ENews 09.28.2014

It's crazy to believe that the end of the 1st six weeks is here! You guys are doing a great job supporting each other and helping with kids... Keep up the good work!!

Technology Resources
Here's a few technology resources that were shared with me this past week... and I wanted to share them with you.

Google for Education - http://www.google.com/edu/
Resources and programs teachers can use with students and where can participate. Here you can find Connected Classrooms and go on virtual field trips or collaborate with others on a project. Or Education on Air to learn from experts about Math, Science, or Socials Studies. Or used it connect with authors on the books your reading with the students.

Matt Gomezhttp://mattbgomez.com/
He's a good friend of mine and teaches Kindergarten in Plano ISD. He also works with Region 10 to support classroom teachers to integrate technology in their instruction. Here's a web series called Hanging Out with Matt Gomez. Be sure to check it out!

Student Council Elections
Mrs. Ortega has done a great job organizing our Student Council elections. It's great to see so many students take an interest in this process and get excited about these positions. All the kids have done any excellent job with their posters. I love seeing student work displayed in the cafeteria... can't wait to see the results!

AIE Conference
Some of our Scott Family attended the Advancing Improvement in Education (AIE) Conference this year with Kenny Kaye Hudson and Julia Robinson. I was please to have Mrs. Padgett, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Garcia, and Mrs. Worley attend this conference with us. This group is working diligently by developing some exciting ideas to help us enhance our instructional program. 

On October 9th, our Campus Leadership Team (CLT) will be meeting again to develop a TARGETED plan for our campus. Based on several of the conversations I've had with these individuals, a focus on Reading will be a part of the plan. These teachers have some great ideas for us. One thing I will be committing to this year is sharing and communicating the implementation of our plan. So I've asked Julia Robinson to speak at our next staff meeting on Monday, October 13th,  to discuss our targeted plan and how we can implement it this year.

Tutoring
We're working on a tutoring schedule for this 1st Semester. Tentative, the dates for tutoring will be Tuesday, October 28th - Thursday, November 20th. Please mark your calendars but WAIT on communicating this out with parents for now.

Also, we're examining the processes we have in place for tutoring including HOW we select students for tutoring, WHAT we do with the students during tutoring, and WHO will be responsible for tutoring at this time. ALL staff members will need to be prepared to support our after-school tutoring efforts. More details will be coming in the next several weeks.

AR Reading Plans
Since Reading will be a focus of our campus, I've asked Mrs. Jones to help organize a new direction for our AR program. We've using many of the ideas Julia Robinson has shared with us and I believe this will be a great way to help increase the number of readers for Scott Elementary. Here's part of the original message Mrs. Jones sent us this last week about the AR program:

As a reminder, we want to emphasize meeting their goal each week by having students make it to certain steps as follows:

1st week students should be at 17%
2nd week is 33%
3rd week 50%
4th week 67%
5th week 84%
6th week 100%

Each week, I will run off your AR goal reports that have been highlighted with students that are not at the appropriate step. We will need to conference with these students and ensure that they are testing to achieve their goal. Therefore, please make sure to enter your AR goals next week as well.

In the meantime, please STAR test your students, set up your students' goals, and create their AR folders with their AR reading level and goal. I sent you an AR guide sheet in an earlier email showing how to do this. 

Communication with Parents
The next TWO Fridays will be unique and communication with parents will be critical. On Friday, October 3rd, there will be NO school. This is one of flex days we did during the Summer. The following Friday, October 10th, we will be an early release for all students @ 12:00pm. It's a significant change from our normal early release days - be sure to communicate with parents now about these two Fridays so they can make arrangements. Send reminders via Newsletters, Social Media, or Remind.

Homecoming Float
Yes! We have a float... thanks to Mrs. Gilliland Scott Elementary has a float entered in the Homecoming Parade. I would like to see 100% participation from our Scott Family participating in this event. The plan for our float will be focused around our PAWS-itive Behavior at Scott Elementary. We'll have two groups of teachers for riders and walkers. Our riders will hold two banners (one either of side) with our PAWS-itive message... while our walkers will be on the side of the float handing out candy. 

So apparently someone realized what life is like in the Jacobs household... because they decided to shoot this video. However, we all know this video is "based on a true story" and they decided to change the names to "protect the innocent". So here's a reenactment of a day in the Jacobs Family!



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