1. Open House September 11th, 12th, & 13th
Sandy Hook School
Open
House
September 11th, 12th, & 13th

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

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

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

5. 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

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

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

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

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

10. 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

11. 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!

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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 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.

17. 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!

18. 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