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It has been a great start to the 2011-2012 School Year! There are many wonderful things that will be happening at Lonsdale Elementary School. This will be a year of increased family engagement, improved student achievement, and welcomed changes to the physical plant at Lonsdale.
Our teachers continue to focus on improving teaching and learning as we go through the many changes in curriculum and assessment. Race to the Top, a federal initiative of which Rhode Island is a part, is facilitating the surety that all students learn what they should at each grade level, in every academic area. Lincoln’s partnership with the Charles A. Dana Center has already started this work in Mathematics and, more recently, Science.
I continue to be excited with the full implementation of the PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) program that exists at Lonsdale. An innovative School-based PBIS team has added several motivating components into the PBIS program at Lonsdale. These include: Paws for Positive Behavior, Classroom Rewards, School-wide Rewards, Paw-Plus Principal’s awards, the weekly school-wide Paw Raffle, and more. We are also continuing our “Key to Kindness” program at Lonsdale, which recognizes children for random acts of kindness. This program, designed by the PBIS team, is Lonsdale’s response to “Rachel’s Challenge”.
One exciting innovation at Lonsdale this year is the implementation of a Block Master Schedule that I have designed to intensify interventions for all students at each grade level. The schedule ensures uninterrupted blocks of time whereby students receive a continuum of services from reading teachers, special educators, classroom teachers, speech and language pathologists, and others. The block offers the opportunity for teachers to collaborate, co-teach, create smaller flexible groups, and use data to inform instruction.
Finally, students are learning how to improve expository writing by using a mnemonic method called TEEC. A TEEC paragraph has four components: A Topic Sentence, Evidence, Explanations, and a Closing Sentence. We have begun to see great results at Lonsdale using this structure, which really helps students respond to both literary and informational text. We have also seen great results responding to questions in science and math.
I want to remind all parents that I am available to each and every one of you. Your children are my main focus at Lonsdale. Each and everything we do is for the benefit of our students, and I view you as partners in your children’s education. Hats off to a terrific school year! |
