Open House September 11th, 12th, & 13th Sandy Hook School Open House September 11th, 12th, & 13th 2012 - 2013

Sandy Hook School Motto THINK YOU CAN WORK HARD GET SMART BE KIND HAVE FUN!

A Newtown Public School Core Belief: EVERYONE can and will learn well.

Meet the Kindergarten Team! Janet Vollmer, Grade Level Leader Theresa Salvatore, Educational Assistant Sue Perry Deborah Pisani, Educational Assistant Nancy Duffy, Reading Teacher

Meet the Unified Arts Team! Library-Media Yvonne Cech, PLC Leader Ginny Glass Art Leslie Gunn Music Maryrose Kristopik Physical Education Jackie Lloyd Rosanne O’Neill

Meet the 1st Grade Team! Vicky Kazlauskas, Grade Level Leader Amanda D’Amato Lynn Monahan Kaitlin Roig Vicki Soto

Meet the 2nd Grade Team! Abbey Clements, Grade Level Leader Dawn Ford Beth Taverna Amy Taylor Carol Wexler

Meet the 3rd Grade Team! Alison Amanzio, Grade Level Leader Teri Alves Sally Mackenzie Courtney Martin Connie Sullivan Robin Walker

Meet the 4th Grade Team! Carrie Usher, Grade Level Leader Kate Anderheggen Liesl Fressola Kathy Gramolini Ted Varga

2012 CMT Results Percentage of SHS students at GOAL Mathematics Reading Writing 3rd Grade 90.0 87.6 89.0 4th Grade 85.8 81.7 84.5

What Does the DATA Tell Us? Sandy Hook students demonstrate a trend of sustained achievement… And they are ready for a new level of challenge!

Common Core State Standards The CCSS Common Core State Standards 45 states have formally adopted the CCSS The skills and knowledge that students need in order to be successful in college and career Exciting because deep thinking is required; students need to demonstrate application of their knowledge

The Common Core State Standards LANGUAGE ARTS Reading Writing Speaking and Listening Language Media and Technology Integrated literacy skills Embedded research and media skills Cross-disciplinary, shared instructional responsibility

The Common Core State Standards Mathematics Counting and Cardinality Operations & Algebraic Thinking Number & Operations in Base Ten Measurement & Data Geometry Define what students should know and be able to do in mathematics Sequence of topics and performances Conceptual understanding of key ideas Focus on organizing principles (place value, properties of operations); every concept has an umbrella

Smarter Balanced Assessment Begins in March 2015 Administered via computer Computer-adaptive Only 2 more administrations of CMT 12-week assessment window Increased focus on developing keyboarding skills both in school and at home; Typing Master link on student tab of Sandy Hook web site ALL students will get 50% of the answers incorrect; we need to help children work through being frustrated with difficult tasks

The Reading Workshop A philosophy, not a program Overarching goals Balanced literacy Sandy Hook’s initial implementation Sandy Hook’s plan for this year Classroom teachers will provide more details about how this looks in your child’s classroom. RW is a philosophy about reading, not a reading program RW goals:1. to instill a lifelong love of reading 2. to increase reading stamina by reading longer and stronger the elements of RW are all parts of balanced literacy RW focuses on student choice of Just Right books for independent reading last year goals at SH: to level classroom libraries and to build stamina for longer periods of independent reading goals for this year: to incorporate more elements of RW into our reading blocks (conferring, guided reading, skill groups, paired reading, book clubs, word study, etc.) I don't know how detailed you want to be in this area. I think it's important to let parents know that we are all at different places in the RW model. Classroom teachers will provide more details about how RW looks in their classrooms.

JOIN THE PTA… VOLUNTEER! BE INFORMED & INVOLVED! JOIN THE PTA… VOLUNTEER! IN YOUR CHILD’S CLASSROOM, IN THE LIBRARY, AT THE FAMILY FUN FAIR, WITH THE GARDEN CLUB, AT THE BOOK FAIR, OR AT SOME OF OUR MANY OTHER EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR!

The Power of Conversation The person doing the talking is doing the thinking. The person doing the thinking is doing the learning. ~ Dr. Anthony Rigazio-DiGilio Central CT State University