
Hawk Talk
The Monthly Newsletter for the Patricia A. Duran School
A Message From Mrs. Davis
Dear Duran School Families Families,
April is here and that means third quarter of the 2022-2023 school year is coming to an end. Teachers are currently finalizing report cards and you can expect to see them coming home soon. As we look ahead to the months of May and June, there are a number of exciting events planned to end the year. These events are posted at the end of this newsletter.
In addition to upcoming spring events, Teacher Appreciation Week is the first week of May. If you would like to write a message to your child's teacher, please click here. I am compiling the messages to be delivered during that week. We are excited to see what this spring brings!
Sincerely,
Melissa Davis, Ed.D.
Principal
Patricia A. Duran School
PreK and Kindergarten Registration is Open
Registration for fall Pre-K and Kindergarten have opened. Applications are available in the main office during school hours or on our school website. In addition to the application, parents should provide updated immunization records, an official copy of the child's birth certificate, and proof of residency documentation. We look forward to meeting all of our new families!
Concert and Curriculum Night Grades 2 & 3: April 4th
We are so excited for the upcoming concert and the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our 2nd and 3rd grade students. We had significant feedback from families from our last concert that, while it was wonderful to see the students perform, that the audience behavior was distracting. We have reviewed how to be a respectful audience member with all grades this year for assemblies and performances--and our students have received so many compliments from visitors on their behavior. I want to make sure that we show them the same respect.
When attending concerts or performances at the Duran School, we ask that all audience members:
1. Remain seated for the duration of the performance. Getting up and moving around, going up front to talk to students on stage, or running up to take a picture can be very distracting to our young performers. If you must leave, please do so between musical numbers.
2. Keep young audience members with you. We had a number of students running around behind the seating or scaling the bleachers during the performance. Please ensure that children are seated and respectful to the performers. We ask that parents and children are seated, and that the area behind the seating remains open for an exit route.
3. No side conversations please. Please put your phones on silent and conversations to a minimum. Our gymnasium does not have the best acoustics for a performance. The more quiet the audience is, the better everyone can hear.
4. Show your appreciation for the performance by clapping. We love to celebrate a job well done!
Preparing for Next Year's Classes
Preparing classroom rosters is a collaborative effort amongst all staff members and administrators in the building. This process begins in the spring and can take several weeks and go well into the summer. Many factors go into creating a classroom roster. The personality of the student and teacher, how many students are receiving exceptional services, number of students who are being pulled out for small group intervention, the academic levels of students, which students had a tough time getting along with students from the previous year, and a times, which students socialize more when the are around specific students. Again, this process can take several weeks to complete.
Therefore, when requests for specific teachers are made, not only does this affect your child and the teacher's classroom they are moving to, but it also affects the schedule of so many other students receiving services, the schedule of the support teacher providing interventions, it can affect the culture of the classrooms, and may affect the teacher's schedule itself.
More importantly, understand that the staff at the Patricia A. Duran School have the same goal and that is for your child to receive a high-quality education, in a safe and nurturing environment, and for them to reach their full potential.
If your child has specific learning needs, and you feel that it is necessary to provide us with additional information, you may provide a request for a specific teaching style (not a specific teacher's name) that would best meet the needs of your child. This request would need to be in writing and submitted to the principal no later than May 1st. The information will be used by the grade level team when placing students in classrooms for next year. All efforts will be made if there is a need to separate your child from a specific student if the request is put in writing by May 1st.
Spotlight on 3rd Grade
The third grade has begun preparations for Parent Night in April. The students are working hard on summarizing a famous person's life, describing and explaining character traits about that person, creating a timeline, and even using their map skills to label the parts of the world he/she spent their time during their life. They have had to use books, online websites, and videos to pick out important information that describes the person they have chosen to study.
Letterland Resource for Families
At the Duran School, we use a variety of strategies to help students learn to read. We also use an exciting and interactive phonics curriculum called "Letterland." The program spans grades Pre-K through 3rd grade and covers early literacy skills necessary for reading. We have been so impressed with the program and its ability to engage our students during the learning process. Students are excited about phonics and they are making amazing progress. This is in part due to the program, but also the thoughtful implementation by our staff. We wanted to share the family resources with you so that you can continue the learning and fun at home. Click on the words in bold (hyperlinks) to take you to the site.
Letterland Story Corner: This link has a video story for each letter.
Letterland Collections: This link will take you to a number of products that can be purchased for home. Some favorites include: bedtime stories, ABC stories, Alphabet Tales, etc.
What is PBIS?
The Patricia A. Duran School uses Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) (which dovetails with Response to Intervention (RtI)) as the framework for discipline and managing student behaviors. PBIS is a research-based three tier approach to classroom management. The PBIS approach has several key components at our school:
The behaviors that we want to see students exhibit must be explicitly taught. For example, if we expect students to quietly line up for dismissal then teachers should teach and practice those behaviors with students.
We reward students for desired behaviors and following our behavioral expectations. We expect all students to be safe, respectful, kind, caring, and responsible. When students are “caught” exceeding behavioral expectations, they fill out a Hawk Club sticker. All Hawk Club stickers are collected by the main office. At our monthly assembly, we draw a winner for each grade and students are able to pick a prize (itemor experience).
We track all Hawk Club stickers and have a school-wide celebration when we reach our goals.
When students are not following the behavioral expectations we do the following depending on the severity of the behavior:
The teacher conferences with the student to make sure the behavioral expectation is understood and reinforced with the student. Many of our students are still learning expectations and need consistent reinforcement.
Other in-class strategies to manage behavior: proximity, redirection, relocation in the room, etc.
We write an Office Discipline Referral (ODR) for the student. If the behavior is managed in the classroom, it is typically considered a minor. Behaviors that are more severe and require the principal or assistant principal to intervene is typically considered a major.
The ODR form serves as a record of behavior between parents and the school. All ODRs are sent home to parents, and recorded in our PBIS data tracking system. Major ODRs typically require a phone call to the parents from the principal or assistant principal. We typically involve the student in making the phone call with the administrator. Teachers also typically reach out to parents through SeeSaw to share all ODRs (minor and major). Keeping parents in the loop is critical to our behavior process.
April Menus
Upcoming Events
April 1-5: Gifted and Talented Testing for Grade 3
April 4: Spring Concert and Curriculum Night Grades 2 & 3
April 10: Community Reader Day
April 11: Book Character Day
April 11: Bikes for Books Assembly
April 11: Literacy Night and Art Show
April 15 - 19: April Vacation
April 22 - May 31: Spring Testing
May 1: ACES Day
May 3: 2nd Grade Field Trip to Fort Knox
May 6 - 10: Teacher Appreciation Week
May 13: 4th Grade Field Trip to the Symphony
May 13 - 17: Scholastic Book Fair BOGO
May 24: Career Day
May 27: Memorial Day--No School
May 29: 4th Grade Field Trip to Moose Point State Park
May 31: 3rd Grade Field Trip to Maine Forest & Logging Museum
June 6: 4th Grade Promotion and Concert
June 11: Town of Hermon Voting
June 13: Anticipated Field Day
June 17: Last Day of School (1/2 Day)