Progress Reports: Student reports will be sent home with each child on Friday, February 3, 2012. The Progress Report is designed to communicate your child's progress on city-wide benchmarks and standards. Specific skills, strategies, and knowledge in each of
the major content areas for a specific grade level are listed in the report. A Progress Report Guide will be sent home with each child to help interpret the Progress Report. Some modifications have been made to reflect the new Common Core State Standards. Teachers have spent many hours assessing and observing each student to ensure that they have accurate information to share with you. Teachers are able to identify if a child is right on track, needs additional support, or is ready for increased challenge based on
the information gathered. In addition to this Progress Report, you can meet with your child's classroom teacher in March and receive a second Progress Report in June to learn more about your child's academic and social progress in school.
 

Dressing for the Winter Weather: Although we have been experiencing unusually warm weather, the temperature is predicted to drop this week and I suspect some children will come to school unprepared for outdoor recess. Please be sure to send your child to
school with appropriate clothing because we will go outside for recess everyday unless the temperature drops into the single digits and/or if the wind chill makes the conditions unsafe. Students should have hats, mittens/gloves, and jackets to be comfortable outside. When it snows they will also need snow pants and boots. Do remember to label everything with your child's name so that lost-and-found items can be returned.
 

Morning Arrival: I would like to remind you that the school doors open at 8:20a.m. Students are unsupervised before this. I have noticed a few students have been dropped off closer to 8:00a.m. If you plan to bring your children to school early, please be sure to stay with them until they are safely in our care. During December many parents were walking their children to their classrooms for various reasons. I would like to encourage everyone to get back to the practice of dropping off their children outside the school or at the double doors by the kindergarten rooms. Even the majority of our kindergarten children are able to come into their classrooms and settle in for the day independently. Remember, the teachers are there to help out if needed and very good at coaching the children towards increased independence. Most importantly, the instructional day cannot begin if parents are having mini conferences with teachers. This takes the teachers attention away from the children when they should be making connections and checking in with them. A quick email or note in your child's folder is the best way to communicate important information.
 

Technology Update: Burr School teachers are excited about a PTO donation of 5 iPads! Each teacher will get a week to explore the device and experiment with some educational apps. They will be sharing what they discover on a collaborative Google doc. It is important that teachers become familiar with new technologies so they can incorporate them into their teaching. I have ordered 5 more iPads so we will have enough for either a whole class project or for a couple of classrooms to use them for small group projects. I am hopeful that we will get them into the hands of students within the next few months. During the holiday season many of you may have upgraded your iPhones or iTouches and may possibly be looking for a new home for the retired devices. We may be able to use them at Burr. Please consider donating them to us. Eileen Keane, Burr technology specialist, will prepare them for classroom use. Please stay tuned for upcoming opportunities for parents to learn about technology at Burr and how to support your child's use of technology at home.
 

Modular Update: The construction crew has been busy during our break working on the modular classroom. Mr. Gaita's class will be moving into the modular and Ms. Jaquith will be moving her art classroom upstairs into the space vacated by Mr. Gaita. Before
the break, Mr. Gaita, with the assistance of several other staff members, packed up his classroom materials ready for the move. We will not move the art classroom upstairs until the first graders are completely moved into the modular. All plans were made with careful consideration to minimize any disruptions to student learning. Many thanks in advance to Mr. Gaita, Ms. Jaquith, and Ms. Frail (construction site neighbor) for their flexibility during this time and Mr. Tobin and Mr. Marrazzo for all the heavy lifting involved.
 

I am looking forward to the second half of the school year with hopes that 2012 is a prosperous and healthy year for the whole Burr School Community.
 

Sincerely,
Mindy Johal