Principal's Bulletin
Spring 4 - 1.30.2023
Hello Cherrylee team,
Looking forward to a successful Student Led Conferences week!
Happy to report gaining ground on the following January focus areas:
- iReady D2 data analysis
- schoolwide attendance incentives
- classroom walkthroughs (Math)
Although some of my focus areas are carrying in to February:
- mid-year check-ins with staff
- iReady achievement & growth celebrations
- formal observations
- convening staff leadership team
Rene Quon
626-734-9592
Announcements
1. Q2 grades are due by EOD, Tuesday 1/31/23. Teachers are being asked to distribute all grades to students by EOD, Friday 2/3/23, ideally at Student Led Conferences if parents have been invited to join. Please indicate that grades have been submitted on the following document:
2. For BASC testing, we will have 2 subs on Monday, February 6th. They will follow the schedule linked below. Let me know if anyone would like to adjust their time listed.
3. Update on USTA Tennis: Kevin Finkelberg from USTA will provide a 2-3 hour training for interested staff. Staff would be paid for attending the training. Equipment is free as well. Trained teachers would host tennis classes after school, schedule would be flexible based on teacher's availability/preference. Please let me know if you are interested or if you have any more questions that I can inquire about! 🎾
4. Updates from the previous week's district admin/management meeting (Tuesday morning)
- On Tuesday morning, district admin discussed the LCAP, reviewing how schools get funded and all of the factors that affect this funding. See below:
- LCAP Overview Presentation
- Principals are being asked to share this presentation as well as mid-year / mid-cycle LCAP data with staff and parents.
THANK YOU to:
- Teachers and staff for engaging in great conversations during Data / Pupil Free Day! Remember, Data->Meaning->Action cycles are at the core of meaningful improvement and continuous growth.
- Ashley and Merrylin for hosting Cherrylee's very first Family Game Night!! We had a really great turnout and kids definitely had a blast. I did as well, having been challenged to a game of chess by Draco (5th grade) who gave me a run for my money! ♟️
- Katy for leading students in a math talk involving visual representations of fractions! Effective practices observed include giving students silent think time, then share time with an elbow partner, before sharing as a whole group. Also, reinforcing the explanation of the problem in addition to the solution and having students use hand signals to show whether they "Agree" or "disagree"
- Claudia for engaging students in a discussion about which doesn't belong? as well as a story problem involving ladybugs and leaves 🐞. She did a great job using an anchor chart to capture student responses, different techniques, and student names in different colors. Also guiding students towards solving the problem without directly giving them the next step nor answer. And finally, celebrating students for good thinking even when their answer didn't match the correct one.
- Brian for having students solve the problem of the day involving long division. Best practices observed included showing a video of basketball camp to build anticipation and to connect with the upcoming question 🏀; frequent circulating, supporting, and checking in with all students as they worked on the problem; and finally using the document camera to have students share and explain their solutions to the class.
- Sarah for leading a math talk and problem of the day involving counting cherries 🍒. Sarah effectively used magic (ie. equity) sticks to call on students randomly, had students work on their problems in very organized math notebooks with each page devoted to a new day/problem, and encouraging students who were stuck to draw pictures and represent the problem visually.
- Sammie for discussing different map routes with students and having them share what they noticed. Also for engaging in a long division problem of the day. She did a great job helping students reflect on why shorter routes might have longer travel times; and she encouraged students to use different techniques for long division including place value or expanded notation.
- Art for engaging the class in a "which one doesn't belong" reflection? The students did a great job analyzing the problem from a myriad of perspectives. Art reinforced the use of academic vocabulary as each student shared, including "place value" "dividend" "divisor" and "subtracted" instead of saying "minused".
- All staff for a smooth evacuation / fire drill! Everything seemed to run quickly and efficiently. Thanks all
- A huge thank you to Yvonne and Luz for covering the main office on Thursday and Friday! Really appreciate both of you for being able to step in and handle all of the parent, student, staff (and principal) requests, including all of the bowling logistics, very gracefully 🙏
