What's Happening in Ed Services?

The CCUSD Educational Services Department will be sending this monthly newsletter out to inform you of upcoming events, professional development dates, and tips. Feel free to contact us with any questions/concerns.

Alejandra Valencia: AlejandraValencia@ccusd.org

Carla Zimmermann-Madrid: CarlaMadrid@ccusd.org

Claudia Benetiz: claudiabenitez@ccusd.org

Pamela Greenstein: pamelagreenstein@ccusd.org

David Ross: DavidRoss@ccusd.org

Diane Randall: DianeRandall@ccusd.org

Mina Shiratori: minashiratori@ccusd.org

Running Records Training:

June 2nd and June 7th are the last 2 days to be trained in Running Records for this school year. If you are unable to attend in June, we will be offering another training in September 2016. If you have any question please do not hesitate to email:

alejandravalencia@ccusd.org

Please register by May 19th on the link below.

http://goo.gl/forms/8WCzeyXgDZ

English Language Summer Academy:

We will be offering summer school to all current EL students in grades TK - 5th. Summer school starts on June 20th and ends July 14th. Classes will be held at La Ballona from 8:30am - 11:30am (Monday - Thursday ONLY, no school on Fridays). All students will have the opportunity to take advantage of our free summer lunch program. Last year we had over 350 students attend. If you have any questions please see your site EL Lead or you can email : alejandravalencia@ccusd.org

Teachers we will need your help:

In order to create summer school classes, we will need your student's reading levels by May 1st - 16th. Please see your EL Lead, Pam or Claudia or myself if you have any questions.

You can email me at: alejandravalencia@ccusd.org

It’s time to look at the district elementary report card again.

The Elementary Report Card Committee will be meeting once again this year to discuss the first release of the district-wide Standards Based Report of Student Progress. Please share your thoughts and opinions with your site committee members so your voice will be heard at our upcoming meeting. If you have suggestions for revisions: additions or exclusions, please share along with your suggested solution so we can have candid discussions about the purpose and need of information on this parent communication tool. Additionally, if you have feedback from parents, both positive and negative, we are interested in hearing that too.

Seeking elementary science enthusiasts

With the Next Generation Science Standards upon us and the state’s second review of the new California Science Framework Draft coming up, Ed. Services is seeking a few brave K-5 teachers willing to dip their toes and try out at least one NGSS cross-curricular science lesson each trimester next year. These week-long lessons are literacy based; technology enhanced; include the new science standards with corresponding labs; and will have coordinated literacy and math activities aligned to our current practices. You will receive all of the materials and content needed for the work. Lastly, your involvement will include some additional after-school professional development, you may be asked to present at site-based meetings as the NGSS gains more local attention, and you will have the option to help create even more lessons that can be used. If interested, please email: CarlaMadrid@ccusd.org

It’s that Tech Time of year again.

Last year, Educational Services, with the help of CCEF and the El Rincon Booster Club and PTA, helped get over 800 new devices into classrooms through the Ed Tech CAFE Literacy Center opportunity. Once again, we would like to open up the opportunity to teachers. If you have completed the Guided Reading & Running Records professional development series -or- the Daily 5/CAFE professional development series within CCUSD, you are eligible to apply for CAFE Centers of either iPads or Chromebooks, or BOTH, to use during your balanced literacy time. In addition to the devices, you will receive an annual subscription to Reading A-Z and RAZ Kids for use during Guided Reading and Daily 5. You may not double up on devices you have already been awarded however you can apply for Chromebooks or iPads if you did not receive them this year. Please follow the link to the flyer for the additional criteria for participation and a link to the interest Google Form. All interest inquiries must be completed through the Google Form and submitted by Friday, May 13th.

CAFE Literacy Center Flyer Link

Ed Tech Pioneers Teacher Spotlight:

Anne Tseng, Kindergarten, El Rincon Elementary School: "Kinder News" is a great way to increase communication with her parents and to highlight the upcoming events of the classroom. Anne records a student classroom newscast using an iMovie on the iPad and a free Green Screening iPad app called Do ink. She sends the student-created "Kinder News" out to parents twice a month.

Canvas Tip of the Month

Check out the Canvas Fast Track video Series for tips on ways to use Canvas in your classroom

Episode 1: Announcements

Episode 2: Video Announcements

Episode 3: Online Textbooks and Resources

Here is how to log into your Canvas Classroom:

Go to: https://culver.instructure.com

User Name: Your CCUSD Email Address

Password: ccusd15

Thank you third grade teachers and technology techs for our recent grade level testing! We also had a huge number of students requesting retesting, so thank you to everyone involved. Parents will be notified by mail if their student qualified. If the parents specifically requested retesting, they will be notified either way.

We will have our final meeting on May 24th, which will be the Colloquium. Congratulations graduates who will be leaving the BTSA world! Year-Two Closing Presentations will be on Tuesday, May 17th beginning after-school. It's been a great year and I am so inspired by our new teachers. They are truly amazing!

The ELD Specialists would like to extend an invitation to all teachers to let them know that we are available for support. Please let us know how we can help support you and the English Learners in your classroom.

We have been communicating with you to re-level students and working on the process of reclassifying students at all sites. Please email one of us or check with your ELD Site Chair if you have further questions.

We are in the process of developing a roll-out plan for the whole district next year that will be a systematic plan to equalize classroom support and intervention for English Learners. Please let one of us know if you have input into this process.

We look forward to seeing the ELD Site Chairs at our last PLC of the year, as we continue to build their capacity as site leaders in EL expertise. We also look forward to seeing many teachers at our CELDT trainings and Summer CELDT testing.

District ELD Specialists:

Pamela Greenstein

(310) 842-4220 Ext. 4407

pamelagreenstein@ccusd.org

Claudia Benitez

(310) 842-4220 Ext. 4408

claudiabenitez@ccusd.org

Site Chairs:

LH-Lili Glassman

EM-Anna Hebert

ER-Sarah Mergian

FR—Stacy Thompson

LB—Nicole Wilson

MS—Julie Groya

HS—Bill Minguet/Magali Bourget

Spanish Program: Thank you to the K-5 Spanish Language Arts Textbook committee representatives from La Ballona and El Marino for their time and dedication to the process.

Assessments and Data: As the year comes to close, we’d like to gather district wide programmatic data on our dual students. K-2 teachers, please send me either a hard copy or an electronic version of your Running Record’s data. Both English and Spanish preferred depending on your grade level. If you have any questions, please contact Mina.

3-8th grade DL teachers: ENIL training is coming up! See you on Thursday!

Biliteracy Awards: Reminder to your students that the book logs are due May 13th! Writing dates will be arranged based by site. Please look for an email regarding confirmation of Running Record levels for a select group of students.