AM Announcements - May 14

AM Announcements
May 14, 2010

1. Today is Day 161.

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:

Friday 14
Dollar Dress Down Day
EOG - Background information
Used Book Sale - 8:30-1:30 PM
Book Distribution - Dan Arial (Polo Park Recreation Center) - 9:00
Fifth Grade Pen Pal Luncheon - Golden Corral -  10:45

Saturday: May 15
Student Council Yard and Used Book Sale - 7:30-1:00 PM

3. Upcoming Calendar Items:

a. 05/17-05/21 - EOG Testing
b. 05/24 - Interim Reports go home
c. 05/24-05/28 - Remediation Period for Level I/II students
d. 05/25 - Web Page migration session to School Wires
e. 05/26 - Web Page migration session to School Wires
f. 05/28 - Dollar Dress Down Day
g. 05/28 - Box Tops for Education due
h. 05/31 - Memorial Day - No School

4. Well, today begins the process that the entire year has pointed to. You have all worked hard and supported our students. Now they have to stand on their own feet and show what they know. There is nothing you can do this weekend, so take some time for yourself and relax. Monday  begins the actual testing. Know that you have done your best. I did a sweep of all testing rooms this morning and found just a few things. Remove all essential questions; problems you've worked out on the board; items on bulletin boards that have anything to do with reading, math, or science (fifth only). If you are in doubt, take it down today before school. I'll sweep again looking for the specific thing I noted.

5. Please remember the following:

A. Staff members, whether administrators or proctors, should turn off all cell phones and they should remain off until the test is complete and the materials have been turned in to Ms. Marston.

B. All materials on walls must be covered and/or taken down

C. Both the administrator and proctor must be circulating throughout the entire room continuously during the test

D. Administrators and proctors cannot bring food, drinks, books or magazines to eat/read during the administration of the test

E. Students with accommodations must be monitored to determine if they are, in fact, using the accommodations. The results of their monitoring must be entered on the Accommodation Monitoring forms for each student.

F. NCDPI and the WS/FCS Testing and Accountability Department will be conducting audits in the schools to ensure that testing is being done according to the manual. Therefore, do not deviate from the manual.

G. Make sure that when you write the time you begin testing; the duration of the test; and the times for breaks and/or the end of the test are clearly visible to the students and from the door to your classroom. We check these times throughout the test and need to be able to see them clearly from the door. Please check your time calculations. Every test day, we have at least one room that lists an incorrect time on the board and either gives too much or too little time which must be corrected.

H. When in doubt ASK. We want to avoid testing irregularities and misadministrations. Therefore, ASK before you act.

6. I will be off campus all afternoon.

7. Don't forget to turn in your pledge card for the UNCF drive. The current total is $740.00. Remember that the drive ends May 21, 2010.

8. I will be off campus all day today after 10:45.

9. Remember to keep a list of students who return their Parent Surveys.

10. As of yesterday morning, Speas had only 2 parents respond to the WS/FCS Parent Survey on-line. The highest elementary school had only 12. Many schools were not listed since they had no responses.Most schools had 1-3.

11. Dan Arial from the Polo Park Recreation Center will be here at 9:00 with ladies from several groups he works with. They will be distributing books to all students. They have already divided the books up and they will be bagged. They will come by each classroom and drop off the books for that class. It should only take a few minutes. All entry of survey data for grades 3-5 should be complete by that time. If it is not, we won't send them down until it is.

12. There are several meetings downtown that staff will be off campus for this morning. These include a MOVE meeting at 8:00 and a meeting with an Assistant Secretary of Education regarding Federal priorities and Safe Schools at 10:00.

13. The fifth grade will be leaving at 10:45 to go to Golden Corral at Hanes Mall for their annual luncheon with their Pen Pals. Ms. Powell will be driving the bus.

14. It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.
Pierre Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799)

A waist is a terrible thing to mind.
Jane Caminos

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004)