Belmont Mission Statement

Belmont Elementary will help students learn to be respectful, responsible, cooperative, and courteous by providing a safe environment with opportunities to learn and succeed.

WE ARE BELMONT
212 (The Extra Effort)

Vision Statement
Every Student will learn and achieve.

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION

Week of February 4th 8th, 2013

Principals Pen: Welcome to the start of week 22 for our Belmont Bees!
n Congratulations to PBIS Committee and ALL staff on another successful Fun Day! The students had a marvelous time!!

Walkthroughs will be occurring with a focus on the use of technology use in the classrooms beginning Wednesday. A team of 4 will be coming around to visit classrooms.

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WEEK AT A GLANCE Magnificent Monday, February 4th, 2013 Admin Mtg K-1 HELP Team Mtg (Bryants Rm) PBIS Team Mtg (Lithgows Rm) Terrific Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 4th Grade PLC 2nd Grade PLC Disbursement of Tuesday Folders
Belmonts definition of High Quality Teaching and Learning We are looking for Purpose, Engagement, Rigor, and Results (PERR) in every lesson.

9:00am 3:30pm 3:30pm 10:15am 11:05am

Bold Goal: 80% Proficiency in Reading & Math ******************************************************* ******************************************************* The Common Core Ate My Baby, and Other Urban Legends

Timothy Shanahan A noted literacy expert dismantles five myths about the new standards and shows what the standards really entail. Wonderful Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 EC PLC 1:05pm Legend 3: English teachers can no longer teach literature in literature Data Team Mtg (Conf Rm) 3:30pm classes. SPMT Mtg (Media Ctr) 3:30pm The Common Core State Standards have established 10 reading th comprehension standards for each grade level. In grades K5, these 10 Thrilling Thursday, February 7 , 2013 standards are articulated in terms of how they apply to both literary and th 5 PLC 8:35am informational texts; in grades 612, there are two additional articulations rd 3 PLC 9:30am (history and science). Clearly, the new standards involve more than just K PLC 12:30pm reading novels, stories, poems, and plays and interpreting literary devices. 1st PLC 1:20pm And well they should. If one of the purposes of reading instruction is to empower students to learn, then even a cursory look at a high school or th Fabulous Friday, February 8 , 2013 college curriculum (or the reading demands of the typical workplace) Reading PLC 10:00am would suggest that literature makes up a small portion of what most Spirit Day Wear your Black & Gold!!! people must read. According to international achievement tests, U.S. ****************************************************** students do worse at reading informational text than they do at reading T This is not surprising, literary text (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, & Foy, 2007). BELMONT SHOUT-OUTS! h in student exposure to given the long-standing and persistent imbalance eewton, 2002; Venezky, such texts in school reading programs (Moss & N Shout-Outs To 1982). Catey Branch in Mrs. LaChances class for liking school 5 The documents actually suggest that 70 percent of older students' reading because learning is fun Catey wrote a lovely journal to should focus on nonliterary textsbut that 70 percent refers to all school Mrs. LaChance about how much she enjoyed being at d(National Governors reading, not just reading in English language arts school! if Chief State School Association Center for Best Practices & Council o The PBIS Committee for their hard work and planning s Officers, 2010). For example, students will need to spend more t time reading informational around another successful Fun Day! The students had a textsbut in their science and history classes. Teachers in these content r wonderful time! areas will now need to play a larger role in teaching i the literacy of those Enhancement teachers for a great job manning the subjects (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). c stations on Friday Fun Day could not have happened But English teachers don't need to stop teaching t literature. The majority of without your help! texts students will study in English classes will still be novels, short stories, poems, and plays. n CASA meeting focused on student writingTuesday, March 27, 2012 o
Taken from Educational Leadership December/January 2013 n

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