September 3, 2013

I hope you enjoyed Labor Day weekend and were able to indulge and relax after all of your valuable contributions to the first three weeks of school!

I continue to receive positive feedback about Open House! Thank you.  In general, most of the suggestions I have heard for improvement include 1) selling food and 2) advertise more.  Maybe Open House is another opportunity for a food truck on the Elm Lot?

Thank you, also, for contributing so well to Friday morning's 6th-12th grade development at the high school.  I hope it was a productive time for you in terms of your teacher and in terms of your relationship with the teacher from whom we receive and to whom we send our students.

The feedback you shared during our faculty meeting on 8/30 was very interesting and very helpful.  I will publish the feedback with some commentary this week (I hope).

Project Alert
This year, Officer Smith will deliver Project Alert lessons differently than in the past.  Discovery time is in high depend: there is value to the reading component and to the intervention time.  However, the Project Alert curriculum is also important.  Therefore, Ofc. Smith will deliver one lesson at a time with a three-to-four week break in between.  On Project Alert lesson days, the reading and intervention expectations for Discovery may be suspended.

And here are a few reminders:

• September's Thinking Strategy: Proficient learners use background knowledge to connect to new information.  You can find more information about September's Thinking Strategy (making connections and building background knowledge) by clicking here.  
• Click here if you'd like to review the PowerPoint and SIP from Friday.
• Although it's not due until 10/4/13, I wanted to remind all of us about our required staff training.  Click here for the tracker and PowerPoints.

I will be out of the building on Thursday, September 5th, for Rosh Hashana.