Hi Yealey Families,

I hope everyone has had a great week.  We have had lots of learning here!  I have been able to be in classrooms watching students problem solve real world math situations.  I love talking to them and hearing how they break apart problems and try to justify their answers. 

The Fall Festival was a huge success last week.  Thank you to everyone on the PTA who volunteered to bring this great event to Yealey.  Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Next week we will have our annual costume parade on Thursday morning.  If you'd like to view the parade please line the sidewalks at 9:00 am.  Spectators will not enter the building but will just watch the parade as the kids parade down the sidewalk as long as weather will permit us parading outside. Please remember no weapons are permitted as part of any costume. 

Student led parent conferences are coming up soon.  Please be looking for sign up information from your homeroom teachers.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families,

I hope everyone had a great Fall Break.  It's always nice to have a chance to practice Habit 7 - Sharpen the Saw.   This month we are focusing on Habit 2 - Beginning With the End in Mind.  Be sure to see our student created video explaining this habit on our social media accounts.  Beginning with the end in mind is about goal setting.  Have you set any family goals?  Ask your child about the goals they are setting at school.

Tonight is our Fall Festival hosted by the PTA.  It will run 5 - 8 and should be tons of fun.  The book fair will be open and there will be food trucks available for dinner.  Everything else is free of charge!  So bring the family and come enjoy some good fall fun!

Be sure to check out the Guidance Counselor page for information on next week's Red Ribbon Week themes.  Each day we will focus on making safe choices with lessons and fun activities like silly sock day on Monday.  Also, check out Mr. Rice's, assistant principal page for information on attendance and behavior data over the last couple of weeks.

Also, please be sure that the Acceptable Use Policy that was sent home at the beginning of the year has been signed and returned.  We are currently sending home another copy for anyone that has not returned this.  We need them asap.  And, also, if you receive a call from school that you aren't able to answer but that a message is left, please check the message before calling school to see what we are calling about.  Whenever I do an "all-call" during school hours we receive close to 100 phone calls within the next 20 minutes asking what the call was about and quite often people will say there is a message they haven't checked.  Obviously receiving all of these phone calls, ties up the phone lines and the office during that time.  It is one of the main reasons I try to avoid all calls during school hours. Any help you can give us with this would be appreciated!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I look forward to a full week in school next week!

Mrs. Turner
principal

Hi Yealey Families,

Well, I guess Fall weather is here.  I am so grateful for the extra days of Summer (my favorite season) and will be happy to have as many of them as I can!  We have had a great week here at school.  I was able to spend some time with 1st graders this week as they talked about Habit 2 - Beginning With The End In Mind.  What a great concept to make sure everyone masters!

I have also spent some time working with students in 3rd grade math.  I loved seeing them grapple with problems and trying to explain their thinking about the distributive property of multiplication.  Verbalizing this is sometimes so hard but is so very important in them solidifying their understanding.

State assessment results were released this week.  Last year, we had some areas of celebration and some areas to focus on and this year we have the same thing.  Last year we were one of just 4 schools in the whole district to receive an "other" classification (the only good category given).  This year the state decided not to give the same categories but do stars instead and will do the other categories again next year.  They also changed how they calculate the growth component of the score.  This year our math scores decreased which impacted our overall score category but since the growth component changed, we can't exactly compare it to last year's score.  But, overall, we have looked at the scores, small decreases in reading and social studies; small increases in writing and science, and have decided on a few instructional changes to make so that next year we can hope to see gains across the board.   I think it is unfortunate that so many of the other measures we use here to measure growth (STAR, Case, MRA, Resiliency Poll, etc.) aren't used to tell our story at the state level on our school report card because those showed great growth last year and what we have so far this year looks good.  We use multiple data points to make decisions and K-Prep is just one of them. I know it sounds very confusing. So, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.  Your individual student results will be given to you at conferences.

Be sure to check out our new page on this blog from Mr. Rice.  He is highlighting attendance and behavior data that looks awesome. 

I hope you all enjoy your weekend.  Don't forget the PTA pumpkin sales and that Fall break is next Friday the 11th and Monday the 14th.  The blog won't be updated until after break.  Enjoy the break with family and friends!

Mrs. Turner
principal