May 20, 2014
The finish is near! It’s hard to believe another school year is wrapping up. Students have now finished the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). Teachers have also been ascertaining their students’ progress according to the Student Growth Objectives (SGOs) that were set back in October. Many of the typical culminating activities, programs, and events are now beginning to occur as well as the planning that goes along with them.
As stated previously, our Rutgers partnership has continued. As we front loaded their support this year, our Rutgers’ coaches are now meeting with teachers on fewer days. In order to be more frugal, we intend to continue the partnership into the next school year, utilizing the coaches mainly on our scheduled professional development days. In addition, our plan is to send a few teachers to their four main conferences and in turn have those teachers turnkey training on the information presented. We are also looking forward to their last visit here on June 9th where we will wrap up our Guys Read Club with a final activity for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys.
Our Fast ForWord program is continuing to reach several of our students in a positive way. We will be looking to expand the program to include Reading Assistant for next year. Our middle school math teachers are integrating the Khan Academy into their lessons periodically in order to differentiate instruction according to the needs of their students. We will expand on our global outreach initiative as we purchase more technology equipment and look to integrate problem based learning into instructional lessons. We will continue to look for cutting edge programs in order to meet the needs of all of our learners.
Through our Technology Sub Committee, we have developed our district’s three year technology plan. We are looking forward to purchasing more laptops and carts, as well as a brand new server, along with some other items to enable more access to technology for our students. This will also help to prepare our teachers and students for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test, which will be computer based. Through our Report Card Ad Hoc Committee, we have developed new report cards for next year. We will also be including a parent grade portal through our student information system that will be available for your access.
Our annual Science Fair recently took place and the 6th and 7th grade students did a wonderful job. There were a lot of interesting experiments performed that were displayed on their presentation boards. In addition to the Science Fair, our 8th grade students took part in a STEM Fair of sorts by displaying their solar cars during the Science Fair. A few days later they participated in the Junior Solar Sprints at Kingwood School. The students enjoyed constructing their cars out of recycled materials, and they learned about alternative energy uses.
Mrs. Thompson is currently working hard, as are her students, to present the Spring Concert for the Califon community on May 20th. We also have a number of grade levels attending field trips and Field Day is just around the corner. It has been a busy year to say the least and we still have work to do. With that said, our goal is to continue our positive ways, work hard, and finish strong!
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