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“Elkhart Intermediate Rocks— Jammin’ to Success!” February 2012
February is here and our teachers are working very hard to prepare our students for the STAAR test. The STAAR tests are the state assessments that students will be taking this spring in place of the TAKs test. To help teachers determine the skills students are struggling with we will be giving our Benchmark test the next two weeks to give us data that will help shape our instruction for the weeks leading up to the STAAR test. As I walk through classrooms on each day I see great things going on. I am convinced that we have a great teaching staff at Elkhart Intermediate. Our teachers are committed to providing the foundation students need academically to provide them with the tools needed ensure their educational success in the middle, high school and beyond. We have begun our small group guidance counseling with Mrs. Smith at the beginning of the spring semester. She will be serving about 41 students once a week for 4 weeks. The topic of discussion for this session is “Friends and Feelings.” Students are involved in different activities such as role playing to teach them how to handle situations at school. Mrs. Smith hopes to serve over 150 students with small group guidance by the end of the year. All students at the intermediate campus were also introduced to the new character word for the 4th six weeks. Our character word this six weeks is “Caring.” Teachers pick students in their classroom who demonstrate character traits being emphasized and turn their names into Mrs. Smith. During the six weeks students are reward with a lunch with the counselor. At the end of the fall semester, students who reached their AR point goals and achieved 80% mastery on their AR test were given an invitation to the AR Party. The students began the evening in the gym with Mr. Herring and several teachers to play several games. Students were escorted from the gym to their grade level building. Teachers in the 3rd, 4h, and 5th grade set up fun activities in their rooms for the students to move about the halls freely choosing to participate in the activity of their choice. All 90 students and teachers were feed hot dogs and the trimmings. Everyone had a great time teachers included. Are next AR Party will be sometime in May. Several great ideas have already been discussed. Boy and girls will not want to miss this one. Student points will begin accumulating starting January 17th. Students will still be required to achieve 80% mastery on test. Each student will be required to reach the following AR point goals: 3rd grade 40 points 4th grade 50 points 5th grade 60 points. I would like to encourage parents with Internet access to get set up to be able to view your child’s grades and attendance reports through our parent portal in Gradebook from your own home. I would encourage you to call and set up a conference with your child’s teacher to make sure there is an open line of communication between your home and the school. Sincerely, Greg Herring, Principal Elkhart Intermediate School |