Ms. Wesley on"February 2009"

Dear Malley Drive Families,

It’s hard to believe that the first month of 2009 is over. January came and went very quickly at Malley Drive. Teachers and students have been hard at work.

We will conduct our second round of Parent-Teacher conferences in February. This is time for teachers to share with you your child’s progress. Teachers will share recent data on student achievement in reading, writing and math as well as progress in behavior. Conferences are held on Wednesday, February 25th from 3:00-7:00 and also on Thursday, February 26th from 7:30 AM until 7:30 PM. Please make every effort to attend your child’s conference. If either of those two dates does not work for you, please contact your child’s teacher. Letters will go home on Friday, February 13th explaining how to sign up for the date and time you want. Additionally, we will make every effort to schedule children within the same family close together. There will be translators available for those families who need that resource.

On Wednesdays during the month of February the staff will continue to learn new ways to meet the needs of our students who speak English as their second language. The staff will attend 3 trainings on RISE strategies. RISE stands for Responsive Instruction for Success in English. The trainings will be conducted by two district ELL coordinators: Mary Anderson and Marti Page. If you would like more information on the specifics of the training, please do not hesitate to contact me.

February is the month that we begin our CSAP testing. CSAP is the state mandated assessment that is given to all students in Colorado. On February 18th and 19th we will give our third graders the reading portion of the test. If you have a third grade student at Malley Drive please make sure he/she gets a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast. During March the 4th and 5th graders will take their CSAP tests and the 3rd graders will take the math and the writing portions of the test. The tests are very long and contain many sections. Third and fourth graders will be taking at total of 9 sections and fifth graders will be taking a total of 12 sections. Needless to say our students will be very exhausted when it is all over.

Finally, we have seen some very typical Colorado weather this month. One day it is 60 degrees and students are wearing shorts and riding their bikes and scooters to school, and the next day it is 15 degrees and snowing. Please make sure your child comes to school dressed appropriately for the weather. As a reminder, if the temperature is below 20 degrees or snowing, the students will not go outside for recess. When temperatures are over 20 degrees with no precipitation we will send the students outside for recess.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement of your child’s education. Together we will provide the best opportunities and education possible for all of our students.

Sincerely,

Anne Wesley