MEMORIAL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
December 5, 2014
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, Dec. 2nd - 

Tuesday, Dec. 9th

Scholastic Book Fair

Library

 

Saturday, Dec. 6th

PTO Santa Breakfast

 

Monday, Dec. 8th

Parent/Teacher Conferences & Book Fair

 

Monday, Dec. 8th 

Date/Venue Change

5th Grade Band & Glee Concert - 6:45 PM @ Memorial Gym

 

Wednesday, Dec. 10th

Kindergarten Bake Sale  

Thursday, Dec. 11th

PTO Meeting - Library

7:00 PM

 

Thursday, Dec. 18th

Holiday Shopping for 

students - Library

 

Tuesday, Dec. 23rd

CARES Assembly

9:00 AM - Gym

 

Tuesday, Dec. 23rd

Holiday Classroom Parties @ 2:10 PM

 

Wednesday, Dec. 24th - Friday, Jan 2nd

NO SCHOOL

Holiday Break  

 

Monday, Jan. 5th, 2015

School Resumes

 

Thursday, Jan. 8th

PTO Meeting - Library

7:00 PM

 

Wednesday, Jan. 14th

Grade 2 Bake Sale


Monday, Jan. 19th

NO SCHOOL

MLK, Jr. Day

 

Wednesday, Jan. 21st

EARLY RELEASE    


Tuesday, Feb. 3rd

Elementary Band Concert

@SRHS - 7:00 PM

(Snow date 2/10)


Wednesday, Feb 11th

Yearbook Bake Sale

 

Thursday, Feb. 12th

Gr. 5 Underground Railroad

 

Friday, Feb 13th

Valentine's Day Classroom Parties - 2:10 PM


 
Monday, Feb 23rd - Friday, Feb 27th

NO SCHOOL 

Winter Break

 

Monday, March 2nd

School Resumes


31 West Main Street Newton, NH  03858
603-382-5251
Principal, Jonathan G. Vander Els
Assistant Principal, Donna B. Johnson
Principal's Message
Jonathan G. Vander Els
Dear Memorial Community:

We were very pleased to welcome so many parents last night to join us for our first round of parent conferences.  We thank you for taking the time to come in to discuss your child's progress over the first third of the school year.  We look forward to seeing the rest of our parents on Monday evening!



Last night, many of the "ornaments" adorning our Giving Tree in our lobby were taken by many of you.  We are so appreciative of everyone's generosity to assist those in need in our community.  There are also boxes in the front foyer for you to place any items you are able to donate to our food drive.  You may have noticed the posters around our school made by our student council poster team advertising the food and gift drives.  They have been working very hard to get the word out.  These drives are being spearheaded by our student council and Ms. O'Sullivan.

The winter concert will also be held on the evening of the 8th.  Conferences end at 6:30 and the conference will start at 6:45.  We hope that you consider staying and joining us for the 5th Grade Band and Glee Club concert.  The students have been working really hard, and it's always a great show.

I would like to make you aware of an upcoming panel that will be held at the Sanborn Regional High School Auditorium.  Drug use and addiction, especially heroin, has become epidemic in Rockingham County. Unfortunately, a number of families are dealing with this devastating addiction. On Dec. 10 at 6pm, Sanborn is hosting an open panel discussion about heroin and its impact in Rockingham County. Please see the flyer included in this newsletter, and consider attending to learn all that you can about how this is affecting our local community. Click here for more information.

We hope to see everyone tomorrow morning for our 5th Annual Santa's Breakfast, held her at the Memorial School gym from 8:30-10:30 AM.  It is such an exciting time of year for all.  Although these next few weeks are incredibly busy, the magic in the air is palpable, and I hope you and yours enjoy this special time of year.


                                         Best regards,

 

 Jonathan G. Vander Els, Principal 

1st Grade News

Winter Traditions 


First graders will be creating their own books this month based on winter traditions. These books will be used for their classroom libraries to share with their peers. Each book will have a chapter about their own family traditions, a tradition from another culture, and a comparison of the two. Some books may even have a glossary and table of contents!

 

We will be studying different traditions around the word.   We will be using maps, songs, videos, crafts, and literature to explore these different traditions.

 

This is a great activity that brings closure to our nonfiction unit of study!   

Budget Committee News

Sanborn Regional School District Budget Committee News

November 20, 2014

 

The Sanborn Regional School District Budget Committee has met four times this budget season.

 

The agenda for the May 20, 2014 meeting focused on election of BudCom officers:

  • Barry Gluck, Chairman
  • Allen Felisberto, Vice Chairman
  • Patty Stephan, Secretary

 

Discussion at the October 2, 2014 meeting covered the move of the SAU administration into SRHS building, an initial discussion of community outreach and how best to get information about the budget process to the voters, and student enrollment (which showed 83 fewer students in the district this year) along with possible reasons for the attrition.

 

The agenda for the October 30, 2014 meeting featured a general discussion of the increasing costs to the district this year as we await receipt of the budget:

  • The cost of electricity increasing from $0.06 per kWh to $0.11
  • The increase in the district's portion of retirement costs
  • The increase in health insurance rates for the district
  • The need for capital improvement projects
  • The upcoming Support Staff contract negotiation

Also discussed was the desire to videotape future BudCom meetings, as well as more detail on how BudCom might better be able to get information out to the public.

 

The agenda for the November 13, 2014 meeting featured a discussion of how best to get information about the budgeting process and the work of BudCom out to the community.

 

On November 19, 2014 the district administration presented its proposed budget to the School Board and the Budget Committee. The Board and Bud Com will now meet separately and review the budget requests in detail.

 

For more information:

 

Have a question for the Budget Committee? Submit it to budcom@sau17.org.

We strongly encourage people to attend Budget Committee meetings, which are held at the School Board Room (137) at Sanborn Regional High School, unless otherwise noted.

 

Schedule of Future Meetings

  • Monday, November 24 - 7:30 pm - Budget Committee to begin discussions on the Administration's proposed budget

 

All meetings are open to the public and your questions are welcome.

School Nurse
Written by: Ms. Sheila O'Sullivan

 

Outdoor recess clothing:                                                                                                                                        

                Our students will be playing outside every day, sometimes twice a day for recesses.  We are now approaching the colder seasons of late fall and winter, and some of our students are forgetting to bring a warm coat.  We suggest that you remind your child of the outdoor temperature to insure that they are warm at play.  Please be aware that after wet weather, we may have some puddles on the playground.  You are encouraged to send a spare set of dry clothing to school for your child to change at school should they become wet during outdoor recess.  Please label the clothes with your child's name, so they can keep the bag in their cubbyhere at school.  Thank you!

 

 

Cold and Flu season is here

 

This is the season for an increase in the number of cases of colds, flu, intestinal, & GI viruses, conjunctivitis, and even strep throat and pneumonia.  Parents are asked to consider the following suggestions from the school nurse in order to limit the exposure of healthy children to those who are ill, and to ensure that those who are ill will have as rapid a recovery as possible:

 

1)      If your child has a fever (99.6* or above), please keep your child at home for an additional 24 hours of fever-free time (OFF fever-control medicines) to ensure adequate rest and the opportunity for the immune system to recover.  Your child may still be contagious if he/she has a fever at night, but is fever-free in the early morning. 

 

2)      If your child has vomited during the night, keep him/her home for at least another 24 hours until you know that he/she is eating regular foods without difficulty and is no longer experiencing nausea or abdominal pain.

 

3)      If your child has a persistent cough not controlled by over-the-counter medications, please contact your health care provider, as they may have an underlying bronchial or lung infection or pneumonia.

 

4)      If your child has one or both eyes with a red appearance to the sclera (white area), and/or drainage from the corners which is yellow, and/or yellow crusts on lashes and lids which are itchy and/or swollen, please keep them home and consult your health care provider.  Conjunctivitis is very contagious, and children with this infection must be on medications for a minimum of 24 hours and no longer draining from the eye to attend school.

 

Frequent hand washing is the number one prevention for the spread of germs and disease within your family as well as in school.  Concerns regarding your child's illness, or duration of his/her symptoms should be addressed to your family health care provider.  Thank you for your assistance to help ensure the health of all students (and staff) at our school.

 

Flu Immunization

 

All New Hampshire residents over the age of 6 months old are encouraged to receive a flu shot unless medically contraindicated. Your doctor's office has immunizations available as well as local pharmacies including Wal-Mart.  Please send a doctor's note to the school nurse with the date of your child's flu immunization, so that it may be added to their health record.

 

Signs of the flu include fever, chills, body aches, cough, and fatigue. If your child has a temp of over 100.0F they are not permitted to be in school and need to be fever free without the use of Tylenol or any fever reducer for 24 hours. As always, our best defense against the flu is good hand washing!


 

For more information about the flu virus, symptoms, and treatment visit: www.cdc.gov/flu

 

Convenient MD in Stratham offers free flu shots.

 

 

 

 

Annual Holiday Food and Gift Drive:       

 

The holiday season is rapidly approaching. This time of year Memorial School loves to give back to its community by having a food drive that will benefit Sanborn families as well as the local food bank and seniors at Packer Meadows.   In the spirit of generosity and good will, the Student Council members, students, and staff of Memorial School would like reach out to families and citizens in our community who are in need of our assistance.    

 

If you are willing to help by donating any of the following needed items, your generosity in this holiday season would be most appreciated. 

 

Food Supplies:  tea, cocoa, coffee, flour, sugar, juice boxes/cans, canned vegetables and fruits, spaghetti sauce and pasta, rice, Bisquick, stuffing mix, powdered milk, peanut butter, tuna fish, raisins, hot or cold cereals, and snack foods. Any non-perishable items would be appreciated.

 

Paper and Personal Products:  paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, napkins, coffee filters, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant, and laundry detergent.

 

The above food and non-perishable paper products will be collected throughout the months of November and December.  If every student brought in just three items from this list, we would have well over 1000 items for families in need, and think of how many will benefit!

  

Thank you in advance for your generous response to our food drive and for helping us teach children to reach out to others in need. 

 
 

Thank you,


Sheila O'Sullivan, RN  
Holiday Giving Tree

 

Dear Parents,

          This year Memorial School is sponsoring a giving tree in the school lobby. Paper ornaments will be placed on the tree with an item from the Holiday wish lists of families in need. For example, an ornament will list an item such as a toy or winter clothing needed and specify the size or the toy but NO NAMES of families or children will be used.

 

Parents who would like to help are asked to choose a paper ornament, purchase the item, wrap it, tape the paper ornament to the gift and return it to school no later than Monday December 15th. This allows us to keep track of what gifts go where and gives us enough time to get them out to the families in need. The ornaments will be up on the tree in time for parent conferences.


 
The food drive is still going on and will conclude on Monday December 15th. We have had a great response so far and are hoping it will continue over the next two weeks. Any non-perishable items are still appreciated!

 

Thank you in advance for all your generosity in response to our food and gift drive, and for helping us teach our students to reach out to others in need.    

  

-Sheila O'Sullivan, RN School Nurse

 

 Library News
Written by: Ms. Mulcahy

 

Memorial Elementary School will be holding its annual
 
Scholastic Book Fair in the Library.
 
Tuesday, December 2nd - Tuesday, December 9th


 

The Book Fair will be open during Parent/Teacher Conferences!

UA
Written By:  Ms. Jodi Tamayoshi


We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. But only a tiny fraction of our society is learning computer science, and fewer students are studying it than a decade ago.

That is why our entire school is joining in on the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 8-14). Last year, 15 million students tried computer science in one week. This year, we're joining students worldwide to reach 100 million students!

Memorial students have already started! We have been developing skills of giving and following accurate sequential instructions, and are applying these skills to fun programming activities. Students work both independently and collaboratively as they climb to new levels of coding complexity. We also have taken this Hour of Code challenge beyond just an hour, incorporating these foundational 21st
century skills into our daily use of technology.

Ask your children to tell you about the coding they have been doing at school - or ask them to show you! They can log in to their accounts through the district's website at sau17.org (Go to Schools>Memorial  Elementary>Technology>Documents File Cabinet> then to the grade level login). 

For more information, please go to http://hourofcode.com/us
.
Always Accepting Applications
Circumstances change throughout the year.

Should you find that you may need to reduce your expenses, please consider Reduced or Free Breakfast and Lunch for your children.

This is a completely confidential way to save money for your family and applications are accepted at any time during the school year!  If you applied last year, please be certain that you have submitted an application for this school year.
 

or pick up an application at the Memorial School Office.




Sanborn Theatre Troupe
On Monday, December 8th, the Sanborn Theatre Troupe would like to invite friends and families from around the district to come and celebrate the Holidays the best way we know how; with a show! Children and their parents will be welcomed with festive music and cookie decorating, and Santa Claus and his elves might make an appearance as well! After the cookies have been decorated, and all of the kids have shared their wishes with Santa Claus, they will meet in the Auditorium for a reading of "The Night Before Christmas." Following that will be a performance of the show that Amanda Arsenault has written titled, "Jacob's Holiday Dream." In the show, the main character Jacob, shares with his friends that he only looks forward to getting presents during the Holidays. In an attempt to make Jacob realize that there is much more to celebrate than gifts, they come up with a crazy plan to open up his eyes. The show educates kids on Holidays and the history behind them, while making them laugh at the silliness of all the characters. The night is free for everyone, and we wish you all to come!


Memorial PTO

It's the busiest time of the year...

 

Please join us as we celebrate the holiday season - the 5th Annual Santa Breakfast takes place Saturday, Dec. 6 from 8:30-10:30 am in the Memorial School cafeteria. The North Pole has confirmed we'll have a very special guest in attendance - none other than the jolly 'ol elf himself. Each child will have the opportunity for their own personal meeting with Santa. This is a wonderful photo opportunity for those family holiday cards, so don't forget to bring your camera! A continental breakfast will be served. The cost is $3/person with a $10/family maximum. Please be sure to register by Monday, December 1. Forms can be found on the Santa Breakfast section of the Memorial PTO website.


 

And speaking of elves, we are tentatively planning a screening of the movie "Elf" at Stage Two in Amesbury on Monday, Dec. 15. The 2003 movie, starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, and Zooey Deschanel is guaranteed to be a holiday hoot. So mark your calendars - we'll be sure to let you know as soon as it's confirmed.

 

Looking forward to seeing the students modeling their new spirit wear - thank you all!

 

Wondering what events are happening? Check out our PTO calendar. Additional details for each event, as well as descriptions/information on all of the PTO activities, can be found on the PTO website. Holiday shopping for students is tentatively planned for Thursday, Dec. 18. See all the details on the 'holiday shopping' tab.

 

Don't forget to save the date - Harlem Wizards on Thursday, March 12.  

 

 

 

 

 

Our next meeting will be Thursday, December 11th.  There's a lot happening and your help is vital to our success.  We greatly appreciate all of your support!

 

Parent's Night Out!

Parent's Night Out

When: December 19, 2014

What time: 4:30 - 8:30

Where: Sanborn Regional High School

Price: $10/one kid

$15/two kids

$20/three+ kids

What: Babysitting while parents go out and finish shopping or enjoy a night out alone


 

The holiday season is right around the corner and some parents need a break. Whether it is last minute shopping or they just want to enjoy a wonderful night out on the town, parents want a break too. So come and drop off your children to come and hang out with our responsible and certified freshman chaperons and staff. Drop them off to come get help with homework, color, play fun games, play music, and do crafts! Food and drinks will be provided for everyone. So come on, leave them with us and enjoy a night out on the town!

Gale Library News 
Gale Library, Newton Holiday Fun

Drop in anytime at the Gale Library, Newton to Make a Holiday Card for a Hero. All materials to design your card are available in the children's room. Deadline is Dec. 5. These cards will be mailed to our military heroes via PO Box 5456, Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456.

 

You can also drop in to make Natural Christmas Tree Ornaments at the Library on Monday, Dec. 2 from 4:30-7:30 PM. These environmentally-friendly ornaments will be placed on the Newton Town Tree at the Historical Society's Christmas Tree Lighting on Sunday, Dec. 7 at  5:30 PM. Get in the Spirit of the Season with Christmas music, Treats, and good friends and neighbors.
 
Polar Express Evening Storyhour on Mon.Dec. 8 at 6:30 Pm. Wear your pj's, bring a favorite stuffed friend, Listen to stories, sing holiday songs, have cocoa and cookies.

Snowy Candle Jar would make a great gift for someone you love or for your own home. Workshop will be held on Wed. Dec. 10, 3:30 PM. Bring your own jar or sign up to use a recycled jar, all materials supplied.

Make a Holiday craft on Craft Saturdays scheduled for Dec. 6, 13, or 20. Drop in anytime until noon in the Children's Room to make an easy, quick craft.

Join us for the Gale Library Holiday Cookie Swap on Mon. Dec. 15 at 6:30 PM. Adults and teens  bring 3 dozen homemade holiday cookies and the recipe to share. Go home with an assortment of 3 dozen yummy goodies, and your holiday cookie baking is done. Space is limited so sign up is necessary. Call 382-4691.

Need a gift- Come to the library, check out all the great gift baskets and take chances on the Friends of the Library Basket Raffle. There are many beautiful baskets to choose from, filled with great gifts for each member of your family and friends.  Baskets will be raffled on Friday, Dec 19. So buy your tickets now, $1 each- 6 for $5. Make Holiday shopping easy.

Tuesday Storyhours at 10:00 AM will highlight more of our favorite holiday stories, crafts and songs. Come decorate our tree and cookies, make ornaments and reindeer food, and enjoy a party with games and goodies. Storyhour Christmas party will be held Dec. 16 at 10:00 AM. 

Drop in any time to make your own Holiday Greeting Card from the  materials in the Children's Room. Stickers, stamps, old cards, markers, and lots of imagination can create a very special card for Mom, Dad, or Grandparents.

Our Christmas Candy Contest is ready for your best guess. Make the closest guess of the number of candies in our Christmas Tree and you can be the winner of them all. Yummy! 

Make someone's holiday happier. The Angel Tree is filled with children's Christmas wishes. Come pick an angel tag off the Tree at the Library. Purchase a gift for that child, wrap it, and return it to the library so it can be distributed to a happy Newton child.
Newton Recreation News

Vacation Roller Skating for Newton Residents


 

Newton Recreation is sponsoring roller skating at Skateland in Haverhill, Ma. 19 Railroad Ave. The dates are November 28th 5:30 to 7:30 PM and December 28th 5:30 to 7:30 PM.  The only cost is skate rental for $3.  Newton residents and their families are welcome to come and have fun.

 
 

These events have proven to be well-liked and well-attended- SO we are doing more of them! Get information on the destination at http://skateland.com.


 

There will also be a 50/50 raffle to help raise money toward improvements at Greenie Park- Newton Rec's 50/50's have better odds by far than a lottery ticket and for a really great cause.  The most recent winner walked away with $95.50!  

Kingston's Holiday Celebration

An Hour of Code

An Hour of Code

 

In celebration of Computer Science Education Week, the Computer Science Club at the Seacoast School of Technology will be hosting an Hour of Code.  An Hour of Code is worldwide initiative to give all students the opportunity to get a taste of coding.  The goal of this project is to reach 10 million students. This is your opportunity to be part of something big. 

 

The Seacoast School of Technology Computer Programming lab will be open on Wednesday (12/10) and Thursday (12/11) from 4 PM to 7 PM.  Expert tutorials will be provided by the computer programmers from the Seacoast School of Technology Computer Science program.  In addition to a variety of computer programming environments for you to try out, we will have 12 Raspberry Pi's for you to program.  Come and get a taste what coding is all about

- it could be a life-altering experience.

 

Requirements to participate:

Age: 4 - 104

School:  Seacoast School of Technology Regional student/parent

Inquisitive: Yes

Location: Seacoast School of Technology, Computer Programming Lab

Date: December 10 and 11, 2014

Time: 4:00 - 7:00 PM

More Information available at http://www.code.org

 

What people are saying about coding:

 

Bill Gates

Chairman, Microsoft

"Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains."

 

Chris Bosh

NBA All-star, Miami Heat

"Coding is very important when you think about the future, where everything is going. With more phones and tablets and computers being made, and more people having access to everything and information being shared, I think it's very important to be able to learn the language of coding and programming."

 

Stephen Hawking

Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, and Author

"Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn."

 

Hilary Mason

Chief Scientist, Bitly

"I believe technology should give us superpowers. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn to think, analyze, and create with technology."

 

Any questions contact Norm Messa at nmessa@sau16.org
Sanborn Regional Fine Arts Calendar
Please click here for the complete calendar of events for the 2014 - 2015 school year.
State Fire Marshal News
Click here for the December Newsletter from the State Fire Marshal.
Adult Education Classes
Click here for a full list of Adult Education classes being offered by Exeter Adult Education.
Tackling Work Study Practices in a Competency-Based Educational System
Mr. Vander Els' Blog

Last year, teams of teachers within our district, the Sanborn Regional School District in New Hampshire, became deeply involved in building Quality Performance Assessments. These assessments are designed to truly assess a student's competency, or transfer of learning. Our teachers have worked incredibly hard at building high quality, engaging assessments. Their overall assessment literacy, and the learning that has occurred throughout these processes, has been significant. But, it has also raised additional questions.

 

The most recent questions have had to do with Work Study Practices, (also referred to as work study habits, or dispositions/behaviors). The State of New Hampshire defines the four work study practices in New Hampshire as Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, and Self-Direction. For the past six years, our district elementary schools have identified the Responsive Classroom CARES (Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-regulation) as the behaviors we will assess in each student. These fit in well with the work study practices the State has identified. Within each performance assessment, teachers have been identifying a specific behavior as the one that will be assessed within the performance assessment itself. For example, a performance assessment may lend itself to having cooperation/collaboration of students assessed, so teachers are including this to be assessed, complete with its own indicators within a rubric as part of the scoring within the assessment (separate from the assessment of academic competencies).

 

Questions have arisen because teachers have recognized that it does not make sense to always assess students on the same work study practice all the time. Students, as we know, have different needs in different areas. We may have a student who we know is going to be able to demonstrate high degrees of cooperation within her/his group, but this same student may have difficulty asserting her/himself (while giving a presentation, for example).

 

As we discussed how to include this differentiated rubric within the performance assessment, a teacher commented that it would be great if we had a common rubric, K-5, that we could access at any time for any student. That way, we would not have to continue to build these rubrics each time we were going to assess. And when we thought about it further, we realized that this was very similar to the change-process we experienced five years ago with our academic assessments. There sometimes was not horizontal continuity with teams, and many times there was not vertical continuity. We had to honestly ask ourselves: "Is what we expect from students aligned K-5?"

 

My colleague, Ellen Hume-Howard (Director of Curriculum), and I attempted to determine how to go about this work related to work study practices. We thought that it would make the most sense to take each area one at a time and build a continuum for this particular behavior that could be translated to a rubric. But then the questions started coming: How many levels should it have, 6 (for each grade level)? Is what we expect at the beginning of the year different than at the end? Can we pull the grade levels out of the picture once it is complete so that it stands as more of a developmental continuum? How do we build this so that it is truly K-12? And finally, is there a developmental continuum we could reference so that we know that what we are expecting is appropriate?

 

I decided to just put it out to our teachers. I have an incredibly high degree of respect and trust for our staff, and I knew that although it may be difficult, they would persevere and their feedback would help point us in the right direction. We ended up breaking up into our vertical PLCs so that each grade level was represented at each team and we developed a chart that could be completed for one of the behaviors (self-regulation). The guiding question was, "What are your expectations related to a typical student's self-regulation at your grade level?

 

Our teachers all reported that the process was difficult, and that they struggled to put into words what they knew intrinsically. I likened it to the time five years ago when we asked them to identify why the academic grades that they were recording were given, and that everything needed to be backed up by evidence, and that what we were attempting to do was provide students with the clear pathway to their success (If I'm here, and I need to get to here-what do I need to do?). The following Friday I asked our team leaders for specific feedback. The feedback they provided was spot-on, and has given us direction as we move forward.

 

We will attack each of these areas throughout this coming year (and beyond), and we will start at team leaders so that they have the background information to assist their groups as they move forward. Will it be perfect? I would expect that whatever we develop will continue to morph based upon our experience using it in the years to come. But, this is part of the learning process for all of us. Regardless of how many times it does change, I know that it will be more descriptive than what we currently have, that it has made us think and communicate with each other about something we had not been previously, and that it will provide students with a more objective measure of where they are and what they need to do to continue to improve within their habits of mind.


 

Mr. Vander Els writes for two national blog sites, www.connectedprincipals.com and  www.competencyworks.org.  

Contact
Jonathan G. Vander Els, Principal
jvanderels@sau17.org


Stay Connected

Follow us on Facebook at:
Newton Memorial