Thank you PTA for an Amazing week!!

Coming soon to Arno…

May 8

Ad Council 9:00

Kindergarten Roundup 6:00

May 9

NGSX conf Steve

4th Grade MSTEP Math PT

May 10

NGSX conf Steve

Final fire drill

PBIS meeting 3:45

May 11

Final Staff Meeting 7:55

4th Grade MSTEP Science

Skating Party 6:00

May 12

Nothing Scheduled

Staff Appreciation Week

Pictures from our Staff Appreciation Week which included a delicious breakfast and lunch (Catered by Kyle Kalis), many goodies and many well wished.  I wish to thank the entire PTA and parent volunteers who helped make this a memorable week for staff at Arno!

From the PTA

Ronald McDonald House

For quite some time now Madeline Every has maintained a donation box in the office of pop pull tabs to benefit the Ronald McDonald House in Detroit.  A very worthy cause, Madeline reports that she has several drops through the year that helps the house to buy some supplies.  On Tuesday, Alex Varga helped out in a big way when he donated approximately 155,000 tabs with the help of his family.  A field trip in the summer is now planned between the two families to actually go downtown for the donation and see the process all the way through.  The tabs are melted down and recycled, in which the charity then gets the proceeds.  What an outstanding, shining example of kids at their best!  Way to represent Arno in the community!!

 This story will appear in an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.

4th Grade enjoying book club collaboration

Technology Info

Library Media Leaders and Technology Leaders

Joint Technology Day

March 27, 2017

Link to document – tinyurl.com/lmlitl2017

Write About

Brad Wilson

Presentation

Skype in the Classroom

Andy Hopkins

Handout

Google Chrome Apps
& Extensions

Stefani Halliday

Presentation

Infographics Presentation

Stefani Halliday

Presentation

Infographics Site

Stefani Halliday

Presentation

Free Tech Tools For Teachers

Michelle Wagner

Presentation

Third Grade Reading Legislation

Michelle Wagner and Colleen Whalen

Presentation

Breakout Edu

Judy Bowling and Anupam Chugh

Presentation

Google Draw

Judy Bowling and Michelle Wagner

Presentation

Maker-Centered Learning

Judy Bowling

Presentation

MDE – OER in K-12, #GoOpen

Ann-Marie Mapes

Presentation

LML-ITL Overview

Anupam Chugh

Presentation

Speaking of tech…

Sometimes the best tools are the simplest, and Padlet (formerly Wallwisher) adheres closely to this idea.  If you’ve ever done a brainstorming activity that involved putting sticky notes upon a wall, then you already have a good understanding of what Padlet has to offer.  There’s a few twists that make it compelling for classroom usage though.

You get access to an expansive digital canvas with an unlimited number of digital notes that can hold a small amount of text (160 characters).  That may not seem to be too much, but just below the text field, there’s a place to insert a URL.  That’s where the magic starts to kick in.  Add a link to an image, and thumbnail of that picture will appear with the note.  Add a link to some audio or a video, and a player will be added to the note.  If you put in a link to a website, then a preview of that site will appear.  And with each of these options, clicking through will pull up a window showing the full sized image, audio, video or a live view of the website itself!  This feature in itself takes it from a simple ‘notes on a wall’ app to a multimedia experience with incredible classroom potential.

URL: Padlet.com

Sutori is a story sharing web app that LOOKS like a vertically aligned timeline…  but really isn’t.   Each point on the ‘line’ can be a variety of object types, including audio, video, images or text.   They can also be interactive, with options including multiple choice, discussions, or ‘matching’ (align items in column A with those in column B).   The net result is an open ended platform that can be used for all sorts of student publishing, from portfolios to biographies to lab reports to timelines (duh).

One of the other features I really liked about it was the ability to invite collaborators on a project and have multiple people working together in real time.   And it works WELL.   It’s not quite as clean as Google Docs, but pretty darn close.   I was impressed.

URL: http://sutori.com

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 8^th 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 1^st, 2017 or a 4 year old child, consider enrolling them in our Preschool Program.

Registration will begin for in-district residents on Friday, April 21^st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28^th, 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

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I want to wish all of you a very joyous week in recognition of all the things you do for kids every day!  You continue to meet all of the daily challenges to ensure a

classroom where learning for all is the way we do business.  I have been so impressed this year as our staff has embraced new district initiatives and how you all have

worked closely with your colleagues to create new opportunities for struggling learners, both in your classroom and out.  It’s not just about professionalism,

it’s about the level of care you have for our kids- it runs deep and can be felt by our entire community!  Enjoy all of the special treatment this week, you deserve that and so much more!!!

Staff Appreciation will be celebrated Monday, May 1st – Thursday, May 4th ALL Staff are invited for the following…….

Monday – 7:30-8:30 Breakfast in the gym – Biscuits and Gravy, Bagels, Fruit, Homemade Oatmeal and of course Coffee!

Tuesday – Certified teachers and teachers of our “specials” will receive a hand delivered surprise! Plus snacks in the lounge for all!

Wednesday – All staff that were not included in Tuesdays surprise will receive a hand delivered surprise! Plus snacks in the lounge for all!

Thursday – 11:00-1:00 Lunch in the gym – Sub sandwiches, watermelon, chips, side dishes, cookies and coke products!

This years meal’s will be catered by Kyle Kalis so be sure to attend even if you have to make a plate to take with you!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank-you! We look forward to serving you, you are the hands and feet to so many on a daily basis!

We will be shouting out your praises & spoiling you all week long! We hope you are as excited as we are!

Love,

Your PTA

Coming soon to Arno…

May 1

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!!!

PTA Appreciation Breakfast

Vision and Hearing K-1-3-5

May 2

4th Grade MSTEP ELA CAT

BID POOL

May 3

No events

May 4

4th Grade MSTEP Math CAT

TEACHER APPRECIATION LUNCH– 1 hour see schedule below

ICC 4:00

PTA Meeting- Final one of the year

May 5

PBIS Pizza Lunch 11:00

From the PTA

Happy Friday Everyone!

We hope everyone had a great week! The weather has been so delightful it reminds me of a favorite  Christmas Song, but…no one is wishing for snow right now! BRING ON THE SUNSHINE!

A quick recap of some of the important events that took place this past week:

On Friday, April 21st we held our Daddy/Daughter Dance at Parkside Gardens in Southgate. What a Fabulous Night! We have heard nothing but non-stop, wonderful comments! This night would not have been so successful if not for our 2 Chairs- Stephanie Leavitt and Beth Schalf! They worked so hard for over 3 months to bring you the rockin’ dance that our dads and Daughters enjoyed last Friday Night! If younsss one of these wonderful ladies around the school, please stop and tell them how much you appreciated all their hard work! A night like that would not have been possible either without our wonderful volunteers there supporting them either. Thank you to all the wonderful parent volunteers that helped to support all of their efforts! Remember, without volunteers to support our events, our events cannot be successful! If you would like to check out some pictures and videos from the night, visit our Facebook page: Arno Elementary PTA. Make sure you like our page to continue to get important updates of upcoming events as well!

The day following our Daddy/Dance was a Beautiful Day for a Race Day: the Martian Marathon! Arno had a great showing for this event and we are Super Proud of all of our Caring Cougar Run Club Members that ran in the event!

This past Wednesday, April 26th, we celebrated Administrative Professionals Day at Arno! I’m sure many of us showed our support to two of the hardest working women at Arno Elementary: Mrs. Cathy Anderson and Mrs. Michelle DesJardins. The PTA and school community cannot tell them or show them enough how much they’re appreciated, so we showered them with a few gifts to make sure they knew. Thank you for all the love and support you provide our students with everyday!

Coming up next week we celebrate all of our staff at Arno with Staff Appreciation Week! The PTA will be showering all of our staff at Arno with treats all week including a catered staff breakfast and lunch provided by our own Kyle Kalis! A lot of thought has gone into preparing our menus these two days, but there’s still a few things we need to make this week extra special for everyone! A Sign Up Genius has been created for a few of these items and coveted volunteer spots still remain! Grab a slot fast before it’s too late! If you decide you also want to get in on the action of spoiling our staff, a link has been provided to an updated version of, “A Few of Our Favorite Things” document.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4ca4aa2aa4fe3-staff

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iny8oejGhGTXj31Twropdma-bP2-wyffVGDjcAmVOXs/edit#gid=0

A Few of Our Favorite Things – Sheet1-26kf0xz

On Thursday, May 4th at 6:30 pm, we will hold our last PTA Meeting of the Year. This is an important meeting because we swear in our new PTA Executive Board Members (we even have a new Board Member). It’s important to attend this next meeting not only to show your gratitude to whom served last year, but to also show support for your incoming officers. Attending meetings are also a great way to have your parent voice heard about events or issues. If we do not have membership feedback on our events, then we have limited opinions on what events are kept and what events are cut while we plan next years PTA Event Calendar. Remember: we always have free childcare, giveaways, and we try to adhere to our time frame because we understand how busy everyone is! We always enjoy meeting new people and hearing all of your ideas on how we can better serve our School Community…TOGETHER!

Enjoy your weekend and we look forward to an exciting week next week!

MTSS hard at work!  They will be presenting at our upcoming May staff meeting as we formalize the process of support here at Arno. Our members include Todd, Jeanine, Renee, Rachel, Barb, Sandy, Stella, Dawn and Steve.

The Arno MTSS team is working hard for students! @szArno pic.twitter.com/JAtwweb1gr

— Dawn Watson (@dpawatson) April 27, 2017

Daddy/Daughter Dance

What a magical night our Dads and Daughters had at the annual dance, this year at Parkside Gardens.  Family, friends, great food, and jamming on the dance floor made for an awesome Friday evening.

Martian Mile

It was a beautiful Saturday morning this past week when the Arno Run Club’s 30 student members went out to run in the annual Martian Mile in Dearborn.  The run club participants have been working hard at building stamina to run the final mile and cross the finish line.  With the nicer weather, the students have enjoyed running outside this spring.  Congrats to all our runners for their perseverance and being a good role model of a healthy lifestyle.

5th Grade Band Concert Rocks!

Under the expert guidance of Mr. Skebo, the 5th grade band impressed everyone in the audience through an ensemble of well played songs.  Congratulations to Emily Quickel and Steven Stewart for receiving a band award for the special talents.  What a great night!

Thinglink

“With ThingLink, teachers and students can easily enhance images and videos with additional notes, photos, audio, video, and other multi-media content. Students acquire visual presentation skills and communicate through digital storytelling across grade levels, on any device.

URL: ThingLink.com

WORDS OF WISDOM

Thank you to Dr. Hall for sharing this great article on our beloved profession!

From https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201704/the-future-nation-depends-teachers

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 8^th 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 1^st, 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 20^th, 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 21^st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28^th, 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

*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

Young Fives Information

Great Causes to support:

All Proceeds go to the American Diabetes Association

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!

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 8^th 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 1^st, 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 20^th, 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 21^st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28^th, 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

*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

Young Fives Information

Have a Happy Easter Arno!

Coming soon to Arno…

April 17

Ad Council 9:00

April 18

Staff Meeting 7:55

April 19

School Wide Title I Meeting

SIP Meeting 3:45

PTA Yogurt Town Fundraiser

6th Grade Parent Orientation Night at APMS

April 20

Fire Drill A.M.

Bid Pool 4:00

April 21

Report Cards Go Home

Daddy Daughter Dance 6:00

From the PTA

Hoppy Easter! We hope everyone enjoys the extended holiday weekend!  A few reminders of our events we have coming up tonight and when we return:

Tonight is our PTA Meeting in the cafeteria at 6:30. We will be electing our Executive Board and have a presentation by Mr. Michael Porter about possibly bring a Lego Robotics Club here to Arno. Please join us for these events and many other updates tonight!

When we return from Break, we have 3 VERY important events happening at Arno and Around Town:

Wednesday, April 19th is our Yogurttown Fundraiser at the Yogurttown on the Hill. Information will be coming home with students on Monday, April 17th!

Thursday, April 20th we have a 5th Grade Graduation Parent Meeting scheduled for 6 pm in the Cafeteria for those interested in planning the event or would just like information in general.

Friday, April 21st is our Daddy/Daughter Dance at Parkside Gardens in Southgate! We look forward to seeing all the Dad’s and Daughters at this annual event. Tickets will be distributed the week of the dance!

Good Luck to all of our Arno Run Club participants as they take on the Martian Mile, Saturday, April 22nd!

Have a Great Weekend and we hope to see many of you at our meeting tonight!

M-STEP Parent Info

As you all know, the M-STEP window opens this week.  This is the start of the window that lasts until the end of May and assesses English Language Arts, Math, Science (4th) and Social Studies (5th).  During this time, it is critical to have your child in school for their testing dates.  We do offer make-ups, but testing with their peers is a more beneficial environment.

It is also very important that your child gets plenty of sleep, has a good breakfast, and has a snack to eat if/when the class takes a break.  I am so very confident that our students are going to master this test and improve on our previous year’s scores!  Should you have any questions, please contact the classroom teacher or the office.

I will post the scheduled days for testing that week, as well as the grade level.  In the meantime, please take a moment to read a letter addressed to parents from our new State Superintendent.

Please also see the information below for future testing dates:

4/18- 5th Grade Math Assessment

4/20- 5th Grade Math Performance Task

4/25- 5th grade Social Studies Part 1 and 2

Parent_Letter_032417_jl_555114_7

REPORT CARDS

The Report Card window is currently open.  Please be sure to complete student report cards by April 19, for report cards to be distributed on Friday, April 21.

Twitter Ideas…

Earth-Friendly Ideas. https://t.co/cLMC4wqNmI #edchat #elemchat #1stchat #2ndchat #crafts #arts #earthday pic.twitter.com/nA6sBsYIgr

— internet4classrooms (@internet4classr) April 13, 2017

What do we do when we finish early? We research a topic on Wonderopolis and create a Google Slide to share our new knowledge! pic.twitter.com/vR2zvN3zM0

— Steven Kiss (@MrKissUpdates) April 13, 2017

Make Your Lessons Memorable with the Texting Story App

from http://www.thetechieteacher.net/

Are you constantly trying to jazz up your lessons and engage your students? I know I am always on the hunt for new, innovative ideas to bring to the classroom that will excite learners of all levels.

Several years ago Catherine Reed from Brown Bag Teacher wrote a blog post entitled Using Fake Texts to Connect with and Engage Students. As soon as I saw her ideas, I lit up! Today’s students would be all over her activities. After all, I saw my students WANT TO LEARN when I used my Making Inferences with Text Messages Task Cards that are in the shape of an iPhone as well as my ConTEXT Clues worksheets. That’s right, I DO have printable products in my TpT Store. 💁 I strongly believe that classrooms need to have a balance of digital activities as well as paper/utensil activities.

ANYWAY…Catherine mentions how teachers can use the iFake Text Generator for:

• Morning Meeting Messages
• Reading Journals
• Introduce/Review Vocabulary

So fun!

After seeing Catherine’s post, I did a lesson with a 2nd grade class who used the iFakeText Generator to write a conversation between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as if they were alive today. They LOVED it. It required A LOT of thinking for those 2nd graders to weave in as much information as possible but it ended up being a wonderful activity.

iFakeText Generator Example

THEN..last week..I saw a Facebook post from TechChef4u that was advertising the FREE app, Texting Story. Once again, I lit up!

Not only does this app generate text messages, it turns your work into a text conversation MOVIE. Check it out:

If you are interested in creating a conversation that plays continuously so you don’t have to keep pressing play, upload the saved video into the app GifToaster and turn it into a GIF that you can embed in a Google Doc/Slide, blog or website! Here is an example (the only issue is that you don’t get to hear the cool texting sounds when it is turned into a gif)

This app is so easy to use and very intuitive. You can even upload pictures for each character as well as send images and emojis🙌 in the texts.

Under Settings you can add your two names, select their text color, add a profile image as well as choose some other options:

Note: It documents your every move. If you type a word/phrase and then delete to add something different, it will show up. The Clear Story button under Edit Story needs to be pressed if you want to start all over.

Students would have a ball using this tool in the classroom and it would truly make your lessons memorable. What are some other ways we could use this with students?

I hope Texting Story comes to the web for all of you Chromebook users! I haven’t found a web tool like it. Let me know if you run across one that makes these type of texting conversation movies. In the mean time, check out Gone Google Story Builder. It is similar but instead of texting, students create a Google Doc interaction and can have multiple characters.

6th Grade Parent Orientation

Honor Choir Awesomeness

This past Tuesday, students from Arno, Bennie, and Lindemann held their annual Honor Choir Concert at the Performing Arts Center.  The students were magnificent in their performance, a reflection of all their hard work and dedication – under the guidance of Mr. Tracy Hoffman.  Congrats to all of our Cougars and hats off to Mr. Hoffman for a terrific job!

4th Grade Moby Max Reading Contest

Congratulations to Mrs. Smalley’s Class who won the 4th grade Moby Max March is Reading Month Contest. Bravo to the entire class that earned 9.962 points.

The top ten students from the class:

Bailey

Abby

Leslie

Isabella Castro

Flavia

Sophia

Reina

Anahi

David

Tessa

Way to go Mrs. Smalley’s class!  Keep Reading ALL year long.

Collaborative Art Piece

Kindergarten is brightening our hallways with a collaborative spring art work in the form of a giant rainbow!  It’s great to see our students working together towards a common goal for everyone’s enjoyment.   Thanks for the spring forward with color

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 8^th 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 1^st, 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 20^th, 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 21^st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28^th, 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

Young Fives Information

Coming soon to Arno…

April 10

Welcome Back!

April 11

Stanley obs. 12:00

MSTEP Window open for 5th grade

5th grade ELA Test Part 1 and 2

April 12

DiCarlo obs 12:00

PBIS Team meeting 3:45

April 13

5th Grade ELA Performance Task MSTEP

ICC 4:00

PTA Meeting 6:30

April 14

Good Friday- No School

Camp 2017

It was a chilly few days at camp, but the fun activities warmed everyone right up!  AP students were treated to science, Michigan history, archery, and learned many things about various animals and reptiles, and made many new friends throughout their three day experience at camp.  AP students were also a shining example of always being on their best behavior that put a smile on all the all that attended.  Please enjoy some photos of their time

From the PTA

This weekend officially starts SPRING BREAK! We hope that everyone has a safe, fun, and relaxing break! For those families that are traveling…Happy Trails and we wish you a safe journey! For those staying home..hopefully we “roll into each other” at the Lincoln Park Skating Center!

Thank you so much to all of the families that participated in our Buffalo Wild Wings Fundraiser! There were a lot of Arno Families there and we hope that the food was great and the company was fun and the beverages were refreshing!

Today is the LAST DAY for Daddy/Daughter Dance RSVP’s! PLEASE get your RSVP’s in by the end of school today 3:30 pm! We do not want any girls or dad’s to be disappointed they missed out!

If you would like to volunteer for this event, a sign up genius has been created and the link is available below! We appreciate any and all help that you can give!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CA4AA2AA4FE3-daddy1

Information was sent home this week about our Kroger Rewards Program. This is a simple and easy way for you to help your school community! Sign up today and start earning cash for your school. If you have any questions, please contact the PTA (arnopta@gmail.com); we would be happy to help!

Also…we are still accepting nominations for our Executive Board! If you are interested in a board position, please contact us! We are happy to answer any and all of your questions! Our elections will be held at our next PTA Meeting on Thursday, April 13th!

Have a Great Break! We will see everyone on Monday, April 10th!

Arno Donations

The Winner is…

This entire month of March, the Arno classroom doors were decorated with the Hollywood movie theme.  Congratulations to Mrs. Uhring’s class, Mrs. Jensen’s class and Ms. Amonette were the most creative door winners and received a movie and popcorn on Thursday.  Check out all of our other awesome door decorations!

NEW PARTNERSHIP CREATED 

THANK YOU – FLOWERS ON THE AVENUE!!

Allen Park Public Schools would like to say THANK YOU to FLOWERS On The Avenue!  Our elementary art teachers have partnered up with Flowers on the Avenue to help our kindergarten students learn about Impressionist Art.  The kindergarten students in all three elementary schools are studying Art History with a focus Claude Monet and his famous waterlilies paintings!

Flowers On The Avenue has been donating flowers to our art program that will be used in this project!

How do we know when we are a Top 10 education state? Listen in, as Chief Deputy Superintendent Sheila Alles describes the metrics that are being used to measure our progress and help us determine what “Top 10” means.

In the Spotlight

 

Spark is Adobe’s solution to creating simple web graphics… and then some.   It’s incredible for creating quotes and graphics to be used for social media and on web pages.   With very little effort, you can create something that looks professionally created and is highly shareable.   They keep improving it, adding the ability to create simple web pages, and now animated videos too.   If you’ve ever seen the recipe videos that have taken Facebook by storm, then you know the type of videos we’re talking about.  Line up a series of clips, throw in some simple animations and a common theme, and you’ve got yourself a video!   It’s not a powerful editor, it’s not going to replace iMovie or anything.   But at the same time, it’s one of those sites that you really don’t need much technical know-how to get some impressive results.

URL: Spark.Adobe.Com

 

A great explainer video can have a huge impact. It allows you to reach your audience and get your message across in a simple and engaging way. It doesn’t matter if you need to communicate in a professional environment, teach your students, or promote important issues that you feel very strongly about. With the power of simplicity, storytelling, and images that stay in mind, your message will get heard!

There are quite a few ways to create animated videos.   However, My Simpleshow is 100% unique in the genre.   You create a storyboard through text, and then it attempts to find clipart that is aligned with your words.   Don’t like an image?   Change it!  The drawings enter and exit through a variety of animations that will look familiar if you seen any RSA Animate or CommonCraft videos.   The net result is a very sophisticated looking video through a simple, easy to navigate interface.

URL: MySimpleShow.com

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 8^th 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 1^st, 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 20^th, 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 21^st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28^th, 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

 Time is Running Out- March 31, 2017 Deadline

Coming soon to Arno…

March 27

March Madness PBIS

Higgins obs 11:15

March 28

Title I Parent Workshop

Steve out

March 29

Community Interview Day at APHS (Steve) 10:45

PTSA at Arno 7:00

March 30

Principal’s meeting 9:00

Dr. Sturock’s after school celebration

First Grade Assembly

• First Grade Classrooms & Kindergarten Super Cougars
• In the gym
• Please have your class by the gym 5 minutes before your scheduled time.
• 9-9:45am-Watson’s Class & Stanley’s monthly super cougars
• 9:45-10:30am-Martinchick’s Class & DiCarlo’s monthly super cougars
• 10:30-11:15am-Pushman’s Class & Haskin’s monthly super cougars

March 31

March is Reading Month Movie Reward Day

Last day before spring break

Thanks once again Dr. Sturock

As mentioned in last week’s blog, the elementary art teachers put together a wonderful project to honor Dr. Sturock.  The following students helped to create that masterpiece:

Brooklyn Combs             Isabella Garrison           Noah Kilburg

Kaylee Daniels                Isabella Maldonado       Isabella Mastin

Miles Dewberry              Kyan O’Connell               Chris Plascencia

Emily Ellis                        Steven Stewart                Tyler Tillery

Anna Watson                   Kaylee Williams              Judith Zarate

From the PTA

Hi-Di-Ho Campers! We hope that all of the 5th Grade Students, teachers, and chaperones had a fun and memory filled adventure!

On the home front here, we just have a few reminders:

This is the LAST WEEK that Daddy Daughter RSVP’s will be accepted. PLEASE! Get your spots reserved before time runs out! Make those memories! Dance that Groove on the Dance Floor! Come on out and have some one-on-one fun with your daughter(s). Remember, Friday, March 31st is the last day RSVP’s will be accepted!

The PTA is currently accepting nominations for our Executive Board! If you would like to step up and take on a more “hands on” role in planning our schools yearly events or you just want to be a little more involved, please contact us at : arnopta@gmail.com or send us a private message on facebook to Arno Elementary PTA. Nominations are due BEFORE our next meeting, Thursday, April 13th.

This upcoming Wednesday, March 29th we will be hosting the PTSA Council Meeting at Arno. The meeting will take place in the Media Center at 7:30. All are welcome to attend!

Also this Wednesday, March 29th, we will be holding our next restaurant fundraiser at the Southgate Buffalo Wild Wings. The event runs all day. Please bring the flyer that is sent home with your student(s) in order for Arno to receive 20% from your purchases.

Have a Great Weekend!

Penny War Results

Congratulations to Mrs. Uhring’s room, they were the 2017 Penny War champions!  As the winners, they will participate in  a movie/popcorn in the building as a reward.  The total raised from Penny War was $2171.98!  That is a fantastic number- way to go Arno cougars!!  The funds earned from our Penny War will go towards purchasing books at Arno School.  Thank you for your support!!

For a good Cause…

On Monday, March 20th, Mrs. Warneck and Marie Pettit-Pokora walked to the middle school to donate 8 inches of their hair to the foundation called Children with Hair Loss. Their hair donation will be used to make wigs for children. We hope more people will join us next year and donate their hair.

In the Spotlight- Quill

Proofreader teaches your students editing skills by having them proofread passages. Students edit passages and receive personalized exercises based on their results. With over 100 expository passages, Proofreader gives students the practice they need to spot common grammatical errors.

URL: Quill Proofreader

In the Spot Light- StoryBoard That

Storyboard That’s award-winning, browser based Storyboard Creator is the perfect tool to create storyboards, graphic organizers, and powerful visual assets for use in an education, business, or personal setting. The application includes 7 layouts, and hundreds of characters, scenes, and search items. Once a storyboard is created, the user can present via PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Apple Keynote, or they can email the storyboard, post to social media, or embed on a blog. Storyboards are stored in the users’ account for access anywhere, from any device, no download needed. Storyboard That helps anyone be creative and add a visual component to any and every idea. What will you create today?

From the PTA/PTSA…

March is Reading Month

Bennie principal Sara Metzger delights Mrs. Kalis’s room with funny books

District Calendar

A reminder that the following is the Spring Break timeline for the 2016-17 school year:

SPRING BREAK 2017

• April 1 thru April 9, 2017
• Classes Resume Monday, April 10

APHS & APCS Special Testing Schedule (APHS Letter Attached)

o   April 11^th – Juniors & Sophomores Only (No School for Freshman & Seniors)

o   April 12 – Juniors & Freshman Only in AM (Class for all grades at 11:00 a.m.)

• No School on Friday, April 14 (Good Friday)
• Classes Resume Monday, April 17, 2017

While the entire 2017-18 school year calendar is not yet complete, the following are Winter Break 2017 and Spring Break 2018 timelines for those planning vacations:

WINTER BREAK 2017

• Last Day of Class Friday, December 22, 2017
• December 23 thru January 7, 2018
• Classes Resume Monday, January 8, 2018

 SPRING BREAK 2018

• March 30 (Good Friday) thru April 8
• Classes Resume Monday, April 9, 2018

Arno Cougars presentation to Dr. Sturock

Coming soon to Arno…

March 20

Steve @Bennie guest reader- 9:30

5th Grade MIF training

March 21

4th Grade MIF training

Eval Webinar at Riley- Steve 8:00

March 22

MTSS District Committee 8:30

Early Dismissal 11:40- Teacher PD

5th grade leaves for camp

March 23

5th Grade camp

Ok To Say Assembly

• Grades K & 1 @ 9:30 am

• Grades 2 & 3 @ 10:30 am

  In the gym

March 24

Camp Return 1;00

Steve guest reader @Mrs. Jensen 2:30

***Bingo for Books rescheduled for April 27- Same time schedule

Dr. Sturock Honored

Allen Park’s superintendent, Dr. Sturock was honored Monday evening at his final appearance at a board meeting.  Many special presentations paid tribute to all of his hard work, dedication, and putting students first.  Arno had a great showing with several staff members and students in attendance.  We are very excited and pleased to announce the Arno Media center has now been named to “John J Sturock Media Center” in honor of our superintendent, and recognizing that he was also a former Arno student- Go Cougars!!   Dr. Sturock was also given a plaque commemorating that naming, as well as a shirt donated by the PTA, and two large photos of the sign in place above the media center door.  Mr. Creutz also had an outstanding adapted version of Crosby, Stills, and Nash in chorus with Arno students! Special thanks Emily Quickel, Kaylee Williams, Olivia Kalis, Zach Hillmer , Zoila Davenport, Reina Garza, Abby Obrycki, Sandy Bennett, Diane Peyton, Dawn Watson, Brian Trionfi, Lisa Smalley, Barb Chuby, and Todd Creutz for their contributions to the night.  Way to go Cougars!

Some of our recent tweeting colleagues…

Standing-room-only today at #macul17 as @maureenklein puts good out into the world on behalf of young readers pic.twitter.com/VP8zNMESS0

— Sara Metzger (@metzger_bennie) March 16, 2017

Awesome start to #macul17 "If we change our world, we can change the world." – @SirKenRobinson pic.twitter.com/iL43GaI7m9

— Sara Metzger (@metzger_bennie) March 16, 2017

Author, Chris Bak, is at Arno Elementary to share her love of reading and writing with our students. @szArno #marchisreadingmonth pic.twitter.com/u11dcaiHVl

— Dawn Watson (@dpawatson) March 16, 2017

https://twitter.com/phillippittman7/status/841952825974378497

From the PTA

It’s the “LUCKIEST” Day of the Year! We hope that some of our Caring Cougar Community were able to catch a tricky LEPRECHAUN! If not, we hope you’re enjoying your day with good food, drink, and people!

This Saturday, March 18th, the PTSA will be holding our annual Spring Fever Craft/Vendor show, Mom to Mom Sale, Bake Sale, Sports Memorabilia and Card Show, and Silent Auction. Please join us at the High School from 9-3 to help support our Community and graduating Seniors. All proceeds help fund our scholarship program

As many of you may know by now from following our Arno Elementary Facebook page, we have 2 State Winners for our PTA Reflections contest: Charlotte Tracz- Primary Music (Award of Merit) and Sophia Kaloian- Primary Visual Art (Honorable Mention). Both girls were presented with flowers and a card from our PTA and will have the opportunity to go to the Michigan State PTA Reflections Reception! Way to Go Girls!

Speaking of winners….our Executive Board has its own “Winner” too! Our Super Awesome Treasurer is part of her company’s (Consumer Energy) ad campaign to support women’s leadership with two other companies: the Society of Women Engineers at U-M and Career Mastered. WAY TO GO JULIE! What a wonderful opportunity to be involved in! Julie also applied for anagrams from Consumers Energy and was awarded $250 for volunteering her time at Arno and in our Community. WOW! What a Rock Star!

If you have enrolled in the Kroger Community Reeards Program, you MUST re-enroll in April. If you have NOT enrolled in this program, please email us at:arnopta@gmail.com and we can get you started and set-up. It really only takes about 5 minutes of your time to help out your school!

Arno PTA Executive Board nominations are being accepted! If you think you would like to contribute to the PTA by taking on an executive board position, please email us or send us a message on Facebook. Elections will be held at our April 13th meeting. In order to ensure our official ballots are correct, we need to be aware of anyone interested in running. If you have any questions about any of the positions (President, VP of Fundraising, Treasurer, or Secretary), please contact us and we will be happy to answer any and all questions.

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Get your Daddy/Daughter RSVP’s in SOON! No RSVP’s will be taken after March 31st. Do not miss out on this event! New Venue! Awesome DJ! Delicious Food! Fond Memories with your Duaghter(s)!

We hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Hopefully we will see many of you at the Spring Fever event on Saturday!

Scholastic Magazine REMINDER

Please remember to place your order in the PTA shared doc by the end of this month.  Please refer to the numbers I had sent out just prior for next year, plus pad by two.  Let me know what questions you have.

MACUL

We are now on day 2 of the state tech conference and there will be much to share.  Please visit http://www.teach42.com/fetc-2017/ for some really great websites for creativity and other subjects like writing,  The ones I explored are amazing and can really bring up the tech game in our classrooms.  The site belongs to Steve Dembo, who spoke at MACUL a few years back, and contains other presentations he has done.  Please consider exploring some of these top educational sites.   More to come.

Allen Park teachers using talk moves and evidence to promote discussion in science! @MikeD_Lindemann @szArno @metzger_bennie @richbacolor pic.twitter.com/tQpfxMERwY

— Phillip Pittman, Ph.D. (@phillippittman7) March 3, 2017

Coming soon to Arno…

March 13

Ad Council 9:00

Board Meeting to celebrate Dr. Sturock 7:00

March 14

Staff Meeting 7:55

March 15

School-wide Title 1 meeting

SIP Meeting 3:45

March 16

Tornado Drill

Author Visit Chris Bak

• Grades K-2

  • In the gym @ 9am

  • About 30 minutes long

• Grades 3-5 @ 10am

  • In the gym

  • About 45 minutes long

Steve @MACUL

March 17

Steve @ MACUL

March 18

PTSA Spring Fever Craft Show

Bingo for Books 

Due to the power outage this week, Bingo for Books was cancelled. We will review when it may be rescheduled and we will let everyone.

Daddy Daughter Dance 2017

Document1

Congrats Mrs. Solak for helping make Arno Green!

Dear Mrs. Solak,

I received and reviewed your Michigan Green School activity verification.  Congratulations! Because of the hard work from the teachers, students and parents, Arno Elementary School has received the 2017 Michigan Evergreen School designation, by completing at least 20 energy saving and environmental tasks.  The efforts you made to complete the tasks are very impressive.  I especially enjoyed learning about your composting project, rain barrels and the GLEP field trip.  I urge Arno Elementary School to continue with the energy saving and environmental tasks and hope you encourage others to follow.

Thank you for the well written and organized documentation, I very much appreciate it. 

I will stay in contact with you regarding your certificate, banner, and the 10 year anniversary recognition ceremony, which has been scheduled for May 16, 2017.   Please note that if you already received a banner you will be receiving an annual decal to place on your banner.

Go Green and Stay Green,

Nancy Gregor

Wayne County Michigan Green School Co-coordinator

March is Reading Month

Dr. Hall reads to 4th grade

Roll Out the Red Carpet and Read!

March is Reading is in full swing with reading the center of attention.  We have had a book character day, and even some Drop Everything and Read time-outs, and there were plenty of bright smiles to go with the reading fun.  Please the calendar below as we make our way through March so you know what event or activity is coming up.

MarchisReadingMonth2017

Preschool Information

If you have a child who will be 3 years old by September 1^st, 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 20^th, 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 21^st, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Riley Education Center, 14700 Moore. Out-of-district residents may begin registering Friday, April 28^th, 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

Young Fives or Kindergarten?

Young Fives Informational Meeting – March 21, 2017 – 6:30 p.m.

Location: Allen Park High School – LGI Room

Young Fives Screening Sessions – March 28-29, 2017

(Please see website under the “Schools” tab for more information)

*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

Young Fives Information

PTA-PTSA Council Spring Fever Event – March 18 2017

 Squeezing the Most Out of Your
NWEA Student Profile Report

Please review the summary below and click the link to watch the 7 minute video

http://info.nwea.org/student-profile-report-012017.html

Summary

Coming soon to Arno…

March 6

OK2Say Cyber Safety Assembly- Grades 4 & 5 @ 1:30pm

March 7

DATA SIP- Jeanine, Sarah, Megan

PBIS 3:45

March 8

!/2 Day dismissal 11:40

Teacher PD @Bennie 12:30

March 9

MTSS Team meeting Full Day

Bingo for Books 5:00 first set

March 10

2nd grade/Jensen field trip

From the PTA

To all the staff and members that came to our meeting last night! We were extremely happy to see so much support from our Arno Community Staff and our members! It really does take a village to provide for our school and it showed tonight! We appreciate the unanimous support of our proposal to reward our teachers.

The PTSA Spring Fever event is coming up at the High School on, Saturday, March 18th. Our President is still looking for a “Partner-in-Crime” to help co-chair this event with her. There is still time to sign up to donate an item or your time. Arno is in charge of the concessions again and we could use all the help we can get! Come on out and join us! Shop a little. Eat a little. Bid on one of Arno Sponsored Raffle Baskets! We look forward to seeing all the friendly faces! A sign up genius link is available on the PTA Facebook Page and the school blog. All help is appreciated!

Our Daddy Daughter Dance is approaching at the beautiful Parkside Gardens Banquet Center. Please DO NOT wait until the last minute to turn in your RSVP’s. Remember, March 31st is the deadline! There will not be any late RSVP’s accepted! This is FIRM!!!

We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! THANK YOU again for your overwhelming support of our School Community!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f48a4af2bab9-spring1

One more time….

Squeezing the Most Out of Your
NWEA Student Profile Report

Please review the summary below and click the link to watch the 7 minute video

http://info.nwea.org/student-profile-report-012017.html

Summary

 

Document1

March is Reading Month

Roll Out the Red Carpet and Read!

March is fast approaching and we are gearing up for a Hollywood theme to this year’s reading month activities.  The calendar is attached below and contains all the info you will need to know about all the happenings here at Arno, and what should be going on at home.   Please let your teacher know if you clarification on anything.

MarchisReadingMonth2017

Bingo for Books

bingoforbooks2017.doc

Good Resource Site: Internet4classrooms

I4C: Comma Practice. https://t.co/hC0L5qGxfA #2ndchat #langarts #ela #engchat pic.twitter.com/Ya4JymGyGr

— internet4classrooms (@internet4classr) March 1, 2017

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Kindergarten enjoyed learning about some animals in Life When It’s Snowy form Metro Parks

PTA-PTSA Council Spring Fever Event – March 18 2017

Team Awesome!

Coming soon to Arno…

Feb 27

Guyot field trip

Feb 28

Kindergarten presentations

Warneck field trip

March 1

PBIS Board games

Wesley field trip

March 2

Principal’s meeting 9

ICC

PTA meeting 6:30

Spring Pictures

March 3

Super Cougar lunch 11:00

MTSS Awesomeness

Thursday convened our newly formed MTSS committee with the overall goal of moving our building forward in the process.  Time flew by, but we managed to address some big topics.  Our accomplishments included:

• Discussion of future data that the district has constructed.  This will be used for future data meetings, of which we are hoping to have at least one this year, perhaps in June.  Dr. Pittman led the team through navigating the excel files, and will share similar info with the entire staff soon.
• In using this data, we have also decided on a system that will identify, using multiple data points, those students who are tier 2 and tier 3.  Once we have this ready for rollout, it will be shared among you all
• The team also broke up into lower/upper and started to building what I would like to call a teacher toolkit for intervention resources and ideas.  There has been some discussion of what we next, how else can we reach this student.  We are now working with the team to get each grade level helpful information on multiple ways you could intervene (it’s not a lockstep doc), giving you the tools to be more successful when you intervene with kids.  We will be looking at the best way to package this resource and roll it out to you in the near future
• We had also discussed, and please watch you email, for a survey for all to share some strategies you have done/seen so that we may add this to our growing list of option.

Thank you all who participated in the discussion for the betterment of Arno.

From the PTA

Puxatony Phil must have gotten this one wrong! What beautiful weather we have had this past week! Come on Spring!!!
Speaking of beautiful….the Founders Day Dinner held at Crystal Park Banquet Center on Thursday night was BEAUTIFUL! So many beautiful people and beautiful words spoken about all of the honorees. Congratulations to all of the winners. You make our community a better place!
A few reminders going into the weekend about our upcoming events….
🌺Our March PTA Meeting will be this Thursday, March 2nd at 630 pm. This is an important meeting for us because we will be submitting a proposal to our members to vote on about how we will distribute our hard earned funds we raised this year. Please consider coming out and placing your vote! As always free childcare will be available.
🌺Daddy/Daughter flyers were distributed. Please remember to RSVP by the deadline, March 31st. This date is FIRM! Don’t miss out spending a great night with your little girl!
Thank you to all the volunteers we had for the book fair! We really appreciate all that you do to help make our school successful.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Congratulations to all of our Arno Award Winners!!

What a nice evening it was at the Founders Award ceremony and dinner this past Wednesday honoring the accomplishments of many of APPS’ finest.  The PTSA kept under wraps their mystery Life Time Award winner- which ended up being our own Michelle Desjardins!  Arno had a great night and as you can see from the photos below- we were blessed with many award winners!  Way to go Team Arno!

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March is Reading Month

Roll Out the Red Carpet and Read!

March is fast approaching and we are gearing up for a Hollywood theme to this year’s reading month activities.  The calendar is attached below and contains all the info you will need to know about all the happenings here at Arno, and what should be going on at home.

MarchisReadingMonth2017

March is Reading Teacher Information 2017

Bingo fo Books

bingoforbooks2017.doc

Daddy/Daughter Info

Please do not forget to send in your Daddy/Daughter Dance RSVP’s! Remember there is a FIRM DEADLINE of March 31st!

This event is being held at Parkside Gardens in Southgate! New revenue+New DJ+New Event Chairs=LOTS OF NEW EXPERIENCES AND FUN!

Arno Dance 2017

PTA-PTSA Council Spring Fever Event – March 18 2017

 From the Red Cross…

Thank you so much for hosting another drive at Arno Elementary.  We truly appreciate your continued partnership with the American Red Cross.

The preliminary results from Thursday, February 16, 2017 are as follows:

23 donors presented to give blood

29 was our projected goal

22 products of life-saving blood were collected

And the most important number of all-66 patient’s lives will be touched by this drive!

Thank you for all that you do to make these drives a success.  Please let me know how many gifts I should order for our students that recruited a donor.  Please pass along our thanks to everyone that was involved.

Best regards,

Beth Harris

Regional Donor Representative

American Red Cross Blood Services

From the District…

M-STEP is approaching

With the onset of M-Step season, I want to bring some items back into focus (although this should be integrated all year).  One of those items is the Depth of Knowledge chart that was originally shared last year in reference to the various levels of questioning that students will likely face in state testing, perhaps even in NWEA.  Last year I also supplied all classrooms with the questioning flip book, which I hope has become a  go-to resource when designing lessons, practice, and discussions.  If your students are not exposed to the various levels of questioning, they will certainly be disadvantaged on certain questions.  Please take some time to review the question template, the resources, and the DOK and consider how you can apply this in math, reading, science, and social studies.

QuestionTemplates

DOK_Chart

Check out these great resources to assist in assessing

Edulastic: a digital formative assessment for MSTEP Test Prep
https://www.edulastic.com/

Edulastic Blog:
http://www.oaklandschoolsliteracy.org/edulastic-authentic-m-step-prep/

MAISA Reading/Writing Resources

Interesting PBIS read

IF A CHILD CAN’T READ, WE TEACH HIM TO READ

IF A CHILD CAN’T DO MATH PROBLEMS,

WE TEACH HIM HOW TO DO MATH PROBLEMS

IF A CHILD DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE,

WE PUNISH HIM.

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