!

Halfway 

Tomorrow 1/31/18 is day 90 of school! This marks the halfway point of the school year! Take time to reflect and think about the year thus far. Are on track to meet your goals for your students. Also think about how we can best wrap up the remaining 90 days in a positive way!

February - Black History Month

February marks the start of Black History Month. How will you address this with your students? How can you ensure that we are not glossing over it and only celebrating in February? Below is a resource that was shared from former Curley teacher, Layla Hijab Cable (laylahcable@gmail.com).

The National Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Our Schools is launching an online gallery for student and community work during the Week of Action: Feb. 5th - Feb. 9th. Calling all educators, youth workers, young people, students, caregivers, parents, dreamers, activists, revolutionaries! Join us in imagining the world and schools we want to see. Invite, share, and respond to the prompt:
“In a school where Black Lives Matter, we…”
Send the creative responses whether images, words, video, audio, etc. to blmphled@gmail.com. We will be adding contributions to our publication. We ask that you give us your location and what age or grade is submitting to be shared along with the work.
Check us out: https://medium.com/national-blm-week-of-action-in-schools

Playworks Updates

Girl's Basketball League - The Playworks 4th and 5th grade girls' basketball league is designed to build empathy and teamwork by teaching girls the skills of basketball so that they feel comfortable learning and playing the sport with their peers. In many cases, Playworks leagues provide opportunities to develop athleticism that many students may not otherwise have. The league nights will be every Tuesday and will begin the week of March 5th until the week of April 10th. Practice will be every Monday from3:30 - 4:30 pm. Forms are being sent home in the next few weeks with more information.

Junior Coach Conference - Throughout the school year, we teach leadership through play in our Playworks Junior Coach Leadership Program. Through this program, fourth and fifth graders build self-esteem, teach responsibility, and develop leadership skills by participating in weekly after-school workshops and recess duty. These Junior Coaches then teach these skills and lessons to their classmates on the playground and throughout the school day. To congratulate our 2017-2018 Junior Coaches on their accomplishments from the first half of the school year and to encourage continued leadership. The conference is a fun and engaging evening filled with play-based activities that supported skill-building, created motivation, and provided a platform for career development. More than 80 Junior Coaches attended and left with a better understanding of teamwork and Playworks core values of Respect, Inclusion, Healthy Play, and Healthy Community. Students also mingled with other Junior Coaches from all other BPS schools. The conference was a great way for our Program Coordinators to bond with their Junior Coaches and celebrate the success they have experienced so far this school year.

Nominations Open - Boston Educator of the Year

The City of Boston, BPS, and the BTU invite our stakeholders to nominate exceptional educators and to honor their work and dedication through the 2018 Boston Educator of the Year Award. The nomination deadline is February 28, 2018. Visit externalaffairsbps.org/eoy for nomination information and to nominate an educator.

Friday, February 2nd

In honor of the New England Patriots going to Super Bowl LII this coming weekend, students and staff are welcome to wear Patriots gear and/or red, white and blue to support our home team. Go Pats!

Bulletin Boards Updated by Friday, February 9th 

Bulletin boards communicate the values of our school. Bulletin boards are a window into our classrooms that allow us to share the teaching and learning happening inside. Bulletin boards send a message to students that their work is important and valued here. Please update your bulletin board by Friday, February 9th. You must also include the Curley template which describes the learning your students are doing that links to the instructional focus.

Staff PD

We will host our teacher PD (this is for teachers unless paras owe time from a missed day in the summer) on Thursday, February 1st from 3:45pm-5:45pm. We have broken up the staff into 4 smaller worker groups for the remainder of our PD sessions. Please click here to see your group and your plan for the remainder of the sessions. Please email Katie Grassa with any questions.

ACCESS

Thank you to everyone for their patience and support during testing. We are in the home stretch. All grades are completing make ups and speaking tests. Please see your grade level representative for speaking tickets or test booklets and headsets. All testing should be completed by Friday February 2nd unless otherwise specified.
Grade 1 Ciardi
Grade 2 Locke
Grade 3 Petmezis
Grade 4 Javaloyes
Grade 5 Davis
Grade 6-8 Peters
Grade 6-8 SEI Wessen-Ly
If you have any questions or need assistance please contact Waverly Kidd. Speaking ACCESS 18

Note From Nurses Office

When adults or students are going to the nurses office please be aware if their is a sign on the door. If the sign says to Please not to Disturb, and to come back at a later time. It says that if it is a TRUE emergency to go to the lower school main office and inform the secretary. True Emergencies equal bleeding, possible concussion, broken bone etc...  Things like headaches and stomach aches are not true emergencies.

MCAS

Please check out the MCAS Calendar April/May 2018 as you map out your planning for the spring. If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to David Diaz.

Trimester 2 Midterm Progress Reports

The window is now open for teachers in grades 6-8 to post midterm progress reports. The window will close on February 1, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. Please make sure that the grades columns says Post Columns-Progress and the term column says T2. Once you have entered your grades chose the blue options button and click on Post Grades. If you have any questions, please contact Adrian Ward-Jackson.

"Half Way to Last Day" Staff Party

We look forward to seeing everyone at our “Half Way to Last Day” Party on Friday, February 2 at Doyle’s Café. Here are a few important updates:

• Dig out your favorite 90’s attire! Whether it’s a Fresh Prince funky patterned shirt, Nirvana-inspired grunge outfit, or your old Back Street Boys t-shirt, it will help set the 90’s mood. You are still welcome to attend even if you do not dress up, this is optional!
• Raffle entries for best hair, best outfit, best dance move, best over-heard 90s slang and best 80s infiltrator.
• Guess that Staff Member. Submit a photo of yourself from 1999 or earlier! We will create a display of photos, and party attendees will have the chance to guess who the staff member is. Photos may be submitted electronically or via hard copy to Laurie Ciardi (lciardi@bostonpublicschools.org). Submissions will be entered into a raffle for a prize.
• At the party, we will kick off our Spread the Love teacher challenge for the first two weeks of February. Stay tuned for more details!

CPT at a Glance

Thanks to the staff who have provided feedback we will have a weekly update about what should be covered at CPT. The CPT at a Glance document will be updated each week. This week is an instructional week. There is no ILT report out but the ILT rep should ensure an agenda is created that focuses on the instructional work of the team. Teachers should find time to review STAR date in grades 3-8.

K2, 1st and 2nd Grade

The middle of the year testing window is open from January 22nd to March 2nd. If you have running records that show a student is reading on or above your grade's instructional level benchmark, you do not need to do the BAS with them. If a student is reading below the instructional level benchmark, you need to do the BAS to find the highest instructional level and their hard level.
The levels are as follows:
K2 - on or above instructional C
1st grade - on or above instructional G
2nd grade - on or above instructional L