10-17-15
Good afternoon!
We had an outstanding week at Columbia Elementary! There is only one thing that could make it better and that is a victory from THE Ohio State University over Penn State tonight:)! I have a lot of great news to report out to you about your children:
Tiger Up Time:
Yesterday, we had an incredible day with our students! This month we focused on goal setting and good decision making skills. In our mentor time, we focused our conversations and lessons on the importance of setting short and long term goals and good decision making. We connected these conversations from our students' current reality at Columbia Elementary to their adult life.
From a personal perspective, I really enjoyed these conversations that my mentees and I had. It was great to take time to truly focus on such important life skills as goal setting and good decision making. I know each time I sit with my mentees, I am learning new things about them, which I have never known over the last 2.5 years. This is very valuable! I feel that each of us that are serving in these capactities as Mentors are gaining a better perspective of our students, which will allow us to serve them better. I am also hopeful that our students are also gaining the knowledge and skills that will allow them to be successful in their own lives.
Following our mentor time, we were grateful to have Mr. Todd Hawkins from First Knox National Bank to speak with our students about the importance of good decision making. We were very impressed by Todd's message and very grateful for First Knox National Bank allowing us to use him for this purpose. Please take a look at Todd in action with our students:
COSI On Wheels
I cannot thank our PTO, our 20 parent volunteers, Nicole Justice, and the many others that put their effort into making sure our students had this great experience! As excepted COSI did a great job bringing Science to life for our students to learn.
It was awesome to see our students so engaged in Science!!!
Energy Cooperative Grant:
We applied for a grant in August 2015 to increase our inventory of Chromebooks and Charging Carts for our students. This week we received great news that The Energy Cooperative Electric Company is going to award our school a grant of $6,575 for Chromebooks ($270/computer) and a Charging Cart ($1,500 each). While there are a few more things that I need to do before we get the money, this is awesome news for our students! We want to also send a special thank you to Energy Cooperative for their support!
2014-15 State PreliminaryTest Scores:
Of course this data is preliminary, but I want to express to all of you how very proud I am of all of our students, our Instructional Team, and Parents that continue to work together towards excellence:
| 2014-15 State Report Card | State Averages | 2015 Indicator Met? | 2013-14 State Report Card | 2014 Indicator Met? | |
| 3rd Grade | |||||
| Reading | 88% | NA | Yes | 77.10% | No |
| Math | 89% | 65.00% | Yes | 77.80% | No |
| 4th Grade | |||||
| ELA | 71.40% | 69.00% | Yes | 86% | Yes |
| Math | 79.40% | 64.00% | Yes | 82.10% | Yes |
| SS | 76% | 70.00% | Yes | NA | NA |
| 5th Grade | |||||
| ELA | 73.20% | 66.00% | Yes | 67.40% | No |
| Math | 74.40% | 68.00% | Yes | 60.50% | No |
| Science | 78% | 62.00% | Yes | 72.10% | No |
| State Indicators Met | 8 of 8!!! | 2 of 7 |
Excellence is a tradition at Columbia Elementary and we still have work to do! Nevertheless, I am very proud of the work we accomplished together last year. Great job!!!
Reading and Math After School Program for Grades 3-5:
Over the last year and half, we have offered an After School Program for students in grades 3-5 and have had great success:
This program is designed to help our students strengthen their Reading and Math Skills. From November 9th until February 9th, every Monday and Tuesday when school is in session, your son/daughter will attend Reading and Math classes until 4:45pm. During each day of our After School Program, our students will be rotating through Reading, Phonics, and Math Classes. The purpose of these classes is to develop a better understanding of concepts they are already struggling with in their regular classes.
While we understand and value activities and time spent among each family outside of the school day, we also understand how important Reading and Math skills are for our students to be successful in life. Each of us must give our students the opportunity to strengthen their skills in order to build a solid foundation in Reading and Math. Therefore, the child’s attendance and participation in this program is necessary. These classes will be lead by our highly skilled teachers. All of us find this program so important, that our school district is continuing to provide bus transportation for those students that normally ride the school bus. The students are encouraged to bring a snack and drink to the after school program.
We are very excited about this Reading and Math After School Program and how beneficial it will be to our students. We are also very thankful that this program is supported by Federal Grant Dollars. Please sign and return the slip below to acknowledge that you have received this information by 10/23/2015. After we reevaluate our students’ academic needs, we will be offering a second after school reading and math program starting on 2/22/15. Please know that we will be sending out more information and permission slips to specific students at a later date.
Please take a look at the results from this program over the last year:
Of those students that passed the PARCC Tests, these percentages scored either proficient or accelerated:
This is a program that we believe that will add value to students who are struggling in Reading and Math. Students are selected to be a part of this program based on the student's academic data performance and/or teacher/my recommendation. If you child does not receive a letter in the next week about this program and you would like him/her to be apart of it, please contact their teacher or I and let either of us know. Just a reminder, bus transportation is provided by the district for all students that normally ride a school bus to and from school.
Donuts with Parents and Veteran's Day Assembly-11/9/15:
Get ready because this year our Veteran’s Day Program will be held on Monday, November 9th at 9:30am in our gymnasium. We are both honored and excited to present this program once again to you. As a part of this program, we will be putting together another video in honor of our Veterans and the men and women of our Columbia Elementary families who have served or are serving in an armed force and/or a public safety official. We must not forget that these people are the true reason why we can enjoy our freedom.
If you have a member of your family that you would like to include in the video, please submit a photo by October 30th. Please know that anything submitted after this date will not be included in our video. If you are able to, please scan the photo and send the photo electronically in .jpg or .png form to Mrs. Miller at: dmiller@mvcsd.us. If you do not have a photo in an electronic form, you can send a photo to school and Mrs. Miller can scan it. If you send it to school, we will scan the original and return the original to you.
In addition to the assembly, you are invited to our donuts with parents event before school begins that is sponsored by our PTO. Please come and enjoy a donut with your child and stay to watch a great assembly! The donuts will be available from 8:25am - 8:55am.
IMPORTANT Upcoming Dates:
10/19-No School-Teacher Inservice Day (½ Day) and Teacher Workday (½ day)
10/19-I am presenting at BOE MTG (MS Library) about Columbia Elementary-All are invited
10/20-Start of 2nd 9wks
10/23-Grade Cards go home with all students
10/29-Vision and Hearing Screenings for Grades 1, 3, and 5 in the library
10/29-Trick or Read from 6 to 7pm
10/30-K-2 Awards Assembly-9:10-9:40-Gym
10/30-Grades 3-5 Awards Assembly-9:45-10:15
10/30-Halloween Classroom Parties at 2:30pm
11/2-PTO Meeting-6pm in the library
11/4-October Students of the Month Pizza Party with me during lunch
11/4-P/T Conferences 5-8pm
11/5-P/T Conferences 10am-8pm
11/9-Donuts with Parents-8:30am (Please help us serve our parents)
11/9-Veterans’ Day Assembly-9:30am
11/11-2hr Delay
11/13-Make Up Picture Day and Yearbook Pics
11/20-Tiger Up Time-Be sure to wear your Tiger Up T-Shirt
11/25-No School-Turkey Day Break
12/14-Christmas Program at Faith Baptist Church-6/6:30pmish (TBA)
Thank you for your continued support of our students!
Tiger Up!
Matt
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