Elementary Update

February 2020

Early Childhood Center Update

Our preschoolers started off the new year engaging in fun literacy activities. They really enjoyed creating words with marshmallows. We are also in the beginning stages of working with small reading groups. Our programs are also enjoying the new bikes we purchased for additional gross motor fun! A lot of preschoolers will be attending our kindergarten round ups at the end of the month and our families are getting excited to start their new chapter in elementary school.

Briarwood Update

PBIS

Briarwood Elementary has been focused on making each day the best day it can be. Student Council has been sponsoring a Kindness Challenge. Each classroom can earn tickets for being kind and at the end of the week the tickets are tallied.Our 5th grade Student Council Team has been creating videos to showcase the results for the week and to give reminders about Kindness. Below is the video from week #3.

https://safeyoutube.net/w/SuE0

As a mid year check in, we also invited character educational speaker Basketball Jones to the school. During the assembly, Basketball Jones provided us with energetic activities and messages to remind us that we are all different, to keep trying when we fail, and to use the Internet in a positive manner.

Literacy

Last week several staff members from the elementary attended the Reading Recovery National Conference in Columbus, Ohio. The sessions focused on keeping literacy alive and effective instructional practices. The keynote speaker Douglas Reeves provided research that outlined the components of the effective reading instruction. His research noted that in every lesson there should be components that all educators are including in the lessons:

equity for student engagement
feedback/checks for understanding
non fiction writing
student reflection-alone and then in pairs
Students answer the question- "What are we doing/learning?"

Pictured below is Kara Beal, Scott Keen, Chris Walter and Doug Reeves

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Pinewood Update

Literacy

As part of our district’s commitment to early literacy, a team of Warren Woods staff members attended the National Reading Recovery Conference in Columbus, OH. I had the honor and privilege of representing Pinewood Elementary at this conference. A consistent message from many of the presenters and keynote speakers had to do with the idea of focus. Focusing on authentic literacy throughout the grade levels while filtering out distractions and time thieves. Time is a limited resource that all schools struggle with and Pinewood is no different. We will continue to look for ways to improve efficiency while focusing on student achievement in literacy and math. As a school improvement team, we recently set out to rediscover our personal and team “Why” and to redefine our purpose statement. This valuable work was reaffirmed while at the conference as shown above. Currently, our school improvement team is focusing on guided reading and defining systems of support and monitoring that will help ensure that this small group instruction strategy is living and supported across all grade levels.

PBIS

As an integral part of our PBIS system, we acknowledge those Panthers that go above and beyond as leaders in following our Panther Pride behavior expectations. January’s students of the month are featured below. Some of the ways we recognize our students is with Pinewood Pesos, positive office referrals and as students of the month. We are currently in the final phase of opening our School Store, the Peso Pantry.

Westwood Update

We are in the final stages of wrapping up our Winter testing window for NWEA and DRA assessments. Our instructional staff will utilize this data to progress monitor student growth, adjust student classroom/intervention groupings, and instructional focus. Classroom teachers will review and set goals with students for second semester. PLC district teams will analyse data to develop a collaborative plan for instruction, enrichment and intervention.

During the month of February, our elementary Math Steering Committee met with a consultant from the MISD. Teachers spent time revising a vision statement, unpacking grade level standards, and reviewing progression of skills. The next step in this process will be determining resources to pilot.

February is an exciting and a great time for celebrations. All student meeting our behavior criteria participated in a school-wide PBIS Dance Party. Our Wildcats do an amazing job following our CATS Expectations. They make us proud each and every day.