From Principal Acevedo
Dear Brookland Learning Community,
Welcome to our school's new newsletter! As a recent transplant from Miami, I am thrilled to be your principal and the newest member of this dedicated team of educators. As previously shared with you, my over 24 years of educational experience in New Jersey and Miami has given me invaluable and memorable experiences as a teacher, supervisor, principal, superintendent of schools and executive director. Thank you for such a warm welcome and for the continued support of our teachers and staff. Our team has done a great job of welcoming our students and families and we appreciate everything they do every day.
Recently, we celebrated our Fall Harvest, where teachers and parents came together to share in this long standing Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy tradition. Teachers and students were encouraged to dress as their favorite literary character and we even had a visit from Papa Bear from "Goldilocks and The Three Bears" during our read aloud time with our primary scholars. All classes created healthy snacks during the school day and active and fun activities were had by all in the afternoon. Thank you to the Fall Harvest Committee for making this day such a success! Thank you to all of the families who came out to support our students and to the Drum Line students and Ms. Little for engaging us with their musical talents.
This year, we will be working to further strengthen the home and school connection through our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). We are looking for individuals to join our PTA and to consider a leadership role in the school's PTO. If you are interested in serving on our PTO, please feel free to email Mr. Tolliver at b.tolliver@mmbethune.org or me by clicking here. We encourage parents to partner with our teachers to strengthen the home and school connection to ensure success for all of our students. See a brief article here.
Lastly, our school will be hosting a Chat and Chew meeting with our school's leadership on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. in Mr. Tolliver's office. We encourage parents to come out for some coffee and donuts and to share feedback on how we can continue to strengthen our partnership.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Dr. Acevedo
Principal - Brookland Campus
Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive
It's that time of the year when we all begin to give a little more to schools and our community! The Brookland Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) team would like to help create the opportunity for everyone to donate or give unopened, non-perishable food to support families within our community. We'll accept donations of only unopened, non-perishable food. The donation box will be available on Wednesday, November 9th during morning drop off/evening dismissal. Every little bit counts' towards helping our community stay safe and healthy. For questions please connect Mr. Tolliver at: b.tolliver@mmbethune.org
Family Market Days
Our next Family Market Day is Thursday, November 10, 2022, where food is distributed for free. Please pass the word-on or share this information with someone you know! All families and community members are welcome to attend our Family Market Day(s) at 1404 Jackson Street, NE Washington D.C. 20017. Please share and add the market to your calendar and notes. It's free!
Market Dates
Thursday October 13, 2022
Thursday November 10, 2022 4:00 PM- 6:00 PM
Thursday December 8, 2022
Thursday January 12, 2023
Thursday February 9, 2023
Thursday March 9, 2023 (due to DC school closure)
Thursday April 13, 2023
Thursday May 11, 2023
Thursday June 8, 2023
Join our PTO!
Immunizations
Parents please remember to get your child's immunization appointments completed. MMBDA encourages you to contact your child's primary provider. If you are having difficulty securing an appointment, you may want to consider contacting the following pediatric immunization clinics on this hyperlink. We can also connect you with outside providers to help support the effort to have 100% of all of our students immunized. For questions please contact l.edwards@mmbethune.org or m.bunn@mmbethune.org
Academic Support
The COVID 19 Pandemic has increased individual student learning loss and it is our goal to be vigilant about recovering the loss and getting our students on grade level by targeting math and ELA. In an effort to support our students individually and collectively, we have increased our High Dosage Tutoring. We now have five in house tutors who support students K-8th grade. Students are receiving pull out and push in services. This means they are getting extra support in the classroom and one on one.
We have additional tutoring through DC Reads with students from Catholic University three days a week between 3:00pm-6:00pm. The tutors will help with homework and provide tutoring that specifically develops literacy and sparks a love for reading.
Did you know?
Students completed their iReady Diagnostic in September and that yields data regarding your child's grade level achievements in math and ELA. This data is important because we use it to formulate learning groups, determine the tutoring roster, and to track growth. This is a tool to track student growth and also to predict how students will perform on the yearly PARCC assessment.
Report Cards Going Home on November 16, 2022
We are now in the closing week of Quarter 1 and grades will be finalized on Monday, November 14, 2022. Teachers will share the closing date for turning in Q1 assignments. Parents, you can expect report cards to go home with students by Wednesday, November 16, 2022.
Parents, did you know that you can access PowerSchool and keep up with your scholar's grades? There is also an app you can download to make accessing the grades even easier. Please contact J.Mayberry@mmbethune.org to get your account set up!
PARCC Testing Information
The PARCC is our district-wide benchmark assessment that is administered in ELA and Math for grades 3-8 and Health and Science in specific grade levels. Students are scored in comparison to children across the nation. Our PARCC data for the Spring 2022 assessment has come in for students in 4th-8th grade. This data helps us to measure our students' growth and performance on a common assessment.
*Parents please expect your child's math and ELA reports to go home with students and their report cards on November 16, 2022.
One World Writing Curriculum
This year we continue our partnership with One World and offer this very special Social Justice writing curriculum to students in grades 5-8 in the ELA classrooms. Ms. Evans and Ms. Chitty are leading the charge this year and students will be building their presentations after they complete the learning units. We look forward to inviting families out to the presentations in 2023!!! For more information check out their website:
