News for the Week of September 8, 2015

Life Skill:  Effort

Quote:  Autograph your work with excellence!

Captain's Table of STAR Students 

(STAR = Stop, Think, Act Responsibly)

                                                   Student                     Life Skill                           

I will begin adding students to this section next week.  Your child was informed that I will be watching for those students, who exemplify the following life skills:

                               Effort                                  Common Sense
                               Friendship                          Curiosity
                               Cooperation                        Perseverance
                               Responsibility                     Courage
                               Organization                       Problem Solving
                               Caring                                 Integrity
                               Initiative                             Patience
                               Pride                                   Resourcefulness
                               Sense of Humor                  Flexibility

When your child exhibits these life skills, his/her name will be placed in this section with the life skill observed.  Therefore, keep a lookout for this section as the students are always excited to see their name in my blog.


This Week In HA...

All language arts and math classes were introduced to the rules, procedures and expectations in the HA classroom.  Afterwards, parent forms were sent home with your child.  Therefore, your child should have given you your "homework", which will assist me in getting to know your child.  Please return these (pink & purple) information sheets to school with your child by Friday, September 11.  I am looking forward to getting to know and working with your children next week as we embark and dive in to our curriculum.

**Prior to next week's language arts classes, I wanted to let you know that we are continuing to use the language arts curriculum developed by the IDOE last year.  Before presenting the curriculum, a pretest is to be administered.  As a result, I will be pre-assessing all students in grades 1-4 one day per week over the next few weeks until we have completed them.  These assessments are for the purpose of obtaining a baseline of student's knowledge, therefore, no grades will be given on these assessments, as no grades are ever taken in this class.  I will be explaining that I do not expect the students to be able to answer all of the questions they will be presented but if your child is expressing anxiety or frustration, please let me know as I do not want the pre-assessments to cause undo stress or tension.
                          

**In order to more effectively plan math curriculum and provide math instruction to the students, I will be pre-assessing all students in grades 1-4 until we have completed them.  These assessments are for the purpose of obtaining a baseline of student's knowledge.  Therefore just as with the LA assessments, no grades will be given on these assessments, as no grades are ever taken in HA classes.  I will also explain to the math students that I do not expect them to be able to answer all of the questions they will be presented but if your child is expressing anxiety or frustration, please let me know as I do not want the pre-assessments to cause undo stress or tension.

We are now ready for our voyage and will cast off the bow lines next week.

Have a terrific weekend!

Melissa Valtierra
High Ability Aide
Bailly Elementary School