AM Announcements - January 19

AM Announcements
January 19, 2010

1. Today is Day 88.

2. It is the mission of Speas Elementary School to provide its students with the tools necessary to successfully meet the challenges they will face in a diverse world.

3. Calendar items for this week:

Tuesday: January 19
EOQ Testing continues
Marzano Staff Development - 2:40-4:00

Wednesday: January 20
EOQ Testing continues
Curriculum Coordinators meeting - Marston off-campus -11:30-3:30

Thursday: January 21
EOQ Testing continues
Job Site meeting - 9:00-10:00 - Reichert and Powell
Moreno-Castro Pre-K meeting in the art room - 12:30-1:30

Friday: January 22
EOQ testing ends

4. Upcoming Calendar Items:
a. 01/25 - No School - RS Day for staff
b. 01/26 - Technology Staff-Development
c. 01/29 - Box Tops for Education due
d. 02/01 - Report Cards go home
e. 02/02 - SIT meets
f. 02/05 - Honor Roll Assembly


5. CERTL applications are available from Ms. Rhodes. The parents must fill out an application and it must include a written teacher recommendation letter from the teacher. The application deadline is February 18.

6. Books for the African Book Project can be dropped off in the front lobby. Please encourage your students to participate. You can join them in donating books as well.

7.  Since we began EOQ testing on Friday, I need to remind test administrators and proctors of certain protocols that must be followed. a. Use of cell phones, Blackberries or any other electronic communication devices is strictly forbidden. They should be turned off prior to the beginning of the testing session and turned on only after test booklets have been turned in to the testing coordinator. b. There can be no reading of books, magazines or any other type of print material during the testing session by students, administrators or proctors. c. Administrators and proctors are to be up on their feet and circulating through the room constantly during the test. They are not to sit down for any reason. They must cover the entire room as they circulate. They cannot divde the room up and have one individual cover one half while the other covers the other half.

8. The North Carolina Teacher Academy is developing a research-based program for Instructional Coaches. It will include multiple sessions on a variety of topics that will lead to add-on licensure for individuals completing the process.

There are several titles and job descriptions that are being used for teachers who are serving in these fulltime released positions – literacy specialist, lead teacher, literacy coach, instructional coach, instructional facilitator, curriculum facilitator, to name a few.

If you are currently employed fulltime in this capacity, they would like to invite you to participate in the program. Please see Dr. Reichert for a registration form and return by email to the NC Teacher Academy office no later than February 10, 2010.

9. There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead.
Arthur Honegger (1892 - 1955)

The gods too are fond of a joke.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them.
Samuel McChord Crothers, The Gentle Reader

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)