** ALSO AVAILABLE ON INFINITE CAMPUS **

STAFF NEWS AND NOTES

NUTS & BOLTS

24 EDITION 24, ISSUE 10 VETERANS DAY EDITION

10, November 10, 2011

KUDOS - To Mary Kate Englat and Christina Froehlich who have agreed to serve on the district SQR review team. The charge of this team is to review the school quality review that was assembled over the past two weeks and to revise it as deemed necessary. A fair amount of time will be spent by Mary Kate and Christina reviewing this significant document. Thanks to them in advance for their willingness to help our school improve! - To our guidance counselors and Stacey Angell for visiting 8th grade classes to preset them for the Mike Donahue presentation next week. Annually the counselors visit 7th grade classes, which has provided an excellent venue to preset 7th graders for the program, but nothing was in place for the 8th graders. Thus the effort being put forward by Rob, Margaret, Lisa, Stacey and Kathy is very much appreciated and should help everyone maximize what they get out of Mike Donahues presentation! - To Chris Myer for his idea of recognizing one of our colleagues at every faculty meeting. Chriss idea was to ask a random person in the building, generally a custodian, secretary, teachers aide, etc. to name a teacher who is just a pleasure to work with. Chris then wants to publicize the person so identified and to give them a little gift card as a Thank You! It is a great idea and it got of to a great start this past Monday! Thanks, Chris!! A follow up in this kudo department to Dimitri Vasilakis who is the first recognized and well deserving colleague to be so identified! Congratulations, Dimitri, for your interaction with people on a daily basis. You have obviously made an impact on your colleagues! - To everyone who opened their classroom doors and/or provided information to our site visitor, Renee Beaulieu, yesterday. Renee spent most of the day with us observing a wide range of classes. We look for her input to help us as we revise programs, approaches, classroom instructional practices, etc. to keep us moving on the path forward. - A huge thank you to Josephine Lanni for planning a very successful trip to NYC for our Spanish students! Fifty students enjoyed a variety of cultural experiences including a walking tour of a Hispanic neighborhood, authentic Spanish cuisine, an inspirational chat with a Dominican Assemblyman and a visit to the United Nations. Thanks, Jo, for arranging a wonderful trip for our students!

Tues. Dec. 20 Mon. Dec. 26 Mon. Jan. 2

Hall Geography Bees No School Holiday Break

DODGE BALL TOURNAMENT!!! On Friday, December 16, the Student Council will be holding a Dodge Ball Tournament for both faculty and students!! How the tournament will work is as follows: Faculty and students will form a team of eight people, four males and four females (it doesn't matter how many teams we have!) The faculty teams will play each other while the students watch. Students will then play one another, and once a winner is determined, that student team will play the winner of the faculty team! We encourage creativity with this event, by coming up with a team name, a captain, and making team t-shirts. We will also have a dj and will be selling concessions. There will be a $5.00 fee for students playing on teams, and for those who will be coming to watch. We are really excited about this event, and think it will be a great time for everyone!! Start thinking about your team, and once your team is formed, please let Kristina or Melissa know your team name, captain, and members! We want to start promoting this event early! Thanks, and have fun!!!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Mon. Nov. 14 End of the 1st Marking Period 2:30 pm Special Ed Department Mtg English Department Mtg Math 7 Meeting Russian Club Field Trip to NYC Tues. Nov. 15 Mike Donahue Presentations 2:30 pm Guidance Department Mtg Library/AV Mtg 7:00 pm Mike Donahue Evening Program Wed. Nov. 16 2:30 pm PST Thurs. Nov. 17 7:45 am Science Steering Committee Mtg 9:30 am AC Fri. Nov. 18 No Special Events Scheduled Sat. Nov. 19 Musical Auditions NWEA TESTING An initiative undertaken by our district to help us assess our students with disabilities regarding math and ELA skills is the implementation of NWEA testing. Next Wednesday and Thursday, November 16 and 17, we will be administering an online test on ELA skills to all of our special education students as well as regular education students who are involved in remedial reading and our G program. We will have a quick turn around on the assessment; data will be available to us in the very near future to analyze and help focus our instruction. This Data Driven Instruction (DDI) is a new and important way to analyze our instructional practices. There is no clearer way to see whether or not instruction is effective then to assess students and analyze the results. The analysis, however, has to be followed up by indicated changes to instructional practice. Similarly, we will be testing this same population of students on their math skills using an online assessment provided by NWEA on November 28 and 29. One of the requirements of the NWEA testing is to have a classroom teacher present during the testing periods in the computer lab. We will have substitutes available and we have set up a schedule so that a classroom teacher will be in the computer lab for each of the testing periods. We will be conducting 5 testing periods, each 1 hour in length, during each of the four days of testing. The names of the students who will be tested each of those periods will be posted on Infinite Campus. Teachers should check the list as you will be missing students from various classes throughout the four days of testing. Lastly, we have a small number of our colleagues trained in the analysis and use of the NWEA test data. At this point Dawn Savery, Amy Favro and Liz Carroll will be our trained data analysts with training taking place later this month.

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PM BUS SUPERVISION ZONE #1 ZONE #2 ZONE #3 ZONE #4 CAF T. Mesick M. Moffre C. Myer A. Peluso C. Patenaude People are reminded to be on duty on a daily basis to make sure that supervision is provided. ALL STAFF MEMBERS ARE REMINDED THAT THE BUS SUPERVISION IS AN ASSIGNED DUTY AND IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR ALL STAFF MEMBERS TO BE WHERE ASSIGNED DUTY; IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ARRANGE FOR REPLACEMENT PERHAPS BY SWAPPING WITH A COLLEAGUE. LONG-TERM CALENDAR OF EVENTS Thurs. Nov. 10 Newsletter Posted Wear Blue Day 7 PM Music Faculty Recital - Auditorium Fri. Nov. 11 No School Veterans Day Mon. Nov. 14 End of First Marking Period Tues. Nov. 15 Mike Donahue Presentations 7:00 pm Mike Donahue Parent Presentation Wed. Nov. 16 NWEA Assessment for ELA and Math Thurs. Nov. 17 NWEA Assessment for ELA and Math Fri. Nov. 18 PTA Activity Night Mon. Nov. 21 7:30 PM BOE Meeting Forts Ferry Tues. Nov 22 Open School Day Nov. 24 Nov. 25 No School Thanksgiving Holiday Thurs. Dec. 1 7:30 PM Concert #1 Fri. Dec. 2 Bus Drills Mon. Dec. 5 Bus Drills Wed. Dec. 7 7:00 PM PTA/PAC Meeting - Library Thurs. Dec. 8 7:30 PM Concert #2@ SHS Fri. Dec. 9 Newsletter Posted Tues. Dec. 13 7:30 PM Concert #3 Thurs. Dec. 15 7:00 PM Studio Art Show 7:30 PM Concert #4 Fri. Dec. 16 5-Week Interim Point Student Council Activity Night Mon. Dec. 19 7:30 PM BOE Meeting @ SJSH Library

CHARACTER TRAIT ASSIGNMENT Nov. 14 18 Science Nov. 28 Dec. 2 Math Dec. 5 9 Art/Tech/H&C

Thrifty Gracious Ambitious

Dec. 12 16 Jan. 3 6 Jan. 9 13 Jan. 23 27 Feb. 6 10 Feb. 13 17 Feb. 27 Mar. 2

Foreign Language PE/Health/Music English Social Studies Science Math Art/Tech/H&C

Courageous Resourceful Joyful Kind Patient Tolerant Honest

CHOREAGRAPHER/MAKE UP COORDINATOR NEEDED We have openings in our musical personnel list for a choreographer and for a make up coordinator. If you are interested in either or both of these positions please contact Mr. V. and/or Dianne Hobden for information and let R. Moore know. REPORT CARD GRADING TIMELINE The 1st quarter report card grading schedule is listed below: Wednesday, November 9 Grading Window opened Monday, November 14 Last day of marking period Friday, November 18 Grading Window closed at 8:00 a.m. Friday, November 18 Report cards printed & mailed *Note: the parent and student portals will be closed on Nov. 14 18.

program is designed to educate parents about more effective ways of communicating with their teenagers and the risks of social profiling, bullying, etc. Mr. Donahue has spoken at numerous area schools, been featured on WTEN news, and his direct approach is well received among students. In his presentation, he has been described as someone who relates well to kids without patronizing them and who really walks the talk. He also provides a follow up curriculum to reinforce his message. For your planning, the assembly schedule (high school auditorium) will look like this:
Assembly #1-8:30-9:30 am. Norris 7, Norris 8, Houston 8, Clay 8
Assembly #2-9:45-10:45am. Calhoun 7, Calhoun 8, Houston 7, Clay 7

This will be an INCREDIBLE event for our students and for us as well. ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT TO VISIT As part of the SINI improvement process Kathy Skeals, our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, will be spending a significant amount of time in our building. Kathy is visiting to refamiliarize herself with our school structure, practices, programs, instructional approaches, etc. She will be visiting a variety of classes during each one of her visits to our school. Yesterday Kathy spent 2 hours plus in our school dropping in on various classrooms. Her future visits are: Date Tuesday, November 15 Tuesday, November 22 Tuesday, November 29 Tuesday, December 6 Tuesday, December 13 Tuesday, December 20 Time 8:00 am 11:30 am 11:00 am 2:30 pm 8:00 am 11:30 am 11:00 am 2:30 pm 8:00 am 11:30 am 8:00 am 11:30 am

L ITTLE KNOWN REQUIRMENT BASED ON SINI STATUS An interesting portion of the laws that have kicked in mandates tutoring for specific students once a school is determined to be a SINI. The tutoring must be provided in the content area that has been identified in the SINI process. For us that means that we will need to provide tutoring in ELA for certain students. It is this certain students subgroup that will raise eyebrows. The law requires that we provide tutoring services for students in our Social Economic subgroup, ie. students who are eligible and/or receive free or reduced price lunches. Please note that this is not the subgroup for which we were tagged for the SINI status. We were tagged due to the performance of our students with disabilities, however, the tutoring must be provided to the students included in the social economic status subgroup! This is not the first time we have seen legislation that doesnt seem to make the most sense. Even more intriguing is the fact that the district has to pay for the tutoring. Parents have to use one of the NYS approved tutoring services; currently there are about 100 approved tutoring services listed on the state ed website. We are in the process of contacting these 100 providers to see which ones actually do want to be publicized as providing this service. The amount that the district has to have available to spend for each student is also derived by formula: currently the amount is a little over $1,100 that the district has to have to provide for tutoring for each student. That means that if our current population of a little over 100 students in our SES subgroup takes up the offer of tutoring, it would cost the district over $100,000. Talk about unfunded mandates.. Stay tuned as this interesting phenomenon unfolds. TECHNOLOGY LITERACY ASSESSMENT As part of the planning for instructional technology this year, we are implementing an online survey of students technology literacytheir ability to use software tools, make good decisions about Internet resources, and make creative decisions about resources for projects. We piloted the online assessment tool last June in many classes. The students enjoyed taking the test online in the computer lab, and were able to complete the questions in about 2 periods, depending on their reading speed and fluency. The online test asks them to actually use the computer to demonstrate how to select web sites, save files, and other similar tasks, and also asks multiple choice questions about the ethical uses of technology. The assessment is designed to be given to students in the eighth grade, once in the Fall as a pre-test, or baseline measure, and once in the late Spring as a post-test, or indicator of additional knowledge and skills. If you didnt have an opportunity to preview the test last Spring, you can see a demo at www.learning.com. We are using the 21st century test version, and will be administering it to both fifth and eighth graders this Fall. MIKE DONAHUE LOOMS LARGE! We are very excited to inform you that our Junior High has partnered with South Glens Falls to secure an outstanding motivational speaker for our school community. Mike Donahue, author of Reinventing My Normal, Hidden Scars, and Talking to Brick Walls, and owner/director of r5 Productions, will be speaking to our students on Tuesday, November 15th about making good choices, coping with pressures, and walking a mile in another persons shoes. In addition, he will host leadership groups during the day. He will do an hour long presentation to each individual grade level, as well as a Parent Information night for our North Colonie community. The evening

EDUCATION IN THE NEWS The following items were taken from November 9 edition of Education Week. ELL Services in Mass. Face Civil Rights Probe The U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights has opened a new investigation related to English-language learners in Massachusetts, this time looking into a complaint that the state has failed to enforce laws intended to provide better services for ELLs in Boston charter schools. The probe comes on the heels of similar investigations in regular public schools in Boston and Los Angeles. Federal civil rights authorities reached a settlement with the Boston school district last year to address shortcomings in its ELL programs. Earlier this year, it also found a statewide shortage of teachers adequately trained to teach academic content to ELLs. Federal civil rights officials have opened at least 16 investigations into services for English-learners since Obama took office in 2009. Supreme Court Sidesteps Conn. Student-Speech Case The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to disturb a ruling that Connecticut school officials acted reasonably in disciplining a student for an Internet posting she wrote outside of school. The justices last week turned down an appeal from Avery Doninger, who was a high school junior in Burlington, Conn., when she took to the Internet to criticize administrators for canceling a popular school activity. Ms. Doninger sued school officials after they punished her by preventing her from serving as class secretary as a senior. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City, sided with the school officials. N.Y.C. Students Suspended 73,441 Times in 2010-11 Public school students in New York City were suspended 73,441 times during the 2010-11 school year, a 2.4 percent increase over the year before, district officials announced. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said officials would take a close look at racial disparities in the figures. Fifty-two percent of the students suspended last year were black, 37 percent were Hispanic, and 7 percent were white, compared with a district enrollment that is 29 percent black, 40 percent Hispanic, and 15 percent white.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung