Sunrise Rotary club came out Friday afternoon and put in the buddy bench next to the playground equipment. The bench is a wonderful addition to the playground and allows for our kiddos to have a place to hang out when they need to find a buddy. Please reinforce to your students that the bench is not a piece of playground equipment and shouldn't be used as such. The intent of the bench is for students. I understand staff members will utilize the bench some, I do ask that teachers not monopolize the bench either.
We need to do something nice for the individuals at the Sunrise Rotary club. I am thinking we could have the art club make some thank you posters and our classes make some thank you cards for the organizations hard work for the students at Hayes. Please remember that this same organization donated roughly 3500.00 in audio books for the library as well.
Why we space out the O.C.C.T. exams:
Many of you were wondering why we space out the OCCT exams. Besides the immediate answer of our staffing shortage this semester I have some thoughts on the matter.
I like to space out the exams to increase the time our students have to recuperate between tests. Our fifth grade students, for example, are required to take five exams in a short amount of time. Those exams, with the exception of the writing exam, are all 50 to 60 question two day administrations. For any student that is a lot to complete. For our students I feel we maximize their potential by having taken a test a week.
For our teachers I think the time between exams allows them to focus on the next test and focus the students on the specific test taking strategies for the specific exam. Most of the staff would agree that having some time specifically devoted to the math exam will help to increase the students potential to be successful on that exam. By doing the same for the reading exam we should yield the same results.
The main reason, more important than any other, is so that we do not lose ANY instructional time in the other classes going on throughout the school building while tests are taking place. As we continue to have demands placed on us by the district, state and federal levels it becomes incredibly difficult to meet all of those demands without spacing out the OCCT exams. Our mandated 90 minute reading block was not affected, mandatory P.E. time not affected, specials and planning times not affected... If we would have shut down the school for the amount of time needed to complete all of the grade levels testing we would have lost nearly two weeks worth of instruction time for every grade level on the campus. Nearly two weeks worth of instruction for any student, more especially ours, is very difficult to make up. Testing, if students take two hours per exam, takes over 2200 minutes of instructional time for the 19 exams needed for grades 3-6. There are only 1500 minutes of instructional time in one week of school. Starting to get the picture?
I believe that having students quiet in the halls and causing minimized distractions is a small price to pay for the continuation of learning for all untested grade levels.
Generic Morning Announcement: Done DAILY, no exceptions!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6dAG5eWCok&feature=youtu.be
2014 - 2015 Committees:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3lrYycQKGUiU29FazU0VEVJWjQ/edit?usp=sharing
Showcase Schedule for Monthly Rise and Shine:
In order for everyone to take a more active role in the Monthly Awards I am asking that each grade level participate in the showcase portion of the Rise and Shine. Everyone on campus will have a month to show the rest of the school what's great about your classes. You can have your students sing, dance, demonstrate, share... Have fun with it!
August: P.E./Music
September: Office Staff
October: Library/Media
November: First Grade
December: Pre-Kindergarten
January: Fourth Grade - February 5th
February: Kindergarten - March 6th - Canceled due to SNOW!!!!!
March: Kindergarten - April 3rd
April: Third Grade - May 1st
May: Second Grade - May 22nd
*** Oklahoma State Blueprints: ***
In order for everyone to take a more active role in the Monthly Awards I am asking that each grade level participate in the showcase portion of the Rise and Shine. Everyone on campus will have a month to show the rest of the school what's great about your classes. You can have your students sing, dance, demonstrate, share... Have fun with it!
May: Second Grade - May 22nd
*** Oklahoma State Blueprints: ***
Available accommodations for the OCCT:
A quick guide to standards and assessments:
- English Language Arts: 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school year – PASS standards, PASS-aligned assessments.
- Mathematics: 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years – PASS standards, PASS-aligned assessments.
- Science: 2014-2015 school year – begin transition to science standards adopted into rule in June 2014; PASS-aligned assessments for grades 5, 8, and Biology 1 for high school for 2014-2105 and 2015-2016 school years.
- Social Studies: 2014-2015 school year – Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies as adopted in 2012; All four social studies assessments are OAS-aligned in Grades 5, 7, and 8, as well as high school U.S. History. All four assessments will be fully operational in 2014-2015.
- Fine Arts: 2014-2015 school year – transition to new standards adopted by law in June of 2014, The annual district arts assessment report will be due at the Oklahoma State Department of Education the end of May 2015.
- World Languages: 2014-15 school year – PASS standards, no state assessment. New standards will be written beginning fall 2014.
- Personal Financial Literacy: 2014-2015 school year – Oklahoma Academic Standards for Personal Financial Literacy as adopted in 2008, no state assessment.
- Health/Safety Education: 2014-2015 school year – PASS Standards, no state assessment.
- Kindergarten: 2014-2015 school year – PASS standards, no state assessments.
- PreKindergarten: 2014-2015 PASS standards; no state assessments.
Hayes Elementary Academic goals for 2014-2015:
- All students WILL achieve academically.
- Increase OCCT Reading scores for all subgroups by 25%
- Increase OCCT Mathematics scores for all subgroups by 25%
- Increase OCCT Writing scores for all subgroups by 25%
- Increase the number of students who qualify for promotion in RSA by 25%
- Decrease Suspensions by 25%
- School wide overall attendance to 96%
- Faculty attendance to 98%
Videos Worth Watching:
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Standardized Testing (HBO) - No cussing, it's been bleeped out, but certainly not safe for anything other than private consumption. Sadly, we fall into so many of the categories including the creation of a school testing song. Does anyone have a monkey suit we could borrow? GREAT look into the world of standardized testing... quite humbling.
Articles Worth Reading:
Don’t Argue For Your Limitations - via @tomwhitby
1st grade students have their teachers pegged!! - via @GustofsonBrad
3 Steps to Make Early Education More Accessible - via @educationweek
Excellent Teachers move ordinary children to do Extraordinary Things! - via @Principal_EL
Montana Governor Signs Laws to Promote, Preserve Tribal Languages - via @educationweek
End of the Day: Teachers Outside of School - via @ScholasticTeach
Text Complexity? Helping Readers See The Whole Text - via @TeachThought
School vouchers are bad idea in many ways - via @chronopinion
What, Why, and How to Flip Your Classroom - via @EdSurge
Guest Post: To Thank a Teacher - via @okeducation
Monday May 11, 2015 - Wings Running club after school. Ross evaluation at 8:30am. IEP at 9:00am. JA in a day is on campus. GT field trip. Second grade to the YMCA. Be ready for JA in a day!
Tuesday May 12, 2015 - Second Grade to the YMCA. Musical performance at 2:00pm in the cafeteria. After school faculty meeting. Ms. Heckman will be in the building at 8:30am to complete ROSTER VERIFICATION for grades 4 through 6 during planning time. PLEASE be on time to the meeting, it will be in the office. Mr. Ross to Camelot from 9:00am to 1:00pm for assessment screener presentation. IEP meeting at 1:10pm.
Wednesday May 13, 2015 - Wings Running club after school. IEP meetings at 1:00pm and 2:00pm. 4th grade and Ms. Koranloo's class to the Science Museum.
Thursday May 14, 2015 - IEP meeting at 2:00pm. Mr. Ross at Principals meeting at 7:30am.
Friday May 15, 2015 - Spirit day.
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