Happy Fall Eve

As tomorrow is the autumnal equinox, officially marking the first day of Fall, I wanted to share an old blog post from my favorite meteorologist, Tom Skilling from WGN (the World's Greatest Network), where he answers a question about the length of day on the equinox.  Impress your friends this weekend with your rich knowledge of this meteorological event as you (and I) sit with other parents, watching our kids at gymnastics or a football game or a soccer game or a hockey game or a swim meet or a ...

"According to Dan Joyce of the Cernan Space Center at Triton College, the equinox has two definitions: It is the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator (the projection of the plane of the Earth's geographical equator into space). In the case of the autumnal equinox (about Sept. 22), the sun crosses the equator from north to south. The equinox is also defined as the exact point in space the sun occupies at that moment it crosses the celestial equator.

The term "equinox" means "equal night," meaning there is as much night in the northern hemisphere at that instant as in the southern hemisphere. It does not mean that any place on Earth gets an equal amount of day and night. A check reveals that sunrise to sunset on the date of the equinox is still just a little more than twelve hours and that we usually have to wait a few more days to achieve an exact 12-hour day."

CBM Sweeps

As for us around these parts, countless teachers, support staff (and principals) volunteered their planning and prep time to aide in assessing all students' reading fluency in the learning center. This important data is used in conjunction with other high stakes assessments, like ISAT and MAP, to better understand your children's learning needs.  We're planning to send home ISAT and MAP results with students the first week of October, and if you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to give us a call or stop by.

Pack PAWS

Our guidance counselor, Mrs. Tammy Franks, asked that I share some important information about our behavior reinforcement program, Pack PAWS, and if you would like to chat further about PAWS, again, call or stop in for a visit.

We could not be more excited to welcome the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year!  Not only will our students make great academic gains, but they will also be engaging in social emotional learning as well.  WL will be supporting our students’ social and emotional growth in several ways. Once again, our entire staff will be implementing the Pack PAWS Program. PAWS stands for Positive Action leads to Woodlawn Success. 

The program teaches students how to be responsible, respectful, and safe in all school environments.  Furthermore, our Pack PAWS program contributes to the formation of a positive school culture, where students feel comfortable and safe.  All of our students learned and reviewed the expectations of how to be responsible, respectful, and safe in the classroom, hallways, and assemblies on the first day of school; in classes and at an assembly.

Now that all WL students understand our expectations to create a safe school environment, we can look towards celebrating their success! When students meet or exceed our expectations, they are given a Pack PAWS. There are many opportunities to redeem these PAWS throughout the day, in classes and at lunch.  There are even more (and bigger) opportunities to come.  Stay tuned to see how you can help!

Tammy Franks Cornwell
School Counselor

Standards-based Reporting 

Now that the year is well underway, I thought it made sense to re-introduce the weekly Standards-Based Reporting "Question of the Week". This week's question is a restatement from an earlier post, with some new information related to the upcoming field tests of the new reporting system, which will officially start in Trimester 2. 

What descriptors will be used to report student learning by target? 

We intend to report student learning with both an overall course grade as well as specific indicators of target mastery. Student learning related to specific targets will be reported using some new terminology:

Meets (3.0): The student meets the target as listed in the grade-level Curriculum Framework, which you received at the beginning of the year. The student grasps and applies the key concepts, processes, and skills for the grade level. This is the expectation for all students. You can access all grade level Curriculum Frameworks via the District 96 website. 

When students either go beyond the target or need more help, their learning will be reported as:

Extends (4.0): In addition to the “Meets” criteria, the student demonstrates more complex learning that goes beyond what was explicitly taught. This category may not apply to some targets.

Below (2.0): The student is beginning to, and occasionally does, demonstrate understanding of the target as listed in the grade-level Curriculum Framework. The student is able to grasp and apply some of the key concepts, processes, and skills but produces work that contains errors and may need additional support at times to be successful. 

Well Below (1.0): The student is not meeting and has made little progress toward the target as listed in the grade-level Curriculum Framework. The student is working on concepts, processes, and skills leading to grade-level work. The student needs additional support and practice to show progress toward grade-level expectations. 

These terms will then be considered across learning targets within each trimester and mathematical calculations will be run to convert these terms into the final overall course grade, which will be reported on a traditional "A"-"F" basis. 

In some courses, teachers are beginning to integrate these terms into their reporting using the current Power School format, which reports on a percentage scale. Your students may receive papers that are graded on a 10-point scale so that their scores easily convert into our current version of Power School. Scores of a 10, 9, and 8 indicate that the student "met" the learning target, with higher scores in this range given for more thorough demonstrations of proficiency/understanding. Scores of 7 or 6 indicate that the student's performance was "below" standards. A score of a 5 would indicate that a student's understanding was "well below" the established standards. When we launch the field test in Trimester 2, courses implementing the new system will also use a new version of Power School, which will allow to report using the 4-point terminology described above.

To review, the field test will take place in the following content areas starting in Trimester 2:

6th-8th Grade Language Arts

6th-8th Family and Consumer Science (FACS)

6th-8th Health

6th Grade Band

6th Grade Orchestra

7th Grade Spanish

We will continue to provide opportunities to learn more about standards-based reporting via blog updates as well as through more formal vehicles (presentations, surveys, etc.). As always, if you have specific questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher, Mr. Grana, or me. 

6th grade Options All About Me 

Students in Options are currently creating digital creations about themselves to share with one another.  Final products should be pretty cool... be sure to ask your students about them- especially those with older students to see how the infusion of technology has truly brought these projects to life.

Here's a student in Mrs. Racheal Kalisz's class contemplating her first brush stroke

Physical Education

Speaking for Mrs. Mary Blair and Mr. Jim Donofrio, Mr. Dan Berry asked me to share what's up in the world of PE...

Last week student's in Mr Berry's class were given a special option to honor the memory of those lost on 9/11. Students run the mile in PE every Tuesday throughout the Fall. I usually post a standard running warm up to be done before the we go out and run. On 9/11, the student's chose whether they wanted to do the usual or special workout (before the mile) in honor of the day. 

The workout:

   9 rounds to be completed as fast as possible: 

   5 burpees

   6 sit ups (11 reps/round)

I was very proud to see how many students chose to do something special and the understanding of what and why they did it. I asked those that chose to participate to sign a whiteboard so I could share on the blog. 

Also...the AWESOME new EZ-Up shelter that the PTO purchased has arrived!!! Cross Country and Track coaches are very excited about this. It will help give us a "home base" at big IESA meets (especially Sectionals & State) and most importantly provide are athletes with a safe place to hide from the weather conditions. THANK YOU VERY MUCH PTO!!

Speaking of the PTO... don't forget to check out their newsletter, you can click the link at the top of this page or here.

Have a great weekend everyone...Go Bears!

Chris