4/26/18 Daily Bulletin

Shout Out

Shout out to Genet Mehari, Rozelta Boyd, Noraa Ricketts and Charles Tewksbury for helping us over a few afternoons to interview science candidates. We are excited about hearing your thoughts after the demo lessons this week and we appreciate your time and commitment after school.

Shout out to Debbie Bryson for putting herself out there in front of staff at ILT today. Thank you for modeling that we all have times where we need to grow and reflect on our teaching. We all learned so much from you today!

Bulletin Boards

Please update bulletin boards for the final time this school year by Friday, April 27th. Do not forget to post this template that explains the work students completed.

Teacher Interest in Leading PD

We are starting to think and plan PD for next school year. We have heard from staff that they prefer the small group setting versus meeting as a whole staff. We want to offer this as often as possible and we are looking for staff to partner with us and plan summer PD. To make small groups we need several teachers to collaborate with us and co-facilitate sessions. If you are interested please email Katie. (Also if you are interested and have never facilitated think about taking a risk and learning how to facilitate. The beauty of co-facilitation is that you can work with others and learn from one another.)

Spring Concerts are on the Way!

Over the past couple of months students have received pink and purple flyers home about our spring performances. Homeroom teachers: if you are missing flyers please talk to Ms. Bourgeault or Ms. Alves. Please make note of our performances coming up soon!

• May 17th @9AM: K2, 2nd grade, PACE 0, PACE 1, PACE 2, PACE 5 (Ms. Alves and Ms. Bourgeault) 
• May 18th @9AM: K0, K1, 1st, PACE 3, PACE 4 (Ms. Alves and Ms. Bourgeault) 
• May 24th @9AM: 3rd, 4th, 5th, PACE 6, PACE 7, Band (Ms. Bourgeault) 
• June 5th @6PM: Band Concert (Ms. Bourgeault) 

Paraprofessional Information

Paraprofessionals who would like to change their pay frequency from 21 to 26 payments (paid 12 months) or from 26 to 21 payments (paid 10 months) please see Ms. Powers for the form.

LGBTQ+ Picnic

We are for the third year in a row getting together at our LGBTQ+ Picnic. We want our friends and families to be part of this Curley Tradition on May 17th at 6pm. Bring your Picnic baskets and your beach blankets, enjoy a beautiful afternoon and make new friends. Watch the children participate in fun games with our Playwork Team lead by Coach Jacqui and members of City Year. 

Playworks

Playworks is currently conducting our annual school staff survey! Every year, Playworks asks the staff at each school to complete a survey about the impact they feel Playworks has on the students and the school community. We use the survey feedback to report our impact to funders and to seek additional support. We also use this information to refine our program to best meet schools’ needs. The online survey should take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Click below to get started! www.playworks.org/annual-survey/2018 The survey will remain open until May, 10th. We hope to have as many staff as possible share their thoughts about Playworks.

BPS 5th Quarter (Summer Learning)

Thank you so much to those of you who have already submitted names of students who would benefit from BPS 5th Quarter Programming (formerly known 3rd - 8th grade summer school) . If you have not sent us names (email Sugeily Santos, ssantos2@bostonpublicschools.org or Cristina Silva, csilva4@bostonpublicschools.org), please do so by Friday, April 27th. For additional information on the changes to BPS summer programming please click here. By early next week you'll receive an email from Shubh (Guidance Intern) with what the next steps are in this process. This may include following up with families about applications that we will be sending home with students.

Retention

If you are thinking about retaining a student for next year please schedule time to meet with Katie and Sugeily Santos (grades 4-8) or Cristina Silva (K-3) by Friday, May 19th.

Transportation Request for ALL Homeroom Teachers

In 2017-2018, BPS expects to spend $120 million on transportation, a cost which has been rising precipitously in recent years. We currently route every eligible student to a bus unless we receive an opt-out form, which happens for only ~3% of riders even though preliminary data indicates that up to a third of students routed are actually using a different form of transportation. This may be costing the district $3-5M+ annually... money that would be better spent in schools.
The Directions:

1. Forward this email to the person/people at your school most familiar with which students ride the bus - they should complete the rest of the steps
2. Open the attached bus roster for your school
3. In highlighted columns "H" & "J" (representing the AM & PM busing) mark an "X" for any student that has taken the bus less than a handful of times this year(i.e. a student who never takes the bus or maybe took the bus a couple times in emergency but is not a consistent rider)
4. There is no 'hard and fast' rule here -- but if you think a particular student has taken the bus more than 5 times, then assume they are a rider. Only mark an "X" for students who are clearly not riders (i.e. are taking bus less than ~6 times in the year)
5. THIS IS DUE BY MONDAY, APRIL 30th

BTU Voting Results 

• We voted to hold PD on Thursday, 5/3/18 from 3:45pm-5:45pm for all teachers (only paras who still owe time)
• We voted to redistribute the 6 hours from 1/2/19
• We voted to hold our Fall Open House on Thursday, September 27th from 5pm-7pm
• We voted for Option 2 (24 hours): Professional Development on August 28th and 29th from 8am to 3pm (14 hours) AND five (5) 2-hour sessions on the following Thursdays from 3:45 to 5:45 pm: 10/4, 11/1, 12/13, 1/31, 3/7 with a make-up day on 4/4 (in case of snow).
• Please feel free to contact your BTU representative with any questions!

MCAS Information - Action Required

MCAS Proctoring teachers and Staff:
Please make sure you stress upon your students to raise their hands and let you know when they are done with their tests. It is important that either individually or as group, you ensure and monitor that all students press the submit button when they have completed their test. You can also monitor in your session who is not done testing or if a submitted test did not go through. Let Mr. Diaz, Mrs. Burque or Mrs. Jackson know if you have any questions or concerns.  All staff should be informed of the protocols and logistics around MCAS. Please review the MCAS Roles and Responsibilities (and links included in the Roles and Responsibilities). As a resource, you can also reference our MCAS Quick Check document. 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.

Also here is the MCAS video to share with your class!

Here are the Math and Science groupings. Staff should send feedback by April 13th to Jessica Burque.
Math MCAS 2018 Grades 4,5, 6
Math MCAS 2018 Grades 3, 7, 8
Science MCAS 2018 Grades 5, 8

Student Surveys Grades 4 - 8 (March 12 - June 15)

Please have all students Grades 4-8 complete this as part of class. All student surveys are online. The survey is available in students’ Digital Backpack as well as through the following student link:
Student link: https://cce.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1BP2eCYEA5pZT37
Shortened Link: https://tinyurl.com/bpsclimate
Students can complete the survey using chromebooks, other technology at their school, and even smartphones.

Autism Awareness Day/Month

Lets Light it up BLUE! April is Autism Awareness month. Team PACE will be wearing blue on Fridays for the month. We hope you all join in! We are lucky to serve approximately 90 students with Autism everyday here at school.

Playworks

• Thursday, May 10th from is Peace on Earth night! At recess across the country there has been numerous incidents of bullying both verbal and physical. Coach Jacqui wants to bring awareness to this growing problem and give the community the resources to support students. A local speaker will start off the night, and students and families will rotate through stations focusing on relaxation techniques and bullying prevention.
• On Saturday, May 19th is Playworks Run for Recess 5K. This is a fundraiser that Playworks hosts every year to raise money and awareness for the importance of recess in low income school systems. The Run for Recess is a unique 5K and One Mile Fun Run race that gives families the opportunity to participate in a race for the very first time. The Run for Recess offers opportunities for the whole family to get involved at Franklin Park's world-famous cross-country course adjacent to the zoo! All participants will enjoy a fun family environment, an electronically timed race, and an awesome goodie bag. Paper registration forms will be handed out by Coach Jacqui during school or sign up with this link: playworks.org/ne-run2018. If you have any questions about the upcoming events please email Coach Jacqui at jacqueline.conley@playworks.org.

New Field Trip Request Procedure

Starting Monday, 3/12/28, all field trips requests should be submitted in the following way. If you have already submitted a paper previously, that is ok, but all new requests should be done in this way. Check out this powerpoint for additional information on the steps.

1. Fill out electronic form at least 2 weeks in advance. This link will be available in the blog daily. Field Trip Request Form
2. Print your form submission.
3. Email list of students attending to nurses.
4. Get nurse and cafeteria signature at least 2 weeks in advance. They can sign anywhere at the bottom of your page.
5. Turn in to either main office.
6. Pass out permission slips and have students return. (English p.12, Other Languages)

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 a ILT week.