Happy New Year! I hope all your families were able to enjoy the extra time together during the holidays and make some special memories. As the parent of a college senior, when I look in my rear view mirror, I  see that the time we spent together and the things we did together mattered most in the long run. The excitement of new toys and gifts fades but playing games together, family vacations, even cooking together and sharing favorite bedtime stories are what my daughter looks back on and appreciates the most.

New issues of Helping Children Learn Newsletters and Daily Planners have been added to the blog and paper copies are being sent home. Even if you don’t use all the suggestions in the Daily Planners, please check them out to see if there’s at least a few ideas that you can use with your child. Some broken links to past issues in the blog have been repaired. You can find all the newsletters using the menu at the top of the blog or with this link:  Parent Newsletters

During the month of January, all children in kindergarten through fifth grade are taking midyear benchmark assessments to compare their growth from September. You may hear your child or the classroom teacher mention working on tests such as DIBELS, NWEA-MAP, or BAS. NWEA-MAP is done on the computer. DIBELS and BAS are done mostly 1:1 with a child working with the teacher or support staff. During the testing window, there are times when Reading Support and/or upper el Math Support may have to be canceled due to schedule conflicts with the testing. The classroom teachers will share the results within a month when all tests have been completed. At that time, we will also review which students continue to need Academic Support, which students have met benchmark goals and are are to be discontinued and which students now need to be added to the program. Parents will receive letters if the service for their child changes at all.

I have been visiting all classrooms the past couple of months reading to the students, modeling instructional strategies for the teachers and observing literacy lessons. This has enabled me to see daily literacy work from the students’ and teachers’ perspectives. After spending time in the classrooms I can say I was impressed with the many positive reading and writing experiences happening at Bennie!