BLAIR NEWSLETTER DECEMBER/ JANUARY 2015/16 FROM THE PRINCIPAL S DESK...

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1 BLAIR NEWSLETTER DECEMBER/ JANUARY 2015/16 FROM THE PRINCIPAL S DESK... Happy Holidays! Only weeks away before heading into a New Year; and what a great year at Blair it has been and looking forward to 2016! As a reminder, while the Holiday season may be a time of love, joy and merriment for some people, others may be lost in the holiday hustle and bustle. Financial difficulties, loss of a loved one or life changes that occur near the holidays can create feelings of despair. We all need inspiration at one time or another. Research shows that having a positive outlook on life and mindset is what links the most successful people. It s great to look forward to breaks as we all need them and cherish the time to rejuvenate, but we know it is so important to focus every minute we have with our scholars to ensure they are learning to their fullest potential. This can only benefit their academic growth now and in their future success. Our messaging is crucial to keep students focused and engaged until the very last minute before break so they can learn until the very last day before break so they continue to learn and inspire them to keep the reading up. Encourage reading, writing and math over break over is important so they can continue the learning. See below why it is so important! Congrats to Blair School! Blair was just awarded the Apple Distinguished award - The only elementary school in Waukesha!

2 Blair Mission and Vision: Featured Five Strategies: Celebration of our focus and commitment! 3.) Innovation-Diversity Rationale: To allow for personalization of learning for scholars to maximize instruction. Provide tools and diverse learning opportunities Structure: Waukesha One o Personalized learning practices and goal setting o Instructional design that incorporates Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR Model) o Digital tools as a redefinition tool to create and show learning that would not be possible without technology: =us0w823ky0g o Technology Leader & Technology Integrator serving as tech coaches for teachers. Thoughtfully plan and implement new lesson ideas together with classroom teachers Research and develop diverse technology tools to engage all scholars Lead professional development opportunities to further explore and provide feedback with each other Dual Language Programming -a track of Bilingual programming (see handbook ) o Bi-Literacy strategies to heighten and increase academic achievement Total Physical Response Bridging Strategies 90/ 10 allocation model \ Language Development and oracy strategies school-wide. Important School Safety Reminders:

3 Now that we are facing winter, parents are reminded to make sure their children are dressed for winter weather when they leave for school, as students go outside for recess two times each day unless the wind chill or temperature is below zero, or the conditions are otherwise too inclement. Remember that all walkers and parent pick up should be picked up on the playground no later than 3:40 pm. Please remember to be prompt and on time as there is no supervision after 3:40pm. In order to ensure that all students are safely accounted for please NO playing on the playground equipment at the end of the day even with a parent present this will allow us to ensure SAFETY and that all students are safely heading home. Thank you for your cooperation and positive feedback with the new dismissal procedure. To continue to ensure safety for all students at dismissal, we are asking all parents that pick up, to park and walk to the closest part of the playground near the building. All students that are picked up by a parent will be on the playground near the building. This is to avoid students running across the street to get in cars (that may potentially lead to an accident or a student getting hit). We would like to make you aware that police have contacted us to inform us they will be issuing tickets periodically for any cars that are double parked, cars stopping or illegally parked. Your continued support and help in keeping our students safe is so appreciated. Our students and teachers are taking advantage of every minute of the day it is crucial that students are here on time every day (8:35am) and stay until the end of the day (3:40pm). Daily attendance for the full day is crucial for academic success! Please avoid picking students up early or dropping them off late this does impact their academic success. We want every minute to support our students academic success!! Just a few reminders that are happening early this week. Tomorrow is Tuesday, December 1st. School enrollment for K4/K5 begins tomorrow for the school year. You may go on line and register your scholar on line or head directly to the Lindholm Building, Central office located at 222 Maple Ave. Waukesha, WI Please remember if you have a K4 scholar and would like the possibility of having a Dual Language K4 here at Blair, make sure to choose Blair as your first choice. We understand this is early planning, but this allows us to prepare effectively for the next school year. PTO Our monthly PTO meeting will be held on Thursday, January 21st from 4:00-5:00 pm with free childcare available. This meeting is to begin organizing and planning our February event, The Blair Flair, and other ways we could fundraise and bring our Blair community together. Our November Family Night was an absolute success thanks to all who volunteered and attended! Pastries with Parents/ Pan con Dulce con los Padres Thank you to all the families that attended our Pastries with Parents/Pan con Dulce con los Padres. Many parents shared their questions regarding homework, behavior procedures and how to help their scholars at home with the new Road Maps for parents. We would like to provide two strategies that you could use with your scholar to help support at home;

4 READING: scholars should be reading EVERY night 20 minutes minimum. This can also be done on the Achieve 3000/ RAZ kids app on their I-pad. Students all know how to use the app. If they bring home a book and they have a difficult time reading on their own, they are choosing books that are not just right for them. However, it could be a book you and your scholar read together and discuss what the books were about. What, Where, When, and Why questions always help start a conversation. MATH: Scholars have Dreambox (K-2) Tenamarks (2-5) on their Ipads. This allows them to practice mathematics. Also, playing card games to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division is always a great way to incorporate math skills. Our next Pastries with Parents/ Pan con Dulce con los Padres will be in February, TBD. Hope to see you there! FIRST TRIMESTER ENDS The first trimester of the school year ended and report cards will be sent home with students in grades K-5 on Tuesday, December 8th in Tuesday folders. Parents are reminded that the School District of Waukesha has moved away from letter grades on report cards for grades, and will be using proficiency scores of 0-4. Please read the note carefully that is attached with small changes to the look and content of the report cards. We give your child a score based on the grade level content, so it is important for you to understand where your child is performing in relation to the grade level standard. We all learn at different paces and the teachers are teaching to the grade level standard but are also targeting their instruction to ensure all of our scholars are growing and learning. We are encouraging all parents to use Infinite Campus for grades. The hope is that in the future that Infinite Campus would be the primary way to see scholars Report Card grades. 4= Advanced knowledge Students independently demonstrate sophisticated application in new contexts. 3= Proficient knowledge Students demonstrate and apply skills consistently. 2= Basic knowledge Students demonstrate skills inconsistently. 1= Minimal knowledge Students demonstrate limited skills and require significant teacher assistance. 0= Insufficient evidence of learning to provide feedback No evidence of learning. Parent Road Maps - Literacy - English Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Math - English Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade

5 Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Math resource to help understand Grade continuum: wi.us/Portals/0/cgarcia /Fifth Grade.2015.Parent Roadmap - Math.pdf Please use the SDW Road Maps to build your understanding of grade level content and how to support where your scholar is at in the continuum to promote growth. Please take time to talk to your students about growth and progress and set goals on how to improve and celebrate the successes. We need to continue to message that it is not about letter grades but about learning, growth, and hard work! Education is the key to success! We want the best for all of our students and setting up good study habits and showing students we value education will lead to students achieving their goals as adults!!! SDW Tutors Please check out the attached Tutor list if you would like additional academic support at home for your scholar's success please contact the qualified teachers on the list! Winter Concert - Music Notes The first concert of the year will be with Kinder and 1st grade scholars presenting Holidays Around the World on Thursday, December 17th, at 6:30pm. These scholars are so talented and we would love to share that with ALL of the Blair families and friends! I can t wait to see all of you at these concerts!! Some Tips for being a Fantastic Concert Audience for your Students Please remain seated and quiet when the performance is in progress. If it is necessary to leave the gymnasium before the concert is over, please do so between numbers. Parents should keep small children seated with them and not allow them to run around the gym during the concert READ WRITE READ!!!!

6 During our Holiday Break remember to READ READ READ. Setting up healthy habits and routines to read over break is so important to continue academic progress. Also, encourage your child to write about family and fun happenings over break. Remember to make reading a fun, enjoyable and relaxing activity. Whatever it takes to keep our students engaged in learning!! READ to ACHIEVE! Check out our school website for calendar events and important updates!!! WAUKESHA ONE UPDATES: TECH SPECShttp://blairelementarywaukesha.weebly.com/ With Waukesha One Devices, our scholars at Blair have access to a School District of Waukesha address that is used throughout their learning day. We have been able to send research projects, ideas, collaborate on Google Apps and more with a school - the learning is so exciting, with new connections being made all the time and scholars taking core concepts to the next level with technology integration and enhancement that our school allows. In keeping in mind our digital citizenship, we want to ensure that scholars are using their s appropriately - collaborating with others on a project, getting important information from their teachers, and other SCHOOL RELATED material. Sometimes, scholars can become carried away and begin to send messages or pictures to other scholars; if this is non-instruction and academic related, they are in violation of our Acceptable Use Policy. Because this is a School District of Waukesha Account, it is important to have a conversation with your scholar about how they are using the . Feel free to check in to see that they are using it appropriately and have those chats about safe and appropriate online behavior with their school devices, s, and in their core apps. Community Learning Center (Before and After School Program) We are humbled at the amount of interest we've received to participate with us but as of now, the CLC program is at its maximum capacity. If you have submitted an application recently, you have been put on a waiting list and will receive a call when a spot opens up. To those currently in CLC, please keep in mind the following program details: Drop off in the morning should be before 8:00 am to be considered CLC participants. Pick-up in the afternoon is not until 5:15 pm for Kindergarten through Second Grade and 5:30 pm for Third Grade through Fifth Grade. That expectation is a prerequisite for keeping your child's spot in the CLC program. Any questions please contact the CLC Coordinator, Ana Arcos (aarcos@lacasadeesperanza.org) Please mark your Calendar for upcoming events: December 1st through January 21st --K4/ K5 enrollment -- District office December 8th- Dual Language Information Night - Central Office - 6:00-7:00pm Thursday, January 21st- PTO Meeting- 4:00-5:00pm. Winter Break - Wednesday, December 23--January 3, Classes resume Monday, January 4th. Monday, January 18th MLK Kick-off Assembly at 2:15pm- Youth Service Learning (all are welcome)