Third and Fourth Graders-Jazz and JGB

I hope you are able to join us tomorrow night for a fantastic Jazz Musical entitled "All about Jazz."  Our third and fourth grade students look ready to go. We are expecting standing room only!  Doors open at 6:40 pm and the performance begins at 7:00 pm. Also, please bring single dollar bills to purchase baked goods for the Heifer International Fundraiser hosted by a few of our fourth grade leaders. 

Also, I am very proud of our fourth grade students who presented our reading program Junior Great Books to our Board of Education tonight. It is a new initiative and we wanted the board to get an idea of the program. Wow!  The students explained shared inquiry in a meaningful and thoughtful way. It was a night for Southeast to shine its true colors!  Special thanks to Mrs. Sangree, Ben, Anna, Dakota, Sophie, Zachary, Logan, Jackie, Kira, Madison, Brooke, and Lucas. Awesome job, everyone!

Dr. Erin Sullivan

Southeast is quite excited that our temporary School Psychologist recently completed her doctoral dissertation through UConn. Congratulations Erin Sullivan!  Dr. Sullivan's last day at Southeast is approaching at the end of February.  She jumped into our school with both feet and will be missed. We are equally thrilled that Marie Liebman will be returning to Southeast in early March. This position is so valuable to the well being of our school and we are fortunate that the position is filled with two outstanding school psychologists. 

Featured Suzuki strings players at CAS

On Tuesday evening, two fourth grade Southeast students were recognized for their outstanding musical talents. The Connecticut Association of Schools held a beautiful Arts focused gala at the Aqua Turf in Southington, CT where Aaron Kaufold and Leonard Schweitzer were awarded amongst numerous other students from around the state.  Their families, Mrs. Boyer, Mrs. Vaughan, and I celebrated with them. We were dazzled by a final musical act by Mikata, an African Dance and Drumming Group. They presented strong rhythms and intriguing new instruments.  Congratulations to these worthy students, their families, and their exceptional teachers. Bravo!

Featured Artist in DuPont Safety Calendar

Congratulations to Southeast Third Grader Shreyus Saxena for a winning entry to the 2014 DuPont Sustainable Solutions Calendar. He is the featured artist for October. Take a look!  We are so proud of your accomplishment! 

January Assessments at Southeast!

Have you been wondering, "How is my child doing?"  

It's an excellent question - one that causes you to pause and reflect on all that you have seen and heard about your child's growth.   If you are particularly reflective, I imagine this question crosses your mind at various times throughout the school year, possibly even more often.  There are so many ways to answer the question...possibly social growth, emotional development, or academic growth.  In January, our teaching staff begins to ask the same question..How are each of the students in my classroom performing?  What is their current level of academic performance? Throughout the school year, teachers collect daily notes and records which they use to monitor student growth.  Teachers also use end of unit assessments and other district assessments to evaluate progress.  Additionally, the month of January is a time for what we call benchmarking student progress.  As a whole school, Southeast has established benchmarks that we want our students to be achieving at this point in the school year. These benchmarks change for each grade level, increasing the standards significantly each year.

One of the assessments that we use is the STAR assessment.  Students in second, third and fourth grades participate in this computer-based test.  It is taken (minimally) three times each school year in the fall, winter and spring and takes approximately 20 minutes for both Math and Reading.  Students participated in the first round of assessments in September which gave us a baseline of their performance.  Some teachers may have discussed these assessment results at parent teacher conferences this year. We now have a comparison to see how our students have progressed since September.  We took the test four months ago and on the whole our students have grown approximately half a school year already.  We are quite pleased with our school results as a whole, and most individual results were promising.  This is our first year of implementation of this system and we are getting more skilled at using it to its full capacity.  Two great assets are:  the teacher gets immediate results that are nationally and locally normed; and each assessment is unique - it self-adjusts based on student responses.  

Another assessment that we use in January to monitor progress is the DRA-2.  Teachers in grades K - 4 sit individually with each of their students to have them read a pre-determined leveled reader which will identify a child's instructional reading level.  During the DRA there are many pieces of information that the teacher is evaluating, including:  fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.  Your child's teacher selects a level based on past performance and continues bumping up the reading level until the appropriate level is reached.  Students will read both fiction and/or non-fiction books depending on their level.  We use the DRA-2 results to help us select guided reading groups and/or intervention or enrichment groups. Lastly, our teachers goals are partially connected to student DRA results.  We will be finished collecting these results this week.  

Finally, the Bedrock assessments are given in January to evaluate spelling of sight words.  

Overall, your child has participated in numerous assessments over the lasts 3 weeks.  We will be using this data to continue to plan for your child and monitor their growth.  

Holidays

Busy, busy, busy!  Our students have been so busy this month.  It is our last two weeks before Trestle Tree ends for this academic year.  There have been so many monumental achievements on the pieces of equipment.  From the Tower of Power to the Red Rainbow students are working together to solve problems and find courage to do more than they thought possible.  If you haven't already, please take a moment to ask your child about a personal achievement they had on a Trestle and help them celebrate their unique accomplishments.

In one 3rd grade classroom, the students celebrated Thanksgiving by planning their Thanksgiving meal. The students browsed through a shopping circular to identify foods they wanted to have for appetizers, the main meal, and desserts.  Students then found out how much money their foods cost and planned a meal from soup to nuts!  I was happy not to eat at their homes for Thanksgiving this year because some of the menus sounded a bit too untraditional for me.  But they sure understood that the Thanksgiving meal has a hefty price tag.  What a way to incorporate math with the holiday!  

Below is one of the many bulletin boards that Mrs. Anger, our art teacher, creates with student work. These pieces were amazing! 

In a Kindergarten classroom, Mrs. Cote came in to share about Hannukah.  Students learned several Hebrew words and even got to spin a dreidel!  It's a special treat when one of our own parents can add cultural traditions into our lessons. Thank you Mrs. Cote! 

Tonight we had a special Board of Education meeting held at Southeast.  Special thanks to our PTO Co-Presidents for sharing with the Board all of the wonderful ways you engage with the school throughout the year. The Board personally thanked the PTO for all their hard work, for their participation on the Principal's Search, and for the great fundraiser we recently had.  Thank you for all you do to help make Southeast Soar!  Special thanks also goes out to Reid Cartier in Second Grade. He presented his plan to begin work on a Pal's Place bench for the playground.  The Board asked great questions, and Reid had an answer for each question.  Nice work, Reid!  You were amazing!  We look forward to seeing your progress on the plan.

Finally, I wish you a safe winter vacation, a joyous Christmas for all who celebrate, and the happiest New Year. I will write again in one year.....2014!

New pictures posted!

What an exciting day we had today at Southeast as we celebrated our annual Thanksgiving Feast. Thank you to all the parents who joined us to help set up, serve and clean up.  We couldn't do this without you.  A special thank you to all staff involved in planning and executing this wonderful day.  Please check out the photo album for some pictures of the Thanksgiving Feast and some displays around the halls.  Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you enjoy your holiday.