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Week 2: Settling In and Starting Strong
Happy Friday!
Thank you to every teacher, bus driver, custodian, food service worker, office staff member, paraprofessional, maintenance worker, administrator, tech team member, and volunteer for the dedication you showed throughout this first full week. Your steady effort and positive spirit ensured that our students were not only welcomed back but also engaged in meaningful learning from the very start.
This first full week of the school year gave us the chance to move beyond the introductions and routines of the opening days. Our classrooms are now alive with hands-on lessons, our athletic teams are stepping onto the field and court for real competition, and teachers are beginning to see the unique strengths of each student. These are the moments when the purpose we spoke about last week, instilling confidence and growth, begins to take shape.
Preliminary assessments will soon be taking place so that we can track our academic goals for the year, just as we will continue to monitor attendance and discipline as important indicators of student success. These measures, along with the engaging teaching and learning we are already seeing, will help us keep a clear view of where we are and where we need to go.
Opportunities for Teachers
This year brings several valuable professional learning opportunities for our staff. The Writing Revolution will once again be available to connect the Science of Reading to writing, with cohorts forming now for teachers in all grade levels. In science, OpenSciEd has released new K-5 units that are expected to become high-quality instructional materials. Teachers of grades 3-6 also have the chance to apply for STEM Coalition grants of up to $10,000 to support classroom kits and professional learning. For our new educators, the updated Foundations of Reading test now includes the “Free After Three” policy, making retakes more accessible. Each of these opportunities is designed to invest in you and to support your work with students.
Assessment and Literacy
According to the August TCC Update from the DeQueen-Mena Educational Co-op, we are now entering the third year of our own ATLAS state assessment. Educators are being recruited to participate in item review, bias review, and data review, which is an important opportunity for those with strong knowledge of standards and testing. Andria Miller stated that this is one of the best professional development opportunities for teachers, but they have to know their content standards very well.
On the literacy side, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is continuing its partnership with The Writing Revolution to form new cohorts this year. These courses connect the Science of Reading to writing instruction and are open to K-12 content teachers at no cost to districts.
STEM and Science
The August TCC Update also highlights promising developments in science and STEM. OpenSciEd has released the first of four new units for K-5, which are expected to become high-quality instructional materials in the near future. In addition, the Arkansas STEM Coalition is offering grants of up to $10,000 for grades 3-6. These grants
Published on 2 weeks ago