Jane's+Corner

=August 2017= Welcome Back Everyone! I hope you all had a restful, relaxing and rejuvenating summer break and that you're feeling (increasingly) ready to start back to the noble work you do next week.

Just a reminder that the first P.D. Day of the year is happening on Monday, Aug. 14th at Wright Charter School, and the main focus is using technology to support student learning. The morning will consist of a keynote address and several break-out sessions, and the afternoon will be devoted to grade level collaboration. The agenda is attached, but of course more detailed information and documents will be provided that morning. Please note that the classroom I.A.s and some SSIAs are also attending this particular P.D. Day, and they will be joining the teachers in the first Breakout Session from 9:30 - 10:35. After that they will be receiving some training in tech. use by the three reading teachers.

We'll be starting with breakfast goodies and coffee at 8:00 a.m., and Ulia's will once again be catering our lunch at noon !

Please remember to bring your charged laptop and an iPad to use for the trainings. Enjoy the rest of this sunny summer week ~ I look forward to seeing you all on Monday ! = = = = =November=

November 1, 2016

RE: TYPING AGENT

I just wanted to clarify the process for signing up for the 30-day trial of the keyboarding program, "Typing Agent," since some of you have looked at the website and then tried to sign up from there. Our sales rep., who has pre-set up the student licenses for us, is Marie Imbault, and she is the one who can easily get your class up and running with the trial.

So again, if you're interested in trying the program out, please email Marie Imbault at marie@engagingwebapps.com //__**no later than** __** __ Friday, 11/4 .__ **// We'll need to make a decision regarding how many teachers want to purchase the program by the end of November.

Thanks, <span style="color: #36495f; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Jane

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I just wanted to reiterate the invitation that Adam sent out to try a highly-recommended typing program called <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #36495f; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">“ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1e88b4; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Typing Agent <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #36495f; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">” You can try it out now by signing up for a 30 -day free trial, and once we know how many folks want to use it we will purchase licenses. There is a great deal in November, so if we buy licenses by the end of the month we will have subscriptions through July, 2018.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #36495f; display: block; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If you're interested, please email Marie Imbault, at marie@engagingwebapps.com __**no later than**__ **__next Friday, 11/4 .__** She will be able to sign you up quickly. =OCTOBER=

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hi All, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #262626; font-family: Roboto,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This short little document, "A Day in the Life of......" was just created and sent out by Benchmark in order to help teachers see how the morning ELA block might be scheduled using the "Advance" program. On the first page is the whole group instructional breakdown, and on the second there are suggestions for work stations or centers. Hope this proves to be helpful!

DAY in the LIFE Link below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwN2lwO7LVHtSzExNXphUjNNc3M/view?usp=sharing <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #36495f; display: block; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #36495f; display: block; font-family: calibri,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Jane

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Oct. 26, 2016

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Hi All, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Yesterday I shared with the ELA/ELD Committee this independent research that just came out on the successes of the Benchmark curriculum down in Chula Vista last year, with especially impressive growth for their low-income and EL students. The research focused on studying the effects of the "Advance" and "Adelante" (Spanish version) programs in the 4th 5th grades, and it looked at growth on the SBAC, on reading lexiles and on the CELDT, for their English Learners.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">At the end of the research is a page of testimonials by teachers who used the program, as well as by the principal of the elementary school that was piloting it.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I just wanted to share this with all of you, as I find it uplifting and encouraging!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Thanks, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> Jane

OCT 14, 2016

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Hi All, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I Just wanted to remind everyone that our second P.D. Dayof the year is coming up on Monday, Oct. 17th at R.L. Stevens School. A light breakfast will be served in the cafeteria at 8:00 a.m., and the training will start at 8:15.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The morning session will be spent with the trainers from Benchmark, and they will be addressing the questions and issues that were collected from teachers at the first ELA/ELD Committee meeting. The afternoon will be devoted to working in your district-wide grade level teams, planning and sharing resources for implementing the next few units of the program, as well as looking at the upcoming Unit assessment and its scoring.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">**Please bring:** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">**1) Your TRS for Units 1- 2 and 3-4** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">**2) Your laptop** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">**3) Your "Weekly and Unit Assessments" handbook** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">**4) Your best collaborative think caps!**

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Thanks, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> Jane

=September 2016=

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Sept. 27, 2016
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Hi All, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">At our first MC³ meeting yesterday, there was discussion at most grade levels about the need for adding some spiral review to the Eureka Math program. Christina Stiny shared a resource that she had purchased for this purpose through "Teachers Pay Teachers." I looked at the program online this morning, and it looks like a good supplemental resource that provides daily warm-up problems, and looks kind of like "Board Math." It is totally editable, so you can change ot cut out problems as you see fit. Christina shared that she projects the problems onto her screen every morning and just copies off the answer sheets for the kids, but you could also make hard copies if you prefer.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I looked at the pricing and then met with Adam to discuss purchasing it for all interested teachers, and he agreed. There are price breaks for multiple downloads, so although the first one costs $30, additional downloads are only $15.00. That means three teachers could have access for the cost of 2! The only catch is that, since "Teachers Pay Teachers" doesn't accept purchase orders, one teacher at each grade level would need to purchase the digital downloads for the site and submit a form for reimbursement.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I'm inviting you to look at the program using the following link: @https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Third-Grade-Math-Homework-or-3rd-Grade-Morning-Work-for-the-WHOLE-YEAR-1872802

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">This link is for 3rd grade, but you can scroll down to see the versions for 2nd, 4th, and 5th as well. If you're interested, please talk with your grade level colleagues at your school and decide how many downloads are needed and who would like to make the purchase, and then let me know. I will then encumber the funds to cover all of the reimbursement forms.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Thanks, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> Jane

September 20
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Hi All, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I wanted to give you a status update regarding the additional Benchmark materials that should be coming to you as part of the program. I just got an e-mail from the sales rep., Leah, and she said that although she "still doesn't have a definitive timeline for delivery of the take home books or the spelling, vocabulary, and grammar book, they should be online by the end of this week and the decodables will be in a printer-friendly format."

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> So there should be additional spelling, vocabulary and grammar materials online by the end of the week, and the K/1 decodable books should be much easier to print off until the individual copies arrive.

SEP. 16, 2016

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//Hi All,// <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//I just wanted to reach out to everyone to share a common message addressing some of the challenges teachers have been facing with the implementation of the new Benchmark "Advance" ELA/ELD program, and to clarify the expectations regarding "fidelity" to the program.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//First of all, I want to assure you that the Admin. Team acknowledges how stressful, and at times vexing, it is to implement a completely new and different core curriculum, especially since we haven't done it since 2002. So, we are encouraging everyone to take a deep breath, and strive to be kind, patient and understanding with yourself, as well as your students, and having it "be okay" to acknowledge that everyone is facing challenges in this process: CHANGE AND UNCERTAINTY IS ALWAYS DIFFICULT. We also need to keep in mind that the new CCSS are much more rigorous than past state standards in terms of the depth and complexity of what is being asked of students to read, understand, and do, and we know that many of our students don't have the background knowledge at this point to easily face the rigor of the new curriculum. **H**//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//**owever,** Benchmark "Advance" is specifically designed to build student acquisition of this much-needed background knowledge, so supporting them in this process and **believing that all students can get there** is a key strategy in the successful implementation of the program.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//Secondly, we realize that there seems to be "way too much to do" in the 90-120 minute core ELA block, and teachers are understandably concerned about fitting it all in,as well as implementing the program "with fidelity." The key concept regarding fidelity is that we don't want to see the new curriculum "supplanted" (i.e. replaced) with other curriculum; however, we do understand that teachers may want, or find the need, to "supplement" (i.e.add to) the program, using extra materials for support and practice outside of the 90 minutes a day using the adopted curriculum. We trust that teachers will call upon and use their professional judgement and experience to effectively implement this new, robust ELA/ELD program most effectively for their students, and really give it a fair chance this first year, not only to gauge its success but also to determine what, if anything, is missing or might need to be expanded upon in the future.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//Finally, I wanted to apologize one more time for the challenges teachers have faced with the late arrival of some key instructional materials at some grades, and for the glitches with online access to the digital piece of the program. Hopefully these issues are behind us now.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//In terms of the district planning and pacing guide, we had previously stated that the Unit 1 assessment would be administered to 3rd - 6th grade students by Sept. 23rd (with the results turned in to principals by Sept. 30th) and to 2nd graders by Sept. 30th (with results turned in to principals by Oct. 7th.) __**However, given the glitches noted above, we're now asking that grades 2 - 6 administer the Unit 1 Assessment by Sept. 30th, and**__// __//**that**//__ //__grade level teams at each school site meet on Wednesday, Oct. 5th__// //**__t__**//__o score the writing sections of the assessment together, pulling together "anchor papers" from your site as well, and that assessment results should be turned in to the principals by Friday, October 7th.__ //Forms for reporting the results will be sent out next week.//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//Please let me know if you have any questions/concerns or need any further clarification.// <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//And thanks again, for embracing the challenges and promises of implementing this new program in your classrooms!//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">//Jane// <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">

=August 2016=

8/22/16

Hi Everyone

Benchmark is now synced with your email addresses. To log in, click this link:

<span style="color: #666666; font-family: ProximaNovaRgRegular,'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">@https://clever.com/oauth/instant-login?client_id=2010d9d94d4ae845b18f&district_id=574f00f91825940100000641

It should take you directly into your Benchmark dashboard. If it takes you to a log in screen, try your gmail password.

8/22/16

Hi All, I met with Leah, the Benchmark sales rep. today, as I had a number of questions for her, and I told her that we did not receive the back-ordered materials that we thought we'd be getting by last Friday. She contacted the customer service representative at the company headquarters, and this is the response she got, which she just forwarded to me:

<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;">Hello, Leah! All of our back ordered materials being shipped from Brookvale are arriving to that warehouse within the next two business days. They have guaranteed delivery <span class="aQJ" style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;">within two days <span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;"> of receipt, so by mid-to-end of next week, Wright will have their materials. Please let me know if you have any questions.

I'm sorry that this means you might have a few more days without everything you need; hopefully the glitches with the online access to Benchmark Universe have been solved today, but please get back to me (and cc Ryan) if you're still having trouble.

Thanks, Jane

8/16/16

Hi All, We're trying to figure out where there's a glitch between our information and what Benchmark Universe has, since it does seem like some of the data on our end is missing or incorrect. In the meantime, I wanted to make sure that everyone who couldn't access things online yesterday had this link to try:

wright.benchmarkuniverse.com sign-in: (your wsd email) password: welcome1

8/16/16

Hi All, I'm very sorry to hear about so many teachers' recent issues logging in to Benchmark Universe since last Friday. Apparently, the system was "re-synced" with Aeries, due to the fact that some teachers' names were incorrect or info. was missing, and when this happened, it caused everyone to have to log in again, AND know the answer to a security question ("Name of your school mascot") that no one really had the answer to! Ryan has been troubleshooting the issue individually, but he will be sending out an e-mail very shortly detailing how to resolve the issue. Again, I'm extremely sorry that this glitch happened; once again, thank you for your patience while we figure out the "Tech." wrinkles.

8/15/16

Hi All, One of the questions that arose this afternoon was about "leveling" your students for small group instruction, etc. I found out that there are leveling assessments under the "Informal Assessment" section of the Assessment tab. It explains the process and directs you to which leveling test you can use for your grade level, but of course you can also use any other leveling test that you're familiar with or already using.

Hope this is helpful! Thanks for all of your hard work and collaboration today. I hope it was productive.

8/12/16

HI All, I wanted to make sure and get this agenda and overview of Monday's P.D. Day out to everyone so you can see the tasks and the flow of the day. There is plenty of fluidity in how the grade level teams will/can be working together, since the main goal is to provide valuable planning time with colleagues for best, coherent implementation of the new Benchmark "Advance" ELA/ELD program across the district. (I've also attached the district planning and pacing guide, but I will have hard copies of both of them for everyone on Monday.)

Please make sure and bring you laptop and charger, as well as your "Teacher Resource System" (Teacher's Guide) for Units 1 & 2. K and 1st grade teachers might want to bring their current assessments that they give, as we will be looking at aligning the order of the phonics skills and sight word lists in Benchmark with the current foundational skills assessments.

There are some materials that are still back-ordered, but I've been promised that they are coming soon, and I'll have an update on the ETA for you on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Thanks, Jane

=July 2016=

=June 2016=

=May 2016=

Hi All, I just wanted to let everyone know that at the meeting lastThursday, the Board formally adopted the Benchmark "Advance" ELA/ELD program, and they were very appreciative of all your efforts leading up to this important adoption. They were impressed with both the program and the process, and they're very glad, and excited, that the district will have a robust Common Core-aligned curriculum district-wide.

At the same meeting, we formally had the old Houghton-Mifflin reading program declared "obsolete," so you are free to, and encouraged to, donate to students any of the materials that you no longer want to keep. __//However, for WCS, the McGraw-Hill "Wonders" program was not declared obsolete, as Follett Book company is interested in purchasing it. So, any unused or extra "Wonders" materials will need to be boxed and relocated to a common area for Follett to pick up. Arrangements are being made for boxes to be provided.//__

Also, please note that the intial training day for the new "Advance" curriculum is Monday, June 6th for R.L. Stevens and WCS, and it will be held at WCS. The training for J.X. teachers is the following Monday, June 13th, and it will be held at J.X. Breakfast goodies and lunch will be provided both days.

Finally, I just wanted to say that I'm really looking forward to working with all of you next year, as we begin the implementation of this new ELA/ELD curriculum with our students ~ I think it's an exciting endeavor!

Thanks, Jane

April 2016