PLC December 17, 2008

Kindergarten PLC - December 17, 2008

Kindergarten Report Card changes to a standards based report card as of January 2009.
Report card grading code has been agreed upon for all standards, and a copy will be given to the kindergarten teachers by 12/19/2008.

Bus safety concerns including ice on steps, ice and snow not being removed from the sidewalk, distance of travel to the buses, difficulty loading in inclement weather, as well as emergency situations such as illness of young students were discussed with Mrs. Minrovic. Also discussed was the possibility of loading the Miller children on the buses at Miller School instead of at Leighton. Mrs. Minrovic commented that she would look into this possibility when construction is completed at Miller School. The kindergarten teachers thanked Mrs. Minrovic via e-mail for her time and concern with this bus safety matter.

PLC Monday, December 8, 2008

Technology Update - Dept. getting an overhaul - New Miller Tech Person - TBA
Redo help desk - new procedure - only help desk for maintenance issues
All other issues - such as curriculum, programs, smartboard - e-mail Andrew directly
Computer Lab @ Miller not yet ready - several computers are still down

Report Card Update - Andrew will enter standards - Release day TBA to link assessments, etc...

Math Formative Assessment - What Comes Next? this week

Math Summative Assessment for Patterns - Will be completed the first week of January

Math Diagnostic Pattern Example is ABAB

Math Fluency - add to your morning routine - flashcards 0 - 10 - number recognition
AIMS WEB - will be added for math next year 2009-10

Discussion - Should all students be required to take the same formative and summative assessments? - Teachers need to be flexible to meet the needs of the students, however, teachers still need to cover the same material.

December 1, 2008 PLC meeting

Handwriting Discussion with Pre-K

• Is teaching handwriting developmentally appropriate in preschool? Yes, K teachers would like them to continue teaching handwriting the way they always have. K teachers are concerned about bad habits formed when no formal instruction is given.
• What handwriting program do you use? Zaner-Bloser is our handwriting system.
• What order are you teaching the letters? We follow the Scott Foresman program for the order. Judy will get the order to Lauren and Jaime.
• Do y0u expect them to write their first and last name? First name only. We try to have them start with a capital letter and the rest lowercase letters.
• What should the preschool teachers focus on? Is there an area of weakness? Keep doing what you are doing!
• How do you teach the letters/sounds in preschool? They use the same format for naming sounds as Heggerty. "Name is __, Sound is _____." They also teach rhyming and blending sounds. They cover the first 3 weeks of our blue book program over and over again.
• Do you think Handwriting Club will help? Yes!! K teachers have trouble with focusing on grips. Nice to have a small group in handwriting club.
• K teachers would like to have help with some preschool strategies. We would love to know about pay attention pie, how does your engine run, other social/emotional strategies. After the preschool teachers present to other preschools they will present to K at a PLC.
• Transition to K--We will need to discuss this further in the spring.

Cyndi has 7 boxes of Reading Recovery materials if you are interested. Please see her if you want to look through them.

Have a good week!