Friday, February 17, 2017

Hi all,

Another busy week in the ES!  As always, please read and check carefully.  Don’t forget SPIRIT week starts next week - looking forward to seeing your creativity and costumes!

See the schedule below as well as the fliers posted around the elementary school.

Monday 20 February	Mismatch Day!  Wear clothes that do not go together
Tuesday 21 February	Multiples day!  Find friends and dress alike.
Wednesday 22 February	Crazy hair day - style up your hair in fun and crazy ways!
Thursday 23 February	Costume Day - wear a costume of your choice
Friday 24 February	Pyjama Day - wear your favorite pyjamas to school

Thanks to

• Ron & Grade 3, Grade 4 and Grade 5 teachers who co-presented a fabulous learning celebration this morning full of jokes, card tricks, dancing, writing and at-the-scene reporting
• Morgen, Karen, Hazel and Nicole who represented the ES at the Strategic Planning Event
• All homeroom, EAL & LSS teachers for getting their narrative comments to admin for proof-reading
• Kay, Morgen, Amy, Lauren, Lily, Daphne, Vigna, Jayashri, Vigna, Fer, Tiffany, Ilona, Kamini, Barbara and Marianne for hosting HS students today for their Discovery Day
• Rachael and Karen for co-leading the ES Parent Coffee this week

After School Supervision

Another message is going to parents about the need to vigilantly supervise their students from 3:30 on. Unfortunately, we’ve had a number of either discipline issues or injuries the last couple of weeks. Please help us to reinforce this by keeping your after school dismissal tight. Students should either be going to an ASA, be picked up by a parent or older sibling, or should be accompanied by a TA (Zahida, Preethi, Nushrath, Mona or Nichelle) to the ES reception area for driver/nanny pick up. Padma Priya begins calling parents when students haven’t been picked up by 3:40. Students cannot remain to play unsupervised.

Homeroom Edmodo Expectations
We know Edmodo posts have been more regular this year and that is something to be celebrated!  Thank you for this time and commitment here.

However some parents have expressed concern they still “do not know what is going on in their child’s class”. Obviously this is not every parent, however, it may be a good reminder to check in with Edmodo expectations and make sure our posts are giving the right level of detail.  We also are assisting them from the tech side to rule out any issues arising there.  Any parents who express concern to you should be encouraged to attend and Edmodo tech support session:

We will be holding a special Edmodo tech support session on Monday February 27th from 2:30 - 4:30. You may drop in anytime during this time to receive dedicated Edmodo support.

A reminder that these were our original Edmodo guidelines

• Individual classroom weekly update; what has happened this week; include a balance of subject areas, main events, big learning ideas (include photos)
• Bi-weekly classroom celebration posts mostly photos; a few sentences only  (if you have a teacher blog already and prefer to do this here and push the link out via Edmodo, then please continue to do this)
• Grade level posts (can be copied onto all class accounts) when a new curricular unit begins  
  **** This is the piece that parents feel is missing.  We ask all Grade teams and Specialists to revisit this together; one way of streamlining the work may be for each person in a team to take responsibility for a particular area; eg 4 x Grade 2 teachers; one for each - math, LA, science, SS

Specialist Edmodo Expectations
* Post each time a new unit begins (copied onto all classes within grade level) ***Parents reported inconsistency with this
* Monthly celebration update; photos with a few sentences only personalized to each class

Early Release meeting next Wednesday 22 February
Led by coaches, see information from Dan in the Raptor Way.  

Leave Cards
Please update your leave cards at the office if you are going for any PDs (NESA / Maker Summit) or have taken leave.  

Have a great weekend!

Keryn and Lori

Upcoming Dates For Your Calendar
Mon 13 - Fri 24 Feb                        K-2 Art Exhibition
20-24 Feb                                         Matt Holm author visit (Grades 2-5)
Wednesday 22 Feb                         Early Release
Saturday 25 Feb                              Design Saturday
Tuesday 2 March                             Emergency Drill @10:45
Monday 6 March                             Grade 5 NESA Virtual Science Fair
Wednesday 8 March                       Early Release
Monday 13 - Friday 17 March       Spring Break
Monday 20 March                           Staff Professional Learning Day - No School for Students