|
Dear Families,
This week we will be completing what is hopefully the last of our instructional transitions of 2020-2021, jokingly referred to as our eighth “first” day of school. We made more space and obtained more staffing to be able to include all in-person students in the expansion to four days a week. We plan to maximize the use of our outdoor space: we are grateful to Dominion Energy for renovating our outdoor classroom in the coming weeks and to FCPS leadership for procuring us a tent for outdoor eating. (We are hoping the 17-year cicadas cooperate with our plans!) We are also hiring additional classroom monitors; please email me ASAP at deleipzig@fcps.edu if you are interested in serving our community in this way. I couldn’t be prouder of our amazing staff for all they have done to facilitate these transitions while continuing to provide extraordinary instruction to all our students.
Some of you have wondered if we would have similar challenges returning all of our students to five days a week of in-person instruction this fall. One major challenge we will not have in 2021-2022 is a master schedule designed for a strong virtual start to the school year. A typical master schedule has six or seven different time slots for lunch and for recess. This year’s schedule began with one lunch/recess block and went to two, prioritizing consistency across learning settings and across the school year. A typical master schedule includes 60-minute specials blocks for each grade level. In contrast, this year began with 30-minute specials blocks, to which we appended a 30-minute “supplemental special” to provide each classroom teacher with adequate daily planning time. A patchwork Master Schedule is not as conducive to scheduling for large numbers of students as is our traditional approach, which we look forward to using again next year.
We have accommodated changes in learning preference throughout the school year as well. We began the year planning for 47% of students to return in person. We now have 55% of our students attending in person, the equivalent of nearly three additional classes of in-person students. Next year, we anticipate far fewer families selecting virtual instruction—far fewer changes throughout the school year—and only one “first” day of school.
This year, we have done our best to manage each in-person transition without sacrificing the quality of our instruction, remembering that 45% of our school population continue to learn virtually. For the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year, we will continue to provide the best experiences possible for all our students and continue to prioritize uniting our community. We have many celebrations on the horizon, such as Teacher Appreciation Week, our band and strings concert, our sixth-grade promotion and end-of-year parties. We are committed to finding ways to celebrate in inclusive ways; we welcome your ideas and input on this anonymous Google Form: https://forms.gle/7uivbBTmF91XvmS36.
We will begin with “Twin with a Twist Day” on May 7, a spirit day on which pairs or trios of students dress in similar clothing. But our “twist” for 2020-2021 is we’d like students and staff members to arrange for a twin (or two) across instructional settings, virtual and in-person. If your child attends in person, help them identify students who are learning virtually with whom to twin. If your child attends virtually, help them coordinate to twin with students who are learning in-person. Is your child in a class that is 100% virtual or 100% in-person? Consider twinning with neighbors, former classmates, or students in other grade levels. We want to celebrate that cWEs CAN come together across both settings and remind us all that school is not a place. Need ideas for supporting children who are accessing virtual instruction through the remainder of the year? Join me for a Parent Coffee Monday May 10 at 10 AM.
Thank you for your partnership and for your enduring commitment to the CWES community. I am honored to serve you all.
Warm regards,
Diane Leipzig, Dr. L
Last week was Administrative Professionals Week, and we couldn’t let it pass by without expressing our gratitude to our amazing office staff for all they have done to serve our staff, students and families and keep our office operations running smoothly throughout this school year. If you have received excellent service from one of these dedicated staff members, please consider dropping them a note of appreciation.
If you have not already received your school pictures, please stop by the office anytime 9:00-4:30 M-F to pick up your Lifetouch portrait package.
We welcome your questions or concerns about your children and wish to serve our families well. When you contact an office staff member or administrator by phone or email about your children, please include their name(s), grade(s), and classroom teacher(s) with your question or concern so that we can respond with more efficiency and expediency.
Mrs. Melz works with grades K-3
Ms. Sutton works with Grades 4-6.
Ms. Sutton and Mrs. Melz will be giving lessons on the importance of honesty and admitting our mistakes to all grade levels. Students will discuss why we sometimes lie, talk about times when it is hard to tell the truth, and what others think of someone when they know that they are lying. We all make mistakes; however, lying about them doesn’t make them disappear. It only makes things worse. The students will learn the 3 steps to taking accountability for mistakes: 1- Take a deep breath and look the person in the eye. 2- Say exactly what the mistake was, avoid making excuses or blaming others. “I am sorry for….” 3- Tell them how things will be different or how you will make things right.
Need to reach out to a counselor? Mrs. Melz (jamelz@fcps.edu) works with K-3 and Ms. Sutton (tsutton@fcps.edu) works with Grades 4-6.
Is your child a rising kindergartener or first grader? Consider Girl Scouts! Contact Colleen Gartin (cmgartin@fcps.edu), fourth grade teacher and troop leader, or Michelle Randall (mrandall@gscnc.org) GSA senior membership specialist, for more information.
A huge thank you to the teachers and administrators who have supported our AAP orientation sessions! Did you miss last week’s Q&A session for newly eligible Level IV students? Find the recording and other resources here:
https://canterburywoodses.fcps.edu/announcements/level-iv-aap-qa-recording-april-22-2021
Please send an email to our registrar, Amy Decatur (ALDecatur@fcps.edu), if you need to enroll your rising kindergartner. She will let you know what documentation is needed.
And then please join us for an orientation to the kindergarten program at CWES with our wonderful teachers at 4:00 PM, Monday, May 3.
Join us with this link:
https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/d9ce07628eea49fd89764105dd3edb75
Considering CWES for our Level IV AAP program? Just move into the area? Or registering your rising kindergartner for 2021-2022? Sign up to take a tour of our school building led by our wonderful office staff, available each morning in May at 9:00 AM.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4AAFAC2FA3F8C16-canterbury2
Do you know about new members of our community? Please share this information with them and encourage them to sign up for News You Choose on our website!
CWES has 269 students of Asian American or Pacific Islander descent, and May is AAPI Heritage Month! In case you missed this past week’s episode of WCAN, sixth grader Talia shared the traditional Chinese Lion Dance (around minute 3): https://youtu.be/YY8VUKD02f8
Please send your clips to Mr. Migdal (fjmigdal@fcps.edu) to be featured in an upcoming episode of the school news, or to your child’s teacher, if you prefer to share a talent or a story from your heritage with your child’s class.
Our teams have finalized their plans for administering the Standards of Learning Tests this Spring. Remember that ALL TESTS WILL BE GIVEN IN PERSON at Canterbury Woods on the dates below.
Thursday, May 13: Grade 4 Reading
Tuesday, May 18: Grade 5 Reading
Wednesday, May 19: Grade 3 Reading
Thursday, May 20: Grade 6 Reading
Tuesday, May 25: Grade 4 Mathematics
Wednesday, May 26: Grade 3 Mathematics
Thursday, May 27: Grade 5 Science
Wednesday, June 2: Grade 5 Mathematics
Thursday, June 3: Grade 6 Mathematics
For any SOL assessments this spring, you have the right to refuse testing for your child. This will result in a “No Score” or “NS” on student score reports with a footnote that the student did not take the test due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Right to Refuse Assessments webpage (https://www.fcps.edu/node/34277 ) offers information and considerations as you make this decision. If you choose to refuse testing for your child this Spring, please email Mindy Milliron at mamilliron@fcps.edu as soon as possible.
April 30: SCA Favorite Color Day
May 3-7: Teacher Appreciation Week
May 3: Virtual Kindergarten Orientation, 4:00 pm
May 7: “Twin with a Twist” Day
May 10: Parent Coffee, 10 AM: Supporting Your Children in Virtual Instruction
|
