May is Here

The final month of school is upon us.  Bring out the Maypole and celebrate!  There is still much to do and it is important that we all meet deadlines.  Please be sure you are reading emails and turning items in on time.  We will have one final faculty meeting on May 14.  It is very important that EVERYONE attend as we will be discussing end of year procedures and requirements.  Those of you attending the professional development that day will still be required to attend the faculty meeting.  One of the things I will be looking at before you check out are your cums to be sure everything is in order.  The other is making sure we know where all teacher materials are since we have many new teachers hired for next year.  

Just to give you all a head's up about post planning.  Next year is our Third Year Review and I want to be sure everything is updated this year with evidence.  This is what we will be working on May 29 and 30.  My plan was that one day would be for CIPA and one for cums and checkout.  Sometimes other plans come up unexpectedly and crush my plans, but we will need to work around them.  I was told yesterday that the Diocese will be offering Professional Development on May 29-31.  There will be 6 modules offered.  I do not have any other details beyond that except that I am going to try to hold them here (or at least some of them).  You are welcome to attend any or all of these, however, everyone is still expected to have their cums completed and CIPA input completed.  Therefore, it may mean working Friday June 1 or getting everything done prior to May 29.  I will be sure to have all details to you by our May 14 meeting of what you need to do.  

Book Fair this week.  Please show support by attending the Family event and Art show on Thursday.  May Crowning and Student Council Inauguration is Wednesday.  Jennifer will have the details regarding the Inauguration.  Spring Concert practice will be Friday morning.  Teachers should plan to be in the FLC by 6 pm on Friday and assist where needed.  Instructional assistants are not expected to attend.  

I stumbled across this today in my email and wanted to share it.  This looks like an excellent place for a field trip. In particular, grades 4-5, and 7.  It's pretty far but lower grades would love it too, about an hour by bus.  Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.      https://selby.org/programs/school-programs/                                     Check out the video to get an idea of what is there.  

Hang in there... 4 more weeks!

Celebrations

I was looking for an interesting title for this post and I googled "what celebrations were happening this week."  I knew that April 15 is typically tax day.  What I didn't know is that April 15 is also National That Sucks Day, mostly because it is usually tax day and it's the day that the Titanic sunk.  I then read on to discover so many interesting celebrations this week like National Mushroom Day and Blah, Blah, Blah Day.  There's also Pet Owners Independence Day which no one is really sure about but it was suggested that it's the day your pet goes to work for you and you sit home.  There's also National Eggs Benedict Day and Stress Awareness Day.  That day is April 16, the day after taxes... no surprise there.  I decided the one we should celebrate is World Art Day.  World Art Day is an international celebration of the fine arts.  The goal is to appreciate art in general, and to spread world-wide enthusiasm and awareness for the arts.  So share some art... maybe a painting of a pet, a mushroom or possibly eggs benedict.  

We are adopting a new phonics program in grades K-2 next year and the prof. dev. for this program is tentatively scheduled for May 14-15 and May 21-22.  This was not my preference for it to be on school days but it's out of my hands.  A number of teachers, support teachers, etc. will be attending.  I am telling you all this because we may run into a problem with finding enough Subs as there are already other teachers approved to be out on some of those days.  Therefore, please understand if we ask you to help out on those days.  It may mean giving up one planning period to cover a class.  We try very hard to avoid this, but this is a unique situation.  Thank you for understanding.  

I will be away from school for most of next week at a school accreditation visit on the west coast. I will be back next Thursday and out again Friday for an administrator's meeting.  No crazy parties while I'm gone. I can always be reached by email, but may not be available to reply right away.  I will not be putting up a blog next Sunday.  I will also need someone to take over leading the 33 Days discussion on Google Hangouts for Saturday, April 21 through Wednesday, April 25.  I will pick it up again on Thursday, 4/26.  

Reminders...  Put in your School Dude requests for next year by May 1.  Be sure your lesson plans are up to date.  Friday is a half day and we will have a meeting.  This was scheduled to be a textbook meeting, but we have addressed most of those concerns.  We will have PLC meetings with a focus on Iowa scores and Math/ELA curriculum.  I will give more direction tomorrow as far as what to bring to the meeting.  We will start right at 12:30 so we can end early.  Bring your lunch with you.  I will visit all meetings.  

Math:  Maria, Nathan, Krista, Kelly G., Melissa, Charles (Office conference room)

ELA:  Gina, Susana, Sue, Kim, Heather, Kelly M., Katherine, Jamie S., Julie, Elaine (Art Room)

Other assignment: Julianne, Jennifer, Jamie G., Derrick, George (please see me) 

Enjoy your week!  

Happy Easter!

  Happy Easter and welcome back.  I hope everyone had a good break and you are feeling refreshed and ready to fly through the next 7 weeks.  Be sure to keep focused on the things you need to accomplish. 

I received the results from the Iowa Assessment over break.  At first I was disappointed in the scores, but then when I looked at the comparison to last year, most grades made progress in both Math and Lang. Arts.  I will be interested to see how this progress compares to iReady scores and if the growth or lack of growth is seen in the same grades with iReady.  Two things were clear in the results... Math in Focus has the potential to improve Math scores when used consistently.  Lang. Arts scores will improve when students are consistently presented with direct instruction in all aspects of Lang Arts, particularly grammar.  We all need to be unified in our approach to instruction and our commitment to infusing rigor into our curriculum.  Jamie will share codes on Monday so that you can look at your scores.  Your students' progress on the Iowa will be include in your Summative Evaluation and used for writing goals for next year.  

I will complete the second observation during the month of April and meet for Summatives in May.  This second summative will be unannounced.  Please be sure Atlas is up to date and it's clear what you are working on each week.  

ACs were installed over break.  I believe they installed 4 air conditioners and we still have one more large one to put in this year.  I'm anxious to see the results of our Raffle which will help offset these costs.  

At our faculty meeting on Monday, Nathan and Heather will bring us up to date on grading and instruction from their recent Instructional Coach's meeting.  I will share news from my latest Principal's meeting.  

Finally, if you haven't heard already, It was announced earlier this week that Fr. Curtis will be leaving us this summer.  He has been assigned to Christ the King Parish.  We will be getting a newly ordained priest, Timothy Williford.  He will be ordained on May 19 and will be joining us some time this summer.  Deacon Timothy spent this past summer at Christ the King Parish and it appears he's a musician.  I look forward to the gifts he will bring. 

Have a Blessed Week!