Friday, December 11, 2015

Spring FT to PARCCland...update

At the risk of rushing through the winter celebrations, I know you were all anxiously wondering when we were going to finalize our PARCC assessment dates following the thrilling announcement a few weeks ago that the BESE voted to move towards MCAS 2.0 and that we would continue with PARCC this spring until the new assessment is developed for Spring 2017!  ( I am channeling my most sincere optimistic outlook in the spirit of tonight's opening of THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Jr., a story of a young lady full of enthusiasm and hope as she sets out to tackle the modern world of NYC...in 1922) Perhaps the spring will welcome PARCCLand: the musical...or many of you will be singing when you receive the individual student results from last year's assessments which will be mailed home very soon.  At any rate, our assessment schedule will be as follows:


PARCC Language Arts/ Literacy
Grades 6, 7, & 8
Wednesday, May 4
Thursday, May 5
Friday, May 6
PARCC Mathematics
Grades 6, 7, & 8
Monday, May 9
Tuesday, May 10
Wednesday, May 11
MCAS STE (science, technology, and engineering)
Grade 8
Tuesday, May 17
Wednesday, May 18

As referenced earlier, Stony Brook Theater Arts presents THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Jr. tonight @ 7:00 and tomorrow @ 1:30 & 7:00.  Some tickets are still available at the door.  The students involved have been making enthusiastic announcements every morning this week and with the previews they presented before Thanksgiving, tickets have been selling well.  

The activity after school between the start of the basketball season and production week for theater has filled the lobby with energy and enthusiasm all week long.  It is always inspiring to see the students choose to extend their time here in the building!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Chris


"Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress" - Nicholas Murray Butler

Friday, December 4, 2015

Green from leftovers...update

I believe all of the leftovers have finally been consumed in my house and I can look forward to some take-out this weekend.

Speaking of leftovers, I would like to thank the great work some of our students participating on the Westford Innovators team did this fall to help update our recycling efforts in the cafe.  Have no fear...these leftovers are not edible in nature but reusable none the less.  They designed and built a clean system to encourage students to increase recycling bottles rather than throwing them away at lunch.  By merely making the process of draining excess liquid into a funnel and then dropping the empty bottle into a tube that quantifies the amount of recycling participation, we have seen and increase in both the number of bottles recycled and the efficiency in which it is done.  In other words, the whole process is easier and it doesn't leave a big mess for someone else to have to clean-up every day.

Another one of our efforts to be as green as possible will hopefully not make anyone green...@ 2:30 today the Term 1 Report Cards were posted in iParent for families to access.  You can access the PDF of the student's report card in the My Documents section of iParent.  A link to the grading key can be found under the Parent tab on our homepage if you have any questions about the report card in general.  Specific questions about grades or comments would be best addressed by contacting the teachers directly via email.  

Recycling information from last week's email, I present you with this notice of our upcoming Parent Conferences (now that you are able to access the report cards):

Parent Conferences will be held on Wednesday, December 15th from 7:30AM to 9:30AM and Thursday, December 16th from 2:00PM to 8:00PM.  There is a 2 ½ hour delayed opening on December 15th and no school on December 16th.  In an effort to accommodate all families interested in attending a conference, we offer a choice between one of two teacher groups: Math/Social Studies or ELA/Science.  Should you wish to schedule a conference we are asking families to sign up for one conference per student online as we have in the past via Sign Up Genius. The website will be open for families to access starting on December 7 at 9:00AM and closing on December 10 at 8:00PM.  Changes can be made by calling the office after that time.

It is important that you only sign-up for one conference slot for either Math/ Social Studies or ELA/Science and not both.  In the event that one student has both selected, we will defer to the first selection made using the timestamp as an indicator of the initial choice.  So, if you need to change your selection for some reason please be sure to delete the other selection so that you don't in turn lose the timeslot you actual prefer.  It is possible to select additional timeslots to meet with an Integrated Arts or Foreign Language teacher just not to double up on the Math/Social Studies or ELA/ Science grouping.  We appreciate your understanding so that we can accommodate as many families as possible.  

Next week, we also have the Stony Brook Theater Arts production of Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. taking the stage.  I was able to watch a run-through this week and can't wait to see it next weekend.  Tickets are available during the following:

Rehearsals-last hour:  (Auditorium Lobby)
Tues  12/1    3:30-4:30pm
Thur  12/3    3:30-4:30pm
Fri     12/4    3:30-4:30pm
Sat     12/5    3-4pm
Production Week-Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs  12/7-12/10    7-8pm


During lunch:   (Stony Book Main Lobby)
Thu   12/3    10:15-12:00pm
Fri     12/4    10:15-12:00pm
Mon  12/7    10:15-12:00pm
Tues  12/8    10:15-12:00pm 
Wed  12/9    10:15-12:00pm
Fri     12/11  10:15-12:00pm 


At Performances:   (Auditorium Lobby)
Fri  12/11      6:15-7:00pm
Sat  12/12    12:45-1:30pm
Sat  12/12      6:15-7:00pm

If waiting until next weekend for the thrill of live theater is too much for you, or you are in a #showhole from enjoying WATA's production of Young Frankenstein.  I encourage you to support Blanchard Middle School's production of Seussical the Musical Jr. taking place tonight and tomorrow across town @ 7:00 both nights and 1:30 tomorrow afternoon.

Finally, I would like to congratulate Ms. Watson and all of the students involved in this week's Winter Choral Concert.  The students sounded great and it was very well attended.  I was impressed by their ability to tackle challenging multi-part harmonies and an intricate four-part canon with limited rehearsals in the first few months of the year. The feedback has been wonderful and I am looking forward to hearing more from them later in the year.

That is a lot to digest.

Have a great weekend!

Chris