It's Time for Home/School Conferences!

Conferences are planned for Monday, November 20th from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday, November 21st from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  There is no school for students on either of these days.

The online scheduling website will be open until 3 p.m. on Friday, 11/17.  To schedule a conference or change an appointment time after 11/17, please call Sheila at the main office number:  264-5920.  

You can find the link to access Pick A Time on our PPS home page (www.csdvt.org/pps)  and you can use the link on the directions for how to use Pick A Time:  https://goo.gl/TSUgeK

Trick or Treat for Unicef

Porters Point School will be participating in Trick or Treat for Unicef this year.  To learn more about Trick or Treat for Unicef click here to view a short video. Boxes will be sent home on Tuesday, October 31st and need to be returned to school by Friday, November 3rd.  Thank you! 

Lake Champlain

We have had an amazing time learning about Lake Champlain! Through our watershed exploration and our trip to ECHO and the Burlington Waterfront we have learned the different ways that we impact the lake and that the lake impacts our community.

Things that pollute or harm the lake:

• Oil from leaky cars

• Factories that dump into the lake

• Construction

• Farms - fertilizer and animal waste

• Run off from roads

• Pet waste

Things we can do to help the lake:

• Take care of our cars so they don't leak

• Clean up after our pets

• Be responsible with toxic waste

• Build fences to keep cows out of streams

• Don't cut down trees on the banks of rivers
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

A Message From Ms. Foley

Hello PPS families,

Happy Fall!

I hope you all are settling in to the new school year.

My name is Courtney Foley (Ms. Foley to the kids) and I am the new “school services clinician” at Porter’s Point School. People also sometimes refer to me as the “school social worker.” I work with kids and families with varying needs and challenges. I am very happy to be joining this community and I look forward to getting to know students and families.

I often meet with kids in my office during breakfast or lunch and sometimes I allow kids to invite a friend or two to join us while we practice social skills and work on building positive friendships. These meetings are informal and occur sporadically for kids who are not on my caseload. As such, your child might get asked, “Would you like to eat lunch with me and Ms. Foley today?” and your child would then get to respond “yes” or “no” for that day. If you are not comfortable with your child being invited to join us for a lunch or breakfast, please contact me directly via email at courtney.foley@colchestersd.org or by phone at (802) 264-5918.

You may hear from me throughout the year about various opportunities for giving and if you are ever interested in donating to the PPS community, please let me know and I can give you more information about how to do so.

Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

Courtney Foley, MS

Porters Point School

School Services Clinician

We're Having a Party!

The second graders in Room 7 have been hard at work writing true stories. They have published more than 30 stories! Each student has:

• Planned their true story by telling the events across the pages
• Added details and dialogue to bring the events to life
• Gone back to polish their work and make sure they have the important things like punctuation! 

We hope to see everyone at Open House to celebrate! 

What is a Ticket to Leave?

Hopefully you have seen math papers coming home with your student each day! One of these papers is called a 'Ticket to Leave.' This is a formative assessment that students complete each day to demonstrate their understanding of the material that was covered in the day's lesson. Today's 'Ticket to Leave' looks something like this:

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The numbers in the top corner are the grading system. E stands for Exceeds Expectations, M stands for Meets Expectations, WT stands for Working Towards Expectations and B stands for Beginning to Understand. I use the information that the assessments give me to provide additional instruction for students who need it. The challenge or bonus questions on each assessment are always optional. 

Tickets to Leave are a great way to keep up with what your child is learning in math and to ask them more about it. If you have any questions feel free to email me! 

Starting the Year with Growth Mindset

This week the students in Room 7 were introduced to the idea of a "Growth Mindset." Growth Mindset is an idea that was developed by Dr. Carol Dweck. In a growth mindset you flip the script from saying things like "I can't do this" to "I'm going to learn how to do this". In second grade we focus on the idea that our brain is like a muscle and that it takes practice to get good at doing things. My hope is that students realize that academic struggle helps them become stronger, more successful learners. 

Did your child come home talking about perseverance, Mojo, or strengthening their brain? I hope so! For more specific information and resources regarding growth mindset check out the images and links below.

This chart highlights phrases students can use when something is challenging or new:

We watched this Class Dojo video together where Mojo encounters a math problem that stumps him and almost gives up:

Edutopia has compiled a great overview of growth mindset and resources for parents and teachers. That can be accessed here:  https://www.edutopia.org/article/growth-mindset-resources

Back to School!

It's almost time to begin a new school year here at Porters Point School! Hopefully you have received both a student and parent welcome letter from me in the mail. One of the most frequently asked questions as the school year approaches is - What supplies does my child need to bring to school? The answer is easy - none. All necessary materials will be provided in the classroom, even a Take Home Folder. I do ask that you send in a family photo so that your family can be represented on our classroom tree. If you have any questions for me feel free to email - tessa.warren@colchestersd.org . I'm looking forward to a wonderful school year! 

What A Trimester!

As the trimester wraps up we are looking back over all of our hard work. What an amazing time we have had here in Room 7. We have learned new addition and subtraction strategies, written '5 Finger' paragraphs, and practiced our adventurous eating during our Friday taste tests.

The students have worked hard and shown excellent academic and social growth. I have enjoyed creating report cards this trimester as it is encouraging to see such strong progress. You should all be proud of your students. The teachers in Room 7 certainly are!

Math Today

Today we practiced adding numbers while talking about fish!