Principal's Update- Friday, June 3, 2016

Happy Last Friday of the 2016 school year!  Only 3 days left....

5th Grade Graduation- Today
Today (1:45-2:15) is our 5th Grade Graduation.  It's going to be a special ceremony with diplomas, commencement speakers, and a slideshow.  Our goal is to "stream" the video for grades K-3 to watch in the classroom.  This will be our first attempt at something like this - I hope it works.  A huge thank you to Clayton and Mark for making this happen.  Watch for a link later today to access the ceremony. 

Last Day of School Activities
Please sign up to lead an activity on the last day.  Also, if you need materials, please let Lorri or I know.  Below is our schedule for the day:
               8:15-9:15 Assembly in Big Gym
               9:00-11:00 Morning Activities (sign up for this!)
               11:00-1:00 Picnic lunches (same lunch schedule)
               1:00-2:10 Bongerball
               2:10-2:30 Wrap up in classrooms/5th grade says goodbye to McKinley
               2:30 Meet at 14th & St Paul Road to wave goodbye

Update on EL Programming for 16-17
Next year, we will be looking at students of EL status and grouping them based on their language proficiency level.  We took other things into consideration- behavior, effort, etc.  The model of “all students getting the same” isn't the most effective– we need to try something different.    

 Also, due to having 3.0 FTE in EL, each teacher will have two grade levels to serve. This should hopefully provide the appropriate time for service in each grade level.   EL will no longer be in included in the Power ½ Hour.

 I want to clarify the structure we will be using:  co-teaching and pull-out.  Rather than giving every student the same, we will be using their ACCESS score and student need(s) to determine individual EL programming needs.  Students who are on their way to being language-proficient need more time in a classroom with support on grade level vocabulary/comprehension (push-in), where a student who is just learning English needs intense support in a smaller setting (pull out).  With having more EL support, it is our hope we will have a mixture of language support available during the day- students will not just do pull-out or push-in.    This is supported in research and not “new” to schools. 

 As you know, our EL staff may need to change their schedules from September-November due to our students of Migrant status.

 There will be more discussion about this as the school year begins.  I just wanted to clarify our goal(s) with EL programming next year. 

Master Schedule
With the help of Amy LaDue, I have created the tentative master schedule for next year. This is very tentative.  I will be sending this out in the next couple of days - it's more of an FYI at this point. With the addition of another section at McKinley and the limited space we have, it made the master schedule tricky. 

Checkout for Last Day
Don't forget to complete your "checkout" before you leave next week.  Lorri outlined all the tasks that need to be completed before you are free for the summer! 

Summer Learning Calendars
Summer Learning Calendars go out on Monday, June 6th (along with the other things that Lorri emailed you about).  Don't forget to "sell this" to your students - we want them all to participate.  Remember, this is for any learning experience  (reading a recipe, helping create a grocery list, reading an instruction manual, etc.).  When summer ends, students will turn their calendar in and participate in a PTO breakfast.  We have some great prizes, also!

The library/garden will be open on Wednesdays (highlighted on the student calendar) for student checkout.  Students can bring their calendars to school on Wednesdays for additional prizes. 

Building Weekly Newsletter
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter.


Have a great weekend, everyone!