March 28th, 2016

High Point News

Week of: March 28th, 2016

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

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Incredible Kid Day!

Northside Hospital has prepared handwritten letters for every High Point student to tell them how awesome they are!! The letters will be delivered Tuesday morning and will have the students first names on them. Please let the kids read them at some point during the day. If you do not receive a letter for a student, contact the front office with the student’s name, and we will bring them an extra!

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VOTE for Teacher Representative on SGC! 

Don't forget to vote for the Teacher Representative on SGC!!! Voting ends TOMORROW!!!!

It only takes a second to vote for ONE representative so please make sure to vote! The link was sent out by Fulton County last week!!

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International Night - Huge Success!!!

A HUGE thank you to the Cultural Arts Committee (Negrin, Stahura, Hess, Roberts, Todd, Laird, Landford, Mendoza, and O'Daniels ) for pulling off such an amazing event!!!! 
We had a huge turn out and learned so much about the different cultures in our building. Thank you to all the staff who came as well and supported our families!!

We can't wait to make this a yearly tradition!!

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12 Ways to Support ESOL Students in Class

There is a wonderful article about how to support our ESOL students in the mainstream classroom. Please see your ESOL cooperating teacher if you would like to read the article in its entirety. However, the 12 ways are listed below: 

1. Make it visual 

2. Build in more group work

3. Communicate with the ESOL teacher

4. Honor the "silent period" 

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary 

7. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language

8. Pre-teach whenever possible. 

9. Learn about the cultural background of your students...... 

10. But don't make a child speak for his entire culture

11. Show them how to take themselves less seriously.....

12. But always take them seriously. 

“It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say (ELL kids) don’t know anything,” says Eddington. “These are brilliant kids and they know a lot. They just can’t tell us in English yet.” Make a conscious effort to see past the accent and the mispronunciations and treat every interaction — every student — with the respect they deserve.

“They’re doing twice the job of everybody else in the class,” Kim adds, “even though the result looks like half as much.” 

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Application to Teach this Summer

Please click on the link below to sign up to teach one of our 3 summer programs this year. All programs will be held at High point. 

There is information listed at the top of the application giving the dates, times, and pay for each program. Priority will be given to teachers available for all 4 weeks.

Please direct questions about the programs to the following people:

          Camp PAWS- Rachel Salmons

          FLP- Tashika Truesdale

          Summer School- Jacinta Alexander

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mT3qycHkeHDBQXCEBq-996NZM-SP1Nr87oVWhjodmx4/viewform

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PBIS

As we prepare for testing, students begin to get anxious. Here is a great article with ways to approach children. Check it out!

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/stress-better/2016/03/49-phrases-to-calm-an-anxious-child/#.VuVa79F0nyk.mailto 

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Market Day!! - You’re Invited!

Who: Third graders

What: Second Annual Market Day – each student created a product to sell between $1-$5

When: Tuesday, March 29: Community members invited to visit any time 12:30-2!

3^rd from 12:00-12:25

K and 1^st from12:30-12:55

2^nd  and 4^th from 1:00-1:25

5^th from 1:30-1:55

Where: High Point Gym

Why: IB: Unit 5: “How We Organize Ourselves: Our Economy”

Thank you for your support!

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Spring Break
Please make sure that all food is disposed and all technology is locked and secured prior to leaving for spring break. Please close all blinds and lock your doors. We want to make sure everything is secure during the break! 

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

In Ms. Owens’ 3^rd grade, students are raising their depth of knowledge questioning. The students were given question stems and using them to ask better questions in all subjects but also they are getting the opportunity to practice during their reading workshop. Students are practicing with their double page spread and when working on their reading workshop menu. They are being challenged to post their questions by the specific sentence stems for DOK 2 or 3. 

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

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Churchwell's class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Woods' class the following week. 

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

Monday, March 28th
Kindergarten Field Trip
9:30 - Prospective Parent Tour

Tuesday, March 29th 

8:00 - FLP Meeting
12:00 - Market Day for 3rd Grade
2:50 - Faculty Meeting

Wednesday, March 30th

NO PLCs this week!!!
2:50 - PBIS Meeting - Conference Room 

Thursday, March 31st 

Imagine Learning Training for ESOL Teachers
2nd Grade Field Trip
1:30 - ETT for 3rd Grade
2:50 - PLCs

Friday, April 1st 
STEAM DAY!!!!!
Student of the Week Certificate

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

We don't have any birthdays to celebrate this week. 

March 21st, 2016

High Point News

Week of: March 21st, 2016

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

Teacher Appreciation Week
We are so excited to celebrate our whole staff this week!!! The admin team along with the PTA have organized lots of treats for you! We are so lucky to have such an amazing staff who puts their heart and soul into the success of our students. This week, we will have: 

Monday - Coffee Cart! The PTA will deliver coffee and morning snacks to all staff from 7:20-7:50. 
**Homeroom teachers, please send the note cards you find in your box home to each of your students. 

Tuesday - NO MEETINGS + Smoothie Bar for all staff from 10:30-1:00 in the teachers' lounge. 

Wednesday - A surprise from your class! 

Thursday - "Give your teacher a break!" - PTA will cover homeroom classes 15 minutes prior to your specials time (during nap time for PreK) and will take your class to specials!
Please come join the admin team in the conference room during your specials for Popcorn Palooza and punch! We will have all kinds of great popcorn such as Chicago Style, Salted Caramel, Oreo, Hot Wings and Blue Cheese, and White Cheddar! We hope you can enjoy your extra time with a treat! 

Friday - PTA Luncheon in the Media Center

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RTI REMINDERS:

·        Many students have changed RTI groups due to academic success or a change in tiers or programs. All EASY Plans will need to be updated for accuracy by 4:00 on April 1^st. I hope this gives everyone enough time considering that report cards need to be completed during these weeks. I will be reviewing each T2 and T3 plan for all of our students. If you need assistance with this task, please let me know.

·        Jacque Radford and the SST Team will be scheduling end-of-the-year SST / retention meetings very soon. Please begin to think about your RTI students and the support they may need for next year so that we can make end-of-year decisions. No SST case will be in limbo over the summer, or get immediate attention at the beginning of next year (ex: 4 weeks of data and then recommend testing). All students in T2 and T3 will need to receive RTI interventions until the first STAR screening is completed and then the decision process will begin again in late September.

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Google Expeditions

A friendly reminder that we will have Google Expeditions this Friday! The schedule will be as follows:

7:15-7:45 - ALL homeroom teachers meet in media center for a quick teacher demonstration
7:50 - Google Expeditions starts (rotation every 30 minutes) for grades 2-5

Google Expeditions will be located in Lib Robert's portable and Marinos/Hicks portable. We will send out another schedule this week. 

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Instructional Rounds Rescheduled

Instructional Rounds by the CLC team have been rescheduled for May. We will keep everyone posted on the new date. 

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High Point’s International Night

Come to an evening filled with cultural entertainment and food tastings from the following featured countries: Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, China, India, Jamaica, Cuba and many more from around the globe.

A fun night for the whole family to celebrate High Point's cultural diversity!

Please join us THIS THURSDAY!!!!!!!!

5:00-7:00 pm

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Device Dilemma

Due to needing time to discuss GA Milestones, we will be moving our Device Dilemma discussion to our April 26th faculty meeting instead of next Tuesday. This will hopefully give everyone more time as well to discuss all the different possibilities! The Learning Tuesday will be May 3rd instead of April 26th. Thanks!!!

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VOTE for Teacher Representative on SGC! 

Voting for the Teacher Representative of our SGC will begin this Wednesday, March 23rd and will go until the 29th. It only takes a second to vote for ONE representative so please make sure to vote! The link will be sent out in an email to all staff beginning Wednesday. 

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Application to Teach this Summer

Please click on the link below to sign up to teach one of our 3 summer programs this year. All programs will be held at High point. 

There is information listed at the top of the application giving the dates, times, and pay for each program. Priority will be given to teachers available for all 4 weeks.

Please direct questions about the programs to the following people:

          Camp PAWS- Rachel Salmons

          FLP- Tashika Truesdale

          Summer School- Jacinta Alexander

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mT3qycHkeHDBQXCEBq-996NZM-SP1Nr87oVWhjodmx4/viewform

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PBIS

How do YOU use PAWS-Up Tickets?

In Miss Frappier and Miss Jannausch’s class, the students WANT your PAWS-Up tickets. To them they = $$$. The students earn Dojo points which turn into “money”. They can then buy different rewards which includes anything from gum to swapping desks for a day. Ms. Jannausch and Miss Frappier started using PAWS-Up tickets as their money. If the students get a PAWS-Up ticket from another teacher, it is automatically worth $1. After they spend their money at the Dojo Store the students can turn their tickets in for the weekly drawing at the front office. Now that’s what you call “getting more bang for your buck!”

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What I've been thinking about...

Brian recently sent me this article in Edutopia about poverty and retaining students. 

It's a wonderful article and makes us reflect on our practices. Basically, are we asking ourselves these three questions: 

1. Are we deploying resources effectively?

2. Are we optimizing our time? 

3. Do we have a data system that works effectively for classrooms and leaders? 

The question I then asked myself was if we aren't doing these things to the best of our ability, how can we change that? Is there a Request for Flexibility that we can propose to give us more time? Is there one data system that we need to be doing as a school to constantly monitor students' progress?  Food for thought....

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-asking-right-questions-poverty-william-parrett-kathleen-budge?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

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

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Mitchler's class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Churchwell's class the following week. 

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

TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK!!!!!

Monday, March 21st 
Morning Coffee on a Cart - by PTA
Book Fair PreK-1st Grade

Tuesday, March 22nd  

PreK Registration in Media Center
SIOP Training - Robert's Portable
Book Fair PreK-1st Grade
10:30-1:00 will be Smoothies!!! - by PTA

Wednesday, March 23rd

8:00 - Title I Parent Workshop
3rd Grade Field Trip
Book Fair 2nd-5th Grade
Math PLCs 

Thursday, March 24th 

Treat for Staff in Conference Room - ALL DAY
Book Fair 2nd-5th Grade
1:30 - ETT for 4th Grade
2:50 - PLCs
5:00-7:00 - International Night

Friday, March 25th 
Google Expeditions 2nd-5th Grade (all teachers meet @ 7:15 in media center)
PTA Sponsored Luncheon
Student of the Week Certificate

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

Happy birthday to Lib Roberts TODAY, Sheri Hess on the 26th and Calin Todd on the 27th!!! We hope you all have an amazing birthday!!!

March 14th, 2016

High Point News

Week of: March 14th, 2016

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

"YES I CAN" Recipient

Congratulations to Nicole for receiving this year's "Yes I Can" Award! Below is the nomination form for Nicole! If you see her, please congratulate her! 

Nicole is currently a third grader at High Point Elementary School. Nicole works really hard and always tries her best. This year, she has jumped 6 reading levels! When she doesn’t understand something, she isn’t afraid to try before asking for help. She is kind to her friends, and she loves to make people feel better whenever they are sad. Nicole loves all parts of math, but she really loves multiplying the most. Her favorite thing to do at home is to play on her phone and watch YouTube videos. Her favorite books are about animals, especially koalas. When she grows up she hopes to be a doctor or a dentist. Nicole is a wonderful student who brings a smile to everyone lucky enough to work with her. 

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Google Expeditions Pioneer Program
We recently got confirmation that the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program will be coming to High Point on March 25th. Google only allows this program for students who are 7 years and older so this will only be offered to students in grades 2-5. 

As of right now, we will have Gail Dean, our board member, and Dr. Anderson, Deputy Superintendent of Academics, in attendance on this day. 

Below is a blurb about Google Expeditions that we have communicated to our community: 

Google Expedition teams are currently selecting schools from all over the world to bring their complete Expeditions kits to classrooms. Google Expeditions is a virtual reality platform that is built for the classroom. There are more than 100 engaging journeys for students to experience. We are thrilled to be able to give our students these experiences which relate to their specific grade level standards. For a quick 2 minute video about the program, click here: https://youtu.be/mlYJdZeA9w4

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Best Elementary Schools in Sandy Springs 2016
The Sandy Springs Patch just published an article on Niche's Annual List of 100 Best Public Elementary Schools in Georgia. Only two schools in the Sandy Springs area made the list and High Point was one of them! 

High Point was listed as #92 on the list. We are so proud of our test scores, school climate, and student-teacher ratios which are only a few examples of what makes our school great!!!!  

Check out the article and Top 100 list here: 

http://patch.com/georgia/sandysprings/best-elementary-schools-sandy-springs-2016?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=schools&utm_campaign=alert

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Principal's Corner

The Principal's Corner for February is below: 

http://eepurl.com/bRqrxz

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High Point’s International Night

Come to an evening filled with cultural entertainment and food tastings from the following featured countries: Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, China, India, Jamaica, Cuba and many more from around the globe.

A fun night for the whole family to celebrate High Point's cultural diversity!

Thursday, March 24, 2016

5:00-7:00 pm

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Device Dilemma

Don't forget to talk about our device dilemma with your colleagues! We want you to discuss how we should divvy out our devices and how our learning spaces could be reorganized to create the best environment possible for our students. 

Check out the quick video for inspiration:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=TTjdBIAUDMg&app=desktop

Check out this quick video about how a school increased their school library use by 1,000 percent. 

http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/school-library/

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Congrats Oratorical!

A huge congratulations to our 19 students who participated in the Oratorical Competition last week and a HUGE thank you to all the staff members who assisted them with their speeches. Our students did amazing and could not have done all of it without our staff's dedication and hard work!!! 

As Ms. Simon stated last week, the District competition for the Oratorical Competition was held at Holy Innocence Church and High Point came in First place in the boys division with Kendall Hudson and second place in the girls division with Saylor Bardin.

Kendall will continue to the next competition next Saturday representing High Point.  If you see these students, please congratulate them! They made High Point proud!!

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iPads

Teachers, please note that the county requires us to keep all ipads at school. We know there will be times you would like to take your teacher ipads home to play with a specific app or program. If that is the case, please make sure that you are bringing your ipad back to school EACH DAY. 
Since they are property of Fulton County they need to be in our building during the school day. There are random audits by the county and we are required to show where each ipad is located. We appreciate your help with this!  

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STEM Day - April 1st 

STEM Day will be April 1st this year! This is in place of our Math Day we had last year. More information from Kerstin Long will be coming to you so please be on the look out! 

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RTI REMINDERS:

·       Many students have changed RTI groups due to academic success or a change in tiers or programs. All EASY Plans will need to be updated for accuracy by 4:00 on April 1^st. We hope this gives everyone enough time considering that report cards need to be completed during these weeks. Brian will be reviewing each T2 and T3 plan for all of our students. If you need assistance with this task, please let Brian know.

·      Jacque Radford and the SST Team will be scheduling end-of-the-year SST / retention meetings very soon. Please begin to think about your RTI students and the support they may need for next year so that we can make end-of-year decisions. No SST case will be in limbo over the summer, or get immediate attention at the beginning of next year (ex: 4 weeks of data and then recommend testing). All students in T2 and T3 will need to receive RTI interventions until the first STAR screening is completed and then the decision process will begin again in late September.

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What I've been thinking about...

I have been reflecting on the quote below that I recently heard from the Department of Education about effective PLCs. As you already know, one of the major components of an effective PLC is looking at relevant data to promote student learning. 

Are we using data and discussing it in our PLCs to see if our programs, interventions, activities, strategies, etc... are effective? 

What does this quote mean to you? 

"The whole purpose of analyzing data is to assess our effectiveness rather than our intentions." 

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

Wondering about math resources? Think about these things...

There are so many resources available now. Figuring out what to use can become overwhelming.

Here's a little help from the GADOE in vetting resources from all over.

The most important questions to consider:

•        Do these resources actively develop the Standards for Mathematical Practice in students? 
•      Can you find evidence of the mathematical practices in the lessons/tasks?
•           Do these resources you are considering help develop teacher understanding, or merely provide a script? Remember, teachers can't recognize and correct misconceptions which they themselves hold.
•            Is the resource under consideration a long-term investment in teacher understanding or a short term investment which doesn't help teachers grow?
•            What conceptual understandings or mathematical misconceptions do the students bring to the table? How can you find out? Will these materials help you to find out?
•            What real-life situations might be used that would be relevant to the students? Do these resources require any real-life mathematizing/modeling?

Find out what else the GADOE recommends to help you determine what the best math resources are for your kids.  Click on the link below.

http://ccgpsmathematicsk-5.wikispaces.com/Wondering+about+math+resources%3F+Think+about+these+things...

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

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Pereira's class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Mitchler's class the following week. 

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

Monday, March 14th 
4th Grade In-House Field Trip
9:30 am - Parent Tour

Tuesday, March 15th  

1:30 - Leadership Meeting

Wednesday, March 16th

IB PLCs 

Thursday, March 17th 

St. Patrick's Day!
1:30 - ETT for 5th Grade
2:50 - PLCs

Friday, March 18th 
7:30 am - SGC Meeting in Portable #1518
Student of the Week Certificate

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

Happy birthday to Jacinta Alexander TODAY, Elizabeth Mitchler on the 17th, Sainey Faye on the 19th, and Jaime Noel on the 20th. We hope you all have an amazing birthday!!!