Belong, Connect, Engage

We all know how important belonging is to each of us. From the time we are born, we are hard wired to seek out a sense of belonging and connection. We also know this is specifically true for the students at our schools. The sense of belonging is so strong that research tells us it is very difficult for students to learn when they do not feel they belong. So… what can we do? As a school we know we only have control over our school community and environment. But, that is huge. We have the opportunity to make sure each student feels a strong sense of belonging and is connected to at least one adult at school.

As a school we understand how important it is to start each day new again. We have committed to greet each student at the door every morning. Not just a greeting, a genuine and personal greeting. It is the first step in each child’s sense of belonging. As we work together to set the tone for the day, we are also building a strong relationship with our students that will manifest itself for each student by increasing their willingness and ability to learn,

As a school, we have also agreed that screaming, yelling, sarcasm, cruel and unkind words, and humiliation are not in the best interest of students and will not happen in our classrooms. We are working very hard to continue to have conversations with each other to monitor our tone and affect because we believe our kids deserve it.

Each of us, from classroom teacher to cafeteria worker, comes to work each day for one reason. That reason is we love kids. Our staff is committed to our kids and we all work hard, everyday, to ensure their sense of belonging. We are working on putting together a video that shows our morning greetings. This will be the first of many video opportunities that will showcase what we do and who we are at Holiday Park.

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Welcome Back

Welcome back staff, students, and parents of Holiday Park. With fall break now behind us, our focus is on student achievement and learning. With our much-needed break over, we are retuning rested and recharged to make every day one that is filled with thinking and learning for our students.

We are very excited to meet with our parents and community members next week for parent-teacher conferences. It is at this time that we get to know our families and they get to know us a little better. Thinking about our families and what they expect from us is the best way for us to start off our 2^nd quarter of learning.

Recent research identifies the major areas that parents find most important in their child’s school. Listed first and foremost is the desire for the school to have a solid core curriculum in reading and math. After reading and math, opportunities for science and technology learning are a close second. Parents also indicate the desire for their children to have good study habits, strong critical thinking skills, and excellent verbal and written communication skills.  Thinking about our school and the direction we are going, we can speak to each of these expectations as we work to meet the expectations of our parents.

Solid Core Curriculum in Reading and Math –

We are very pleased to say that the district GVC is helping us to guarantee a solid curriculum across content areas. We have focused as a school on our framework for reading and are seeing very good results across the grade levels. This framework has given us common language to guide our conversations and PD opportunities. We are working together as a site to commit to the math framework Engage New York. This will be exciting and I have heard from so many of you how excited you are to take this on. 

Science and Technology –

We have implemented our science curriculum with the help of the district GVC. Each team, in an effort to ensure that science instruction is happening in each class, has allocated instructional time in their schedules.

We are working to open up the computer lab for students to start using Successmaker for math and reading for both intervention and grade level learning opportunities. We will continue to have conversations about integrating more opportunities for technology into our students learning day whenever possible.

Good Study Habits –

It is very important for us to focus on our fluency homework for quarter two. Not only is the homework beneficial for each student and their reading fluency, it helps prepare the students for study habits that will positively impact them the rest of their lives. Please make sure that you have a system in your classroom to check homework, seek out support from parents who’s children are not completing the work, and telling all students that the homework club is in the morning in the library at 7:15.

Strong Critical Thinking –

We are working as a school to implement Depth of Knowledge across all grade levels and content areas. We are focusing on 1^st grade right now and then will take what we learn with this grade level and move it to other grade levels to implement. Ensuring that we are offering level 2 and level 3 thinking opportunities daily to our students will give them multiple opportunities to engage in critical thinking throughout the day.

Excellent Verbal and Written Communication Skills –

This is one area that we need to address as a school. It is very important to our parents and necessary for our student’s success that we design and implement verbal communication lessons for our students. While we do focus on language in our school, the purposeful teaching of verbal communication and presentation is not something that we have implemented as of yet. This is an exciting opportunity for us to reflect on this and come together as a staff to provide these opportunities for our students.  I look forward to seeing how this develops over time for us.

You might want to talk with your parents and students about the above during your parent-teacher conferences next week. As the above areas have been identified as important by most parents, it is a perfect opportunity for us to share the great things happening at Holiday Park and our desire to continue to improve.