Administrator's Corner

Important Dates

Tuesday, November 2 - Picture Retake Day
Thursday, November 4 - Report Cards are available to view on Powerschool
Friday, November 5 - Parent Teacher Conferences - No School
Wednesday, November 10 - 8:15am - Coffee Talk - One of the outdoor classrooms
Thursday, November 11 - Holiday, No School
November 24 - 26 - Thanksgiving Break - No School

Message From The Principal

It is conference time!  This week is an important week for you and your family.  We will be having conferences.  This is a time for you to sit down with the classroom teacher to look at progress.  This trimester we are having all conferences on Zoom, rather than in person.  Hopefully by the time spring conferences come around, we can have families come into the building.  Please take a moment to appreciate that teachers have been working for the past couple of weeks to analyze assessments that measure progress.  Report cards take a lot of teacher time and energy.  We hope that a quality report card as well as a thoughtful conference will give families the information needed to understand how your child is performing in school.

Report cards will be ready to view at 8:00AM on Thursday.  Please follow the directions given in this link, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wg7V64PNrWghTg1a2FV8e6ob0f8hfdNP/view.  If you have any difficulty accessing the parent portal or report cards, please reach out to shannonhowe@sau70.org.

Here are a few suggestions for helping you understand how your child is progressing:

Student Work:  Be sure to ask for samples of student work.  If you have questions about the progress your child is making in a particular area feel free to ask to see work samples to help you understand.

Questions:  You may find it helpful to write down any questions you have prior to the conferences.  Conferences are limited on time, so having your questions written down saves time.  Conferences are a good time to share any concerns that arise or any successes you have.  

General Information:  Conference time is also a good time to ask any questions you have about your child’s school experience.  Are you curious about behavior?  Do you want to know future units of study?  Feel free to ask any and all questions.  Increased home and school communication results in greater learning.  Thanks for your support and attendance!

Sometimes it is tricky to come up with just the right questions to ask during conferences.  Here are questions you might consider asking at your parent-teacher conference.  A prepared parent with a positive attitude and an open mind is on the right track for creating a successful, year-long partnership with his child's teacher.

• What is it that you want my child to learn?
• Is my child taking advantage of the opportunities he/she is given at school?  If not, how can we work together to encourage my child to engage in school?
• What are you doing as the classroom teacher to make sure you have a full understanding of my child’s needs?
• How are you responding to my child when he/she is having difficulty with the material in your classroom?
• If my child is falling behind when other children may have moved on, how are you addressing this?
• How are you responding when my child has mastered the material, and others have not?
• How can we support you at home?  Are there games or activities that we could play as a family?
• What changes does my child need to make in his/her behavior to be more successful at school?

Thank you for taking the time to attend conferences.  If you have not been able to schedule a conference, please reach out to your child’s teacher.

Have a lovely week,
Shawn