News for April 22, 2019
Seven weeks left of the 2018-19 school year - how could that even be possible?! While that can add stress to all of us, the great news is that we have 7 more weeks to impact the learning of our students. Let's take a close and collective look at formative data this week and plan for some intensive, specific, and strategic opportunities to help all of our students achieve mastery in our grade level essential standards. We can do it!This Week at Brown School
April 22 Safe & Civil Schools Team meeting @ lunch
Release Time Bible Class 2:20-3:35 p.m.
April 23 IEP/IRIPs (a.m. only)
School Store @ first recess
Fire drill @ 3:15 p.m.
Staff/SI meeting 4:00-4:30 p.m.
PTO Meeting 7 p.m. - Schueneman & Brown
April 24 Late Start Day
SpEd meeting 8-9 a.m. in Mathey's room
2nd graders to Heritage Museum 10:15-2:00 p.m.
IEP meeting @ 11:30 - Rank
FCOG Preschool visits DeLapa's class @ 1:00
April 25 Y5 Hearing and Vision Screening
Kindergarteners to Sarett 9:00-11:30 a.m.
PAT playgroup in gym 9:00-11:00 a.m.
4th graders to Cook Plant 9:30-11:30 a.m.
April 26 Mismatch Day (Student Council)
Movie Night @ Brown 6-8:30 p.m.
Coming Up...
April 29 3rd & 4th grade M-STEP testing begins
NWEA testing begins
Fire Drill @ 8:45 a.m.
Mileage Club begins @ lunch recess
April 30 Lory's Place group @ lunch
May 1 Late Start Day
Mileage Club @ lunch recess
May 2 4th grade to Sarett 12:45 - 2:45 p.m.
IEPs (Rank) a.m.
May 3 Popcorn Friday!
Kristen @ Central a.m.
Mileage Club @ lunch recess
May 6-10 Teacher Appreciation Week!
May 6 Mileage Club @ lunch recess
Board of Education Meeting @ SJHS 5:45 p.m.
May 7 K/1 Release Day
Kristen in Lansing
Teacher Appreciation Luncheon in lounge
SJPS Foundation Teacher Grants Due @ midnight
May 8 2/3 Release Day
Late Start Day
Kristen in Lansing
Mileage Club @ lunch recess
May 9 4/5 Release Day
Lunch provided by First Source Bank in lounge
May 10 3rd-5th grade track meet @ Upton @ 11:00
Ren Baldwin Tech Fest @ SJHS 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Summer Learning Challenge
We all know that the "summer slide" is a real deal. Let's help our families in planning meaningful and engaging ways to keep learning strong throughout the summer months. I am looking for a few staff members to help me in planning for the 2019 Summer Learning Challenge for our students. If you are interested, please let me know by Monday. I'm hoping to set up a meeting in April to brainstorm some ideas before May gets here.
Placement Requests
This is the time of year teachers may start getting requests or concerns from parents over next year's placement. As a reminder. . .we never discuss class placement or our teaching colleagues' classrooms in terms of 'best fit' with parents.
Sometimes we do need to inform parents of our process for class placement to put their concerns to rest. A simple "I'll be working with the other teachers at our grade level to make recommendations for next year. Our goal is balanced classes" is enough for most parents.
If parents persist, feel free to forward them our handbook language or direct them to the principal. All placement requests must be submitted in writing to Kristen.
This is the time of year teachers may start getting requests or concerns from parents over next year's placement. As a reminder. . .we never discuss class placement or our teaching colleagues' classrooms in terms of 'best fit' with parents.
Sometimes we do need to inform parents of our process for class placement to put their concerns to rest. A simple "I'll be working with the other teachers at our grade level to make recommendations for next year. Our goal is balanced classes" is enough for most parents.
If parents persist, feel free to forward them our handbook language or direct them to the principal. All placement requests must be submitted in writing to Kristen.
The following information regarding placement was included in our family blog last weekend:
Student Placement
We try to use our best professional judgment to create balanced classes. We consider the following factors when making class lists:
An even distribution of students according to ability;
A fair balance of boys and girls in a classroom;
A fair distribution of students who demand more care and attention from teacher; and,
The mixture of students’ personalities and probable “fit” as a class.
Parents may submit written information for staff to consider for student placement. Specific requests for teachers are not accepted. All placement requests must be filed with Kristen.
Movers
Please let the office know if you hear of students who are moving! We’re working hard to keep track of students and follow up on rumored moves to help with planning sections for next year.
Kagan Cooperative Learning Institute
A national Kagan trainer is coming to St. Joseph Public Schools and you are invited to attend! This intensely
engaging and immediately applicable 5-day training changed my teaching practice and transformed my classroom. Please consider joining us at St. Joseph High School the week of August 19-23. By attending all 5 days of the cooperative learning institute, you are eligible to apply to become a Kagan Coach and/or school trainer! We will even provide a $300 stipend to all 5-day attendees. Please click here to register by May 10th.
Have you heard?! With the generous support of an SJPS Foundation Grant, we will have 1:1 computer access for all 4th and 5th grade classrooms next year! Woohoo!
Avoid the year-end push!
Each week for the next four weeks we’ll offer you a couple year end task reminders to help you stay on track and lessen your stress come late May / early June. For this week . . .
Get summer maintenance requests in to Sara this week so that we can start generating work orders.
Place your classroom supply order by Friday, May 3rd. We are going online this year! See directions below (thank you, Sara!)
Kagan Cooperative Learning Institute
A national Kagan trainer is coming to St. Joseph Public Schools and you are invited to attend! This intensely
1:1!
Have you heard?! With the generous support of an SJPS Foundation Grant, we will have 1:1 computer access for all 4th and 5th grade classrooms next year! Woohoo!
The shift to 1:1 access will provide you and your students with unlimited opportunities for learning and growth. The 4th and 5th grade level teams started the visioning this week with Amy. What a gift to our students!
Professional Portfolios
Portfolio entries are due on Tuesday, April 30th. The professional portfolio serves two important functions. It documents your commitment to and progress with your professional learning goal for the year and serves as an archive of all of your contributions & accomplishments for the year. As in years past, you’ll post two entries:
Summary/Reflection Paragraph on your intentional area of focus for the year and it’s impact on your students/classroom. Please include any next steps you see for this goal.
List of 2018-19 Contributions & Accomplishments
Portfolio entries are due on Tuesday, April 30th. The professional portfolio serves two important functions. It documents your commitment to and progress with your professional learning goal for the year and serves as an archive of all of your contributions & accomplishments for the year. As in years past, you’ll post two entries:
Summary/Reflection Paragraph on your intentional area of focus for the year and it’s impact on your students/classroom. Please include any next steps you see for this goal.
List of 2018-19 Contributions & Accomplishments
Avoid the year-end push!
Each week for the next four weeks we’ll offer you a couple year end task reminders to help you stay on track and lessen your stress come late May / early June. For this week . . .
Get summer maintenance requests in to Sara this week so that we can start generating work orders.
Place your classroom supply order by Friday, May 3rd. We are going online this year! See directions below (thank you, Sara!)
Click on the link: https://store.schoolspecialty.com/OA_HTML/ibeCZzpHome.
likes to eat sushi, steak, pasta, tomatoes, cheese.
loves to spend time with family, watch movies, read, and see friends.
would love to travel to Scotland, Ireland, France, Australia, and Yellowstone National Park.
loves to watch her daughter play soccer.
From the main page select "Welcome, Login" on the right hand side.
User Name: scodde@sjschools.org
Password: Brown2019
Once you have logged in select "My Account" on the upper right hand corner. In the drop down menu select "My Saved Carts". Once you have found your name please select on the corresponding cart number.
Once in your cart, to add/delete items please select "Modify This Cart". To begin adding items to your cart use the search bar at the top of the page to begin looking for your items. Once you have found a item you would like to add to your cart select the "add to cart" button.
*In order to create the individual carts a item had to be in each cart. If you would like to remove the pencils that are in your cart please feel free to do so as long as you have something in your cart.
Your cart subtotal will be displayed by hovering over the shopping cart on the right hand side of the top of the page.
Make sure to save any changes you make by selecting "save cart".
If you have any questions, please see Sara.
Guess Who?
You guessed it - last week's featured star was Sandy Valensi. Let's get to know this week's featured Brown School Superstar. She...likes to eat sushi, steak, pasta, tomatoes, cheese.
loves to spend time with family, watch movies, read, and see friends.
would love to travel to Scotland, Ireland, France, Australia, and Yellowstone National Park.
loves to watch her daughter play soccer.
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| Check in with your swim buddy today! #ONE |
