Mar 11 2016 CW eNews - Forest Hills Public Schools

CW Friday eNews

We Stand Up. We Think Visibly. We are CW!

Mar. 11, 2016

Dear CW Families, On Wednesday of this week, we implemented the first phase of CW’s technology plan to support our the process of making our students’ thinking visible! Thanks to our community for their support the bond a few years ago, we were able to move to a 2 to 1 model with Chromebooks. Each team of teachers now has 28 Chromebooks that will permanently stay in their classes. I encourage you to read through our technology vision for making thinking visible. It is included in this email on page 2! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR VISION! David CW News M-Step - Testing begins for our 5th grade students on Tuesday, April 12th! We are very excited for our students to have the opportunity to celebrate their year of thinking! Our students will be amazing because we focus on deep thinking rather than teaching to a test at CW. We create thinkers at CW, not test takers! Individual classroom test times/days will be communicated next week. AAA Event: Mark March 21st on your calendar! Our district’s AAA committee is hosting an event for both Student and Families titled Bulletproofing Your School. More info at http://fhps.net/community/bully-proofing-youth/

PTO Dinner Night Out: On Monday, March 28 from 5-8 p.m. at Subway on 28th St.

Voyager Team Service Project Blood Drive results: During our Michigan Blood Drive, we registered 34 donors including 9 "1st time donors." Donated/collected 25 pints of blood which will be used to help save 75 lives! We also registered 7 Bone Marrow donors. Thank you to all who participated.  

Tweets of the Week Jaime Casap @jcasap Change conversation from, "who do you want to work for" to "what problem do you want to solve" #edchat #edtech David Simpson @davidsimpson512 We need to think about the questions we are asking our Ss? Are we making their thinking visible? Do we provide for #deeperlearning? #macul16

Aspire to Inspire This week, 10 CW staff members spent 2 days at a conference about learning more about inspiring students using technology. This quote was shared by the keynote speaker. “Don’t ask students what they want to be when they grow up. Ask them what problem they want to solve and what they need to learn to build the knowledge, skills, and abilities to solve that problem! -Jaime Casap

CENTRAL WOODLANDS 5/6 David Simpson, Principal 400 Alta Dale SE, Ada, MI 49301

Phone: 616.493.8790

Fax: 616.493.8795

Making Our Thinking Visible Through An Embedded, Mixed Device Model Almost 3 years ago, our School Leadership Team began visioning work to answer the question: “What do we want our educational program to look like at Central Woodlands 5 years from now?” Although this may appear as a simple question, this work laid the foundation for everything we have done as a school community since then. The vision created from that question was to be a collaborative and caring school community focused on helping our students to become thinkers. Our proposal focuses on our vision of having a mix of technology embedded right into the classroom so teachers and students can plan and use whatever technology needed that day to make their thinking visible. We are moving away from a “cart” mentality that technology is something that should be “scheduled” or “checked out.” When is the last time we have “checked out” pencils? Our vision of supporting our School Improvement Goals of increasing proficiency in math and reading though visible thinking will be enhanced through our embedded mixed device proposal. Amanda Paquette, a K-8 Technology Integration Specialist at the Hartford School District in Vermont, explains the goal for mixed devices can be to challenge teachers and students to really integrate technology into their instruction and learning. She argues by having multiple devices available, “users are challenged to determine which device best suits their learning purpose, and teachers are also challenged to rethink how they are using technology.” Furthermore, there are exciting things happening with the Chrome store that will allow our students to make their thinking visible. Tom Daccord, Director of EdTech Teacher, recently shared 5 Chrome apps and extensions to make thinking more visible in classrooms. He contends “technology creates a wide range of opportunities for students to reveal what they are thinking — from recording and presentation tools to interactive note-taking applications.” In an article written for Blue Sky Innovation titled “Technology reshapes education, 'making thinking visible',” Richard Asa chronicled the work of Edtech specialist Holly Clark, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher. She has traveled the world as part of a group of educators called EdTechTeam to help school districts and educators integrate technology into the classroom in a seamless and logical way. One of her visits was at School District 90 in River Forest, IL, where she worked from 2007 to 2009 as technology curriculum specialist. While there, she said, “it became clear to her that ‘making thinking visible,’ a concept of Harvard University’s Project Zero, was going to be technology’s legacy in education.”

Forest Hills Public Schools - Daniel Behm, Superintendent 6590 Cascade Rd. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546

To that end, our CW staff is collectively proposing the following vision: By 2018, have both Chromebooks and iPads embedded into each core teacher’s classroom for the purpose of deepening and making the thinking visible of all students. We are intentionally moving forward with implementing embedded Chromebooks during the first phase of our strategic plan followed with deployment of iPads in future years. This deployment will also reallocate all existing Chromebooks to be embedded into the classroom.



Phone: 616.493.8790

Fax: 616.493.8795

March 2016 Dear 5th Grade CW Families: As part of our District’s Health Curriculum, our 5th grade students will be meeting on either March 28 and 29 to learn about puberty and the changes associated with it. Students will be split up by gender and will be taught in their Physical Education class. Girls will learn about the female system and boys will learn about the male system. Outcomes for the unit are: 1. Learn the emotional and physical changes related to the male or female systems that will affect them during puberty. 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the proper terminology for the parts and functions of the male or female body. 3. Learn proper hygiene pertaining to the use of deodorants, hair care and bathing. A video entitled, “Just Around the Corner for Boys/Girls” will be shown. Diagrams of the male or female reproductive systems will be used for instruction. There is an optional meeting for parents/guardians who would like to review the health curriculum materials. This will be held on March 14th at 5:00 p.m. in our Media Center. Our counselors have your previous decision to have your child participate in or opt out of reproductive health on file. Please call 616-493-8790 if you wish to change your decision. Sincerely,

David Simpson Principal



Phone: 616.493.8790

Fax: 616.493.8795

March 2016 Dear 6th Grade CW Families: As part of our District’s Health Curriculum, our 6th grade students will be meeting on either March 28 and 29 to continue their learning about puberty from 5th grade. 6th grade students will meet separately by gender during their PE class with these intended outcomes: 1. Review the emotional and physical changes related to the male and female systems that will affect them during puberty. 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the proper terminology for the parts and functions of the male and female reproductive system. 3. Review proper hygiene pertaining to the use of deodorants, hair care and bathing. 4. Understand the relationship of the HIV/AIDS disease to the immune system. A videotape entitled, “Straight Talk About Puberty for Boys/Girls,” will be shown. Diagrams of the male and female reproductive systems will be used for instruction. There is an optional meeting for parents/guardians who would like to review the health curriculum materials. This will be held on March 14th at 5:00 p.m. in our Media Center. Our counselors have your previous decision to have your child participate in or opt out of reproductive health on file. Please call 493-8790 if you wish to change your decision. Sincerely,

David Simpson Principal


BullyProofing FREE

COMMUNITY EVENT

Our YOUTH

Equipping Students with the Skills to Solve Social Conﬂicts and Form Healthy Relationships

Monday, March 21, 2016 7 p.m. Forest Hills Fine Arts Center 600 Forest Hill Ave. SE

An event for parents and students. For more info. visit: www.fhps.net.

Featuring

Jeff Veley

Dynamic and compelling international author, speaker, U.N. Goodwill Peace Ambassador

Program underwritten by a grant from the Forest Hills Public Schools Foundation.

CENTRAL WOODLANDS WEEKLY CALENDAR March 14 - 18, 2016 Monday, March 14 -Parent Mtg for Reproduc2ve Health, B-7, 5:00-6:00 PM -YMCA Winter II Youth Basketball, Gym, 6:00-8:00 PM Tuesday, March 15 -Tutor Club, FHC Na2onal Honor Society Volunteers, Media Center, 3:45-4:30 PM -PoRery Class, STEAM Room, (Tue’s 2/16-3/29; omit 3/22) 3:45-5:15 PM -Bricks 4 Kidz/Jr. Robo2cs, D-7 (Tue’s 1/19-4/19), 3:45-5:00 PM -Winter Baseball Training, Gym (Tue’s 2/16-3/22), 3:45-5:15 PM -Girls on Track, A-1, Tues & Th’s 3/1-3/21 3:45-5:15 PM -YMCA Winter II Youth Basketball (ﬁnal night), Gym, 6:00-8:00 PM Wednesday, March 16 -LiRle Mermaid actors visit from CHS during lunches 11:45 AM-12:45 PM -Winter Baseball (make-up day for 3/1 Snow Day), Gym, 3:45-5:15 PM Thursday, March 17 -6th to GRAM: Homrich/Peneycad (rescheduled from 3/1/) board buses at 9:30 AM & return by 12:20 PM -Challenge Class Tes2ng, Chris2na Mendoza, Media Ctr, Laptop Lab and Computer Lab, 3:45-6:00 PM -Girls on Track, A-1, Tues & Th’s 3/1-3/21 3:45-5:15 PM -Peaceful Dragon Self-Defense, (1/21-3/24/16) Gym, 6:00-9:00 PM Friday, March 18 -6th to GRAM: Hanson/May (rescheduled from 3/2) board buses at 9:30 AM & return by 12:20 PM -Girl Scouts Troop #3822, D-7 3:45-6:00 PM District Events: You Can’t Take It With You, one of the most popular comedies in America will be on the stage at FHN, March 10-12 with a hilarious ensemble cast. Long before “Modern Family,” there was the Sycamore family. Make sure you plan to join this madcap group as they live, love and laugh in an evening sure to end up with fireworks. Don’t let them light the fuse without you! The show will take place in the FHN Auditorium at 7:30 PM each night and is one you don't want to miss! Tickets will only be available at the door! Adults $8 and Students $5! See you at the show! ---------------------------Warm up with Ariel, Prince Eric and all your favorite sea creatures. Join us for this once in a lifetime show! Tickets are already half-way sold out . Get yours before they are gone! March 17 & 18 7:30 March 19 3:00 & 7:30 Tickets available at the FAC or go to showtix4u.com