Shout Out
Shout out to Tenacity and Jeremiah Sanchez and Amari Brown-Sweeting (with Rain Twohads as the team alternate/assistant) represented Curley at Tenacity's 'Rising Stars' 6th grade tournament last Friday. Playing as a doubles team, Amari and Jeremiah went undefeated on the afternoon, giving Curley a first place finish (out of 8 teams) for the 2nd year in a row! This Friday, our top 7th/8th grade players will go to Harvard to play in Tenacity's annual 'Holiday Classic' doubles tournament.
Writing Rubric Tracking
Please see the email from Katie on 12/9/15 regarding the tracking of writing data. We realize how long it has taken us to get this to you all and we apologize. I lot of thought and debate went into how to organize this document. Please check your grade level
CPT folder on the drive and you will find your spreadsheet. Teach teams need to complete this for each write task students are completing as part of the
writing curriculum map. Staff can have an extension on adding this as an artifact due to the late timing. Everyone should be adding a completed spreadsheet to
EDFS by 12/23/15. If you submit it before you head on vacation you won't have to think about it! :) Please direct all questions and feedback to Eileen Cronin.
A2 ANet Testing
The assessment dates for the A2 are fast approaching. ELA assessments will take place the week of December 1st. Math assessments will take place the week of December 7th. All action plans are due to teams administrators by Monday, December 14th (ELA) and Friday, December 18th (math).
Safety Plan
We will be having our first Safe Mode Drill on Wednesday, December 16th. We wanted to communicate this so that staff had time to practice this with their students. While the drill is going on no staff or families will be able to enter or exit the building. We hope that when we practice this we will be able to work out any kinks in our plan. Some families have asked for the language that teachers will use when practicing with their students. Here is a sample specifically directed at early childhood aged students, “ We are practicing for an emergency outside the school. Just like a fire drill is practice for an emergency, like a fire, inside, the school, this is practice for an emergency outside. An example of an outside emergency I've given is if a truck spills something dangerous, like a chemical, into the street. It is not real and we have to show Ms. Grassa that we can be safe inside and stay quiet if we need to be.” We hope this language helps to support the conversation you have at home with your students. This language will be shared with families in the Paw Prints this weekend and we will also announce the date of the drill to them as well.
It is crucial that staff practice this with students before next Wednesday and that everyone listens carefully to the announcement once it is made. Students may be transitioning, in bathroom, outside, at lunch and we will look forward to feedback from staff on how to tighten protocols. It is most important that staff remain calm during this time. Also we are aware that facilities are not fully in place to follow all procedures. We are asking that staff do what they can do and we look forward to any creative ideas that may come from this practice. Here is a direct link to our safety plan for your review.
Water Fountains
By Friday all our new water fountains should be installed.Each new unit comes with a fountain as well a water bottle fill station! Please make time to teach students how to properly use this new equipment.
ELT Planning Meeting
Today 4 staff volunteered to attend the ELT Planning Meeting. We met at the BTU from 8:30am-3:30pm with 7 other schools that will be adding 40 extra minutes to their day in SY2016-2017. We want to be sure to communicate with staff after each meeting to assure that this process is transparent.
Here are some key messages we would like to share from today's learning:
- Our Extended Learning Time initiative is about building a better school day for our students, teachers and families.
- With more time, our school will have more opportunities to provide targeted learning time for students, increase small group instruction, provide enrichment opportunities in order to increase student engagement and academic outcomes. At our first session we identified these urgent needs:
- African American and Hispanic males do not perform on standardized tests at the same level as their White and Asian peers.
- ELL and SPED students do not perform on standardized tests at the same level as their general education peers.
- Overall as a school we struggle with reading and writing skills according to standardized tests.
- We are just at the beginning and we need you to play an active role in the process of developing a new school experience for our community.
- Between January and June the ELT Team will implement a community engagement process moving forward, stay tuned for meeting dates and other pertinent updates.
- In the coming weeks you can get involved by reaching out to a member of the ELT team with questions and ideas (Ciardi, Grassa, Kidd, Peters, Wright). Click Here and you can submit your ideas and questions anonymously.
Field Trips
Thanks to all the staff for letting us know about upcoming Field Trips. Letting the Nursing Office know at least 2 weeks in advance gives us time to check for student medications and medical conditions staff and chaperones need to be aware of to keep everyone safe once they leave the building. Just a reminder, please let Kathy Powers or Madeline Vazquez know about your field trips so they can put it on Google Calendar. These are the field Trips that we are aware of for the remainder of December and the month of January.
12/10 Petmezis
12/11 Tefera/Javaloyes
12/14 Burke
12/15 Redden/Silverstein
12/18 Pradas/Wright
12/18 DaSilva/Higginbottom
1/22 Entire 5th Grade and Ms Iatrou
IMPORTANT: A few days before the field trip could you remember to check the permission slips and notify the nurse's about any student whose parent checked off that they require medication during the trip. This gives us time to call the parent about any medication that we were unaware of or do not already have in the nurse's office. The morning of the field trip please send a student or staff member down to pick up student medications from the nurse's office. A staff member should be designated to carry and be responsible for student medications unless alternative arrangements have been made with the nurses and parent. Also, please remember to return medications to the nurse's office once you are back in the building. Feel free to email or stop by the nurse's office with any questions or if any of the information we have is incorrect.
Tenacity
Attention Curley Staff! Tenacity’s Annual Mid Year Ceremony is next Thursday, December 17, 2015 in the lower school café! The invitation is open to ALL Curley staff who wish to come by and support Tenacity students’ hard work this semester! Please feel free to stop by (even if just for a quick hello J ) to check out our student work displays and mingle with Tenacity’s students, families, and staff! There will also be tennis activities and fun videos of students in action and playing tennis! A short presentation/awards ceremony will follow dinner and begin around 6:25pm. We hope to see you there!
Door Painting this Thursday
Come join the Climate Team, City Year and a few of our students this Thursday for door painting. Let's get a fresh coat of paint on our 1st floor doors! We'll have music and pizza and to assure the time passes quickly. Email Jesse Cardoso with your RSVP or any questions.
Curley Holiday Shopping Night
Buy your presents on Thursday, December 10th from 4pm-8pm and our wonderful local businesses will donate 10% of their sales during that time period. So far, businesses include Streetcar, On Centre, Kitchen Witch, Boing and Stella and Dot.
Artifacts
Just a friendly reminder to all staff that artifacts must be uploaded to EDFS by December 15th. Administrators need time to review artifacts prior to writing Formatives. Please remember that 2-3 items should be uploaded for each goal (Student Learning & Professional Practice) AND each standard (I, II, III, IV). This means around 12-18 artifacts, we know you are doing many amazing things but uploading more than that makes it challenging to review each item thoroughly. Be sure that there is evidence tagged to each goal and standard. Also note that it is just as important to include a thorough description of what you uploaded. Do no assume that the evaluator will know why you choose to upload a particular document. Please let your evaluator know if you have any questions.
SSC
Budgets are due out this week to schools and therefore the SPC meeting has be postponed until Tuesday, December 15th from 5:30pm-7pm in room 101.
Grades 6 – 8 Term 2 Progress Reports
The term 2 progress grading window for students in grades 6-12 will open from December 3rd to December 14th.
Reminder: After entering or editing progress grades in the scores tab, teachers must click Post Grades to write the grades to the progress reports. Grades will be saved as you enter them but they will not appear on the progress reports until you click Post Grades.
School Showcase
We have three more showcase sessions Friday, December 11th from 9-10am, Friday, December 18th from 9-10am and Thursday, January 14th from 3-4pm.
Fall Term Report Card Grading Window for Grades 1-5
The fall grading window for students in grades 1-5 is will open from November 23rd to December 11th. Please refer to the materials below for instructions on entering grades.
Reminder: After entering or editing grades in the scores tab, teachers must click Post Grades to write the grades to the report cards. Grades will be saved as you enter them but they will not appear on the report cards until you click Post Grades.
Entering Grades Handout
Elementary Comment Codes Handout
How to verify that your grades are posted
ACCESS Certification
Training for ACCESS needs to be re-completed by the entire staff by Monday, December 21, 2015. To complete the training go to the wida website:
https://www.wida.us Log on (if you can't remember your password remember that your email may have been yourname@boston.k12.ma.us ) all accounts previously created are still active. To create a new account: Type in username: massachusetts, password:patriot and create a new account. Once you log on you need to go to the paper-based Grades 1-12 training. Make sure you are under the Test Administrator tab (not coordinator). You will find a checklist that needs to be completed as well as the link for the tests you have to take. Once the test is completed please turn your training certificate to Kathy or Madeline. Kindergarten teachers need to take the Kindergarten training and test. All SAR and PACE teachers need to take the Alternate Access Training and test. If you have questions please contact Waverly.
