August 30, 2019

You know what they say, "You only have one time to make a good first impression."  So, teachers take great care in the way you set up your classrooms, dress for success, and display personal touches of love. What parents mostly want to know is if the teacher is nice and if their children will be loved during this 180 day learning journey.  

Goals for the first six weeks

Teachers are experts on curriculum and pedagogy, but parents are experts on their own children—how the children absorb information, what delights them, how they show that they’re upset, what comforts them. During the first six weeks, we can create a climate of respect, trust, and collaboration with these valuable educational partners. Here are the three main goals in this early work with parents:

Help parents feel welcomed and valued. Show that you’re excited to work with their child. Reassure them that their opinions, interests, and family culture matter to you. As one parent of a second grader said, “It’s so important to me that the teacher has a welcoming demeanor and shows that she wants you to be part of your child’s education.”

Welcome parents to play an active role. Begin sending the message that you want parents to visit the classroom, send notes, call you, and voice opinions.

Build community among families. Help parents get to know each other. When parents share positive relationships, they’re more likely to get their children together outside of school, take part in school life, and seek help if their children need it.

Please read this BLOG. 
CLICK HERE

Free field trip!! Go to this website and it will pay for buses and entrance to museums. The field trip has to be about marine education. Here is the website https://marineed.org/

Please welcome:

My name is Kelly McKendell.  I just recently moved to Fairfield from Sacramento.  I graduated from CSU Sacramento with both my Bachelor's and Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials.  I'm excited to here at Suisun Valley and am looking forward to a great year ahead as an RSP teacher. 

Observable Fish Moments at SV:

Be There: Thank you to EVERYONE for helping out with after school dismissal.

Play: CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO MRS. DALY MADE TO WELCOME HER 2ND GRADERS

 Choose your attitude: If you cannot be positive, then at least, be quiet. 

Make Their Day:  A great idea: Eat lunch with a student and get to know them one on one.

August 23, 2019

On Saturday we celebrated Rakhi at my sister's house. Here is a picture of Maya tying one on for Dylan. Rakhi is the simple but beautiful thread tying around the wrist of a brother, conveying lots of love and emotions. Sisters wholeheartedly tie Rakhi on the wrist of their brothers and pray to divine for bestowing him prosperity, health with serenity. Brothers who deeply and truly understand the deep message of Rakhi, pledge to keep their sisters safe from all evil circumstances of their life and promise to stand by her in every up and down moments of life. The brothers usually give their sisters gifts. Rakhi festival also has a social significance because it underlines the notion that everybody should live in harmonious coexistence with each other.

Great team spirit at our staff meeting!! AAG games

were so fun!! 

 

 

Are. You. Ready? (Loved this and got it from Jeff Kubiak)

Wow! And just like that: School. Here it is. Some of our #NEU planning has already started, but others are about to begin.

Are You Ready?

For 180 days of awesomeness, fun, and laughter.

Are You Ready?

For ALL kids to be included, loved, cared for and noticed.

Are You Ready?

To be visible, honest, intentional and kind.

Are You Ready?

To make a difference. For. Every. Child. No. Matter. What.

Are You Ready?

To have a Student Lead classroom?

Are You Ready?

For failure, re-learning, unlearning and growth?

Are You Ready?

To connect with peers, admin, friends and family.

Are You Ready?

To Show Up. Every Day.

Are You Ready?

To Empower, Advocate, Play and Inspire?

Are You Ready?

To reflect every day so that kids run back to school not away?

Are You Ready?

For changes in behavior that you don’t understand, but to connect, accept, love and support?

Are You Ready?

To be all in, no excuses, every child, end of story?

Tell me.

Are. You. Ready?

I am.

The practice of common planning time (CPT) is more than scheduling a common time for a group of teachers to meet. The purpose of CPT needs to be specific, clear, and supported as an autonomous (or at least semi-autonomous) practice where teachers personalize their professional responsibilities and learning. Together, teachers use common planning time to strengthen their practice, learn new practices, share what they've learned, and divide or share the day-to-day planning of lessons and activities. This strategy provides an overview of how to set CPT expectations and routines and identifies ways to support CPT so that it is effective, relevant, and productive.

The goal is to create a balance between ensuring the time is well spent and providing teachers with autonomy. Some examples:

• Collaborative lesson planning
• Planning for peer observations or observing other colleagues 
• Writing common assessments
• Studying curriculum 
  • new curriculum
  • equity
• Implementing student-centered instructional strategies and models
• Identifying and intervening with students at risk 

Observable Fish Moments at SV:

I have really appreciated how everyone has volunteered their own time (BEING there) to either help out a new staff member . Staff members are really CHOOSING their attitude when there was SO much to do before Monday. Keep smiling :) YOU are MAKING someone’s day just by offering a helping hand or just by listening. You make me proud!!

August 16, 2019

Maya and Dylan started their first day of sixth and eighth grade! I can't believe how fast time is going by. I am starting my 9th year here at Suisun Valley and Chris is starting his 6th year at Vaca High. 

Please join us in a multi-school staff celebration to ring in the new school year!  Join B. Gale Wilson, Cordelia Hills, Green Valley, Mundy Elementary, Oakbrook Academy, Rodriguez High School, and Suisun Valley on THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 from 3:30-5 at Back Road Vines at 2221 Julian Lane, Fairfield for snacks and a great time!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pwLo4WSHW245qXMiLSTcIbrEbQum5CxGvV_a2_nyqUE/edit?ts=5d4c9b80

Expectations vs. Standards (Good Enough to Repeat)

Expectations should not be confused with standards.  Standards are levels of achievement.  Teachers who practice positive expectations will help their students reach high standards.  It takes just as much energy to achieve positive results as it does to achieve negative results.  So why waste your energy to fail when the same amount of energy can help you and your students achieve.

Key idea:  Expectations of students will greatly influence their achievement in school and in life.

There is absolutely no research correlation between success and family background, race, national origin, financial status, or even educational accomplishments.  There is but one correlation with success, and that it ATTITUDE!

Humans have a success instinct.  They want success. They strive for success. 

Knowing what you can or cannot achieve is called expectation.  An expectation is what you believe will or will not happen.

Classic Research on Expectations

Robert Rosenthal in the 1960’s fed erroneous information to a group of South San Francisco elementary teachers.  In the spring of the preceding year, the students at a school were pretested.  The researches and administrators told the teachers they were special teachers who were to be part of a special experiment.  They were told, “Based on a pretest, we have identified 20 percent of your students who are special.  They will be ‘spurters’ or ‘bloomers’ and are a designated group of students of whom greater intellectual growth is expected.  The names were really selected at random.  The teachers were told to not tell the students or the parents.  “Thus we expect and know that you will do extremely well with these special students.”  Eight months later all students were tests again.  The results showed a significant gain in intellectual growth for the 20 percent who were designated as special.  The teachers were quite surprised to learn that neither the teachers nor the students were “special.”  The expectations, however, made all the difference.

Students tend to learn as little or as much as their teachers expect.  Teachers who set and communicate high expectations to all their students obtain greater academic performance from those students than teachers who set low expectations. This is important when talking about our students from one grade level to another. Be positive!! 

(Taken from The First Days of School:  How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry and Rosemary Wong

Here’s to high expectations for all students and ourselves!As a No Excuses School we have committed to teaching our expectations for the first 10 days of school. 

Please welcome:

Karen Rodriguez occupational therapist (OT) to Suisun Valley for the upcoming year.  Olena Shuprudko, COTA, is the OT assistant who will be helping me provide the treatment at your school. 

Just a little bit about me, I was the OT at Suisun Valley in either 2012/13 or 2013/14.  I'm excited to be returning to SV with Olena.  I think Olena will be providing much of the direct services with students but I will be attending all of the IEPs for those students with OT services.  

Hello. My name is Amor Flores. I have 3 daughters that attend Suisun Elementary. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Big Dodger fan!  I am very excited to join Suisun Valley. And look forward to meeting you all. 

Hi everyone! I’m Donna Gomez and my husband and I have 4 kids and we are from Montana. I look forward to this new opportunity and working with all of you!

August 9, 2019

Dear Dragon Staff,

I hope your summer is going great and that you are relaxing and enjoying your time off. It has been a busy summer at school with getting our school ready. I really enjoyed reading the book Culturize this summer. It has some great ideas and I can't wait to put some of them to use! If you want more information about Culturize, check it out on Twitter. Thank you Carlos and Ross for working hard all summer and making our rooms SPARKLE!!

Our retreat is scheduled for August 21st. We will meet at the Nelson Center at 8:00am - 3:00pm.  Buy back is available. On Thursday morning August 22nd we will have our first staff meeting from 8:30-12:00pm in room 20 J. I WOULD LIKE ALL STAFF TO ATTEND FOR THE FIRST 30 minutes. If you are a new teacher on campus you will meet with me in my office at 1:00pm on August 22nd. The meeting will last about an hour. On August 30th at 5:00pm we will be having our staff social at my home at 137 Auburn Way Vacaville, 95688. Please bring your family and your swim stuff. We hope to see everyone there.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to some new staff members on our site Melody Griffin (RSP), CJ Lucido (7th), Diana Hines (7th/8th), Alee Kalyuta (Welcome Back, 8th), Sarbjit Nahal (8th), Heather Merodio (Agri-Science release teacher), Donna Gomez (yard duty), Dina Gabbart (4th) will be long term subbing for Katie and Amor Flores (yard duty) . If you see them on campus please introduce yourself and help them in any way that you can.

I want you to know that I think we had an exciting eighth year together. You are an amazing staff and I feel fortunate to be able to work with you. I am excited about our new year, our new teachers, staff and just being back!!   

The 2019/2020 school year promises to be another great year. We will continue to work on our Ag/Tech focus for the upcoming school year. We will also continue to support our efforts of being an NEU school.  I know that through our continued hard work, we will see our students grow academically and socially.

Teacher work days are August 22nd  and August 23rd, and the students will arrive on August 26th .  The school will be open for you to pick up your keys, August 12th. 

Have a super rest of the summer and I will see you on August 21st.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019        8:00-3:00pm                 NEU Llama Training at the Nelson Center

                                                                      Coffee, breakfast treats, and lunch will be provided

Thursday, August 22, 2019        8:30-12:00       Staff Meeting-  in room 20

                                                    1:00-2:00     Orientation for new staff on site- in my office

                                                    12:00-3:00                     Teacher Work Day in Your Classrooms

Friday, August 23, 2019         8:00-3:00                       Teacher Work Day in Your Classrooms

Monday, August 26, 2019  First day of school :)

Friday, August 30, 2019  Staff social at our home in Vacaville at 137 Auburn Way at 5:00pm. Please bring your family and swim stuff :)

Best Regards,

Jas Bains Wright

Please welcome our new teachers:

Hello! My name is Alee Kalyuta. I am excited to return to SV and take on 8th grade this year! I enjoy working with middle school students especially and love the fact that I have an opportunity to make a difference in their lives. Aside from teaching, I enjoy traveling with my husband, cooking and doing anything outdoors. I am looking forward to this year and working with the amazing SV staff!

Howdy! I’m Diana Hines and my family and I just moved to the Bay Area from Texas last spring. I’m from College Station, TX and my husband is from the Bay Area. We met while attending Texas A&M University where I majored in Agricultural Journalism & Communications. We have two SV dragons, Sophia (11) and Lily (9). After graduating from college, I worked in radio for a couple of years before deciding that I wanted to make more of an impact and pursue teaching. This will be my 9th year in education and I have taught 6th grade all the way up to seniors! This year I will be teaching 7th and 8th grade and I could not be more excited about joining the Suisun Valley family! Go dragons! 

My name is Sarbjit Nahal. I taught for 29 years with the last 19 years in Davis. In my free time I mentor students as they navigate their way through high school and college. I have worked with at risk high school students through the Adult School in Davis. In addition I was a Supervisor at Sac State in the Multiple Subject Student Teaching program. I believe in creating caring and compassionate classrooms. I have taught all subjects and look forward to teaching 8th grade at Suisun Valley. I live in Davis with my husband, Jaz and our dog Benny.  I have a 24 year old daughter, Yasmeen, who graduated from San Francisco State and an 18 year old son, Shaan, who will be attending University of Oregon in the Fall. 

Hello Suisun Valley Staff!  I am super excited to join you at school this year. As many of you know, I was a teacher before I became a mom.  I taught in Salinas at Toro Park School for 6.5 years and I am looking forward to getting back into the classroom after 14 years at home with my three children. One of my favorite things about teaching was being outside with my students.  I often took my class outside for silent reading or journaling and I look forward to spending time in the Suisun Valley garden.  I am also looking forward to getting to know all of my awesome new colleagues. See you soon!