31st District Writing Contest

It is that time of year again to get out students creative minds flowing.  Our 31st District Writing Contest is now under way.  Please see the letter below if your child would like to submit an entry.  Entries will be accepted until January 29, 2016.

 

27th Annual District Fall Math Meet

On November 7, 2015 we had our 27th Annual District Fall Math Meet.  It was a great turnout with Fifth and Sixth grade students attending.  Here are a some pictures of the event.  To see the complete list of winners click here.

Rules we need to break in reading classrooms

Great article for teachers and parents!
http://pernillesripp.com/2015/10/08/some-rules-we-need-to-break-in-our-reading-classrooms/

October 9 Staff Inservice Day

A productive day was had by all on the October 9 Staff Inservice Day.  Various small groups worked on mapping content standards and performance indicators, drafting assessments, and sharing best practices in math and reading.  Science was a main focus for our classroom teachers.  The morning was spent learning about their new science resource site, STEMscopes.  Two of our own teachers---Amanda Blunda and Kirsten Gould---facilitated groups actually doing science activities, showing how our students can learn from them.  Our teachers got to explore and plan with the online resource as well.  The afternoon focus for all groups was getting kids up and moving while learning. Everyone learned about the biology behind the brain, movement, focus, and learning, and the benefits to providing this every day for kids.  They also learned some simple strategies and activities to easily incorporate this throughout every school day.

 

Bonny Eagle Staff Day

Having a great time learning strategies to get our kids more active while learning!

Self-selecting books

Why we encourage students to self-select reading material...

click here for article

This is for parents who may feel frustrated with math instruction---PLEASE WATCH!

/http://www.mathplusacademy.com/heres-why-math-is-taught-differently-now/

School Board update

Click below for:

Curriculum, Assessment & Instruction Fall Update to School Board

Building Writers

This week is ending with a two days of training around building a community of writers and using writer's workshop.  Sarah Downing-Ford returned, after being with the K-5 staff last March.  She worked with Grade 6-12 teachers yesterday, and K-5 teachers today, bringing her wealth of knowledge and experience to our district.  Teachers who attended left with professional books to help them in their practice of teaching writing.  THANK YOU SARAH!

Balanced Literacy, Day 2

Thank you to Mary Bellavance, our presenter, and to all the teachers who came to the two-day Balanced Literacy workshop!  Each participant worked with and left with The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Saravello.

Balanced Literacy, Day 1

GREAT today at Buxton Center Elementary School!  If you're on Twitter, search #MSAD6lit for tweets posted today.  About 40 of our teachers spent the day learning and talking about the components of a strong literacy program.  They'll be back for more tomorrow!

the results of group work around a professional text: