The Cornelius Chronicle

December 18, 2015

Enjoy your 2 weeks off with your families!  Feliz Navidad!  Happy Holidays!  

Cornelius Glasses Club

During our Cougar Team meetings, we have heard from almost every grade level that there are kids who have glasses but don’t wear them.  We want to encourage all of our students who need glasses to wear them, so we are starting a Glasses Club!  Flyers are going home with students today.  We will have a sticker chart (or punch out chart or marker chart - your choice) for student accountability after break--thanks, Daisy, for working on this!  Thanks to Melissa for creating a flyer, a club, and a glasses rap in less than 30 minutes this morning and selling it to each class today!  

For any staff members who have prescription glasses, please wear your glasses, instead of contacts the entire first week in January to encourage students to wear glasses, like we do with our school uniforms on Mondays.

Parents in Action Parent Club Meeting Jan. 5

Remind your students/parents about the Parents in Action Parent Club night as soon as we come back to school - Jan 5th at 6:30 pm.  Please talk this up!

Fingerprint scanning on Jan. 4th - all students!

Each class needs to be finger print scanned after winter break because they are upgrading the computer system in the cafeteria.  Please bring your class through at your assigned time.  It should take about 5 - 10 min per class.  There is no ELD on Jan 4th for grades 1-2 only because of this.

9:15 am - Rosa Rincon

9:25 am - Lourdes Medina

9:35 am - Merry Hansen

9:45 am - Cheryl Hall

1:30 pm Henriksen

1:35 pm Murillo

1:45 pm Aillon

1:55 pm Bustamante

2:00 pm Wolf

2:15 pm Heredia

2:25 pm Godinez

Reminders:

• Please sign any forms needing your signature on TalentEd!
• Emergency sub plans are due to Irene before you go to winter break!
• Be sure to clean off any vents/heating units before you leave for break.
• They will be testing our mechanical systems and fire alarms on 12/24 from 8 - 11 am! Probably not a good day to be in the building.  Also, be sure to sign in and out and turn the alarm on/off if you come into the building over break.  
• In January, we will need to do Easy CBM testing for English reading (K-4), IDEL testing for K-3 Spanish reading, EDL testing for 4th grade Spanish reading, and IAP Math testing for 3-4 math!

Bus Duty 1/4-1/8: 1st & 3rd grade teachers, and the “regulars”!

Calendar:

12/18 4 pm Winter Break Begins!

12/20 Dora’s Birthday!

12/31 Maria Manriquez’s Birthday!

1/4 School resumes

1/4 Fingerprint Scanning for all students in cafeteria (see assigned times)

1/5 8:00 am Referral Team

1/5 6:30 pm Parent Club - Parents in Action - Meeting (library)

1/6 8:00 am CIT - MOU - Tech Session

1/7 8:30 - 4 District Equity Team Training (Alondra, Jacob, Lourdes, Janelly, & Angella)

1/8 8:00 am 1st Grade Cougar Team Meeting

1/8 1-4 pm Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Angella)

Looking ahead:

1/11-1/22 Vision Screening for all kids K-2 (teacher referrals for grades 3-4)

1/12 Shannon McCaw at Cornelius

1/12 8 am - 4 pm Math Adoption Committee Meeting (Jacob, Daisy, & Angella)

1/28-1/29 Gomez & Gomez training

The Cornelius Chronicle

December 11, 2015

Changes to the schedule!

One more change to the schedule...we tried it out this week and found that it worked really well….we are starting the kinder lunch recess 10 minutes earlier than 1st grade and ending it 10 minutes earlier.  See update to master schedule.

Holidays!

Can’t wait to see everyone on Saturday Dec. 12th at 5 pm at my house!  :)  Bring your family!  Bring something yummy to share!  Wear your holiday bling!

Also, don’t forget our staff holiday gathering on Dec. 16th during CIT time at 8 am!  Bring something yummy to share (sign up in the staff room) and an ornament or other holiday decoration to exchange (wrapped). Hot tip:  not “white elephant” quality gifts - $10 limit.  

***Teachers - don’t forget to hold your Data Team Collaboration time at another time, in order to celebrate together as a staff on Wed.  

Certified Tuition Reimbursement and Workshops & Conference Funds

• We have new forms (there is a separate form for tuition reimbursement and for conferences now - forms can be found in the file room)
• For any district money - forms need to be filled out and turned into HR
• Building Site Council (BSC) money - same form can be filled out with BSC account code and approved by BSC (you can apply to BSC funds for workshops or conferences...we have decided BSC money will be distributed on a first come, first served basis this year.  Please see a BSC rep to submit your workshop/conference request - Janelly, Cheryl H, Manuel, or Rosa)
• FGEA members have access to tuition reimbursement (the equivalent of 4 PSU credits - this year that is $1,428 for tuition reimbursement)

or

• 50% of that for district-approved workshops/conferences ($712)
• Please ask Angella if you have any questions!

Aesop Sub System

• Put absences in advance - especially for PD days!
• Each person can have a preferred list of subs - many do not have this set up - Irene can help train you to do this. First, your 5 faves get an immediate notification of your absence.  If no one picks it up, then your preferred subs can see the absence.  Then the building preferred subs can see the absences.  Then all subs can see the absence when it gets close to your absence.
• Blocking subs - principal has to talk to the sub before we can block them (I have to investigate the reason for blocking a sub and talk to them in advance and fill out a form; we can’t just block a sub.)
• Also, let me know if someone is dropping a sub job the day of (e.g. they pick up a half-day job and then they take a full-day job the day of) and I will notify HR and HR will notify the ESD.  I need to give Kevin the name of anyone who is doing that.
• Don't forget to have emergency sub plans turned into Irene!

Homework for Students over Winter Break - Suggestions!

I’ve noticed that many of our students don’t know their home phone numbers.  Some kids don’t even know their parents’ names!!!  Please help us by assigning homework over winter break!

• Memorize your phone number (all students K-4)
• Memorize your parents’ full names (all students K-4)
• Memorize your address (all students 2-4)
• Memorize your basic math facts (K-counting/knowing your numbers 1-20; 1st grade-addition; 2nd grade- subtraction; 3rd grade- multiplication; 4th grade- division)
• MyOn practice
• ST Math practice

Alarm Testing over Break

In case anyone is planning on being in the building on Christmas eve, I wanted to alert you to the fact that they will be testing our mechanical systems and fire alarms on 12/24 from 8 - 11 am! Probably not a good day to be in the building.  Also, be sure to sign in and out and turn the alarm on/off if you come into the building over break.  I encourage you to take some time for yourselves and your families over the break!!!!!!

Reminders:

• Please sign your SLGGs & formal observations on TalentEd!
• In January, we will need to do Easy CBM testing for English reading (K-4), IDEL testing for K-3 Spanish reading, EDL testing for 4th grade Spanish reading, and IAP Math testing for 3-4 math!

Bus Duty 12/14-12/18: 2nd & 4th grade teachers, and the “regulars”!

Calendar:

12/14 8:30 am SBAC Update Meeting for 3rd & 4th grade teachers (Angella’s office)

12/15 8 am Referral Team

12/15 4-5 pm Math Adoption Committee Meeting (Jacob, Daisy, Angella - Grove Room)

12/16 8:00 am CIT: Staff Holiday Celebration (library)

12/16 12-3 pm Elementary Principals Meeting (Angella)

12/18 8 am Kinder Grade Cougar Team Meeting (TRC)

12/18 2-3 pm Cornelius Holiday Art

12/18 all day Crazy Holiday Dress Up Day!!!!!!!! (Reward from Book Fair)

12/18 4 pm Winter Break Begins!

Looking ahead:

12/20 Dora’s Birthday!

12/31 Maria Manriquez’s Birthday!

1/4 School resumes

1/5 6:30 pm Parent Club - Parents in Action - Meeting (library)

1/7 8:30 - 4 District Equity Team Training (Alondra, Jacob, Lourdes, Janelly, & Angella)

1/11-1/22 Vision Screening for all kids K-2 (teacher referrals for grades 3-4)

1/12 Shannon McCaw at Cornelius

1/28-1/29 Gomez & Gomez training

The Cornelius Chronicle

December 4, 2015

Book Fair - Nov. 30 - Dec. 4

"Black Friday" Line for Book Fair

17 empty book boxes after book fair

Kinder reading at the Student Preview

Thank you all for supporting the book fair!  Such an exciting week for our students!  We realized that NONE of our students had ever experienced a book fair at their school, not even our 4th graders because 2009-2010 was the last time there was a book fair at Cornelius!

Kinders watching author promo video

Special thanks to ALL of our volunteers: Diego Aillon (Chelsea’s husband), Kim Murillo (Kathy’s husband), Sarah & John Ball (Leah’s mom & dad), Lourdes Rosario, Ruth Anne McCullough, Emma Ochoa (of Early Learning), Andrea Chunga-Celis (of Adelante Chicas), our student leaders, and our parents: Sonia Bahena, Isabela Domingo, Natalia Lopez, Kyra Siebert, Brenda Onofre, Perla Sayago, Ashley Handy, and Marisa Martinez Ortiz.  Huge thanks to Cesar Loeza who was an enormous help during set up, decorating, selling/monitoring, and tear down!

Kinder Entrance to Book Fair

Drum roll, please!

We met our Book Fair goal, which was $2,200  so, we get 55% profit!.....Our grand total was:  $4,034.02 in sales, which earns us $2,218.71 in Scholastic dollars to spend on books for our library!!!!!  That means we get to do a crazy holiday dress-up on Dec. 18th (both students and staff)!  We had $560 in donations which allowed us to purchase a book for the holidays for each kindergartener and each 1st grader at Cornelius!

Gomez & Gomez Training

We will have a two-day G & G training by Dr. Joy Izquierdo for all classroom teachers and literacy specialists on Jan. 28-29.  We will get subs on Jan. 28th for classroom teachers but not specialists.  We will cancel intervention groups, kinder/1st grade lit groups, and ALD that day, as we will have 10 subs in the building.  Jan 29th is a PD day.  Both days will be held in the Grove Room.  I’m excited that everyone will get the full training!

Changes to the schedule starting on Monday!

Literacy for kinder and 1st grade will be from 12:30-2:00 pm daily, instead of ending at 2:30 pm, to allow more time for social studies and science and to follow the G&G model better.  The K-1 recess will be from 2:00-2:15 pm.  There will be some changes to some IA schedules too and I will communicate those changes once I am done tweaking the schedule.  

Wednesday’s CIT Time
Teachers - please come prepared to share what is working and what’s not working in the following areas:

• SPED
• Interventions
• Literacy
• ELD/GLAD
• Gomez & Gomez

We will do a rotation for each grade level team at a different table meeting with a facilitator who will take notes and then we will do a whole group share out on common themes.  Then we will fix anything that seems to be broken!

Holidays!

City of Cornelius Holiday Activities 

Put on your most festive (AKA UGLIEST) holiday outfit to wear to our staff holiday party at my house on Dec. 12th at 5 pm!  Hot tip: Marshall’s is selling holiday PANTS!! for $7.99!  :)  Bring your family!  Bring something yummy to share!  

Also, don’t forget our staff holiday gathering on Dec. 16th during CIT time (Data Team Collaboration time will be held at another time for each team, in order to celebrate together as a staff).  See you at 8 am!  Bring something yummy to share (sign up in the staff room) and an ornament or other holiday decoration to exchange (wrapped). Hot tip:  not “white elephant” quality gifts - $10 limit.  

Ideas for MOU CIT Times and Strategies CIT Times

We have some MOU CIT dates and other CIT dates earmarked “Strategies” for the wide variety of PD needs that we might have.  Our literacy specialists brainstormed a list of ideas today and if you have any ideas to add to this list, please let me know:

• ELD/SLD collaboration
• High Leverage Math strategies
• Objectives and Success Criteria
• Mr. PSU (AKA Kenneth Peterson - our August staff retreat comedian)
• Progress Monitoring 101
• Gomez & Gomez strategies/implementation
• Other?

Winter Break Pizza Party Contest

Who wants a pizza party for their class?  

Currently, we are leading the district (all schools average) in both MyOn minutes and ST Math syllabus completion!  Let’s be the top winner for the district!!!  

John O'Neill will be providing a pizza party for the class with the most minutes read on MyOn over Winter Break for the top K-4 class in the district!  Encourage your kids to read on MyOn!  Cheryl Plews will be keeping track of minutes for us.

These prizes will include pepperoni pizza and soft drinks for the entire class upon their return from break.  Cheryl will calculate the time read and report out to all principals the winning classroom when students return from break.

Furthermore, for all K-4 schools, we will also have an ST Math Pizza Party Contest for the largest increase in syllabus progress over the break for the top classroom in the district!  Encourage your kids to log onto ST Math over Winter Break too!  Cheryl will track this for us too.

Only Title 1 schools have ST Math and MyOn, so there are 4 schools in the running - Cornelius, Echo Shaw, Fern Hill, and Joe Gale.  May the odds be ever in your favor!

Reminders:

• Deadline for teacher SLGGs is 12/1 - please sign your SLGGs on TalentEd!

Bus Duty 12/7-12/11: 1st & 3rd grade teachers, and the “regulars”!

Calendar:

12/5 Maroha’s Birthday!

12/7 8:00 am PBiS Team meeting (library)

12/8 10 am - 1 pm “Shop with a Cop” for Cheryl and 10 lucky kids!

12/9 8:00 am CIT: Staff Sharing - what’s working/what’s not?

12/9 8:45 am Staff Meeting (whole staff) in TRC

12/10 Linda’s Birthday!

12/10 8 am - 12 pm Admin Meeting (Angella)

12/10 2:20 pm Fire Drill

12/11 8 am 4th Grade Cougar Team Meeting (TRC)

12/11 All Day Math Steering Committee Meeting (Angella)

12/12 5:00 pm Staff Holiday Party at Angella’s house

Looking ahead:

12/16 8:00 am Staff Holiday Gathering (TRC)

12/18 2-3 pm Cornelius Holiday Art

12/18 all day Crazy Holiday Dress Up Day!!!!!!!! (Reward from Book Fair)

12/18 4 pm Winter Break Begins!