The second graders completed the math fluency section of the Diagnostic Field Test. They did a great job and we did not experience any technology issues! Great done by the teachers and students!
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Way to go Grade 4
Well yesterday's diagnostic field test went very well...we
can't say the same for today. We were able to get Ms. Callan and Ms. Johnston
classes connected and able to take the field test. However, we ran into some
issues with Mrs. Lydecker's class. They were supposed to start their session at
8:35. This is when we recognized that
the COW (Computer on Wheels – the laptops) was not properly charged. We
resolved this by adding power cords to all the computers and plugging them in. Once
we solved that bump in the road we ran into trouble with connecting to the test
site. After trying many different strategies, at one point we had 5 district
tech members in Mrs. Lydecker’s room; the decision was made not to take the
field test for Mrs. Lydecker and Mrs. Nazzaro classes. Mrs. Nazzaro’s class
would not have had enough time to take the test based on the half day schedule
and the difficulty that we were having. It was identified that there were issues with
the strength of the internet connection in room 10 as well as some errors from
Pearson.
I am looking at this as a GREAT test run for PARCC. Lou
Caputo, the district Network Manager and I walked through the building and
identified classrooms that have the strongest internet connect and therefore
should be used during PARCC. I will personally double check before leaving that
the COWs are plugged in properly the night before all PARCC tests. We are moving forward with grade 2 tomorrow and
Friday.
A BIG SHOUT OUT to the students in room 10 for being so well behaved and patient as we were troubleshooting the issues
Great job 3rd grade
Way to go 3rd grade students and teachers! They completed the math fluency diagnostic field test. This test is an opportunity to test questions so we will not receive any data. The students did a wonderful job using the computer to take the assessment. We did work through some technology issues at the very beginning of the testing sessions but issues were resolved quickly. The district IT staff was on hand to address the concerns. A BIG THANK YOU to Kathy Santilli for her role in preparing and supporting our school during this period. We will have grade 4 testing tomorrow followed by grade 2 on Thursday and Friday. They students should be very proud of themselves!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Update 2/4
Hi Everyone! Over the next few days you will receive updates
that will help to outline the 3 topic (Leadership and School Culture, Learning
and Teaching, and School-Family Partnership and Communication) that will be
explored at the World Café. This is an exciting opportunity for our school to
be able to have teachers and parents work together to improve our school! If
you have responded to the first link for the survey in regards to attending the
World Café unfortunately you will have to resubmit your reply and possible
questions. Here is the correct link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PHQPBSH
To keep you posted on some of the happenings at Joshua
Eaton, I want to share with you one of the opportunities that our teachers in
grades 3-5 took part in. The DSAC – District and School Assistance Center, came
in and used a tool called the MVAR to help teachers take a deeper look at the
2014 MCAS data. We have had the chance to look at that data as a staff but this
allowed teachers to really drill down into the information. This tool allows
teachers to create more specific ranking to gain a different perceptive on the
information. Some of the PLC leaders were able to take part in this training as
well. This training took place at the end of January. Teachers spent 90 minutes
working with the DSAC team. These work sessions did not include me (Ms.
Feeney). The DSAC team focuses not so much on the data but rather the
conversations that take place as a result of looking at the data. What is it
that we notice from that data? What is the data telling us? As I mentioned at
the October MCAS meeting we recognized that scores were low in fractions, data
and measurement, geometry along with students not receiving high points for
open response and short answer questions. This information was confirmed
through the use of the MVAR. We learned a few things that the basic MCAS data
did not tell us. Here are a few things that learned: boys did not score as well
on the math MCAS in grade 4, the vocabulary score dropped in 5th grade
when compared to scores in 3rd and 4th grade and when
faced with questions that involved inferring the students in all grade levels did
not score well.
So what are we doing to help address these students in all
grade levels are having more opportunities to answer questions in short answers
and open response format. This began back in the beginning of the year. By
providing students more opportunities to explain and reason it will help them
be more prepared to answer these questions. Students will be provided with text
that will give them opportunities to use context clues from the story to infer
what is happening. Reading folk tales was one way that was suggested to us by
the DSAC team as text that will support this development. For improving
vocabulary we will read and allow student to read text that includes more rich
vocabulary and incorporate more challenging vocabulary into daily lessons. By
providing hands on opportunities for all learners in math we envision that boys
will take more to the concepts as most learn by doing.
As a staff we continue to find new ways to reach all of the
learners and their learning styles. We look for ways to make learning enjoyable
as well as engaging for the students. I am in the process of scheduling a date
to have Helene Levine, a literacy specialist from DSAC, come to Eaton to work
with the teachers with some of the identified areas of concerns. I will keep
you posted on when that date is set.
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