Save the Date:  Teaching is changing and so is testing! Learn how student knowledge will be measured with the new Smarter Balanced assessments, March 6th at 7pm in the Corte Madera Annex.

Starting in the 2014/15 school year, standardized testing in California will happen in a very different way.  The multiple-choice, paper and pencil STAR tests are being retired, and students will instead take online, adaptive Smarter Balanced assessments intended to measure not only subject knowledge, but also critical thinking and problem-solving skills.  On March 6th, PVSD is fortunate to host Justin Wells, Associate Research Director for Performance Assessment at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, and an expert on the new Smarter Balanced assessments. Justin  will discuss why Smarter Balanced assessments will provide a more authentic and rigorous measure of learning, and how teachers, administrators and parents can best prepare students for these tests.  We hope you can join us.    

Dear Families,

The rain is finally here! Rain can cause for some anxious days at school, with in door recess, in door lunch, and limited outdoor time, but we are still excited to have the rain and looking forward to our different watershed projects, that need this rain, in the coming months!

This week brings us to our Parent Teacher Conferences. Our teachers have worked to prepare meaningful, informative and encouraging progress reports. The conferences are a great opportunity to celebrate the successes of your child and focus on some areas for improvement. Thank you for your partnership and we are looking forward to a great conference week.

The Science Family Night was a huge success. Thank you to all of our students and their families who prepared inventions, experiments and demonstrations. We had a great turn out and our students' creativeness really shone through. Students were able to request images from our telescope and they have just started to show up.   You can check the images out here http://projecttara.com/tara-images/. We also opened our STEM Lab and students and their families had an opportunity to explore and experiment. We have a lot of excitement around our STEM lab. The students have enjoyed programming the Bee Botts and are looking forward to more STEM activities and our tinkering section is full of great supplies for creating and designing.   Our goal is to open the STEM Lab during lunch, a few days a week, and we will be looking for parent volunteers. If you think you might want to volunteer in the STEM Lab, be on the look out for an email asking for help!   Thank you to Jeanne Rusch and Curtis Schneider who set up this great night.

PTO Thank You!

Thank you to Lisa H. and our fabulous PTO families who prepared a delicious Super Staff Lunch. We felt very appreciated and quite full! Thank you Wendy A, Kate H., Stephanie B., Tricia S., Margaret W., Joyce C., Kim Z., Moonyi S., Jami W., Hayley L., Kari R., Sarah D., Loni A., Tammy C., Irene R., Shannon B., and Erika D.

Progress Reports and Parent Conferences

Progress reports were sent home on Friday, February 7th. By now you have had time to review your child's progress and prepare for your parent teacher conference. Our teachers are excited to meet with you this week and discuss your child's progress, as well as their goals for the coming months.

Upcoming Events

Parent Teacher Conferences

February 10th to February 13th

David Foster Common Core Math Family Night

Tuesday, February 11th from 7:00 - 9:00 PM @ CMS

This looks to be a very informative night with a CCSS expert!

Winter Vacation

February 14th to February 23rd

With the arrival of the rain in our valley comes snow to the mountains! Thank goodness! I hope that many of you are looking forward a relaxing winter vacation. For those of you heading to the slopes, enjoy this new snow. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact me at [email protected]  or 650-851-1777.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Keegan

Dear Parents,

We are very excited to work on the Flat Stanley production with your children. We have a strong parent volunteer team forming and will be in touch with all families who noted willingness to help on their audition forms. Many hands make light the work! If you have not yet volunteered and would like to, let us know on the included confirmation form.

Below, please find the cast list for the show. All students who auditioned have been assigned a role that both fits their indicated interest and provides them with an opportunity to be featured.

Casting Note: The students have started to become familiar with Flat Stanley in music class, so many roles will be self-explanatory to them. However, some roles have been created to provide more students with opportunities. We will be sharing more information about roles at rehearsals as we shape scenes, and most questions should be cleared up at our full cast meeting on February 26. If you need information on your child's assigned role, please email me at [email protected].

Our rehearsal schedule, here, provides detailed information on the time commitment for each role. Students are only called for the rehearsals at which they are needed. Please look over the cast list and the rehearsal schedule to determine whether your family is able to commit to the role your child has been assigned. While we understand that you may have a conflict here and there, should you have significant conflicts, please let us know right away. We may be able to shift the schedule to accommodate, or we may need to change the role we've assigned your child.

Please complete the form included to confirm your child's participation and bring it to the full cast meeting on February 26.

Set Painting Note: We've listed all students who asked to be included in the set painting project on their audition forms. If we've missed your child and he/she wants to be included, please indicate that on your confirmation form. Students who are only taking part as set painters are not called to the cast meeting on February 26.

Costume Note: We will be in contact regarding costumes. Our aim is to pull costume pieces from what families already have at home when possible, to ask for volunteer help for the more complex costumes, and to minimize cost for all.

Thank you so much! We're looking forward to an excellent show.

Our best,

Naomi Kinsman & Carlton White

Flat Stanley Cast List 

It gets busy this time of year at CMS. Staff is continuing our focus on great instruction for all our students - that never ends. We also, though, are working with next year in mind to make sure we are optimizing the learning opportunities for all our Panthers.  

The implementation of common core standards-based instruction has been an exciting shift in education and a focal point related to professional development for our staff and instruction for our students and their development as learners. On Tuesday, we are fortunate to have David Foster, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Math Initiative, and an expert on the Common Core math standards and Smarter Balanced Assessments, come talk with our community about the shifts in math instruction and what it means for districts across the state, including ours.

The importance of developing strong mathematicians at CMS is not new, of course, for our teachers, parents or students. CMS teachers have worked closely with each other over the last couple of years to shift their instruction to reflect the demands of the common core standards. They are also working collaboratively with teachers from Ormondale to study and develop a K-8 scope and sequence for mathematics across the district that identifies what students need to learn as they progress through our schools so they are prepared for success in high school and beyond. This collaborative effort, also called vertical articulation, has been a great example of the Portola Valley Way at work! I hope you are able to join us Tuesday night at 7:00PM in the Annex to hear David Foster and learn more about the math standards and their impact on math instruction in the coming years.

As I know you have heard through communications since this past fall, the group of staff, parents and students working to re-think and re-shape our master schedule has been hard at work. Prototyped schedule ideas were shared at a community outreach night last month and the feedback gathered has been considered and incorporated into the next round of prototypes. As we move closer towards creating a final product, the community will have an opportunity to learn more and provide thoughts and feedback through our district website. Stay tuned for more information about that coming soon.

As I mentioned, it is a busy time of year. Thank you to all of our staff, parents and students for your continual support of our Panthers!

Have a good week.

Michael Corritone

Principal