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Volume 3, Issue 1; August 18, 2019
Dear Flint Hill Families,
On behalf of the entire staff at Flint Hill Elementary School, I would like to welcome you and your children to the 2019-2020 school year! Administration has been working with our teachers this summer to plan an engaging year of learning for all students. We are excited about continuing our work with Social and Emotional Learning, as well as focusing on Math Workshop implementation across all classrooms!
As many of you are aware, we adopted Responsive Classroom last year. This schoolwide approach promotes social-emotional and academic competencies. This year, we will continue to develop as a Responsive Classroom community, concentrating on executive function skills. Our counselors will extend their lessons to foster these competencies, demonstrating how executive function skills can empower us to make smart decisions resulting in positive outcomes. Our teachers will support student reflection of these skills across all content areas and provide opportunities for children to develop executive function skills at school and at home.
Learning occurs at the point of challenge, and it is important for us to appropriately challenge your child. As we continue to examine our practices to ensure we are grounded in the most effective instruction to support all students, we will focus on how we develop mathematical minds within a guided math classroom, similar in structure to guided reading. Our teachers will create and facilitate differentiated learning experiences that allow students to construct and negotiate deep conceptual understandings, as well as develop fluency with numbers.
Adding tools to our literacy toolbox, we want to continue to encourage genuine, intentional conversation that allows your child to build confidence and identity as a reader and writer. Students will participate in cycles of feedback, including individual and peer conferences, enabling all learners to safely take literary risks to voice their thoughts and ideas. Resources and learning links will be shared throughout the year, within our Falcon Flyer, to help you support your child. Lexia, a blended learning resource that supports fundamental reading skills, will be available online for all students.
As we begin a new chapter in our story this year, let us all move forward with grit, grace, and the resolve to reach our goals! We have a phenomenal year of learning ahead of us, and I thank you, in advance, for your unyielding support of Flint Hill! Go Falcons!
Warmly,
Jennifer Hertzberg, Principal
Our Building Blocks: Year 2
You may notice that our three Building Blocks have the same categories as last year: Social and Emotional Learning, Creating Thinkers and Learners, and Literacy. Our aim is to empower our teachers and students to focus on a different tool in their tool box each year in order to ensure high-quality instruction for all students. We look forward to sharing more about these efforts at our first State of the School address in September! Additional information will be forthcoming!
 What do you See, Think, or Wonder about this image--the text or the graphics?
Class Placement
We take great care and concern to place your children in classrooms where they will thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. Please know that we considered all feedback that was provided to us by the deadline in June, and did our best to consider feedback that was provided after that deadline. Our deadline is necessary so that we may create viable classrooms at the end of the year, looking at all student data through the eyes of a knowledgeable committee of teachers, resource specialists, counselors, and administration. We ensure all children have thought partners within their classrooms. We hope you understand that some feedback was unable to be considered as it contradicted another parent's wishes or did not agree with our staffing limitations. In the future, we kindly ask all parents to refrain from offering feedback beyond our deadline. Please honor our time and commitment to your children by trusting that we have your child's best interest at heart. We genuinely can't wait for the year to begin, and hope you are as excited as we are!
Additionally, in order to learn of your child's teacher in advance of August 23rd, you must have a Student Information System (SIS) account. Please note that we will not be posting class lists this year. To learn more about the additional features of SIS, please click here.
Open House/Back-to-School
Our Open House and Back-to-School festivities will take place Friday, August 23rd. The schedule is as follows:
3:30 pm: Optional Meet the Teacher for Students with Special Needs
4:00 pm-5:00 pm: Meet the Teacher
4:00 pm-4:20 pm: New Family Orientation in the Library
4:45 pm-5:15 pm: Popsicles on the Playground (*Please feel free to use the outdoor equipment past this time. Parents, thank you, in advance, for supervising your child.)
There will be a Google Slide presentation that will be shown in each classroom, and due to the additional PoG Night in mid-October, we are not asking teachers to present at this time. These presentations, will will run on repeat, will be posted on our website, just like last year.
During this event, you will be able to greet your child's teacher, learn favorite facts about him or her, possibly participate in a classroom scavenger hunt, and familiarize yourself with the learning environment in your child's classroom--activities typical of an Open House. There will be opportunities to sign-up as a parent volunteer, as well as additional sign-ups, too. You will also learn how your child's teacher, and grade level, will be communicating with you during the 2019-2020 school year.
By orchestrating our "Back-to-School" in this manner, we are able to familiarize you and your child with the routines and expectations in his or her classroom, and build momentum with instruction, beginning on the first day!
Thank you, in advance, for attending!
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Parents, please feel free to drop off medication and orders during the Open House on the 23rd. Mrs. O'Connor, our Clinic Aide, and Ms. Attia, our Public Health Nurse, will be in the office to greet you and to answer any questions you may have. |
DedicatED
New PTA Website!
This message is brought to you by Liz Crimmins, PTA President
The PTA is pleased to announce a new website! To register, all returning FHES families should create a new account using the same email address that was previously used for MySchoolAnywhere. This prevents your family from being duplicated. Families new to FHES will also need to register. All registered users will gain access to sign up for after-school programs, volunteer opportunities, and more. Most importantly, registered users will receive the weekly PTA newsletter.
Registered users who also join the PTA will gain automatic access to our online school directory. Membership is $20 per family, and you must join the PTA each school year to qualify for this benefit. In addition, all families joining the PTA before school begins will receive a Flint Hill magnet. Donations to the "Friends of Flint Hill Fundraiser" can also be made through our school website. Your membership dues and donations have a direct and positive impact on your children and our school.
Click here to visit the new PTA website and register your family (http://fhespta.org). Please note: Registered users do not have to join the PTA, and each family can decide what information is visible to the Flint Hill community. All information is secure and only accessible to our school and PTA. This information will never be shared with anyone beyond this stated purpose. Any questions? Please contact the PTA Directory & Membership Chair, Natacha Moore (fhesdirectory@gmail.com).
 We have an incredible year of thinking and learning ahead of us!
Some of our new general education teachers joined us on August 7th for a day of learning about
Cultures of Thinking, Visible Thinking, and Agency by Design,
three Harvard Project Zero studies (among others) that we focus on at Flint Hill within our instructional practice. Suffice it to say, we have an amazing staff! Can't wait for you to meet our new teachers and reminisce with our returning faculty!
Please click on our hashtag, #FHESfamily, for more awesome highlights from Flint Hill! There are just too many to highlight them all!
Tweet, tweet, Flint Hill family!
Please Mark Your Calendars!
Great news! Flint Hill Elementary School's events are now easily added to your own personal calendar. To find out how to download our calendar feed, please go here.
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Falcon Feedback
To provide feedback directly to Ms. Hertzberg, please use the QR code, or click on this link. Thank you, in advance, for sharing your thinking!
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