Dear
Parents,
This
morning we held our, “Welcome Back” assembly in the auditorium. Ms. Sweet and I
welcomed our new teacher assistants, teachers and students. This year, we warmly welcome 8 new teacher assistants, 1 teaching intern, 12 teachers and 142 new students. Overall, we have 500 wonderful students in the elementary school. Thank you to our grade 5 students who sang, "We Are a Family Under One Sky." You were great! Thank you to our music teachers, Ms. Shireen, Mr. Finny and Mr. Vasanth- you only had a few days to practice with the students. We truly are a family of many nations under one sky! Near the end of the assembly, we received a surprise visit from Gerald
and Piggie. Many of our students already know Gerald and Piggie because
they led our final Literacy Week assembly in the spring. For those of you who
do not know Gerald and Piggie, they are two characters in books written by
children’s author, Mo Willems, and they teach children about co-operation, sharing
and accepting differences.
Back
to School Night - Each August,
the Elementary School hosts Back to School Night. This year the
event will be held on Thursday, August 22, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Below is
the schedule for the night:
5:00 to 5:20: Grade-level presentations (your child’s teacher
will let you know where the presentation will take place).
5:20 to 5:25: Transition time
5:25 to 5:45: Grade-level presentation
5:45 to 5:50: Transition time
5:50 to 6:10: Visit your child’s classroom
Looking
at the above schedule, if you had two children, for example in grades 1 and 4,
you would attend one grade-level presentation at 5:00 and the second presentation
at 5:25. You could then drop in to see each child’s classroom from 5:50 to 6:10.
If there are three children in your family, mom can attend one session at 5:00
while dad attends the other. This will allow both parents to attend the second
session. Specialist teachers will not be leading presentations, but will be
available to meet with parents. On Wednesday, you will receive an email
indicating where specialist teachers will be located.
I
know that some parents are planning to take their children home at 3:30 and
then return for 5:00. This is good idea for the day will be long otherwise. Children who do remain at school will be supervised on the
playground by school personnel while parents are visiting
the classrooms. As usual, food will be available for purchase in the cafeteria after-school should you wish to purchase a snack for your child. Please pick up your children immediately following Back to
School Night.
The
purpose of this event is to give you an opportunity to meet your
child’s teachers and learn more about the curriculum for
each class. There will be other opportunities to speak with a teacher regarding individual student progress. If you
do wish to speak with your child’s teacher regarding his/her academics, you are
welcome to make an appointment.
Meetings
with Teachers: We want to encourage
communication between parents and teachers. If you would like to meet with one
of your child’s teachers, please contact him or her by email to set up a time
to meet. Alternatively, you can contact Ms. Hazel in the Elementary School
Principal’s Office to schedule an appointment. Please keep in mind that our teachers have
time set aside before and during the school day for planning and preparing
lessons and for assessing student progress. This time is very valuable to them
and to the quality of our instructional program. Unscheduled meetings can make
it difficult for teachers to be prepared for their classes and hence can have a
negative impact on the learning experience for the students. Thank you for your
cooperation.
Collaboration Time for
Teachers: In my Principal’s Notes
last week, I wrote that the teachers recently engaged in professional development
workshops that focused on the Seven Norms of Collaboration and effective
meeting structures. Teacher collaboration is
frequently mentioned in articles and reports on school improvement. A growing
body of evidence suggests a positive relationship between teacher collaboration
and student achievement. While there is no doubt that informal
teacher-to-teacher collaboration can have a positive impact on students, true
collaboration is best achieved through a structured process. The key word in
the previous sentence is, “structured” and what does a structured process look
like? This past spring, several teachers formed the “Collab Committee” and set out to answer this very question.
This year, teaching teams will have the following collaboration time built into the schedules:
• 90
minutes weekly to be devoted to team meetings
• 90
minutes per week engaged in differentiated onsite professional development (co
teaching, collaborative processes, literacy, curriculum development, student
led conferences (portfolios and goal setting), IT integration, data analysis of
student work, etc.)
• 90
minutes per week of planning for English as an Additional Language and Homeroom
Teacher co-teaching pairs and triads
• 180
minutes per week for planning as needed by individual teachers, co-teaching
pairs, and teams
Thank you to the following members of the Collab Committee for your fine work: Kristina Jenkins, Rachel MacDonald, Pam Thomson, Jenna Schaller, Shireen Lazarus, Brenna Fairchild, Megan McCrindle, and Anne Sweet.
Student
Handbook Acknowledgement Forms– If you have not signed and returned yours,
please help us by doing so as soon as possible. It can be found at the end of
the Student Handbook. The form must have the signatures of the student (grade 3
and above) and a parent or legal guardian. We will soon be contacting families
who have not returned this form.
Please do join us
here at the school tomorrow for our annual, “Welcome Back Picnic,” from 1 pm to
4 pm. Come for a short time, or stay the entire time!
Have a great
weekend,
Kevin Hall
Elementary School
Principal