Week of 1/24 - 1/28

Hey Panda Family,

3rd Quarter here we come! We are so proud of the growth we are seeing from our Pandas from their MOY testing. Make sure to celebrate with your students! Y'all are doing amazing work! Keep it up! 😊🐼

Here are the Weekly Wrap updates for this week:

Baby Panda! (from Ms. Keller): Hey Panda Family! I couldn't wait to share the news with my school people that our family is expecting a new baby, June 2022! ❤️

Jessica Moore: For the last 3 years, Ms. Moore has been a wonderful 1-on-1 assistant for one of our Pandas. The child she was assisting has moved, so Ms. Moore will be taking a new job doing similar work at Sherwood Forest Elementary. We will miss Ms. Moore so very much, but we know she will do great work at her new school. Thank you for all you have done for our Pandas!  

Jayne Grubbs: Ms. Grubbs will be out through February 21. She wanted me to let everyone know that she has greatly appreciated your kind messages and positive thoughts while she has been away. 

iReady Diagnostics: Please make sure all your students complete both diagnostic tests by the end of this week, February 4. 

Staff Perfect Attendance 2nd Quarter: Congratulations to these staff members who had perfect attendance for 2nd Quarter! This is an amazing accomplishment during these challenging times. A special prize will be coming your way soon to celebrate your perfect attendance! Here are the staff members who had perfect attendance in 2nd Quarter:

Kristie Idol

Liz Postle

Deseree Smallwood

Lisa Musten

Natalie Rempe

Vickie Howell

Kayla Vaden

Deana Jones

Jessica Medley

Sonya Hobson

Media Center Updates (from Ms. Epperley): Please see the information/updates below from Ms. Epperley. 

K-2nd: The district is planning to extend the 1:1 Chromebook program to K-2. We will begin gradually rolling this out starting with 2^nd grade and then 1st, and finally K.  Parent Agreements will be sent home to each student.  Parents may opt out of the take home program if they have a device at home. More information will be coming soon!

3rd-5th: Bring Chromebooks to media for Panorama survey this week

Valentines in the classroom: Students may exchange valentines cards and treats with their classmates this year. Please just remind parents of any allergies in your class and that all items must be store bought. 

5^th grade Science Test: The 5^th grade students will take the LIFE science test on Tuesday, February 1.  Mr. Younts, Mrs. Murphy, Mrs. Owens, and Mrs. Ceglowski will have accommodation groups.  Please see test plan linked to LIFE science test. 

• Make-up testing will take place Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. 
• Students with accommodation of small group will come out of the regular classroom for make-up testing.  
• All other students will take the test in their regular homeroom. 

ACCESS Testing (ESL students): January 24 and end around March 3rd. 

• An updated plan for the week will be sent out Monday via email.

PBIS Updates: NEW due date (2/3/2022)

• Next Event: Feb. 11 Panda Chef during your specials. Please add your students to the spreadsheet by February 3. (linked to Panda Chef). 
• As we did with the Glow Stick party, grade level teams will help supervise the event. 
• We will utilize the cafeteria for the event 
• Those classes that eat in the cafeteria on Fridays should choose a different day of the week to eat in the cafeteria. 

Mid-Year PDP Conferences: The sign-up for Mid-Year PDP meetings is hanging up outside mine and Leslie's office.  Please sign up with me if I do your evaluations & please sign up with Leslie if she does yours. Conferences must be completed before 2/18/2022. Make sure your Mid-Year PDP is updated before we meet. This includes your progress to date on your goals, as well as any artifacts that you want to upload that show evidence towards completion. 

Morning Announcements: We will have old school intercom announcements this week. We plan to get back to student led announcements soon :)  

Shoutout: From Ms. Gardner - Thank you for all the well wishes and positive thoughts while I was out last week.  I am feeling much better and ready to return to my Panda Family. Shout out to Mrs. Owens and Mrs. Pereda for a smooth first week of ACCESS testing!

Technology Updates

💻 ❄️⛄❄️💻 Remote Learning: If we must revert to remote learning in the coming weeks and you need to meet with students via Zoom, please reach out to me if you or your students have any issues logging into Zoom. There have been some instances which students cannot get in using teacher links. 💻 ❄️⛄❄️💻

IF Updates

Need assistance while I am out?  Contact one of these wonderful folks: 

ELA- Kathryn Kear kakear@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Math- Adrienne Egerton abegerton@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Early Learning- Anna Crisp amcrisp@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

MTSS- Robyn Varga rmvarga@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

PLT- Mollie Jenkins mbjenkins@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

AIG/CogAt/ITBS school-based questions- Teresa Sweeney tsweeney@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Items from Previous Weeks

Mid-Year Parent Conferences: Just like we have done in year's past, we would like all PreK - 5th grade teachers to complete Mid-Year Parent conferences with all of your families. The primary focus of this conference should be to review MOY results, discuss behavior concerns/successes, and to set a positive tone with each family for the remainder of the school year (make sure to always start each conference with something positive and end with something positive). These conferences should be brief and most will last 10-15 minutes. You may schedule them in-person, over the phone, or through Zoom (your choice). Please have these conferences completed no later than Friday, February 25. When you have completed all of your Mid-Year conferences please complete this Google form to let us know - Mid-Year Parent Conferences Completed. Thanks!

ELA Updates (from district): Please share these ELA updates with teachers. 

MOY mCLASS/DIBELS

•  If your MOY benchmark window is showing incorrect on your device, please encourage your educators to sync their devices when logging in to mCLASS Assessment. MOY windows have been updated in the mCLASS system but these will not show as updated on teacher devices until a sync has occurred. 
•  It is important to ensure teachers select MOY as the time of year.
  
• Invalidations for MOY- please see attached document outlining these changes. DPI and Amplify have changed the process for MOY so that once the district approves the teacher can do the invalidation herself. This will definitely be a more effective process than BOY.
• MOY window opens January 10th running thru February 1st.
• Please review the following slides before administering MOY https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QHyNcEI2KGvaO2BNQOroorKOnn_I4QY9uJhKSCjBZmI/edit?usp=sharing

Upcoming Dates:

  

February 1 - 5th Grade Science Check-In

February 1 - PBIS & MTAC meet @ 3:30

February 2 - Elkins @ Principal Meeting

February 3 - No Staff PD (Work on LETRS independently) 

February 4 - Mclass/Dibels Window Closes

February 4 - iReady Reading MOY Assessment Window closes

February 4 - iReady Math MOY Assessment Window closes

February 4 - Younts @ ITF Meeting

February 4 - 5th grade Mary Starling field trip @ 10:00

February 4 - Report Cards go home

Week of February 7 - Math Fact Fluency Levels School-Wide Begins (more details to come)

February 8 - SIT @ 3:30

February 10 - Gardner @ IF Meeting

February 11 - Panda Chef Challenge PBIS Event

February 15 - Staff Meeting @ 3:30

PGES 2021-2022 Master Staff Calendar

As we roll into February don't under estimate the power of telling your friends, family, and even your students that you Love them each day! Watch what it does - it's amazing!

Week of 1/17 - 1/21

Hey Panda Family,

Happy snow week! ⛄ Thank you for your participation in the rescheduled staff meeting. Here is the recording if you need it - Staff Meeting Video. Most all of the information we reviewed can be found in this week's or last week's Weekly Wrap. As we begin iReady MOY testing this week, make sure to be a cheerleader for your students and find fun ways to motivate them! We can't wait to see their amazing growth! 

Here are the Weekly Wrap updates for this week:

Krystal Laughlin: Please join me in welcoming Krystal Laughlin to the Piney Grove family! Ms. Laughlin will be joining the 4th grade team and we are so excited to have her on board. Her first official day will be 2/21/22, but she will be in this week to meet the class. Ms. Laughlin is a former Piney Grove parent of Ashleigh Ziglar, who is now a student at KMS. Ms. Laughlin interned with us years ago and has since worked in WS/FCS and Guilford County Schools. Welcome to the Panda family, Krystal! 🐼

Fire Drill: Tuesday, 1/25/2022 @ 2:00. We are announcing it so it will not interfere with your testing. 

iReady Diagnostics: Please open the iReady Reading diagnostic and complete this week. If you so choose, your students may also complete the Math diagnostic this week too. Please just avoid having them complete both diagnostics in the same day. The only iReady component that we will be monitoring over the next two weeks is diagnostic completion. 

MOY iReady School Incentive: Students who show 50% or more growth on both the Reading and Math iReady diagnostics will earn a trip to play putt-putt in February. We will let the students know about this incentive during morning announcements on Monday. Please wait to tell your students how they did on the diagnostics until after they have completed both of them. 

Testing Updates: Here are the calendar adjustments for the testing windows. 

• The Math and Reading Check-In 2 window will be extended through Friday, January 28.
• Make-up testing will be available through February 4. 
• Schools should schedule classes to test by January 28, and use the following week for make-up testing only.

• K-3 mCLASS/DIBELS window has been extended through February 4th.

• DPI K-2 Math Mid-Year Formative Assessments window has been extended through January 28th.

• iReady K-5 Reading MOY window has been extended through February 4th.

ACCESS Testing (ESL students): January 24 and end around March 3rd. 

• Mrs. Pereda will do the practice tests with the students 1/24 and 1/25.  She will follow her regular schedule.  
• Mrs. Pereda will not pull students at their regular ESL time when actual testing begins. 
• Testing will be held in the POD.  Please remind students to be quiet when entering and leaving the POD. 
• Students will take their Chromebooks with them to test. 
• Be flexible when students are leaving your classroom for testing.

PLTs: In PLTs this week we will be reviewing expectations to prepare for potential Remote Learning days. We will also be reviewing EVAAS data with you. We understand that you have multiple tasks coming up to prepare for potential Remote Learning days and conducting Mid-Year Parent Conferences; to help give you some time to work on these tasks we will not have PLTs the week of January 31 - February 4. 

PBIS Updates: Students have been away from us for 9 days.  Review PBIS and classroom expectations.  Be consistent.  Be fair. Set the tone, again,  for the rest of the school year!

• Reminder- 2 paw bucks per day
• Next Event: Feb. 11 Panda Chef during your specials. Please add your students to the spreadsheet by February 9. (linked to Panda Chef). 
• As we did with the Glow Stick party, grade level teams will help supervise the event. 
• We will utilize the cafeteria for the event 

Grades: 2nd Quarter now ends on 1/25. Please make sure to finish inputting grades into PowerSchool. Friendly reminder to all 3rd - 5th grade teachers - students can not have an assignment grade lower than a 50 (district policy). 

Mid-Year PDP Conferences: The sign-up for Mid-Year PDP meetings is hanging up outside mine and Leslie's office.  Please sign up with me if I do your evaluations & please sign up with Leslie if she does yours. Conferences must be completed before 2/18/2022. Make sure your Mid-Year PDP is updated before we meet. This includes your progress to date on your goals, as well as any artifacts that you want to upload that show evidence towards completion. 

Morning Announcements: We will have old school intercom announcements this week since we were not in school to film student led announcements.   

Shoutout: Shoutout to our wonderful WS/FCS maintenance crews that helped clean our parking lots and sidewalks from all the snow and ice! Next time you see a maintenance crew member in the building please make sure to tell them Thank You for all they do! 

Technology Updates

🔥 🔥 💻 HP Classroom Manager: Teachers, you have been asking for it and now you do not have to wait any longer! The district is ready to roll out HP Classroom Manager so that you will be able to share documents, manage student devices, create assessments, monitor and track student behavior while online, and much more. I have asked Jessica Medley to pilot this new application before we roll it out to other classrooms within the school. Once we see that it works, I will ask for one volunteer from each grade level to pilot it as well. Those that pilot will assist me in being the primary contact for your team. It may be a slow process, but this is how Marty Creech suggested doing it rather than implementing it schoolwide all at once. 💻 🔥 🔥

IF Updates

Need assistance while I am out?  Contact one of these wonderful folks: 

ELA- Kathryn Kear kakear@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Math- Adrienne Egerton abegerton@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Early Learning- Anna Crisp amcrisp@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

MTSS- Robyn Varga rmvarga@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

PLT- Mollie Jenkins mbjenkins@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

AIG/CogAt/ITBS school-based questions- Teresa Sweeney tsweeney@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Items from Previous Weeks

Mid-Year Parent Conferences: Just like we have done in year's past, we would like all PreK - 5th grade teachers to complete Mid-Year Parent conferences with all of your families. The primary focus of this conference should be to review MOY results, discuss behavior concerns/successes, and to set a positive tone with each family for the remainder of the school year (make sure to always start each conference with something positive and end with something positive). These conferences should be brief and most will last 10-15 minutes. You may schedule them in-person, over the phone, or through Zoom (your choice). Please have these conferences completed no later than Friday, February 25. When you have completed all of your Mid-Year conferences please complete this Google form to let us know - Mid-Year Parent Conferences Completed. Thanks!

ELA Updates (from district): Please share these ELA updates with teachers. 

MOY mCLASS/DIBELS

•  If your MOY benchmark window is showing incorrect on your device, please encourage your educators to sync their devices when logging in to mCLASS Assessment. MOY windows have been updated in the mCLASS system but these will not show as updated on teacher devices until a sync has occurred. 
•  It is important to ensure teachers select MOY as the time of year.
  
• Invalidations for MOY- please see attached document outlining these changes. DPI and Amplify have changed the process for MOY so that once the district approves the teacher can do the invalidation herself. This will definitely be a more effective process than BOY.
• MOY window opens January 10th running thru February 1st.
• Please review the following slides before administering MOY https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QHyNcEI2KGvaO2BNQOroorKOnn_I4QY9uJhKSCjBZmI/edit?usp=sharing

Upcoming Dates:

  

January 24 - iReady Reading & Math MOY Assessment Window opens for PGE

January 24 - ACCESS Testing opens for ESL students

January 25 - Fire Drill @ 2:00

January 25 - 2nd Quarter ends

January 25 - SCC & Wellness Committees meet @ 3:30

January 25 - PTA Hotdog "Dinner with Dads" @ 6:00 - 7:30

January 26 - Report Cards due to Ms. True

January 27 - Class Pictures with Lifetouch

January 28 - K-2 Math Formative Assessment window closes

February 1 - 5th Grade Science Check-In

February 1 - PBIS & MTAC meet @ 3:30

February 2 - Elkins @ Principal Meeting

February 3 - No Staff PD (Work on LETRS independently) 

February 4 - Mclass/Dibels Window Closes

February 4 - iReady Reading MOY Assessment Window closes

February 4 - iReady Math MOY Assessment Window closes

February 4 - 5th grade Mary Starling field trip @ 10:00

PGES 2021-2022 Master Staff Calendar

On Tuesday evening, PTA will be hosting a free "Dinner with Dads". See the flier below. We hope to have dads, uncles, grandfathers, and step-dads come join us (the kids are invited too)! The goal is that we can share ways they can volunteer and be more involved in their child's education, while having a nice meal on us. Please help promote this with your class. Thanks!

Week of 1/10 - 1/14

Hey Panda Family,

Congratulations to all our nominees and winners of our Core Awards. Everyone on the ballot was unbelievably deserving, and we wish Ms. Keller, Ms. Epperley, Ms. Jenkins, and Ms. Eversole the best of luck as they progress to the district round of nominees! We hope everyone enjoys the beautiful winter weather this weekend ❄ Be safe! If we have any significant cancellations this week we will communicate any adjustments made to the district testing windows. Happy sledding! 

Here are the Weekly Wrap updates for this week:

Staff Meeting: Our January staff meeting will be this Tuesday, January 18 @ 3:30 in the Media Center. Here is the agenda:

• Staff Awards
• Covid Updates
• Instructional Rounds Data & Next Steps
• SEL 101 (presentation from district SEL coach)
• Miscellaneous Items
• Heart Picture

iReady Reading Diagnostic: Please open the iReady Reading diagnostic and complete this week. The only iReady component that we will be monitoring this week is Reading diagnostic completion. 

NC Check-in testing (3rd - 5th grade): Thank you to everyone for making testing go as smooth as possible.  We have a lot of students that still need to test.  Ms. Gardner will provide a list of students that still need to test. 

• Students with testing accommodations will be pulled out of class
• Students without accommodations will test in their classroom 

If the window is extended due to weather, Ms. Gardner will let you know. 

ACCESS Testing (ESL students): This will begin January 24 and end around March 3rd. 

• Mrs. Pereda will not pull students at their regular ESL time.  
• Testing will be held in the POD.  Please remind students to be quiet when entering and leaving the POD. 
• Students will take their Chromebooks with them to test. 
• Be flexible when students are leaving your classroom for testing. 

Mid-Year Parent Conferences: Just like we have done in year's past, we would like all PreK - 5th grade teachers to complete Mid-Year Parent conferences with all of your families. The primary focus of this conference should be to review MOY results, discuss behavior concerns/successes, and to set a positive tone with each family for the remainder of the school year (make sure to always start each conference with something positive and end with something positive). These conferences should be brief and most will last 10-15 minutes. You may schedule them in-person, over the phone, or through Zoom (your choice). Please have these conferences completed no later than Friday, February 25. When you have completed all of your Mid-Year conferences please complete this Google form to let us know - Mid-Year Parent Conferences Completed. Thanks! 

Posting Student Work: Thank you to those who have posted student work outside their classrooms and attached I can statements with them. It is a great way to show off what your students are learning! We would like all classrooms to post student work with I can statements if you haven't already done so. The students love seeing their work displayed. It makes them proud 😁 See the pic below. I thought this was an excellent idea - this teacher used a plastic sleeve and a whiteboard so they could easily change their I can statement whenever they posted new student work! 

Grades: This is the last week of 2nd Quarter. Please make sure to finish inputting grades into PowerSchool. Friendly reminder to all 3rd - 5th grade teachers - students can not have an assignment grade lower than a 50 (district policy). 

MTSS: See updates below. 

When to send a new letter to parents if:

• Tier change (Core to Supplemental) (Supplemental to Intensive) 

• Adding additional intervention(s)

• Notifying the parent to update them about the tiers, interventions, academic progress

MTSS team members:

• Grade level team

• Admin

• Counselor

• When changing from Tier 2 to Tier 3 (IST) a variety of team members should be present for the meeting. Example: a 5th grade student is moving from Tier 2 to Tier 3 members from 4th and 3rd should be present at the meeting. 

Scheduling MTSS meetings: Please send Gardner an email.  Copy Ceglowski.  Include 3 days and times you want to meet so we can check our calendars.  One of us will be present for the meeting.  

Mid-Year PDP Conferences: The sign-up for Mid-Year PDP meetings is hanging up outside mine and Leslie's office.  Please sign up with me if I do your evaluations & please sign up with Leslie if she does yours. Conferences must be completed before 2/2/2022. Make sure your Mid-Year PDP is updated before we meet. This includes your progress to date on your goals, as well as any artifacts that you want to upload that show evidence towards completion. 

Staff PGE Shirts (we will place order on January 21): We are ordering more of the PGE Staff t-shirts that we gave out at the beginning of the school year. If you would like to order an extra shirt they will be $15 each (cash only). Please pay Ms. Owens. Complete the Google form linked here to place your order - PGE Staff Shirt Order Form

Morning Announcements: Since this upcoming week is a short week, we will have old school intercom announcements January 18-20.  

Shoutout: A huge shoutout to Ms. Landreth, Ms. Bolchalk, and Ms. Gardner for handling the abundance of Covid cases over the last few weeks. It has been a massive job (on top of all their other duties) and we can't thank each of you enough! 

Technology Updates

💻 Lost Internet Connection: A few weeks ago, I mentioned that there was an issue with teachers losing Internet connectivity throughout the day. It is mostly isolated cases, but it is still occurring. After talking to Phillip, our area technician, he said that the technology department is aware of the issue, but does not have a definitive answer as to why it is happening. In the meantime, there is no need to submit a ticket, just reconnect and continue about your business as normal. 

IF Updates

Need assistance while I am out?  Contact one of these wonderful folks: 

ELA- Kathryn Kear kakear@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Math- Adrienne Egerton abegerton@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Early Learning- Anna Crisp amcrisp@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

MTSS- Robyn Varga rmvarga@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

PLT- Mollie Jenkins mbjenkins@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 

AIG/CogAt/ITBS school-based questions- Teresa Sweeney tsweeney@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Items from Previous Weeks

ELA Updates (from district): Please share these ELA updates with teachers. 

MOY mCLASS/DIBELS

•  If your MOY benchmark window is showing incorrect on your device, please encourage your educators to sync their devices when logging in to mCLASS Assessment. MOY windows have been updated in the mCLASS system but these will not show as updated on teacher devices until a sync has occurred. 
•  It is important to ensure teachers select MOY as the time of year.
  
• Invalidations for MOY- please see attached document outlining these changes. DPI and Amplify have changed the process for MOY so that once the district approves the teacher can do the invalidation herself. This will definitely be a more effective process than BOY.
• MOY window opens January 10th running thru February 1st.
• Please review the following slides before administering MOY https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QHyNcEI2KGvaO2BNQOroorKOnn_I4QY9uJhKSCjBZmI/edit?usp=sharing

Testing Windows & Dates for PGE: Below are the testing windows for MOY and Q2 Check-Ins. Here are some specifics though for PGE. 

• We will begin iReady Reading MOY testing the week of January 17, not when the window opens. We will turn off the diagnostic until this date. This will allow all students to have a full week of iReady practice before taking their MOY assessment. 

• You may begin mClass testing when the window opens on January 10 if you so choose. 

• January 13th - ELA Check-In (4th, 5th)

• January 14th - Math Check-In (3rd, 4th, 5th)

• January 18th - 20th - Makeup testing 

• February 1st - 5th grade Life Science 

Elementary MOY/EOQ2 Assessments

	Kinder	Grade 1	Grade 2	Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5
Check-In 2: Reading					January 10 - 20	January 10 - 20
Check-In 2: Math				January 10 - 20	January 10 - 20	January 10 - 20
K-2 Math MOY (DPI)	January 10 - 20	January 10 - 20	January 10 - 20
iReady Reading MOY	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1
mCLASS/ DIBELS MOY	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1	January 10 - February 1
iReady Math MOY	January 24 - February 4	January 24 - February 4	January 24 - February 4	January 24 - February 4	January 24 - February 4	January 24 - February 4
Check-In 2: Life Science						January 31 - February 4

Upcoming Dates:

  

January 17 - MLK Jr. Day (No School)

January 17 - iReady Reading MOY Assessment Window opens for PGE

January 18 - Staff Meeting @ 3:30

January 20 - End of 2nd Quarter

January 20 - Leslie @ AP Meeting (8:30 - 11:30)

January 20 - K-2 Math Assessment Window Closes

January 20 - NC Check-In Window Closes for Reading & Math

January 21 - RS Workday

January 21 - Gardner & Elkins Off Campus @ WHS for PD/Training

January 24 - iReady Math MOY Assessment Window opens for PGE

January 24 - ACCESS Testing opens for ESL students

January 25 - SCC & Wellness Committees meet @ 3:30

January 26 - Report Cards due to Ms. True

January 27 - Class Pictures with Lifetouch

February 1 - Mclass/Dibels Window Closes

February 1 - iReady Reading MOY Assessment Window closes

February 1 - 5th Grade Science Check-In

February 1 - PBIS & MTAC meet @ 3:30

February 2 - Elkins @ Principal Meeting

February 3 - No Staff PD (Work on LETRS independently) 

February 4 - iReady Math MOY Assessment Window closes

February 4 - 5th grade Mary Starling field trip @ 10:00

PGES 2021-2022 Master Staff Calendar

Just in case we get a snow day...😉