Upcoming This Week
Monday, 10/14
Tuesday, 10/15 NTB Reading Day
Wednesday, 10/16
Thursday, 10/17 Bullydozer Student Coalition, 11:30 am; SDMC Meeting, 3:30 pm
Friday, 10/18 Altered School Day, Dismissal at 12:30 pm; International Festival, 3:00-6:00 pm
Just Around the Corner
Monday, 10/21
Tuesday, 10/22 NTB Reading Day
Wednesday, 10/23
Thursday, 10/24 Middle School Information Night, 6:30-7:30 pm
Friday, 10/25 NTB Book Talk, 11:30-12:30 pm (Must have signed permission slip)
Altered School Day - October 18th
On Friday, October 18th we will have an altered school day. Students will attend school from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. We will dismiss at 12:30 so that we can set up our annual International Festival. This event is an important event for our community, and is a rich learning opportunity for your child. Students should return to campus, with their parent(s), during the International Festival to take part. The event begins at 3:00 p.m. and will end at 6:00 p.m.
There will be no extended day or after school activities, and no HISD bus transportation. If your child rides a private bus or attends a private after school program, you will want to confirm they will pick up at 12:30 p.m.
Library Upgrades Part of Total Literacy Plan
At the end of each school year we inventory the library collection and review the statistics related to our collection. For more than a year, we have stayed focused on the goal of updating our collection. While we exceeded the criteria for Exemplary Program Development found in the Standards and Guidelines for Texas on number of books per student, our collection contained too many books that were out-of-date or never checked out.
For many years our goal was to increase our collection size, so weeding was done in a very limited way. As our collection grew it also aged (average age 1995), and we found that we were outgrowing our space. Last spring, with the help of HISD Library Services, we were able to weed our collection. Since that time, we have been working systematically with District vendors, first by getting a full analysis of our current library collection. With the full analysis complete, we began adding books to our collection. Since June, we have invested $11,000 in print books. In addition to our printed book collection, we added just over 100 titles to an ebook collection, tied directly to our IB Program of Inquiry. With another $4,500 in the current year budget, we will continue to add to our library collection this Spring.
An up-to-date collection that offers a wide range of books across the Dewey spectrum, is only one piece of our literacy plan. A well rounded program teaches children to read across genres, ask questions about the world, find answers, and share learning with others. Over the last three years we have implemented a school-wide research model, Independent Investigation Method (IIM), that provides a framework for the inquiry-based approach to learning that serves as the foundation for our IB Primary Years Programme. At every grade level, Kindergarten through 5th grade, students learn how to develop critical questions to focus their research, find information that supports understanding for the topic, and articulate their findings in various formats. Students are learning to use technology to not only find information, but also to communicate their findings. Within our ICT Scope and Sequence (Information and Communication Technology), in its third year of development, we have identified opportunities for students use technology in authentic ways within their IB Units of Inquiry. Within many of our Units of Inquiry, students are learning to use technology to communicate information through digital art forms, tied directly to our Magnet Program goals.
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Monday, 10/14
Tuesday, 10/15 NTB Reading Day
Wednesday, 10/16
Thursday, 10/17 Bullydozer Student Coalition, 11:30 am; SDMC Meeting, 3:30 pm
Friday, 10/18 Altered School Day, Dismissal at 12:30 pm; International Festival, 3:00-6:00 pm
Just Around the Corner
Monday, 10/21
Tuesday, 10/22 NTB Reading Day
Wednesday, 10/23
Thursday, 10/24 Middle School Information Night, 6:30-7:30 pm
Friday, 10/25 NTB Book Talk, 11:30-12:30 pm (Must have signed permission slip)
Altered School Day - October 18th
On Friday, October 18th we will have an altered school day. Students will attend school from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. We will dismiss at 12:30 so that we can set up our annual International Festival. This event is an important event for our community, and is a rich learning opportunity for your child. Students should return to campus, with their parent(s), during the International Festival to take part. The event begins at 3:00 p.m. and will end at 6:00 p.m.
There will be no extended day or after school activities, and no HISD bus transportation. If your child rides a private bus or attends a private after school program, you will want to confirm they will pick up at 12:30 p.m.
Library Upgrades Part of Total Literacy Plan
At the end of each school year we inventory the library collection and review the statistics related to our collection. For more than a year, we have stayed focused on the goal of updating our collection. While we exceeded the criteria for Exemplary Program Development found in the Standards and Guidelines for Texas on number of books per student, our collection contained too many books that were out-of-date or never checked out.
For many years our goal was to increase our collection size, so weeding was done in a very limited way. As our collection grew it also aged (average age 1995), and we found that we were outgrowing our space. Last spring, with the help of HISD Library Services, we were able to weed our collection. Since that time, we have been working systematically with District vendors, first by getting a full analysis of our current library collection. With the full analysis complete, we began adding books to our collection. Since June, we have invested $11,000 in print books. In addition to our printed book collection, we added just over 100 titles to an ebook collection, tied directly to our IB Program of Inquiry. With another $4,500 in the current year budget, we will continue to add to our library collection this Spring.
An up-to-date collection that offers a wide range of books across the Dewey spectrum, is only one piece of our literacy plan. A well rounded program teaches children to read across genres, ask questions about the world, find answers, and share learning with others. Over the last three years we have implemented a school-wide research model, Independent Investigation Method (IIM), that provides a framework for the inquiry-based approach to learning that serves as the foundation for our IB Primary Years Programme. At every grade level, Kindergarten through 5th grade, students learn how to develop critical questions to focus their research, find information that supports understanding for the topic, and articulate their findings in various formats. Students are learning to use technology to not only find information, but also to communicate their findings. Within our ICT Scope and Sequence (Information and Communication Technology), in its third year of development, we have identified opportunities for students use technology in authentic ways within their IB Units of Inquiry. Within many of our Units of Inquiry, students are learning to use technology to communicate information through digital art forms, tied directly to our Magnet Program goals.
Spotlight on IB:
What is Action?
excerpt from Making the PYP Happen...
Action: how do we want students to act? In the PYP, it is believed that education must extend beyond the intellectual to include not only socially responsible attitudes but also thoughtful and appropriate action. An explicit expectation of the PYP is that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the student as a result of the learning process...
Action as Service. The action component of the PYP can involve service in the widest sense of the word: service to fellow students, and to the larger community, both in and outside the school. Through such service, students are able to grow both personally and socially, developing skills such as cooperation, problem solving, conflict resolution, and creative and critical thinking. Moreover, these actions are ways in which the students exhibit their commitment to the attributes of the learner profile and to the attitudes that we seek to engender within the PYP classroom. In fact, the actions that the students choose to take as a result of the learning may be considered the most significant summative assessment of the efficacy of the programme.
Is it possible for students to identify appropriate action in which to engage? In the PYP it is believed that not only is it possible for students to identify appropriate action, but also that teachers have a responsibility to enable them to choose their action carefully, to facilitate this action, and to encourage them to reflect on the action they undertake. This is viewed as an important part of the students' active participation in their own learning.
Effective action does not need to be grandiose. On the contrary, it begins at the most immediate and basic level: with self; within family; within the classroom, the hallways and the playground. Even very young children can have strong feelings about fairness and justice, and teachers can facilitate positive expressions of these opinions. Effective action can be a demonstration of a sense of responsibility and respect for self, others and the environment.
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