Way to go Barb, Kim, Justine, and Sandy! Thanks for taking on this HUGE task
so that our kids can get their hands on some new books!!!
Coming soon to Arno...
April 24
5th Grade transition meetings
5th Grade MSTEP SS
April 25
Steve out
April 26
Administrative Professionals Day
Band concert 7:00
Lock Down Drill A.M.
April 27
MTSS Arno committee meeting All Day
Bingo for Books
April 28
No events
From the PTA
Happy Friday!
The night is finally here for our Daddy/Daughter Dance! We hope all the happy Dad’s and Daughters have a wonderful time together tonight. The PTA is so thankful to everyone that has helped to make this event a wonderful night for our dad’s and Daughters.
We had our Yogurtown Fundraiser this past Wednesday, thank you to everyone that participated in supporting our PTA and our school.
Last night Mrs. Hool held our 5th Grade Graduation meeting. There were a handful of parents that came out to support our 5th graders last days and volunteer their help and support, but there is still A LOT to be done. Please contact Mrs. Hool to find out how you can support your 5th Grader!
Wednesday, April 26th is Administrative Professionals Day! This is the day we love, celebrate, and show a lot of appreciation to Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. DesJardins for all their hard work and compassion they define are to our kids and our school community. So, if you have a moment: stop in , email, or give them a call to show them how much you support and appreciate them.
We are just over 1 week away for our Staff Appreciation Week that begins on May 1st for all of our staff at Arno! More information will be available in the next week about all of the events planned for Staff Appreciation!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Lunch Schedule for Thursday, May 4- Hour Teacher Appreciation Lunch hosted by the PTA
K-1 11:00-11:30 Eat Lunch in cafeteria
11:30-12:00 Recess
2-3 11:00-11:30 Recess
11:30-12:00 Eat Lunch in the CLASSROOM
4-5 11:10-11:40 Recess
11:40-12:10 Eat Lunch in cafeteria
Final Walk Through
I will be coming around starting next week for the final round of walk throughs. I’ll look at your schedules for things I want to see- final step will come after you have given the nwea and we have that data to sit down and sign everything.
Grade Level Scheduling for next year
I have set aside floaters on Friday, June 9 to help us further along our trek into an MTSS system in which your grade level will work on a common schedule framework for the fall. You have all now gone through one year with your schedule and hopefully worked out the bugs. If your schedule is the same as it was this year, let me know. I will try and coordinate with Barb, Michelle, Stella, Sandy and Cathy to have them available to forecast kids that you will have next year and how that will mix in. The goals for your schedule should be:
Common Language arts block (to accommodate tier work, practices like guided reading could be staggered- or at the same time depending how you view it)
Common Math Time
Common time for science/SS would help planning for the rest
Within your common times, please review your current practices so that we can maximize instructional time.
Review your morning arrival work- valuable on-task time is there for the taking. We do not have preps until 9:30- What a great time to plan some grade level interventions!
Please review the non-negotiables that were agreed to by the grade levels. I should be able to see these practices going on in your room. In addition, the Workshop model has been implemented and will be part of the walkthrough evaluation next year, please reflect that in your planning. Please let me know what materials and/or training I can provide to get us in the right direction. Please highlight these items and their times in your schedules- that I would like to have to me by June 16 in whatever format look you wish
If your grade needs additional time, please see me for some options, please remember the preps are common so as to offer time to meet among the grade- that can be an option
Working with Michelle/Cathy/Barb/Stella/Sandy should offer insight to build your schedule around instructional time, not when a student is pulled out.
Please understand that this starts to allow us to implement various degrees of tiered intervention in the classroom, grade level, and building. Please let me know if you have any suggestions as we move forward. I will have info on classroom placement for students very soon. I understand that there may unforeseen obstacles that come into scheduling in the process, try and get as close as you can to the above.
K-5 non negotiables
Grade 2
PBIS SURVEY
Part of our PBIS Grant is the completion of a year-end survey about the program. Please take some time this week to complete this short survey.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2017PBISYearEnd-McEvoyA-D
M-STEP Update
Congratulations to the 5th grade for completing week #2 of the M-Step in math and ELA. They will wrap up their testing next week on Monday while taking the social studies assessment, which is in 2 parts. 4th grade opens up their testing during the first week of May with English Language Arts and Math
In the interim, 4th grade has been working hard on the practice questions the state has provided:
Kalahari Fun
Last week, Arno students enjoyed taking part in a building fundraiser at Kalahari Resort in Ohio. The kids had a blast in their huge water park! Thsi fundraiser netted $470 from a total of 47 rooms reserved under the school-Amazing! Thank you to Rachel for taking her time out to set this all up for the building!
Enjoy some photos below
Make Room
by Gail Boushey
Recently Crayola announced the retirement of dandelion from their iconic 24-crayon box set. Dandelion will be replaced by a crayon in the “blue family,” yet to be named. This is the first time in the 100-year history of the 24-count box set that a crayon has been removed to make room for a new color.
As much as Crayola would like to keep dandelion, 25 crayons won’t fit in the box, so one crayon had to go. Likewise, we can’t keep adding things in our classrooms, because eventually they just won’t fit. We need to create room for new things by making thoughtful decisions about what can be retired.
These are a few things I have retired in my classroom to make room for new colors:
I retired assigned activities to make room for a new color named “choice.”
I retired assigned seats to make room for four new colors named “choice,” “chairs,” “cushions,” and “floor.”
I retired whole-group novel studies to make room for the new color “lots of time to read choice books.”
What new color do you want to add to your box? What can you let go of to make room for it?
Planbook
Planbook is an online platform where you can do your lesson planning and share back and forth with your peers. Please see more info below and the video. If you are interested, I would be happy to pay for a subscription for next school year.
10 REASONS TO LOVE PLANBOOK.COM
07 August 2014
A little over a year ago, I tried something new…online lesson planning. Like most of you, I was used to writing down plans in a spiral bound lesson plan book. While that method is obviously time-tested, I’ve found that online planning offers some pretty impressive benefits when compared with the old standby. In fact, all three members of the Teaching Trio are loyal Planbook.com users!
Here are a few of my favorite things about Planbook…
1. Color code classes any way you want. Just because you skip the paper planner doesn’t mean your plans can’t be cute! Mine is a rainbow!
2. Attach files and web links for easy access. This is especially helpful now that our school doesn’t allow USB drives or Dropbox! I attach everything I am using to my plans, even if I already have copies or I know it’s on my school computer because…
3. View & copy last year’s plans. Talk about a time saver! Obviously, I’m not copying an entire year over (although it’s possible), but I do sometimes copy one unit that went really well. I love that I can use it to find attachments easier than hunting through all of my various drives too!
4. Templates save precious planning time. Enter all of those things you do over and over once, and never do it again! See my enrichment schedule at the bottom of the screenshot for an example.
5. Bump or Extend a lesson with 1 click. Planbook bumps all of your lessons forward or backward automatically when you do this. There’s even an option to lock a lesson so that it doesn’t get affected by a bump (for an assembly, etc.)
6. Share plans with teammates – My plans are shared with our SPED department so that they can easily see what’s going on in my class, and we can plan together. Nikki and I were teammates the past few years, and we would often share our plans with each other. They are easy to import in when one of us had planned a special unit.
7. Create and send substitute plans easily – I added a lesson plan tab called “Sub Notes” where I type in all of the little things that a sub needs to know (how to turn on the morning news show, when students leave the room for support services, etc.). These things are now ready to go anytime I need a sub, and I don’t have to re-type them over and over or copy and paste. I simply log in to Planbook (usually from bed, if I’m sick enough not to go in), “fluff out” my normal plans so they will make sense to the sub, and send the link to one of my teammates. The sub then has access to any printables, presentations, videos, or web links that s/he will need that day. Couldn’t be easier!
8. Common Core Standards already loaded. If you don’t use Common Core (we don’t), they will add them for you. Juliet had our standards added in a snap. 
9. Easy to follow tutorials for everything you could ever want to do!
10. Awesome customer service! They are constantly improving based on our feedback. This summer, they launched an iPhone app (iPad app was already available) and made several other changes based on teacher requests.
Now for the nitty-gritty. Planbook is not free, but it’s cheap. $12 a year is less than most planners out there, for a lot more features. It’s 100% worth it in my opinion. If you aren’t sold yet, there’s a 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
FYI – I am not recieving any compensation for this post, I just happen to love Planbook!
APPS LIMITED SCHOOLS OF CHOICE PROGRAM for 2017-18
The Allen Park Public School District has established a successful Schools of Choice Program for the past several years and the Board of Education has approved continuation of the program for the 2017-18 school year for Kindergarten through 8th Grade. (Requests for specific elementary schools cannot be guaranteed)
Applications are available beginning Monday, April 10 at the Riley Education Center, 9601 Vine. Completed applications will be accepted beginningTuesday, May 2 through Monday, May 22, 2017 from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. weekdays in the Pupil Accounting Office at the Riley Education Center. Completed applications must be presented in person to ensure that all information is complete. A random draw selection will be held on June 1 at 9:00 a.m. at the Riley Education Center. The draw will determine numerical selection for acceptance of candidates.
We ask that you help us by sharing this information with friends and/or family members who may be interested in having their children become a part of the Allen Park Public Schools Family.
For more information about the Schools of Choice Program, please see the attached FAQ’s, visit our website at apps.k12.mi.us or call (313) 827-2105.
PRESCHOOL INFORMATION
If you have a child who will be 3 years old by September 1st, 2017 or a 4 year old child, consider enrolling them in our Preschool Program. Please come with your child to our Preschool Open House on Thursday, April 20th, 2017 anytime between 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM at Lindemann Elementary, 9201 Carter. You will be able to meet our teachers, experience our classroom centers, discover theme-based teaching, and make new friends.
Registration will begin for in-district residents on Friday, April 21st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28th, 2017 at 7:30 AM.
Our office hours for registrations are 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM, Monday through Friday.
NO REGISTRATION WILL TAKE PLACE DURING OPEN HOUSE
For further information, contact Kristy Caleca in the Preschool Office at 313-827-2662 or caleca@appublicschools.com
MARK YOUR CALENDAR – KINDERGARTEN ROUND UP
MONDAY, MAY 8, 2017 – 6:30 p.m.
at Arno, Bennie and Lindemann Elementary
*Children who are five years of age by September 2 thru December 1 may only be enrolled for kindergarten at the request of the parent/guardian through a signed waiver process. Waiver form is available at the Riley Education Center.
Kindergarten Information & Registration
