Lakeview News January 15, 2016
Welcome to the Lakeview News
The goal of the Lakeview News is to show the joy and learning that happens every day at Lakeview (including "That Group" above from Ms. Edwards' class). You can access archives for the PTSA-produced Leopard Tales newsletter, as well as view an archive of both the Leopard Tales and the Lakeview News, at the links below:
The Joy of School
Here are a few of our favorite scenes since our last Lakeview News (tap/click to enlarge):
Mr. Johnson's class performing a reader's theater version of A Winter's Tale for Ms. LaPointe's class.
Nikita, Thamina, and Shihyun at multicultural night.
Ella and Joelle playing vocabulary tag in Ms. Ferries class.
Caden and Matea working on their cultural PowerPoints in Ms. Brown-Tiffany's class.
Science with Ms. Liang.
Ms. Pitsch and friends perform salsa dancing at multicultural night.
Alvera shows off her Reflex math prowess.
The Lunchroom
Starting February 1st, we will be implementing several new lunchroom procedures and would like to invite you to partner with your student's teacher in helping standardize our lunchbox carts. We are working towards a calmer, more orderly lunchroom environment by:
- Using music cues to signal to students rather than speaking numerous directions over the microphone
- Replacing the multi-use organs cleaning pads with single-use paper towels
- Bringing in 4th/5th grade helpers in the K/1 lunch
- Moving to standard rolling lunchbox carts to free up foot space under lunch tables and increase the safety and convienence for students as compared to carrying heavy laundry-baskets full of lunch boxes
We could use your help with the rolling carts: teachers have added a lunchcart to their Amazon wish list and we could use your help in ordering those so they are ready to go by February 1st. Click here to find your teacher's Amazon wish list:
We will also be implementing a new class-based reward system in which each class will be given a daily red/yellow/green rating for their behavior in morning line-up, lunchroom, and specialist. Classes who have all greens at the end of each week will be recognized over announcements on Fridays and entered into a drawing for a class set of stylish Lakeview "Livestrong"-style bracelets.
We want to thank Keri Levinson (Admin Intern and 3rd grade teacher) and Susan Enberg (Lunchroom teacher and Instructional Assistant) who visited several other LWSD elementary schools to observe other lunchroom routines and procedures and create this set of recommendations that have been presented to and approved by all Lakeview staff.
Teacher Collaboration Update (PLC)
This is the first in what will become a regular newsletter section focusing on the work we are doing as a school in using student-data-driven teacher collaboration to improve the teaching and learning at Lakeview, a process we call "Professional Learning Communities" or PLCs.
We shared the following video at Thursday's PTSA general membership meeting and would invite you to click the link below to hear from our current and past principals on the topic of teacher collaboration:
The Professional Learning Community model is simply a collection of educational best practices that guide our work as a staff when reviewing student data and making instructional plans to support all students. It calls for teams of teachers to use frequent, simple measures of student progress towards essential learning targets and plan together to ensure all students achieve mastery.
We want to thank our PTSA who has helped support past, present, and future teacher collaborative work and training and we look forward to teaming with our parents and community around this vital work and will be sharing our progress along the way!
Thank You to Our Many Volunteers
There is simply no way to adequately say thank you to our many volunteers, from those of your who helped with our recent vision/hearing screening, those of you who are signed up for our upcoming Kinder registration, and to those of you are who volunteering week-in and week-out around the school and in classrooms.
We truly could not do it without you. Thank you!
Conferences and Kinder Registration
Just a friendly reminder we have two significant events coming up soon:
- Parent/Teacher/Student conferences will be held January 26-29. Sign-ups close at 11:55pm on Jan 19th so teachers can prep and organize their materials based on the sign-up schedule.
- 2016-17 Kinder Registration will be on Feb 4th from 1-7pm and we are excited to welcome our newest Lakeview families! Please plan enough time to complete forms in-person so we can double check your student's paperwork and ensure everything is completed and ready to go for this fall.
SBA/MSP Testing Schedule
We have set our spring SBA/MSP testing schedule for grades 3-5:
- 3rd/5th ELA SBA - May 3, 4, 5
- 3rd/5th Math SBA - May 17 and 19
- 5th Grade Science MSP - May 24
- 4th ELA SBA - May 10 and 12
- 4th Math SBA - May 25 and 26
Safety Reminders: Parking Lot & Dogs on Campus
During the winter months we have seen an uptick in the number of drivers during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. It is critical that every vehicle follow traffic laws and parking lot signage. Please do not drop-off students in the north lot (see red designated areas below):
We would almost like to remind everyone of our policy regarding dogs on campus:
"Dogs are not allowed in the school, on school grounds or in the classroom unless they are serving as a bona-fde service dog to a staff member, parent, child or visitor. This means that dogs or other animals should not be on their leash in the front of our school at the beginning or end of the day. Please don’t bring your dog in your arms as children love to pet them and we don’t want to have any bites or scratches."
"Work Hard" and a Culture of "Grit"
The Seattle Times recently profiled Angela Duckworth, a researcher and educator on the topic of "grit," a term frequently used to describe hard work, perseverance, and resilience. At Lakeview one of our values is "work hard" and her visit to the Seahawks to see their culture of "grid" is a great example to schools and families showing how parents and teachers can create an environment for children that builds this critical attribute for success:
"So if you end up in a culture where other people are gritty, the leader is gritty, the leader is incredibly demanding and yet, at the same time, incredibly supportive, you’re going to be grittier than you would be in a place that didn’t have those features.”