Dr. Green Elem Family Newsletter

Dear Dr. Green Parent and Guardians,

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. September is here with many opportunities to actively participate and engage with your children here at Dr. Green.

This time I wanted to share with you 3 main important goals for this school year:

1. Increase math results- Not only STAAR results in grades 3-5, but in all grade levels. Teachers continue attending professional development to enhance and deepen their knowledge of the curriculum adopted by the district last year. Now, in year two, teachers are feeling more comfortable and ready to fly high with all the knowledge and resources at their hands.

2. Increase science experiences and results- This year, our district adopted a new Science curriculum. During the summer we had the opportunity to review it and analyze component after component by grade level. The curriculum is rich in content, targeted for all learning styles and lots of hands on activities. This week, we will begin taking our students to the science lab for them to experience not only listening to a lesson but for them to actually experiment the lesson. We thank our paraprofessionals and custodians for their hard job clearing and cleaning our science lab to use this week and forward.

3. Improve Attendance-Every day your child comes to school is an opportunity for learning. To the contrary, everyday your child is absent from school is a missed opportunity for learning, a missed opportunity to interact with friends and teachers and a missed opportunity to grow. Continue motivating your child to attend school, perhaps the night before get them excited by selecting and getting their clothes ready, talk about their hairdo, a special shirt, make cards for friends, teachers, principal, this way they will be looking forward to come to school for something they own. We would like to keep our attendance rate at higher than 96%. In the past 3 weeks, our attendance has been 95%.

Tutoring Coming Up-We will be working on recruiting our own teachers for afterschool tutoring according to student specific academic needs. More coming up.

Intersession-Intersession is coming up from October 2 through October 4. This time, the intersession will be 3 full days for students to receive interventions only in reading and math, this time there's no enrichment, art, or PE. Students should have received a permission slip for your signature and approval to bring them during these 3 days. If you have not done so, please send the signed permission slip as soon as possible.

Wellness Walk is coming back- Our energetic PE Coaches are ready to bring back our Wellness Walk. This month, "September Stride" is happening on Wednesday, September 25th. You may join your children' s PE time and enjoy a stride. Please see below the PE schedule.

PBIS-Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports-It is a framework for supporting whole school practices to promote a safe school setting for social, learning, behavioral, and emotional needs of all students. We have established the PBIS framework at Dr. Green this year. To recognize students' effort to maintain a safe learning environment, we will have a monthly celebration for all students on a set day. The celebrations may range from treats, fun activities, dances, board games, interacting with athletes etc. We will add these activities in our monthly calendars. We thank you for encouraging your children to always do the right thing.

Thank you to our PTA Board and Members: I'm very pleased to see how you as parents are responding to attending our events, meetings and volunteering. Everyday, more parents join our PTA to contribute either with their time to volunteer or with their ideas. Your children love to see you involved!

Grandparent's Day Breakfast:

Great turn out! It was phenomenal to see our Grandparents helping out their children coloring a nice picture for them and enjoying their time in school together.

Coffee With the Principal:

It is always good to stay in communication with the school Principal. Pease join me this Tuesday, September 17th at 8:30 am. Ms. Villanueva one of our third grade teachers will be presenting our plan to identify more Gifted and Talented students at Dr. Green. She will also have GT nomination packets for parents to complete. Please don't miss out as we have good and new information on the GT program.

Early Release for Students:

Teachers will be attending Professional Development on Wednesday, September 18th at 1:00 p.m. This is an Early Release Day for students. Please plan to pick up your children at 12:00 pm.

PTA Fundraising:

Our PTA will have a Peter Piper Fundraising on Wednesday, September 25th. You can Visit Peter Piper throughout the day and you will be contributing to the fundraising as long as you mention you are a Dr. Green Hawk!

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to me. You can stop me if you see me around the campus or you can email me at gpineda@episd.org. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you and your family.

I would like to close with this quote as our pledge to you:

"Teaching children is an accomplishment;

Getting children excited about learning is an achievement".

By Robert John Meehan

That is what we at Dr. Green believe and strive to accomplish.

Respectfully,

Ms. Guadalupe Pineda

Dr. Green Elementary Principal

gpineda@episd.org