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Edison Language Academy – Together Through Two Languages (310) 828-0335 www.edison.smmusd.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS SUPERINTENDENT DRATI visited Edison on 11/26 to share information with parents about district policies for improving campus security and safety. Dr. Drati spoke about the district’s new Visitor Identification Program and answered parent questions about how it will be used to screen for child predators. He will also be providing some additional information in response to parent concerns about data privacy to be shared at an upcoming PTA meeting. Thank you Dr. Drati. FAMILY SALSA NIGHT THIS FRIDAY! Join the Edison community from 5:30-8:00 pm for delicious food, music, dancing, and the famous salsa tasting contest! Maestras Ipiña and Murcia will be offering dance lessons from 6:30-7:00 pm. To thank those families who have donated to the PTA and/or Santa Monica Education Foundation since the start of the school year, our PTA will be providing donors with 5 free tickets to use toward food purchase that night! Bring your smiles and your dancing shoes! SITE COUNCIL BALLOTS –Ballots are due to the front office by Monday, December 9. Help select three parent members of Site Council. EARN MONEY FOR EDISON WHILE YOU DO YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING - If you shop through Amazon, go to smile.amazon.com and search “All Charitable Organizations”. Enter “Edison Language Academy PTA” and then select it from the menu. Shop through smile.amazon.com (not amazon.com). You can use your prime account with Amazon Smile. This does not cost you anything, but Amazon will donate to Edison a % of all your purchases made after you register at smile.amazon.com. SUPPORTING EACH OTHER WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH -- Consider making a holiday donation to support Edison families in need by donating cash and/or gift cards for groceries or other essentials this holiday season. Contact Francine Ortega (francineortega@gmail.com) with questions or to make a donation. Contact Yoly Gutierrez (ygutierrez@smmusd.org) if your family needs assistance from the network.
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK: RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM Edison has made Responsive Classroom (RC) a schoolwide tool as part of its Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) strand. Through SEL, we provide students with the skills that help them build and maintain positive relationships with their peers and significant adults in their lives, learn to regulate their emotions and attention, and build the sort of school success skills that allow them to be successful learners. We chose RC because it’s a set of research, and evidencebased practices designed to “create safe, joyful, and engaging classroom and school communities for both students and teachers”. In summer 2019, Edison hosted a four-day RC institute for Edison teachers and last week we offered a oneday intensive introduction to RC for teachers who weren’t available last summer -- including Special Education and Intensive Intervention Teachers. We also had our RC Trainer come and do an audit of how participants in last summer’s training were implementing RC in their classrooms. We got high marks for implementation and are encouraged to see how widely RC strategies have been embraced so far. To help us all move more deeply and skillfully into using RC strategies, we’ve just scheduled a fourday RC Advanced Class for next August (10-13). One of the aspects of RC that can be seen widely at Edison is interactive modeling. This is a powerful strategy at school and can be a useful tool at home as well to improve clarity and engagement. It is used before asking a child to do a particular task. Clearly modeling the behavior for students before they are expected to implement it increases both engagement and success. Follow these steps if you want to try this strategy at home: 1) Say what you will model and why; 2) Model the behavior (you do it and show them what it looks like and sounds like); 3) Ask the child what they noticed (this is a critical step to make this interactive); 4) Invite the child to model the task; 5) Again, ask the child what they noticed, 6) Have the child practice; and 7) provide the child with feedback. We’ve found it well worth the time! December 4 PTA Executive Board Meeting 6:00-8:00 pm
December 5 5th Grade Winter Music Informance – 8:40 am Cafeteria
December 11 ELAC Meeting 8:30 am Library