F E B R U A R Y
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El Semanario
Edison Language Academy – Together Through Two Languages (310) 828-0335 www.edison.smmusd.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS LUNAR NEW YEAR – begins on January 28 this year. Happy New Year to all those in our community who are celebrating the Year of the Rooster! HEAD LICE – Each year millions of children get head lice. Although they are a nuisance, they don’t cause serious illness or cause disease. Anyone can get head lice – it doesn’t matter how clean your child’s hair is or how clean your home is. Head lice spread mainly by prolonged head-to-head contact. Please check for head lice periodically as you brush your child’s hair or help them shampoo. If you see children scratching their scalp, check behind their ears or at the back of their neck to see if lice are involved. In a brightly lit room, check for live lice (quick moving and hard to spot!) and nits (small white or yellowish specks attached to a hair or the scalp). Lice have to be treated and nits carefully removed (wet hair and a fine tooth comb). Please let the school nurse know if your child has head lice so that we can notify others in the classroom that a case has been identified and so we can inspect your child’s head and offer advice about how to treat and remove these pesky critters! THEATER INFORMANCES -- Please see the attached schedule of theater informances and plays and mark the date for your child’s class performance. Note that third grade performances will be at the Wax Museum at year’s end. Invitations are also being sent home by teachers. Come and see the theater arts work the children have done (in Spanish) this year with our PS Artist in Residence Martha Ramirez Oropeza. BLUE RIBBON VALENTINES DANCE – Join us on Friday evening, February 10 for dinner, dancing, Loteria, magic as we celebrate Día de Amistad. This is a major fundraiser and volunteers are needed!
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK: MID-YEAR PROGRESS REPORTS On February 10, Edison teachers will be sending first semester Progress Reports home to parents. These are NOT report cards with grades, but rather are reports on the progress your child has made during the first semester toward the grade level standards that they need to master by the end of the year. Remember, students have until the end of the year to master or exceed these standards. So, if the progress report indicates that a student is making progress toward standards, that is about where they should be. They have almost four months to reach or exceed mastery. If your child is making little progress toward standards, you have probably already had a conversation with the teacher and have developed an academic improvement plan that details what the school and what parents will do. If the progress report indicates that the student is still making little or no progress toward standards, there is cause for concern and you will want to meet with the teacher to see about revising or increasing the intensity of the intervention plan. Some students will have already met the standard for a particular skill, or may have even exceeded the standard. You will want to talk with your child’s teacher to see how some additional challenge or acceleration can be added around that area of work, or if it is now time to shift his or her focus to another area that may not be coming along with the same success. There are always ways that an additional challenge can be provided. If there is a standard that is marked N/A, it simply means that it has not been introduced in the first semester. Some standards are foundational and are only introduced when a student has mastered prerequisite skills; others are topics that simply aren’t introduced until later in the year. Progress reports are a monitoring tool and provide information for a conversation between parents and children and parent, children and teachers. If your child is not progressing as you had hoped, start by making sure the he or she is putting in the time and effort needed to be successful at school -- too many absences, late arrivals or early departures may be cutting into instructional time. Additionally, make sure daily reading and homework completion is happening. See how your child might be able to access some of the on-line learning programs for additional practice outside school. Talk to your child about what might be getting in the way of his or her learning and then talk with the teacher. Together you can explore problems, do some additional investigation about possible barriers to success, and make a plan to support learning and mastery in the second semester. If you and the teacher need support in figuring out challenges facing your child, you can ask that we convene a Student Success Team with some of the school specialists to explore possible learning, attention/focus, or social/emotional challenges that may be impacting learning for your child. We know that with proper support all our students can be successful learners, and we’re here to assist. January 18-February 15
MLK Kindness and Justice Challenge
February 8 – 8:30 am Community Dialog Meeting Community Room
February 10 – First Semester Progress Reports Go Home