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Saturday, 08 September 2007 |
We have several goals for the new school year that will help our
students achieve even more success in the new school year.
Attendance Academic Achievement Respect
Attendance
Learning is an experience-based activity that
requires time and followup by the teacher with all students. Absences
and tardies mean the student cannot benefit from the direct
instructional experience provided by the teacher. Although a teacher
will definitely provide directions and make sure the lesson material is
understood, "catching up" missed instruction is not a replication of
the lesson which took 20 minutes to deliver and included humor,
enthusiasm and great ideas from other children.
To help motivate children to be in school every day this year, the
students will be tracking their own attendance and try as an entire
building to meet Mrs. Ciminelli's challenge. Last year there were 6
days when we had 100% attendance! This year, if we have 5 days in a
row with 100% attendance, Mrs. Ciminelli will reward every child on the
following day. She's already bought a giant bag of candy bars so she's
prepared to live up to her end of the bargain!
Academic Achievement
We are asking students to focus on reading and homework in order to raise academic achievement. One of the
prime indicators for student achievement is the amount of recreational
reading the student does. As part of our effort to increase
recreational reading, starting Monday 9/10 we are having Open Library
at the start of every day. Students can sign
out or
return library books as quickly as they can read them. I announced
this in our Welcome Back Assembly on Wednesday and the next morning
students were asking if they could come to the library already! It
looks like this will be a popular choice for our students.
Our focus on homework will be to help students form good habits and
increase the QUALITY of the work students turn in. Every student in
Grades 1 - 5 have an agenda where they write their homework
assignments, things to remember to bring into school, notes for
parents, and feedback to the teachers from home. Every student also
has a tracking sheet to mark their progress in getting homework
completed and turned in on time. It is important that students develop
study habits that will reduce fatigue, frustration, and
procrastination. In every classroom, the tracking sheet will be used
to discuss self-help methods to overcome these problems so students can be more successful with homework.
Respect
Integral to any successful school is the level of respect for others, one's self, and the established policies and procedures of the school. At last year's Welcome Back Assembly, Mrs. Ciminelli explained what she meant by her message "A School is Not a Building". She reminded the students this year that a real school are all the people in it who make it a great place to learn. A good school is more like a big loving family who look out for one another and help each other.
She reminded the students of the bundle of sticks demonstration at last year's assembly. Last year Cyrus (Kindergarten) skillfully snapped a single stick in half over his knee, but Cameron (Grade 4) was surprised he couldn't break the same slender sticks when they were together in a small bundle.
For 2007-08 we will continue to learn about respect and cooperation. When we treat each with respect and care for one another, we become the bundle of sticks that cannot be broken.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 September 2007 )
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