Mark your calendars for the following dates:
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Family Math Night Did Not Disappoint
On Thursday, January 12th the Little Silver School District hosted Family Math Night for students and their parents. This event drew 60 families, about 200 participants. The night was designed to engage participants in a variety of fun and challenging math activities. The game stations and activity centers selected for family math all focused on reinforcing standards-based skills. While all activities were a hit, families were particularly drawn to manipulating the robots in the STEM room as well as trying to solve their way out of the "Math Escape" room.
Security DrillsIn January 2010, a State law regarding School Security Drills was passed (see guidelines). Each school practices two monthly drills: one fire drill and one security drill. Each time a security drill is practiced, you receive a letter informing you of such. Last month, a letter went home informing parents that two Monmouth County Schools received bomb threats. No matter how often we practice, it is always unnerving to go through these drills let alone a potential credible threat. The Little Silver Police Department has become a leader among law enforcement officials in the county when it comes to collaborating with school districts on issues pertaining to safety and security. Should Little Silver be faced with a credible threat, parents are urged to wait to receive information from the school district regarding how to proceed. When parents arrive on site, it hinders the work of law enforcement officials as well as school staff who are following emergency protocol. | Monmouth County Freeholders Recognize Little Silver’s Academic AccomplishmentsPreviously shared was an article recognizing Little Silver’s accomplishments on the PARCC assessment (see article). Of the 556 districts ranked best to worst regarding PARCC scores, there were 25 districts tied for 1st Place, six of which are in Monmouth County (1. Avon, 2. Little Silver, 3. Monmouth Beach, 4. Roosevelt Boro, 5. Sea Girt, and 6. Spring Lake Boro). On Thursday, February 9, 2017, the Little Silver School District will be recognized for our academic achievement by the Monmouth County Freeholders at the Hall of Records in Freehold. Congratulations for the collaborative effort of administrators and teachers who work diligently to address the needs of the children of Little Silver! |
The New Jersey Department of Education Recognizes
Little Silver’s Programs!
On January 5th, two members the New Jersey Department of Education (Peggy McDonald - Deputy Chief Learning Supports and Specialized Services Officer and Lorelei Drew-Nevola – Director of Office of Tiered Supports and Specialized Services) were joined by members of New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education (NJCIE) to meet with our district administrators and members of our Intervention and Referral Services Teams to discuss tiered support services in Little Silver. Both groups were impressed with the district and our practices. The day following the visit, the NJDOE contacted the Office of the Superintendent to request that we present at the New Jersey Tiered Systems of Supports Conference (NJTSS) on Friday, January 13th at the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association (NJPSA) site in Monroe. The goal was to support the State's efforts in showcasing districts that were successfully implementing tiered systems of support. District administrators (Dr. Kossack, Superintendent; Mrs. Rosen, Director of Curriculum and Instruction; Dr. Albert-Devine, Principal of Point Road; and Dr. Robinson, Director of Special Services) provided an overview of our Schoolwide Organization, Curriculum and Instruction, Assessment, and the Utilization of Related Service Providers for tier 2 and 3 interventions. Seven staff members (Janemarie Nowell, Tara Dunne, Kristen Hansen, Anna Files, Janice Anderson, Jennifer Peirson and Kathleen Mulcahy) then facilitated a panel discussion with the 150 attendees.
On March 2nd, the NJDOE will once again be visiting Little Silver. The Office of Educational Technology is working on an initiative to find and highlight aspects of digital learning that are done well in NJ schools. Therefore, they requested to visit our campus. Congratulations to our staff who are making Little Silver a district to watch! |
Operating Within the 2% Cap
The November Spotlight included an article entitled: NJ School Aid: 200 Districts Who Got the Least Help. A review of State Aid figures revealed that of the 200 districts in New Jersey receiving the LEAST amount of support (with 1 being the lowest in the state), Little Silver ranked 3rd with only two other districts in the entire state receiving less State Aid than us! Little Silver received only $380.65 per pupil while our per pupil cost exceeds $13,000 per student. For the 2016-17 school year, Little Silver received $321,655 in State Aid and $264,882 in Federal Aid. The combined $586,537 in aid represents 4.5% of our $13,047,024 budget. Therefore, Little Silver residents pay for over 95% of our children’s education. Our current educational experience is not sustainable without consequences such as:
- Increasing taxes beyond 2%
- Increasing revenue generation
- Making decisions that may require parent contribution beyond paying taxes
Public School Advocacy
The New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) continues to advocate for the well-being of all public school students regarding Federal legislative priorities. The NSBA wrote the Senate HELP Committee on the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education (see letter).
Little Silver’s Cyber Patriots continue to progress
in National Competition
CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program which presents a yearly competition. The competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly-hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, within a six-hour period, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Teams compete for the top placement within their state and region, and the top 3 Middle School teams in the nation earn all-expenses-paid trip to Baltimore, MD for the National Finals Competition where they can earn national recognition and scholarship money. On Saturday, January 14th, the Markham CyberPatriot teams competed in the State Round of competition. After 6 long hours, the Warriors team, including Matthew Schmitt, Carter Costic, Eden Stein and Mathias Lazewski, took 1st Place in the State and 6th Place in the Nation. The Blue & White team, including Michael Mueller, Jack Clause, Connor Langa and Patrick McGagh, placed 2nd in the State and were 30th in the Nation out of 462 teams! Both teams will advance to the Semifinals on Sunday, February 5th. Good luck CyberPatriots! A special thanks to team adviser Mrs. Wendy Whittle and parent volunteer Mr. Greg Jansky for their dedication to this program.
Wonder League Robotics Competition
Mrs. Whittle’s 2nd Grade students participated in the 2016 Wonder League Robotics Competition using their Dash and Dot robots. (Please visit Mrs. Whittle’s webpage at http://pointroadstem.weebly.com/2nd-grade.html). Out of the 20 teams that competed, 6 of them completed all the Missions and 5 of them received a top score in the State of NJ. Over 5000 teams from 52 countries participated, 44% of whom were girls! Out of all the teams that registered, 33% of the teams made it to the end and submitted solutions. There were over 4000 teams in the United States alone! California had the most teams (18%), followed by Texas (10%), New York (6%), New Jersey (5%), Georgia (4%), and Kentucky (4%). It was a tough competition! See the completion results! Scroll down to NJ 6-8 bracket and you will see our 5 teams that were tied for 1st place in the State. |
The Importance of Keyboarding
How Can Parents Support Keyboarding at Home?
Every content area has standards, and the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Technology outline the current standards for Educational Technology and Technology Education, Engineering, Design and Computational Thinking - Programming (see standards). Within these standards, is keyboarding important? Of course! You can access information about your child’s grade level curriculum by viewing the Rubicon Atlas link on our Curriculum page of our website. If you were to “search” using the keyword “keyboarding” you will see all of the grade levels that address keyboarding skills.
Also, take a look at Mrs. Orrick’s Technology Symbaloo that is linked to her website at http://morrick.weebly.com/ Here you will find the many resources students use in school, including typing resources by grade level. How can parents support keyboarding at home? Have your children log on to their designated color on the Technology Symbaloo (K & 1st = Pink; 2nd = Green; 3rd = Orange; 4th = Blue). Look for the “T” for the various typing programs by grade level.
Also, take a look at Mrs. Orrick’s Technology Symbaloo that is linked to her website at http://morrick.weebly.com/ Here you will find the many resources students use in school, including typing resources by grade level. How can parents support keyboarding at home? Have your children log on to their designated color on the Technology Symbaloo (K & 1st = Pink; 2nd = Green; 3rd = Orange; 4th = Blue). Look for the “T” for the various typing programs by grade level.
Did You Know?
Over the past few years, there has been a great deal of rhetoric regarding the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS), formerly the Common Core Standards, and the PARCC assessment. From an educational standpoint, Little Silver’s curricular program has required teachers to change the way they teach to align to the rigor of the standards. While the standards are challenging, it is important to view American Education from a broad perspective as our children are only one part of a global educational enterprise. There is a worldwide exam administered every three years called PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) that measures 15-year-olds in 72 countries. About 540,000 students took the exam in 2015. The US saw an 11-point drop in average score for math, while remaining relatively flat in reading and science (see article). The hope is that the implementation of the Common Core Standards/New Jersey Learning Standards will have a positive impact on our contribution to the increase of American student achievement.