October 7, 2014
I am please to say that the year has gotten off to a smooth start! In a time period where information comes from the State Department of Education almost on a weekly basis, our teachers have been handling all of their responsibilities in the utmost professional manner. I can’t say enough about their willingness to go the extra mile, their flexibility when the need arises, and their commitment to providing the best instruction possible for your child or children!
As stated in a recent letter sent to you, students participated in benchmark testing at the end of last month. All went well as students answered questions on the computer based tests. Teachers will have an in-service on Monday, October 13th that will be a follow up to the benchmark testing presented by LinkIt! in the morning. Teachers will perform an item analysis, look at class diagnostic reports, study historical NJ ASK data and their students’ history with this assessment, and look at the cluster reports. Our Rutgers’ coaches will be here in the afternoon on the 13th to go over literacy and its connection to the PARCC assessment. Needless to say, our teachers will be very busy on this day!
We held our first math sub-committee meeting and we are currently looking at our recently updated math curriculum to be sure it includes the necessary rigor and focus needed to ensure our students are ready for high school and beyond. We will be taking a look at several math programs aligned to the Common Core to integrate into our curriculum beginning next school year.
Dr. Jim will be leading “Vision” meetings this month with the goal of creating a shared vision among all stakeholders in our continued goal of moving Califon Public School forward in a positive direction. We look forward to the discussions that will ensue. These meetings are in lieu of our Parent Advisory meetings. As soon as they reconvene, we will let you know.
I will be taking part in some professional development opportunities in the near future. I will attend the 2014 FEA/NJPSA/NJASCD Fall Conference, in which I will focus my efforts on the Common Core and PARCC strands of workshops. I will also have the honor of listening to keynote speaker Todd Whitaker. You can visit his website at toddwhitaker.com. He is a fantastic, world traveled motivational speaker and has written several great books in the field of education. I will also be attending the AMTNJ Conference as well, along with Robin Heuneman, one of our middle school math teachers. While there, my objectives are to attend some great math workshops as well as speak with several math vendors.
In addition, I will be attending two math workshops sponsored by Rutgers University; one with Robin Heuneman who is representing our upper grade math teachers and the other with Kyle Hoitsma who is representing our elementary grade math teachers. The workshops will focus on the relationship between mathematics and the Common Core State Standards.
I will continue to periodically keep you posted as to what’s going on behind the scenes at Califon Public School in future Principal’s Corners!
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