Dear Colleagues,
Once again, congratulations for welcoming parents to the school year with professional and effective presentations. Let’s hope we can do this in person in the future. We will continue to invite parents back to campus in the form of Parent Workshops. The first one will be on Thursday from 8:40 - 9:45 this week. We plan to do a quick Peek into Learning to give parents a quick picture of practice in an IB PYP school.
As we have significantly more students in our hallways, cafeteria, and playground, and we have come to the end of the honeymoon period of the new school year, it is important that we are actively directing our children in a kind and firm manner toward safe, inclusive, and positive behavior choices. Please, use every opportunity to guide and supervise the students in your class meetings and as they transition throughout the school. Furthermore, it is also known to be effective to actively engage with as many students as possible during recess to prevent any unnecessary emotional outbursts.
In grades 3 - 5, we are approaching two external data collection events; Wida testing for EAL learners and MAP testing. The Wida test is new to our EAL department, and we are aware of the potential over-testing of EAL learners, and that MAP testing is unsuitable for all learners. In order to accommodate the overlap and to learn how to effectively and efficiently manage the tests, the EAL department will start their respective testing earlier. This means there will be some days with less language support available in grades 3 - 5. The respective EAL teacher will provide further details to the classroom teachers.
The EAL team would like to inform you about the following:
Friday, Sept. 9th, parents of EAL students receive information about the WIDA testing
Monday, Sept. 12: EAL teachers will be scheduling the tests with each grade level team
Sept. 14-21st: Administer the tests. The oral language test will be done one-on-one
EAL Students in G3-5 will be participating in the WIDA test from September 14 to 21
3F Commons Room will be reserved and used for the WIDA most of the time
Sept. 20 and 21: Moderation and marking the writing task as a team
Limited in-class support will be provided (G3-5) to allow for time to administer the tests (which requires additional time for 1:1 speaking tests and as the team is moderating the scoring of the writing task collectively.)
Thank you in advance for the flexibility of scheduling these tests during class time. The WIDA results will inform decisions regarding student participation in the MAPs reading test.
The end of this busy week will bring us to a long weekend, and we will resume next week on Tuesday, 20 September.
Erin, Trevor, and Heikki
This week’s duties: Duty Roster 22-23
This Week's Schedule: Master Schedule 22-23
Professional Learning:
Please note that in order to qualify for Professional Development, you must always apply through the CA PD application form found on KissFlow. Applications must be submitted no later than 10 days before the
registration deadline. For further information on 'How to apply for PD - click here'.
IB PD: Here is the IB PD Booklet 22-23. Here is their search to find the workshops.
Check emails from Clover Hicks for other online PD opportunities
N.B. All PD information posted on Blogger is by default 'Personal PD' unless otherwise noted.
