5th Grade Sets Goals

District Strategic Goal #1: Continuously Improve Student Growth and Achievement

Setting goals and monitoring growth are improvement strategies important in helping students grow and develop as learners. 5th Grade students spent part of their first day of school setting goals for their year of learning. As students “Reach for the Stars” they set goals for developing as readers, honing in on their study skills, and striving for their personal best in other areas. Students will track these goals on classroom data centers and in their individual data folders/binders. The 5th grade staff is eager to help these students accomplish their personal goals as well as facilitate their learning in all academic areas. Good Luck this year, 5th graders, in reaching your goals!

5th grade goals


 

 

 

Welcome to Dunlap Grade School for 2013-2014

Dear Families,

As Principal of Dunlap Grade School, I am eager to begin the 2013-2014 school year and welcome our staff and students back for another wonderful year of learning. Our mission at DGS is to develop lifelong learners and we have plans in place to do just that.

Ongoing Communication

My personal goal is to maintain open communication with the families of DGS. You will be able to access https://dunlapgradeschool.edublogs.org/, follow us on twitter @dgsroyals, and like us at www.facebook.com/DunlapGrade for information regarding special events and news related to DGS. You may also view the DGS webpage at http://www.dunlapcusd.net/dgs/. You may also email me at mellis@dunlapcusd.net. My door is open and I welcome you to stop by and introduce yourself.

Accomplishments

The summer has been a busy time for DGS. The office, teachers, and support staff have been busy making sure DGS is ready for the first day of school. A list of our accomplishments includes:

  • Creation of student recognition programming
  • Hiring of 3 teachers, music teacher, literacy aide, and classroom aides
  • Meeting of the Building Leadership team to begin to formulate vision and goals for the year
  • Professional Development in the areas of creativity, innovation, professional learning communities, social/emotional learning, math and reading.
  • Deep cleaning of all classrooms, common areas, and building façade
  • Painting of five classrooms
  • New landscaping

Faculty Spotlight

The staff at DGS is filled with educated and enthusiastic individuals that are working collaboratively to ensure the best possible educational environment for your children. Our team this year consists of:

Mandy Ellis, Principal

Lisa Kamin, Secretary

Connie Miller, Office Assistant

Britney Barackman, Kindergarten

Amy Douglas, Kindergarten

John Weaver, Classroom Aide

Courtney Erikson, First Grade

Jennifer Donavan, First Grade

Stefanie Pitzer, Second Grade

Kelsie Zarko, Second Grade

Michelle Graber, Classroom Aide

Jamie Flinn, Speech Pathologist

Natalie Lanser, Third Grade

Samantha Mahrt, Third Grade

Jennie Hatch, Student Aide

Kristen Bishop, Student Aide

Dan Eckert, Fourth Grade

Teresa (Marquis) Jarrick, Fourth Grade

Susan Piper, Fifth Grade

Rachel Wooden, Fifth Grade

Nicole Baier, Special Education

Sara Nauman, Special Education

Danyell Alger, World Language

Kelly Bailey, Counselor

Lisa Sell, Literacy Aide

Karen Conlon, School Psycologist

Alyssa Cabrera, School Social Worker

Dave Combs, Physical Education

Steve Wright, Art

Joshua Anderson, Music

Tina Holloway, Band

Chris Adams-Wenger, Orchestra

Amy Berg, Technology

Michelle Mueckler, Librarian

George Horrie, Custodian

Nancy Riekena, Night Custodian

Renee Kuykendall, Head Cook

Jean Deckard, Cafeteria

Important Back to School Dates

Dunlap Grade has several important events coming up. You will be able to view these events on our school website and will receive updates regarding additional upcoming events in the Parent Bulletin that will be sent weekly.

  • August 12, 2013: Bus and Class lists will be posted by 4pm on PowerSchool. All new families are also receiving PowerSchool login information. If you need additional support accessing PowerSchool, please contact the office.
  • August 13, 2013: Kindergarten Back to School Night at 5:30 pm. Kindergarten students and their families are invited to meet their teachers, learn about DGS from me, and tour a bus and the cafeteria.
  • August 15, 2013: 1st-5th Grade Back to School Night 6:30-7:30pm. Students and parents are invited to bring their supplies to their classrooms, meet their teachers, and meet with Parent’s Club leadership members in an Open House format.
  • August 16, 2013: First Day of School. School will be a full day and students will dismiss at 2:45pm
  • August 27, 2013: Picture Day
  • August 29, 2013: Fall Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly at 1:45 pm
  • September 2, 2013: No School– Labor Day

School Hours

We will once again follow an early dismissal schedule every Wednesday throughout the school year this year.  This time allows our teacher’s to work collaboratively as Professional Learning Communities with the ultimate goal of improving teaching and learning for all students.  You can find more information about Professional Learning Communities on our district website at www.dunlapcusd.net.

School / Level

Total Minutes

 

2013-14 School Schedule

M, T, Th, F

Wednesday

Start Time

End Time

Start Time

End Time

Elementary School

7 hours

7:39

2:45

7:39

2:15

Middle School

7 hours

8:24

3:30

8:24

3:00

High School

7 hours, 6 minutes

8:18

3:30

8:18

3:00

HS Zero  Hour

49 minutes

7:24

8:13

7:24

8:13

 

Birthday and Classroom Party Treat Guidelines

Foods that come from home for sharing among children for birthday treats or classroom celebrations must be either whole fruits or vegetables or commercially prepared foods in individually sealed packaging that do not contain nuts. This is necessary for both health and safety so we can then read the label to see the ingredients for children with allergies and special nutritional needs. Any items not individually sealed, that contain nuts or baked goods from home or from a bakery will be sent home.

Transportation

  • Class Lists and Bus Route information will be posted in Powerschool by the end of the business day on August 12th. Information regarding bus stops and times will be available at that time. Powerschool information was sent home in registration packets in May. If you need assistance with Powerschool Login information, please contact the office.
  • Please reserve bus transportation changes only for child care situations or emergencies. Transportation changes will not be issued for play dates or social reasons.
  • Morning Procedures will include bus drop-off in the rear of the building. Students arriving to the school by car should be dropped off in the front of the building. All students will report to the gym upon arrival to school.
  • All student absences must be reported to the office by 8:00 am.  You may call the office at 243-7772 or email the office to report an absence by clicking on the ‘email an absence’ link at the top of the DGS homepage.  Please notify the office if you need to pick up your child during the school day due to an appointment.

Student Code of Conduct

The Student Code of Conduct will be distributed to each student during the first few days of school and reviewed by the classroom teacher during the first few weeks of school. Parents will need to sign off stating they’ve read and understand the policies in the handbook and code of conduct. You will receive this information from your child’s classroom teacher.

Visitors

We welcome parents as volunteers in our building. A new security system was installed this summer. All visitors to the school will be required to buzz in at the front entrance of the building and sign in at the office.  There are visitor’s badges on the sign-in table that we ask all visitors to wear while in the building.  In order to maintain the integrity of the learning environment, we do not allow unannounced visits to classrooms during the instructional day.  All classroom visits must be approved by the classroom teacher and/or the building principal ahead of time.  This allows us to minimize disruptions to the instruction taking place in our classrooms.

School Calendar

The Dunlap School District has developed a school calendar that will allow parents to access all district events in one central location. www.dunlap323.tandemcal.com will allow families to view and subscribe to calendar updates and filter events for individual or multiple schools in the district. An additional PDF calendar will be available on the DGS website under the Parents tab. In addition, monthly calendars will be on the back of the lunch menus each month.

Parent’s Club

Dunlap Grade School has a proud history of parental support and involvement. I encourage you to stop by the Parent’s Club informational area in the cafeteria during Open House to get more information on how you can get involved. We have opportunities available for all parents that you can do at school or from home.

Next Steps

We have a lot of exciting initiatives and continued implementation of quality educational programming at Dunlap        Grade this year.

  • Implementation of Math in Focus curriculum at all levels
  • World Language (Spanish) instruction at the K-1 Levels
  • Second Step, a social-emotional learning curriculum, implementation at all levels
  • Creation of Common Formative Assessments to drive instruction
  • Development of 21st Century Learning strategies utilizing new technologies
  • Continued use of Professional Learning Communities
  • Monitoring school goals on the School Data Center and in classroom data centers and student data binders

Parents, teachers, support staff, and administration all have an important role to encourage and empower our children to become active learners that will excel in a global society. It is my sincere desire to provide expanded opportunities for our students to acquire the skills to become productive citizens in a vastly changing society. Through a close and collegial partnership with everyone associated with Dunlap Grade School, I am confident we can make our school an even better place for our students to learn and grow.

Respectfully,

 

Mandy Ellis

Dunlap Grade School Principal

Harris Poll Coming Soon

Student, Parent and Staff Surveys Coming Soon!
As our school plans for the future, it is very important that we understand the experiences and opinions of our students, parents and staff. The Harris survey, a nationally recognized tool used to generate and measure educational improvements, will be administered for the second time in our district. This survey will be an opportunity for everyone to weigh in on a variety of factors that affect our children’s daily lives. The survey covers everything from the taste of the cafeteria food, to quality of education, to where we should put our resources in the future such as enhanced language and technology programming or perhaps something else you suggest.
Teachers will take the survey on April 17th while students will participate in the survey during the weeks of April 22nd and May 3rd. During the week of April 22nd, each family will receive a survey via US mail. The comments parents and guardians provide will help us understand what really matters most to you. Parent experiences with our school system (combined with student and staff survey input) will play a critical role in evaluating the quality of education and student experiences at our school. Our school will then prioritize issues and work on what you, your student and your student’s teachers have identified as most important via the survey. With that in mind, we ask that you complete and return the survey in the self-addressed, postage‐paid envelope no later than May 6th. Thanks for your involvement in improving your child’s future school experience!

2nd Grade Student Led Conferences

Our goals at Dunlap Grade School are to create an environment where are students will continuously excel in a global society by being:

  • Self-motivated learners
  • Critical thinkers
  • Effective communicators
  • Responsible and culturally aware citizens
  • Technology capable producers

One of the key strategies in developing that vision is the implementation of student-led conferences at DGS. Our K-2 students are participating in them this week. At their conferences, students review their individual data binders and communicate opening with their parents and teachers regarding their progress toward their goals. Check out the video below to see what it looks like in 2nd grade!

Class Dojo

District Strategic Goal #2

Create a satisfying and productive classroom learning environment

to learn more about what is going on at DGS, read below and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dunlapgrade

All students at DGS are finding their greatness and emerging as quality kids. 2nd Grade Classrooms at DGS are using Class Dojo to track their behavior and document their positive choices. Below are the students who met their individual behavior goal for last week in 2Z. They achieved a score of 85% or higher of positive points. ClassDojo is a classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators. Research suggests the shorter the time period between an action and feedback for that action, the greater is the effect of the reinforcement. Specific positive reinforcement helps students develop a sense of purpose in the classroom, enhancing intrinsic motivation over time. By giving students visibility and data on their own behavior, ClassDojo makes class less disruptive and creates a more positive learning environment (www.classdojo.com)

2nd Grade Classdojo Quality Kids in 2Z

Congratulations to these students for making positive choices and continuing to be quality kids!

 

3M Meets their Goal

District Strategic Goal #2: Create a satisfying and productive classroom learning environment

Classroom Learning Communities encourage classrooms to set and monitor their progress to goals. 3M set a goal for their behavior. Once the goal was set, students tracked their progress on a classroom data center. The students in 3M met their behavior goal of earning less than 15 talking tallies during the weeks of November 19th and November 26th. To celebrate this achievement, the students decided to have a reading and game camp out in the classroom! We celebrate our classrooms meeting their goals during our morning meeting. Way to go 3M

Reading Goal Update

Goal #1:

Continuously Improve Student Growth and Achievement

 

We have something that we are celebrating at DGS today. For the first time this year, 100% of classrooms met the school goal on reading theme tests. Our Theme Test goal is for 85% of students to meet grade level criterion scores on Rigby Theme Tests in every classroom. Whereas we have collectively been above that target school wide, this wee marks the first week that every classroom met that goal. We are celebrating by enjoying Royal Blue and Gold DGS Cookies after lunch time! We are so proud of our staff and students for their continuous improvement journey from Good to Great! Keep up the great work!

Classroom Learning Communities Overview

Classroom Learning Communities are created on the basis of 8 key components. These key strategies, when executed congruently, create an environment that fosters student collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication at all academic levels and across all content areas. Those components include; classroom ground rules, mission statement, development of SMART goals, classroom data centers, student data binders, classroom meetings, student-led conferences, and the use of quality tools and the Plan-Do-Study-Act process.

Engaging in continuous improvement efforts at the classroom level begins on “Day 1” of the school year as students develop their own classroom ground rules and mission statement. This process, sets the stage for dynamic classroom collaboration, student engagement, and student ownership and accountability.

As the school year progresses, students and teachers collaboratively write classroom SMART goals and individual student goals. These goals are displayed in classroom data centers and student data binders. These goals align to building goals and are communicated through the district, building and classroom plan-on-a-page. These goals are monitored through professional learning communities with teachers and during classroom meetings facilitated by students. The power of the conversations that occur in professional learning communities and classroom meetings drive continuous improvement efforts through the use of quality tools and the Plan-Do-Study-Act process. Students communicate this progress to families during student-led conferences.

Stay tuned as I walk you through how each of these are developed and used in the classroom.

A Lesson in Learning using Pumpkins

Goal 1:  To continuously improve student growth and achievement.

Circumference and estimating-big words for Kindergarten, but that’s what was happening in their class. This week in our Math in Focus unit, students are working on measurement. They played 20 questions to guess what was in our “mystery box”(pumpkin). Then they had to estimate how much string would go around the pumpkin. They had one student who estimated just right!!

Preparing for Student-Led Conferences

Goal 1:  To continuously improve student growth and achievement.

Dunlap students will continuously excel in a global society by being effective communicators. 

 

Along with presenting their ‘How To’ speeches this week, fourth grade students have been preparing for their own student-led conferences.  Both Mr. Eckert and Ms. Marquis have introduced a variety of ways for students to practice and present their own data collected over the past quarter.  By being able to articulate their growth over the past nine weeks, parents are able to ‘catch a glimpse’ of their child’s school day and learning style.

One method as shown in Mr. Eckert’s class was presenting as a student to his/her parent. While one student was presenting their data, the other acted as a parent listening to their child share his/her data.  With this dualistic approach, students are becoming more comfortable with their presentation skills as well as their preparedness for any questions that may come their way.

Both Mr. Eckert and Ms. Marquis are extremely proud of their students.  They cannot wait to see their students present during the first half of conferences this Thursday and Friday.

1 2 3 4