Committed to Excellence

A Publication of the South Harrison Township Elementary School District

VOLUME 9: December 2015

TheRoadrunner

South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us

South Harrison Township Elementary School is pleased to present our 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year recipient,

Amanda Grabas.

Amanda has been a teacher with South Har-rison since the 2012-2013 school year, and has served in the role of special education teacher for various grades. She continu-ously seeks out new challenges and strives to become an expert in her fi eld. She has a passion for her profession and works tire-lessly with her colleagues and ICS partners to create an atmosphere of learning for all of her students. She has been described as a problem-solver, an innovator, enthusiastic, inspirational, energized, passionate, and as having a sense of humor.

Ms. Grabas accepts her students and their needs and works collaboratively with col-leagues to help them understand the many unique needs of each and every student. She describes every student as “So Smart!” She is the children’s cheerleader and rallies them to make sure she is able to make her point. She makes sure everyone is treated fairly with respect and dignity, and has mas-tered the art of balancing relationships with consistency of rules. A parent remarked, “Ms. Grabas teaches her students to strive for excellence, to love reading, to respect

each other and believe in themselves; and she teaches parents to give our best for our children’s academic success, to wear a smile (even when it gets tough), to have faith (in our kids and ourselves), and to remember that the storms of life can often produce beautiful rainbows and new growth.”

Ms. Grabas’s dedication to teaching is wor-thy of distinction because she has given her heart and soul to making learning fun for her students, while balancing many of the extra leadership responsibilities she has un-dertaken throughout her time here at South Harrison. These leadership roles include, but are not limited to, serving as a curriculum lead and liaison for the staff , volunteering to be part of the Model Curriculum Roundta-ble and literacy revisions, launching and ad-vising a new club, Fuel Up to Play 60, for our 5th and 6th grade students, and embracing the new ICS model of teaching and benefi ts it off ers our general and special education students.

Her dedication as a leader in our school has positively impacted and infl uenced those around her to embrace a passion in their own profession. We are all so blessed to have Ms. Grabas as part of our lives and she truly deserves this award – Teacher of the Year!

TEACHER OF THE YEAR MESSAGE FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT

It’s hard to believe that another exciting year comes to a close. While we engage in the hustle and bustle

of the season, I encourage our school community to take a moment to reflect on all of the wonderful experiences and memories we’ve created here at South Harrison. Whether you are a student who just earned principal or superin-tendent’s list, a parent who is adjusting to your baby beginning kindergarten, or a member of the faculty who re-ally enjoys engaging our students in instruction, we all have something to be happy about. It’s these experiences, the type we cannot measure, that make South Harrison Twp. Elementary School a truly wonderful school system.

This month’s newsletter is again packed with great information. In it we rec-ognize our Teacher of the Year, Ms. Amanda Grabas, celebrate a number of student accomplishments, and share with you plenty of information that will help you understand our curricular initiatives. There is plenty more and I hope you enjoy the December issue of The Roadrunner.

On behalf of the administrative team, we rejoice in all we’ve accomplished and the memories we’ve made. We look forward to the excitement a new year brings. And, as you gather with your families and friends throughout the holidays, we extend to you warmest wishes for a joyous season and Happy New Year.

Best Wishes for a Joyous Season and a very Happy New Year!

Very truly yours,

Dr. James J. Lavender

BULLETIN BOARD

South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us

NOVEMBER STUDENTS OF THE MONTH

First GradeSamantha Kline

Alaina Kline

Second GradeAlicia MaginAva Tedesco

Ellie Farro

Third GradeJacob MeldrumAntonio CampoGiovanni Mauro

Fourth Grade Rudy TigheDylan Kuni

Benjamin Batra

Fifth GradeDakota Reichelderfer

Ethan HillmanGavin Boccuto

Sixth GradeZachary HughesRobert Schenk

McKenna Williams

Art Wil Finnan

MusicKirsten Nelson

ComputersMelaina Caltabiano

Media CenterJessica Vincent

Physical EducationClaire Mathis

World CultureJanelle Constantino

NOVEMBER SPOTLIGHT STUDENTS

First GradeAyla Bennett

Second GradeGia Griscom

Third Grade

Ryleigh Damminger

Fourth Grade Ellie DiCarlo

Fifth GradeGina Ostrowski

Sixth GradeSky Kashow

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BULLETIN BOARD

South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us 3

Dear Parents and Guardians:

We are happy to announce that 1st Trimester report cards and 2nd Trimester grades for students in grades 4-6 grade are now available online in PowerSchool’s Parent Portal, as well as all future progress reports, report cards, and grades. This forum allows teachers to com-municate information to parents and guardians, such as grades and attendance, on a regular, timely basis.

Since we are constantly looking to improve, we welcome feedback about any issues you may be experiencing. Over the past couple of days, I fi elded a handful of technical issues with the help of our Data-base Administrator, John Lutner, which we were able to resolve in a timely fashion. We uncovered the following: 1) the latest IOS from Ap-ple has a known bug that stops the report card PDF from loading. This would aff ect iPad and iPhone users with IOS 8.2 (or plus); and 2) certain apps may block the PDF from loading (similar to a pop-up blocker).

Another question that I have been asked is if the PowerSchool App is working. The PowerSchool App is built by PowerSchool and Power-School is the administrator that controls all source codes. It logs into our server and accesses our information, but we cannot customize it. Therefore, you will not be able to view your child’s report card or progress reports using the app since we customized them to meet our reporting needs. You may still use the app to view updated grades and attendance.

As an additional measure to ensure every parent can view their child’s report card, if the PDF is not loading when you log in to view your child’s report, you will now see the image on the right with a link that says Click here to View Report Card.

Another system we use to eff ectively communicate with our families is School Messenger and it is extremely important that you create your account. This enables us to disseminate information through email, which is our primary communication tool. For example, we might pro-vide critical information in extreme emergency situations or communi-cation regarding important reminders and updates.

In order to view your child’s information and receive important up-dates, YOU MUST FIRST REGISTER USING YOUR CHILD’S ACCESS ID and ACCESS PASSWORD. Instructions on how to register are available on our school website and the ID and PASSWORD were sent home either last year or if you were a new student, this year. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the PowerSchool Parent Portal or School Messenger, you may visit our website or contact our main offi ce at 769-0855, ext. 1110 so that we may further assist you.

Here’s to a fantastic 2016! The South Harrison Family wishes you and your family a happy, healthy holiday and New Year!

NOTE FROM THE PRINCIPALby Lisa Henjes (Grade 3 & 4 G&T) and Christina Brown

(Grade 5 & 6 G&T)

The Gifted and Talented Program in South Harrison continues this year with the Odyssey of the Mind. Odyssey of the Mind is a world-wide program for

students from primary grades through college. This program helps to develop skills including critical thinking, creative problem solving, time and resource manage-ment, and risk assessment. In this program students are given a problem and they seek to solve it and present their solution through performance. In this process they learn to think critically, build self-confi dence, and learn to work in a team. Students can be involved in competitions at the regional, state, and world-wide level, or they can use the program within the school to develop the above mentioned skills and per-form for a select audience.

This year South Harrison’s third and fourth grade teams have chosen to work on a technical problem called “Something Fishy”. In this problem students will take their ingenuity fi shing! The teams will design and operate a technical solution that simulates multiple styles of fi shing. Throughout the process, the students have other criteria that they have to take into consideration, a time limit, and a budget. Students are scored on creativity and quality as well as other technical criteria. Each team is able to create their own solution to the problem.

The fi fth and sixth grade Gifted and Talented students have chosen a performance-based long term problem entitled “Furs, Fins, Feathers & Friends.” In their teams they will work on various tasks such as playwriting, stage and costume design, and acting skills that translate their solu-tion into a creative and well thought out performance. Students will follow the Odyssey of the Mind scoring guidelines and must consider factors like budget, time, and technical constraints when drafting their solution, all of which touch on the 21st Century Learning Goals.

All students in the Gifted and Talented program in grades 3-6 will perform the solutions developed to their long-term problems during Gifted and Talented month in March. We look forward to showing parents the results of all of the work students will complete by that date. In ad-dition we anticipate that interested students on a grade 6 team may be selected to participate in the regional competition which will be held on March 12, 2016 in Woodstown, New Jersey.

SOUTH HARRISON G&T

CURRICULUM

South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us 4

by Robert Rosenheim, Data & Assessment Supervisor

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) tests were administered for the fi rst time in spring 2015 and were designed to measure the new state

standards that are guiding instruction in math and English/lan-guage arts. The new, more rigorous expectations focus on the skills students need in today’s world, including critical thinking, problem solving, and reasoning. Because the PARCC tests are measuring these complex skills, which are diff erent from previous state tests, it is expected that scores on the PARCC test will look lower. More-over, there will not be a direct year-to-year comparison available between a student’s performance on NJASK or HSPA and his or her performance on PARCC.

Why will the PARCC scores look diff erent than scores on previ-ous state tests?

The tests measure performance against a higher set of standards and the tests measure skills students need in the real world. The PARCC tests go beyond multiple-choice questions and require students to use skills like analyzing, problem solving, and writing eff ectively. All of these skills are necessary to practice and master to be successful beyond high school--whether in college, the military or a career.

There is an opportunity to make sure students are ready for the next step. The new tests provide accurate information about how stu-dents are performing against the new standards so that teachers, parents and students can start working together now to ensure kids are prepared for success – from grade to grade and beyond high school. It is easier to address any weaknesses early on so students can receive the support they need to get back on track.

No state is alone. All states administering PARCC, as well as oth-er new tests designed to measure the new standards, will see a change in scores.

It will take time. While teachers have been gearing up for the new standards for almost four years, the tests are new and they ask ques-tions in diff erent ways, and require students to show their work. As with every new test, scores will start to improve as teachers and students become more familiar with the standards and acquire the skills and knowledge to meet them.

Students are just as smart, but the bar has been raised. The new tests emphasize skills like critical thinking, and problem solving. Students

are required to explain their answers, and defend their reasoning, which is diff erent from previous tests. A student who was per-forming well on the previous test might not do as well on the new PARCC test. Consider the following example: a child who is learning to play bas-ketball starts with a low-er-than-normal basketball hoop. As she gets better, her parents raise the hoop to make it more challenging. She’s probably going to score fewer baskets at fi rst, but she’s going to keep getting better.

Student scores will improve. As students and teachers gain the skills and knowledge needed to meet the new higher standards, perfor-mance will also improve.

In the fi rst year, PARCC scores set a new baseline. This fi rst year’s scores will identify where students excel and where they need additional support, so that progress can be measured moving forward. In other cases where more rigorous tests have been implemented, students improved performance after the fi rst year. In Massachu-setts, for example, only about a third of students initially achieved profi ciency on the more rigorous Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. Now, a little over a decade later, close to 90 percent of students are profi cient.

To access Parent Resources on South Harrison’s website, click on the following link: http://www.southharrison.k12.nj.us/parcc.

For more information on PARCC, click HEREHERE.

For additional Parent Resources, click HEREHERE.

For information specifi c to New Jersey, click HEREHERE.

For help understanding the PARCC Score Report, click HEREHERE.

For help understanding your child’s test results, click HEREHERE.

For Parent Questions and Answers, click HEREHERE.

For a detailed Score Report Interpretation Guide, click HEREHERE.

The Curriculum and Instruction team has prepared online resources in order to help communicate and inform our entire

South Harrison community of school initiatives related to model curriculum assessments, inclusion, and standards based report cards.

We have shifted our Parent Academies to an online format so that we are able to reach a wider audience. As a result, the C&I team has posted presentations/voiceovers on the Parent Resources page under Academics and Virtual Parent Academy (on the left), with more to be added throughout the year. Here is the direct link to access them: http://www.southharrison.k12.nj.us/virtualpa.

PARENT UPDATE

PARCC: SETTING A NEW BASELINE

CURRICULUM

South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us

CELEBRATING THE STRUGGLE

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by Robert Rosenheim, Data & Assessment Supervisor

During the 2015-2016 school year, South Harrison Elementary School District will continue to use the Model Curriculum Assessments as a common summative measure to bench-

mark student progress against grade-level goals outlined by the District’s curriculum. The curriculum team is working collaboratively with teachers to further revise and align assessments to ensure that items and tasks are aligned to the Common Core State Standards and our local curriculum.

As a philosophy, we believe that all assessments are designed to guide student instruction and improve academic achievement. Having real-time student achievement data is powerful. By utilizing standards-aligned assessments, teachers are able to understand student’s prior knowledge, focus instruction to meet the needs of all students, and create an academic experience that ensures students are mastering the skills required for college and career. During grade-level team meetings, we engage in discussion and refl ection of data trends to both identify causes of gaps in student learning and eff ectively adjust instruction to close gaps and further progress.

The Model Curriculum Assessments are purposefully robust, challenging, and rigorous. Students are required to complete complex cognitive tasks, utilize higher order critical thinking skills, problem-solve, and defend their reasoning. These assessments are

intentionally designed to measure how well students understand the Common Core State Standards, and, more importantly, what specifi c standards and skills students still need to master. Initially, fewer students are likely to meet 100% of the assessment, and that just means that the expectations are higher.

Struggling is an inherent part of the learning process. More spe-cifi cally, struggling means learning. Renowned UCLA Learning Psychologist, Jim Stigler, has spent his career conducting research comparing how parents, educators and students view learning in eastern and western cultures. Through his research, Stigler works to dispel the American folk theory that children who struggle just aren’t smart. “In Eastern cultures,” Stigler says, “it’s just assumed that struggle is a predictable part of the learning process. Everyone is expected to struggle in the process of learning, and so struggling becomes a chance to show that you, the student, have what it takes emotionally to resolve the problem by persisting through that struggle.”

Your child may struggle on the Model Curriculum Assessments. However, with repeated practice and targeted interventions, we are confi dent that your child will both increase their profi ciency of grade-level standards and acquire the skills necessary for future academic success. Thus, positively impacting their long-term aca-demic achievement.

Instead of expecting perfection of our children, let’s welcome strug-gle as an opportunity for growth. As educators and parents, it is important to understand that students need to wrestle with diffi cult tasks and persevere. The next time you observe your child struggle with a challenging task, celebrate that struggle because you are witnessing learning in action!

For more information, please use the following resources:

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Children-Succeed-Curiosi-ty-Character/dp/0544104404

Principal Connection / Got Grit? http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar12/vol69/num06/Got-Grit¢.aspx

Struggle Means Learning: Diff erence in Eastern and Western Cultures. Mind/Shift.

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/11/15/struggle-means-learning-diff erence-in-eastern-and-western-cultures/

The next time you observe your child struggle

with a challenging task, celebrate that struggle

because you are witnessing learning in action!

CURRICULUM

South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us

by Rachael Anderson, K-5 Instructional Supervisor

This is the third in a series of articles for parents written to de-scribe the literacy processes needed for children to learn and grow as readers. This article focuses on how the human brain

processes and attaches meaning to words.

One of my most vivid ex-periences as a new teach-er occurred when I was teaching Kindergarten in a Montessori school in a large urban center. It was story time and I was reading The Three Little Pigs and as I progressed through the story I came to realize that the stu-dents listening to me had no idea what the “barn” described in the story as a hiding place for the pigs was. This was a shock to me until I began to think about the background these students had for the story. They were children living in a city and as such they had limit-ed experience beyond the confi nes of the city where they lived. As a consequence, the story had no meaning to them and before they could understand it I needed to build background or “schema” so they could make meaning to understand and enjoy the story. These children taught me a valuable lesson specifi cally to never assume that students have background knowledge or vocabulary necessary to process new information.

This story also describes that reading is so much more than phonet-ically sounding out words−a process I described in some detail in the last article. Teachers and parents must be aware that each child has a diff erent foundation or background for reading and without this background, children will have diffi culty attaching meaning to a story.

The human brain is very effi cient; if something it encounters is not needed, then that memory is effi ciently pruned away. This is also true for children. If they encounter a text that has no personal meaning for them they will rapidly forget it. For example, try to sound out and read the following phrase: “seachain an madra.” Then try to repeat it after about 10 minutes have passed. You may fi nd that while you could successfully sound out the words you did not have any context or meaning to attach it in your short-term memo-ry. Therefore, when you try to recall the phrase you will have trouble remembering it and your brain may have deleted it as nonsense.

However, if I were to translate the phrase from Gaelic to its English form “beware of the dog” then you may remember it for a longer period of time. Why? This is true because it may be a phrase that you can attach meaning to. How would we then progress to deposit this phrase into your long-term memory? Well if I added a sign with a picture of a large barking dog then you would have a visual image to help you to remember it and even an emotional tie if you had an experience with a dog in your past. This combination of background

information will more securely cement the phrase into long-term memory.

Books that build vocabulary and in-crease a child’s background knowledge can be found at all levels. Series such as Baby Einstein’s Touch and Feel books or My First Word books, Dora the Explorer or Ranger Rick Jr. from National Wild-life assist in building background and vocabulary in the young learners. Older readers can try Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events; in this series the author uses higher level vocabulary but the meaning of the words are given in the story immediately after each word is introduced.

As a reader grows and becomes more sophisticated, punctuation and phras-ing contributes to meaning. While younger children read like there is no punctuation, older children are able to use it to eff ectively “decode” the mean-ing intended by the author.

For parents, one of the best ways to get children to understand how punctua-tion works is to read stories with expres-sion. To do this make pauses dramatic, read questions with a rise in your voice, and use facial expressions to go along with exclamation points. These are all ways that you can demonstrate the eff ect of punctua-tion in a story. Younger children will enjoy books such as Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus or Elephant and Piggy are in a Book by Mo Willems so much more if you verbally or physically express the punctuation provided by the author.

After you initially read the book, take a second pass through the story to stop and ask questions related to the meanings of words and why the author may have used them. Why did the author say, “It was a dark, dreary, and desolate night” instead of “It was dark outside”? What picture was the author painting with words?

If learners have a knowledge of phonics/phonemic awareness, good sight word recall and a strong background knowledge they will be able to associate vocabulary, children (and adults) with an image to transfer learning to long-term memory. As parents and teachers, it is our job to build these skills and supply the background knowledge and vocabulary so they can hold onto the rich images they encoun-ter on their journey to become literate adults.

FROM THE DESK OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL SUPERVISOR

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South Harrison Township Elementary School | 904 Mullica Hill Road | Harrisonville, NJ 08039 | (856) 769-0855 | www.southharrison.k12.nj.us

Board of EducationDeborah Cunningham, PresidentMichael Brennan, Vice President

Toni BuckleyCarole EnglishJames McSheaJoseph TalbotJanet Brown

Janice HugginsRon Reilly

AdministrationDr. James J. Lavender, Superintendent

Mr. Jason Schimpf, School Business AdministratorMrs. Patricia Calandro, Chief Academic Offi cer

Mrs. Corinne Mesmer, Principal

BOARD OF EDUCATION