HIAWATHA SCHOOLcontent.ccsuvt.org/custom/announcements/hiawatha/5b6acec... · 2016-09-26 ·...

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Hiawatha School 30 Hiawatha Ave. Essex Junction, VT 05452 T. 802 878-1384 http://www.ccsuvt.org/hiawatha/ Dear Families, A south wind yesterday pushed temperatures in the 50s, and allowed flocks of migrating birds to wing their way north - finally! In one short walk we saw robins, red-winged blackbirds, and Canada geese. Our playground is almost snow free, and the ground if starting to thaw out. What a winter! This spring full moon is the subject of a science unit - Changes in the Night Time Sky - being studied by our second grade students. Hope you were able to see their 'moon phases' hats they made this week. Today, is Mrs. Morgan’s last day before she goes on maternity leave! We wish her the best with her exciting new addition and look forward to her return later this year! Mr. Rasco will be returning Monday to resume his position, Mrs. Hall will fill in periodically as needed. On another note, I am saddened to share with you that Diana Clayton, our World Language/World Culture teacher will no longer be with us, as of the end of this school year. The program is ending given the difficulty in making connections with other programming in the district and supervisory union. Madame Clayton has been an inspiration to many of our students and staff in acquiring a second language, and it has been very challenging over these past few months knowing that the program will be coming to an end. Madame Clayton is the consummate language teacher. Madame has worked endlessly to make French language accessible and available to our students here at Hiawatha, and she will be missed very, very much. Our third grade students have completed the first few testing sessions of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment. The SBAC is a new approach to assessment requiring students to take the assessment on line. The assessment uses an algorithm which differentiates question sets for students. Below, please find more information on the SBAC. Our third grade teachers have been working diligently with our students in preparing for the assessment. A note to celebrate our students! Two of our parents have volunteered to work with a group of third grade girls in the Girls on the Run (GOTR) program. This is an amazing program supporting young girls in athletics and assertiveness. Our kindergarten and first graders attended Flynn Theatre concerts as we support our connections with Fine Arts. And, this past week our third graders presented their own Third Grade Fine Arts' Performance Night. The event celebrated our students work in the fine arts and their connections to literacy. We are working with a group of third grade students who have formed our first ever 'student council' to work on community service projects. We have had a number of special assemblies and Green Mountain Sings to celebrate our students' work and connections with our world. And, we continue to cherish the many volunteers who work at Hiawatha each day on behalf of all our children. Thank you everyone! Finally, a note to share that we have received many student profile forms. These forms will be used by placement teams to help create groupings for the upcoming school year. Please let me know if you have any questions about that process. Groupings are typically completed by mid- April. We will also begin to work with Fleming as we plan our transition activities for our outgoing third grade students. Amazingly, we only have about nine weeks of school left in the school year! Thanks so much for all that you do! Warmly, Tom Important Upcoming Dates PTO Meeting April 7 th 6:30pm Music Room Childcare provided Half Day of School Thursday April 9 th Noon Dismissal April Vacation April 20 th – April 24th HIAWATHA SCHOOL

Transcript of HIAWATHA SCHOOLcontent.ccsuvt.org/custom/announcements/hiawatha/5b6acec... · 2016-09-26 ·...

Page 1: HIAWATHA SCHOOLcontent.ccsuvt.org/custom/announcements/hiawatha/5b6acec... · 2016-09-26 · HIAWATHA SCHOOL . Our 3rd graders were shining stars during their Sharing Night on: Cultures!

Hiawatha School 30 Hiawatha Ave. Essex Junction, VT 05452 T. 802 878-1384 http://www.ccsuvt.org/hiawatha/

Dear Families,

A south wind yesterday pushed temperatures in the 50s, and allowed flocks of migrating birds to wing their way north - finally! In one short walk we saw

robins, red-winged blackbirds, and Canada geese. Our playground is almost

snow free, and the ground if starting to thaw out. What a winter! This spring full moon is the subject of a science unit - Changes in the Night Time Sky -

being studied by our second grade students. Hope you were able to see their 'moon phases' hats they made this week.

Today, is Mrs. Morgan’s last day before she goes on maternity leave! We wish her the best with her exciting new addition and look forward to her return later this year! Mr. Rasco will be

returning Monday to resume his position, Mrs. Hall will fill in periodically as needed. On another note, I am saddened to share with you that Diana Clayton, our World Language/World

Culture teacher will no longer be with us, as of the end of this school year. The program is ending

given the difficulty in making connections with other programming in the district and supervisory union. Madame Clayton has been an inspiration to many of our students and staff in acquiring a

second language, and it has been very challenging over these past few months knowing that the program will be coming to an end. Madame Clayton is the consummate language

teacher. Madame has worked endlessly to make French language accessible and available to our students here at Hiawatha, and she will be missed very, very much.

Our third grade students have completed the first few testing sessions of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment. The SBAC is a new approach to assessment requiring

students to take the assessment on line. The assessment uses an algorithm which differentiates question sets for students. Below, please find more information on the SBAC. Our third grade

teachers have been working diligently with our students in preparing for the assessment.

A note to celebrate our students! Two of our parents have volunteered to work with a group of

third grade girls in the Girls on the Run (GOTR) program. This is an amazing program supporting young girls in athletics and assertiveness. Our kindergarten and first graders attended Flynn

Theatre concerts as we support our connections with Fine Arts. And, this past week our third

graders presented their own Third Grade Fine Arts' Performance Night. The event celebrated our students work in the fine arts and their connections to literacy. We are working with a group of

third grade students who have formed our first ever 'student council' to work on community service projects. We have had a number of special assemblies and Green Mountain Sings to

celebrate our students' work and connections with our world. And, we continue to cherish the

many volunteers who work at Hiawatha each day on behalf of all our children. Thank you everyone!

Finally, a note to share that we have received many student profile forms. These forms will be

used by placement teams to help create groupings for the upcoming school year. Please let me

know if you have any questions about that process. Groupings are typically completed by mid-April. We will also begin to work with Fleming as we plan our transition activities for our outgoing

third grade students. Amazingly, we only have about nine weeks of school left in the school year!

Thanks so much for all that you do!

Warmly,

Tom

Important Upcoming Dates PTO Meeting April 7th 6:30pm Music Room Childcare provided Half Day of School Thursday April 9th

Noon Dismissal

April Vacation April 20th – April 24th

HIAWATHA SCHOOL

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Our 3rd graders were shining stars during their Sharing Night on: Cultures! There was singing, dancing, musical performances and beautiful art on display! It was a night to remember as our 3rd graders showed off their hard work! Bitter sweet for some, as it was their final sharing night at Hiawatha! Thank you to our teaching staff and families for putting together such a memorable night! 3rd graders – we couldn’t be more proud!

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There will be a Benefit Basketball Jamboree at ADL April 10th from 4pm-6pm for Mr. Rasco. Please see the attachment flyer with this email for more info! If you would like to donate or volunteer some baked goods for the bake sale the link to sign up is below! Thank You! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0945aeac2aa4fc1-bake

The Hiawatha PTO is putting on a Pancake Dinner! Dinner will be Friday May 1st 6pm-8pm. If you are willing to volunteer please contact PTO President Rosalind Hutton at [email protected]

Discovering Music Carnival – Saturday April 4th Lessons @ 12pm

Concert @ 3:45pm UVM Music Building Recital Hall -tickets sold at the door, proceeds go to UVM NAfME (National Association for Music Educators There’s no admission charge, but a $2 ticket is necessary for each activity. Pleae note that one free ticket was sent home last week with the notice.) Hiawatha PTO is looking for volunteers to help sort and deliver Square 1 Art Products to classrooms on Monday April 13th. If you can help please contact [email protected]

Hiawatha is bringing back Beach Day! Everyone is welcome to dress in appropriate beach attire for the day. We will also have an assembly at 1:30pm.

The Musical Petting Zoo is coming to Hiawatha, and we need your help! On Thursday April 30th, we will be hosting the VSO Musical Petting Zoo for grades 1-3. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to be introduced to the instruments of the Orchestra. We will have a Zookeeper, who will bring a variety of orchestral instruments to School for hands-on instruction. After an explanation and demonstration of each Instrument, the children will get a chance to try the instruments on their own, under the Supervision of “handlers.” The Zoo will be presented 3 times throughout the day,

accommodating 3 classes at a time. We need 8 volunteers for each presentation who will staff the instrument tables and assist the children. No prior instrument knowledge is required, although it would be helpful. Please arrive 10 minutes prior to set up. You may sign up for more than one session. We did this 2 years ago and it was a great success! Please see the link below to sign up if you are able to help in any way!

Schedule 8:30- 9:20 Grade 3 9:30-10:20 Grade 2 12:45-1:30pm Grade 1 http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0b4ca8af2fa2f85-musical/

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Kindergarten Registration is opening, please visit http://www.ccsuvt.org/22891/kindergarten-registration-information-for-essex-junction-schools for more information and to schedule an appointment.

Monday 4/6

Tuesday 4/7

Wednesday 4/8

Thursday 4/9

Friday 4/10

Chicken Patty Pancakes Nacho Day Pizza Day Spaghetti

SBAC Testing 3rd Grade

SBAC Testing 3rd Grade

HALF DAY

*PTO Meeting 6:30pm Music Room*

Release at Noon

Benefit BBall Jamboree ADL 4pm

Monday 4/13

Tuesday 4/14

Wednesday 4/15

Thursday 4/16

Friday 4/17

Chicken Tenders

French Toast BBQ Chicken Sandwich

Pizza Day Mac and Cheese

SBAC Testing 3rd Grade

SBAC Testing 3rd Grade

SBAC Testing 3rd Grade

Beach Day at Hiawatha!

SBAC Testing 3rd Grade

School Assembly 2:15pm

Prudential Committee meeting 21 Park St 6:30pm

Spring Break next Week! No school April 20th-24th

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SBAC: Coming to a school near you Find out what’s different about this new, national, standardized test March 26th 2014

Context: the groundwork leading to SBAC

In 2010, Vermont adopted the Common Core State Standards, (CCSS) in Math and English. Since that time, CSSU schools

have been working diligently to integrate these more rigorous standards into daily lesson plans. The aims of these

standards are to: provide high-quality academic standards that are consistent across the country; raise the bar for

student achievement; and help ensure that students are college and career ready.

Change: How is SBAC different from NECAP?

And how does it link to the Common Core?

CCSS accentuates the importance of applying learning

to new, real life circumstances, and emphasizes

problem solving and the ability to articulate and justify

one’s answer. In 2011, CSSU launched a four-year plan

to facilitate the implementation of the CCSS at each

school. This spring, the CSSU will administer the new

national test that will be used to measure student

achievement based on the CCSS, called the Smarter

Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

SBAC replaces the NECAP, New England Common

Assessment Program, Math, and English tests.

Beginning in March, SBAC will assess students in grades

3-8 and 11. The new tests are different from NECAP

tests in many ways, such as:

Students at all tested grade levels will use a

computer to take the test

The test is computer adaptive. This means test

questions are adjusted based on student

responses, individually tailoring the exam to the

range of a student’s ability. Not only should this

make testing a more positive experience for

students, but it should provide a more accurate

picture of a student’s achievement as well as

information that can be used to immediately

inform individual instruction plans.

Relative to NECAP, SBAC questions are expected

to be more complex, require multiple steps, and

take more time to solve. To complete SBAC

tasks, students must be able to organize,

analyze, describe, defend, conclude, argue,

articulate, and evaluate information presented

in charts, graphs, and challenging informational

text.

Student performance will be calculated and

compared across the 31 states who have

adopted the Common Core, rather than among

only four NECAP states.

Unlike NECAP, SBAC tests will be given in the

spring rather than fall, and over the course of

extended test window (mid-March-early June).

Individual student results (with the exception of

longer performance tasks) will be available for

teachers shortly after student tests are

completed. We do not yet know whether

parent reports will be available this first year.

National, State and CSSU results will be

available sometime this summer.

Outcomes: What can be expected?

While students and educators adjust to the new test

expectations and rigorous standards they are based

upon, a decline in student performance results

throughout Vermont and across the country is

anticipated in the first two to four years of SBAC

implementation. Since the NECAP and SBAC tests are

like apples and oranges (different assessment tools

based on different foundational standards), the Agency

of Education has advised that school districts not

directly compare the results they yield. While it is

understood that any new initiative of this magnitude

comes with challenges and altered results, CSSU will,

nonetheless, watch trends as they evolve over time and

learn from our performance results.

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PTO Meeting

April 7th 6:30pm

Hiawatha Music Room

Childcare will be provided

Hiawatha Helping Hands~ want to be part of our new committee to increase community and family support at Hiawatha? There are lots of ways to help in person or remotely! Please contact Mariah Sanderson at [email protected] if you want to get involved!

Thursday April 9th

Early dismissal

Dismissal at Noon

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