November 30, 2015

High Point News

Week of: November 30th, 2015

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Condolences

We would like to extend our sincere condolences to Kelle Pereira as she lost her mother this past weekend. Please keep Kelle and her entire family in your thoughts and prayers. As we get more information regarding funeral arrangements, we will let you know. Her class will be covered by Ms. Ehlers this week. 

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SCC Committee
A huge thank you to the SCC committee for having Chick-fil-a for our SCC members! If you have not joined our School Culture and Climate committee, please do so!! We don't want you to miss out on the fun!!!!!! 

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Principal's Blog

Please click below to view the November Principal's Corner. 

http://eepurl.com/bF5-fP

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Retention Letters

County retention letters will be going home December 17th. In order to prepare for this, we are asking that each grade level turn in their list of "possible" retention candidates (students who will be receiving a letter) by December 11th Brian Madej. 

The criteria for retention candidates is as follows: 

• RTI Tier III OR RTI Tier II+6-8 Weeks of Data
• SGP on STAR < 50% in Reading or Math
• Parents have been previously contacted regarding students' lack of progress
• Report cards show low grades OR comments reflect supportive programs
• Not new to the country within a year
• Not previously retained
• Enrolled in a supportive program - EIP, ESOL, SPED, or RTI Tier groups

For questions or concerns, please see Sheri Hess or Brian Madej. 

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Community & Southern Bank

Community & Southern Bank offers an incentive program for local public schools to encourage the opening of new personal & business checking accounts. CSB will donate $25.00 for each new checking account. 

For additional information regarding a bank account, please contact Steve Goins at steven.goins@myCSBonline.com or 678-293-1554.

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Facilities Survey

Parents and staff are invited to provide input via the Facilities Assessment Survey:  https://www.snapsurveys.com/wh/s.asp?k=144664703752.  

The purpose of the survey is to gather input to update the district’s five-year facility plan.  The district needs your input regarding concerns related to the condition of facilities and the educationally appropriate use of spaces within facilities (classrooms, media center, gym, etc...). This is your opportunity to share your views regarding school system facilities. Please feel this out if you would like. 

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What I've been thinking about...

Balancing structure versus choice.....

"Learning is a messy, communal, back-and-forth process. Just as we look to peers and outside inspiration to enrich our own teaching and learning, we should remember that students need a balance between structure and choice. Too much structure can remove individual investment and creativity. When choice is not backed up with clear modeling of expectations and guidelines, many are left unsure of how to proceed. As educators, if we are more attentive to the dance of structure and choice, we enable more students to produce work that is both powerful and profound."

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/strategic-modeling-balancing-structure-choice-joshua-block

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The Answer Is....

What is the Question?

Who has been tired for 3 months (and since '82)?
Who loves carbohydrates now more than ever? 
Who had no business running in two 5K's in a weekend? 
Who is now wearing a knee brace as a result of the 5K? 
Who is getting a package June 4th that will be delivered by stork and not UPS? 

What is the Answer?

PITCHFORD

*****VISUALS OF BEST PRACTICE*****
Mrs. Sexton's kindergarteners have been using the Inquiry Strategy  "The Answer is____ ", all week. Here is what they came up with by the end of the week! 

*****WRITERS' GALLERY**********

The pledge and writers' gallery is hosted by Ms. McClelland's class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Arnold's class next week. 

******CALENDAR OF EVENTS*******

Monday, November 30th  

9:30 - Parent Tour

Tuesday, December 1st

2:50 - New Kids on the Block Meeting
2:50 - Paraprofessional PLC 

Wednesday, December 2nd

IB PLC During Specials

Thursday, December 3rd 

1:30 - ETT for 1st Grade
2:50 - PLCs
Grade Level Newsletter Goes Home

Friday, December 4th 
College Spirit Wear
Book Fair Begins
K Writing Data Due
Student of the Week Certificate

******BIRTHDAYS! ****************

Happy birthday to Kristen Trenbeath and Latissa Southerland on the 4th!!! We hope you each have a wonderful birthday! 

November 16th, 2015

High Point News

Week of: November 16th, 2015

********NEWS*********************

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Congratulations!
Congratulations to Tashika Truesdale who represented High Point at the Legacy of Excellence Luncheon Friday! Tashika was honored as High Point's Teacher of the Year for 2015-2016! It was a wonderful event! 

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Girls on the Run
Congratulations to the 20+ girls who ran the Girls on the Run 5K this past weekend!! They did an amazing job representing High Point! 

Also, many thanks to their coaches who sacrificed many afternoons working, talking, inspiring, and running with these girls!! Thank you to Rebecca Negrin, Sarah Griffin, Cailin Todd, and Jenna Chapman! Also a thank you to Jennifer Silverman for coming to cheer on the girls!!!

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Reporting Absences and Tardies 
Please remember to let Pitchford or Alexander know of ALL planned absences. If you need to schedule an appointment or take a personal day and it is less than a week away, please email or talk to Pitchford or Alexander prior to putting the absence in Employee Express. 
Pitchford only approves absences in Employee Express twice a week so there have been a lot of absences that have happened without prior knowledge from Admin. 

Also, if you are going to be late, it's imperative that you call the front office. There have been classrooms and duties not covered. This is an expectation of your job so please make sure to arrive before 7:10 to welcome our students. Thank you. 

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Science Day 

Science Day is this Friday, November 20th!    

Homeroom teachers.... Please pick up your Science Day bins tomorrow, Tuesday, November 17^th in the cafeteria at the following times:

Pre K- 2^nd grade between 7:15-8:00 a.m.

3^rd-5^th grade between 2:30-3:00 p.m.

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In addition to inspecting your bin to make sure you have everything you need, please test your experiment before Friday as there may be unforeseen glitches that need to be worked out. The Science Day Committee is more than willing to purchase additional supplies if the need arises.

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A few important things regarding Science Day this year:

• There is a speaker coming from Ga Tech. He will engage, excite, and motive your students! Rumor has it, Drones will be involved…Be on time please!
• Be sure to check your schedules to know when you attend the speaker. 
• Consider your time and set-up needs for the experiment following the speaker so that you are prepared.
• Student science journals have been revised. They will be in your bins so please take a peek at them prior to Friday. They contain notices, wonderings, and reflections. (If your experiment takes place outside, allow time for students to come back inside to complete the reflection piece in their journals) The journal is a vital component to the learning during Science Day, students are expected to use them. Thanks!!!

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Don't Forget! 
As you leave on Friday for Thanksgiving break, please remember to lock up your laptop, close your blinds, take pets with you, turn off all electronics, take valuables with you, and clean out any food in cabinets or in your refrigerator. We want to make sure we aren't inviting any pests into the building over the break!!
Also, some of our contract cleaners will be waxing the floors over the break and will have access to the building so we want to make sure everything is secure. Thank you!!!

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TITLE I COMPACTS

High Point needs to send in the number of compacts collected to Title I.

Please send in your signed and dated compacts by 3:00 pm TODAY!

Please keep in mind to record and keep track of those compacts NOT turned in, and put them in my mailbox as they are sent in to you during the rest of the year.  Ensure ALL compacts are dated and signed by parents, students and yourselves.

Also, any new student coming to your classroom should get a compact.

Additional blank compacts are available in my mail box.  Please remember to send back home the compact form with the student if it comes back to you,. We’re ONLY to collect the signed and dated cover letter; not the compact form.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you for all your support!

Mariana

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Formative Observations

Formative Observations are starting and will go through January. They will not be announced. 

Jacinta or I will be in your classrooms for approximately 30 minutes. While we will be rating all 10 standards, we will only be commenting on standards #2, #4, #5, and #8 unless we are giving a rating other than a Level III.  

We will send an email after each observation so that a mid-year conference can be set up. You will be asked to send three different dates and times that work best for you. The conference should last approximately 15-20 minutes. 

You will sign off on your formative assessment AFTER the conference so that if changes need to be made, we can make them during the conference. Please do not sign off before the conference. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please see Jacinta or myself.

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What I've been thinking about...

This is a wonderful article from Edutopia that talks about reflecting on our practice and getting ourselves to ask three questions on a daily basis:  

• What should we stop doing?
• What should we start doing?
• What should we continue doing?

While these questions are primarily framed around students' learning and how we need them to build "an ever-expanding portfolio of skills and experiences," these are great questions for us as educators and as a school to ask ourselves. What is not contributing to our students' success? What should we stop doing? What is working? What should we continue doing? 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/stop-start-continue-conceptual-meets-applied-david-hawley

*****VISUALS OF BEST PRACTICE*****

Ms. McClelland’s 3^rd grade Advanced Math class is working with the distributive property and 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication. She took the standard a step further by looking at the 4^th grade standards and connected the area model with the distributive property. Students were given the task of solving the area of each room so they can determine the square footage of the whole house. McClelland had emailed the parents prior, to get the actual blue prints for their house. Students loved that it was “actually Hannah’s house.”

This is an excellent example of a relevant, real world task!

*****WRITERS' GALLERY**********

The pledge and writers' gallery is hosted by Ms. Owen's class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. McClelland's class after the break. 

******CALENDAR OF EVENTS*******

Monday, November 16th  

Tuesday, November 17th  

2:50 - Faculty Meeting

Wednesday, November 18th

IB PLC During Specials
Kindergarten Field Trip
4th Grade "Exploring Time" Museum 

Thursday, November 19th

1:30 - ETT for 2nd Grade
2:50 - PLCs
Pitchford to Principals' Meeting

Friday, November 20th    
Science Day!!!
Student of the Week Certificate

******BIRTHDAYS! ****************

Happy birthday to Kim Lunsford on the 16th, Brenda Northcut on the 18th, and Kelsie Wright on the 19th!!! We hope you each have a wonderful birthday! 

November 9th, 2015

High Point News

Week of: November 9th, 2015

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Newest High Point Hound

Congratulations to Braley Hester, our ESOL parapro, who had her baby last Monday!!!
Eleanor Mae Hester weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19 inches long. 
We wish Braley and her husband well as they welcome Eleanor home! 

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Retirement

It is with great sadness that we announce that Kim Lunsford will be retiring at the end of this month. Kim has been at High Point for over 30 years and is loved by many staff and many more children!!! We are so thankful for her dedication, humor, love, and support for our school! We are extremely sad to see her go but happy for her upcoming retirement days!! 

We are working diligently to find a replacement for her in order to have consistency in the classroom. 

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Instructional Rounds

Thank you to everyone who welcomed members from the CLC into their classrooms last Friday! They saw some amazing things and were very complimentary of our school. 
The teams shared the "positives" from each of their walkthroughs on the chart above. The purple comments were seen during reading block and the green comments were seen during math block. As you can tell, there are a lot of great things happening!!!!

We will be diving into their feedback and observations more in-depth over the next week. If you would like any feedback from the Instructional Round, you are more than welcome to seek out the person from High Point who was a part of that team. 

Thanks again for doing such a wonderful job and showing the CLC team what an amazing job you are doing for our students!!!

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Building Open This Saturday

Hess will be opening the building this Saturday from 9-1 p.m if you would like to work in your classrooms. 

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Instructional Technology Coach from KSU

High Point Elementary will be receiving an Instructional Technology Coach from Kennesaw State to help us navigate through our Personalized Learning journey. Our IT coach is Andrea Jayaraman. She will be using the Technology Instructional Matrix and observing in classrooms over the next two weeks. She wants to get a baseline of where we are with technology. This is NOT EVALUATIVE and she knows the laptop carts will be checked out to complete student surveys for the next two weeks. We are using the technology that we have available. :) 

Her ultimate goal is to invest her time with a group of 4-6 teachers (not Vanguard) in order to build capacity and support the personalized learning roll-out. Her picture is below in case she comes into your classroom. She will have a Fulton County badge but sometimes they are hard to see. Thanks for welcoming her. 

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GEORGIA CLIMATE SURVEY 

Below is information and A LINK AT THE END about the Georgia School Climate Survey. This one is required as part of our CCRPI rating – the state’s school rating system. 

We must have 75% participation…Right now we only have 50% participation. 

EVERY staff member should complete this. There are only 30 questions so it's fairly quick!!!

Thanks for completing this survey!!! 

http://apps.gadoe.org/schoolclimate/personnel.nsf/Survey.xsp

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REMINDER!!!!

ESOL Monitored notes should be entered by November 10^th. Any questions, please see an ESOL teacher or Megan Eigel. 

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Formative Observations

While we are still wrapping up walkthroughs, the Formative Observations will also be beginning this week and will go through January. They will not be announced. 

Jacinta or I will be in your classrooms for approximately 30 minutes. While we will be rating all 10 standards, we will only be commenting on standards #2, #4, #5, and #8 unless we are giving a rating other than a Level III.  

We will send an email after each observation so that a mid-year conference can be set up. You will be asked to send three different dates and times that work best for you. The conference should last approximately 20 minutes. 

You will sign off on your formative observation AFTER the conference so that if changes need to be made, we can make them during the conference. Please do not sign off before the conference. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please see Jacinta or myself. 

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Attendance

Thank you for continuing to support good attendance from our kids!!! The summary report which compares last month to this month is below. Way to go 4th grade!!!!

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PBIS 

We are beginning to approach the holiday season. Our past years of PBIS data show that we see a spike in behavior issues during this time. We all know that as these exciting times get closer and closer, we start to see compliance to classroom procedures decline. Below are two articles that give some strategies for helping your whole class to stay on track!

http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/2009/05/whos-in-control-of-your-classroom.html

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/jones/jones002.shtml

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What I've been thinking about...

We just received our GA Milestones scores from last April. Below are the summary results from last year's third, fourth, and fifth grade students. 

As I have said before, these results are all of ours. We all impact these children and help them meet their own learning target each hour, each day, each month, and each year. While we should take time to celebrate our results, we also know there is a lot of work to still be done! Thank you for your continued work and tireless efforts to grow our students!!

As of right now, these results are confidential. Please do not share them with parents. An email blast was sent out Friday letting parents know the results are beginning to come in and we will be sharing school summary reports in the next few weeks. We need to get approval to share them with the community. 
Students' individual reports will be going home once we receive them at the beginning of December. If parents have questions, direct them to a member of the administrative team. 

***********MATH CORNER************

Redbird Advanced Learning Updates from Robyn Kohen

Teacher Resources and Parent Letters

Teacher resources are in the PLP toolbox, redbird.massivepd.com, under browse more.

Please see video below on how to access what you need. If you do not have your PLP links, Robyn can provide them.

http://www.screencast.com/t/CLRMzNUx1mg0

Moving Students Who Seem to Be Placed Too High

To manually move a student to any beginning or mid-point of any grade level, click the button next to the students name (there are two to click…the right button that turns blue when you hover over it) and it will say “change starting point.” Here, you can re-set their CPA or just manually place them.

In Person Help

Robyn will be here at High Point November 12 in the conference room from 10:00 am-noon.  Bring your lunch and ask your burning questions in person!

If you need classroom coverage because of your lunch schedule, please let Kerstin know as soon as you can.  Last minute requests may not be possible to cover.

*****WRITERS' GALLERY**********

The pledge and writers' gallery is hosted by Ms. Gersten/Noel's  class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Owen's class next week. 

******CALENDAR OF EVENTS*******

Monday, November 9th  

9:00 - Prospective Parent Coffee (off campus)
9:30 - Prospective Parent Tour

Tuesday, November 10th  

1:45 - Leadership Meeting

Wednesday, November 11th

Veteran's Day
Math PLC During Specials
4th Grade Field Trip

Thursday, November 12th

Picture Day Retakes
1:30 - ETT for 3rd Grade
2:50 - PLCs
Alexander to Assistant Principals' Meeting

Friday, November 13th    
7:45 - PTA Board Meeting
Legacy of Excellence Luncheon for TOTY and PEOTY
Student of the Week Certificate

******BIRTHDAYS! ****************

Happy birthday to Judy Berger on the 15th!!! We hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!