Principal's Message 3.22.19

Principal's Message 3.22.19

Happy Spring Break!  

We hope you have a relaxing Spring Break and look forward to seeing students back at Prairie on Wednesday, April 3rd.  Students who send in a postcard, card, or letter about their Spring break fun, whether in-town or from traveling, will have lunch with Dr. Pfaff.  


Coming in Early April: IAR Assessment for Grades 3–8

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) is the new English/language arts and math state assessment for Grades 3–8 students in Illinois public schools. 

The IAR replaces the PARCC assessment given the previous few years and is, in fact, very similar.

The testing window is designated as Apr. 8–26, but our students do not test every day during that period. 

Read more info about the IAR, including our Testing Schedule, the impact of participation, and more.

As your building principal, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the IAR assessment. Please call our school office or send me an email.


Author's Visit

Prairie School is so fortunate to have Jeff Weigel visit our school in May. He is an illustrator, author and designer of children’s books, graphic novels, and comics. He is currently the artist for the Sunday newspaper comic strip, The Phantom.  Books will be available for purchase and autographs. If you are interested in purchasing a book, please send this form to Prairie by April 9th.


 

Creating Balanced Class Lists - Parent Input for Class Placement

Creating balanced class lists that meet the needs of all students is a tremendously difficult job that takes many hours of thoughtful dialogue between classroom teachers, administrators, and specialists. We at Prairie School take this process very seriously. The process for class list creation is as follows:

  1. Teachers think about the social and academic needs of each of their current students while recording pertinent information to assist in the decision making process.

  2. Grade level teachers, the principal, specials area teachers, and specialists meet together to form class lists that are balanced in terms of academic, social, and emotional needs as well as considering friendships. This is no easy task and often takes several meetings. This team of educators considers each child’s personality, academic needs, friendship patterns, etc. as they make a match for each individual child.

  3. This team of educators creates a draft set of class lists taking into consideration parent input.  

  4. Class lists are then revised in August with summer changes for students who move in or out of the district.

  5. Class rosters are never final until they are released to families in August.

This process happens at grades 2-5. Willow Grove creates the class lists for our incoming 1st graders.  Our 5th-grade team actively works with Twin Groves to provide data and input related to placement decisions at the middle school level.

We strongly believe that this detailed and collaborative process creates learning environments that benefit all students. It is a delicate balancing act which takes much consideration and thought by professionals who know and care about your children. Our goal is to create balanced class lists that promote the success of each child. Please know that your child is placed in a classroom for very specific reasons. The process benefits all students.  Because of the input and thought given by teachers, specialists, parents, and the principal, we are very reluctant to make changes once this process occurs, as removing or moving one child can disrupt the balance of an entire class, impacting all students.

I welcome any insight you wish to share about your child’s strengths, needs, and learning style. I will take into consideration pertinent information received on or before FRIDAY, APRIL 26th. Please remember, while we welcome your input, specific teacher requests will not be honored.

I cannot express enough how important it is that your thoughts are provided through the Prairie Class Placement Input 2019-2020 Survey.  As you can imagine, we receive a lot of parent input, and verbal information is impossible to track.  The information you provide in the survey will remain confidential between you and me.


PTO NEWS

Please check out the updated PTO Blog by clicking Mar. 2019 PTO BLOG.


 

Attention 5th Grade Parents...A Message from Mrs. Barnes, Principal at Twin Groves

 I would love for you to get involved in the Twin Groves PTO.  Please consider leading one of our committees or joining our Executive Board. There are many openings for the 19-20 School Year. Please see below.

Board Positions:

Co-President

Vice President

Co-Treasurer

MTK (Membership Toolkit) Coordinator

 Committees Chairs:

Staff Appreciation/Hospitality

Special Lunch

Dessert Day

Gym Uniforms

School Supply Kits

Book Fair

Bake Sale

 

You can also talk to an existing board member for more information or message the PTO if you are interested! LINK.  Descriptions for all open positions are available on our PTO Membership Toolkit: Twingrovesmspto.membershiptoolkit.com.  To access the Twin Groves Membership Toolkit, you can log in with your existing information and add a student to Twin Groves.