January 2015
(907) 742-1000
Willow Crest News It is amazing to note that we are in the second semester of our school year already!! We finished the year with our winter assessment period and I’m proud to report that our students made great gains in the areas of Reading and Math. If you would like a print out of your child’s data, please contact your child’s teacher. As a parent myself, I love having the data to check my son’s progress and to determine where I can provide support. If you would like to email a teacher to ask about data, all of our staff emails are lastname_firstname@asdk12.org. I can also help you with data if you need it! Our weather this year has been incredibly odd, with cold periods and warm periods and no snow at all. I was born and raised here and have never seen such a ‘winter.’ Students continue to need to be prepared for whatever the weather gives us each day. We have a large number of students coming to the office daily looking for gloves and some who are arriving with only a sweatshirt. All students need a coat, hat, gloves and boots every day for school. Unfortunately we do not have a supply of winter gear for students to borrow, which means items need to be brought from home. We hope you will join us for our Literacy Night this month, where we will share current data on our students’ Reading and Writing success and will provide you with activities and ideas to help your children at home. I want to encourage families to join us for the entire event and not to leave early. We have a lot of information that will help us to work together as a team for your children. We will be providing dinner for families prior to dismissing to our small groups on January 22nd. Report cards went home last week for the second quarter. Although we don’t meet with teachers and parents this time, conferences are coming up in mid-February. If you have any questions or comments regarding grades, please contact your child’s teacher at any time. We are here to answer questions and provide any support needed.
Upcoming Events January 22 Literacy Family Night 6:00-7:30 pm; MPR February 4 PTA Meeting 5:00-6:00 pm; Library February 10 Spelling Bee 2:00-3:15 pm; MPR February 12 Family Fitness Night 6:00-7:30 pm; MPR February 16 Presidents’ Day: NO SCHOOL February 18 & 19 Parent/Teacher Conferences School is dismissed at 12:30 pm February 20 In-service – No School
I am finding many students with excessive absences and tardies at this point in the school year. ASD’s goal of having all students present 90% of the school year means that students can miss no more than 17.2 days in the year. We have multiple students who have exceeded this already. Also-please, please, please plan family vacations at times when school is not in session whenever possible. A vacation time away from school of one, two or three weeks has a dramatic impact on a student’s learning. I’m excited for the rest of the year as we continue to support student achievement here at Willow Crest! This is such a wonderful place to be for students and I can tell you that our staff enjoys being here as well. We are constantly complimented by visitors for our stellar student body. Thank you for sharing your children with us!!! -Ms. Peterson, Principal
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“Teacher’s Name” Class News Teachers, please write your own class-specific news here. Please remember to change the heading :o)
Literacy Family Night: January 22 Come join us for Literacy Family Night on Thursday, January 22 from 6:00-7:30 pm.
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New Assessment for Students New computer-based test replaces SBAs Students throughout the state of Alaska will be taking a new assessment this spring. Alaska Measures of Progress (AMP) replaces the Standards Based Assessments (SBA). • Grades 3-10 • Computer-based test
Since students will be using technology to complete the tests, the spring testing schedule is different than in prior years. Parents should use this schedule to plan their family calendar. Attendance on testing days is very important.
AMP State weeks 3
7
30
4
8
6
17
5
9
13
24
6
10
20
For more information about AMP testing, visit www.asdk12.org/ae/amp.
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10
May 1
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