11/10/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

Internet Safety is very important to us at Doolittle School.  Teachers speak with students about internet safety and expectations throughout the year.

Here is a list of just a few ways to help students search more safely on the internet:

• SafeYoutube.net (creates a new link of youtube videos and makes them the only thing students see; no links at the end of the video; at the end it simply replays)
• Viewpure is another way to see Youtube videos without ads or other links.
• Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.com) - great resources for teaching in the digital age
• Type “simple” before a wikipedia site for simpler language
• Type any topic in the search bar and then type “for kids”

The Electronic Information Access Agreements for students outlines expectations and requires students to take responsibility for their online behavior.

Responsible Use Policy K-2

Responsible Use Policy 3-12

In addition to our Firewall and AdBlocker software Cheshire Public Schools will begin using GoGuardian for our sixth graders to ensure that students are safe while on line. See the information from Mr. Solan below:

As part of our consistent effort to engage students in personalized learning experiences and to support our inclusion of digital learning, Cheshire Public Schools continually seeks tools that will assist in the learning process. To this end, the District has made GoGuardian software available for our teachers in grades 6-9.  WithGoGuarian, teachers can control and monitor student Chromebook screens during class enabling them to efficiently keep students focused on specific tasks, lock student screens to specific documents or websites for instructional purposes, share screens as needed, and redirect students if necessary.  These capabilities will help our teachers maximize classroom instructional time in our 1‐to­‐1 technology environment.

GoGuardian is being used by more than 2,300 school districts and 4,000,000 students to help teachers better engage with their students, provide educators with more control over how Chromebooks are used in the classroom and keep students safer when they're online.  A demo is available at this link - https://goguardian.wistia.com/medias/fln6ndzp2o

As with any digital service, protecting student privacy is paramount.  GoGuardian features are limited to school hours only and the school issued device must be on the district network in order for the program to work.  This simply means that after school hours and/or outside of our school network, GoGuardian is inoperable.

Please let me know if you have questions about internet safety at Doolittle.

Picture of the week:

Mr. Pierce and Doolittle Students created the banner below last week.

All Doolittle students signed their first name during lunch waves.

The banner has been hanging in the West Haven VA all this week.

10/27/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

We are looking forward to the Trunk or Treat tonight!

Grades 1, 2 & 3 come at 6:30 pm

Grades 4, 5 & 6 come at 7:15 pm

Please remember to bring a bag of treats (candy, stickers, pencils, etc) to share!

Everyone will meet in the all-purpose room at their start time for a costume contest.

Today we held a Fire Drill at Doolittle School.

Students exit the building quickly and go to their designated areas. Teachers then use Walkie-Talkies to communicate with Office Staff to account for everyone in the building.

In addition to Fire Drills, during the year we practice Lockdown Drills, Secure School Drills and others. Whenever we practice an emergency drill, members of the fire department and/or police department are on hand to observe the drill and give us feedback. Working with first responders improves the efficiency and effectiveness of our drills which will help keep us all safe in the event of an actual emergency.

Doolittle has a Safe School Committee that meets monthly to discuss our drill procedures as well as other information to continually address safety needs at our school.

If parents ever have concerns, questions or suggestions to improve the safety of our school we are happy to hear them!

Picture of the Week:

Fire Drill and Foliage!

10/20/17

TRUNK OR TREAT is THIS FRIDAY, October 27th.    

It is a unique Doolittle Tradition and is a lot of fun!

If your family is attending, use the link below to sign up for the event!  

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0f48a5a92fabfb6-trunk1

Please remember to bring a bag of treats (candy, stickers, pencils, etc) to share!

Grades 1, 2 & 3 come at 6:30 pm

Grades 4, 5 & 6 come at 7:15 pm

Everyone will meet at the all-purpose room at their start time for a costume contest.

Then they will go through a haunted hallway out to the upper playground to the Trunk or Treat.

Students should only go around ONCE

• If you are interested in decorating your car and handing out candy, please use the following link to sign up:
• http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0f48a5a92fabfb6-trunk

• If you are interested in volunteering to help with the event, please use the following link to sign up:
• http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0f48a5a92fabfb6-trunk2

I’m looking forward to a fun Trunk or Treat next Friday!

10/13/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

I meet with each grade level of students about 6 times during the year.  At these meetings I discuss a variety of information including school expectations for behavior, how to manage mean behavior or bullying and personal responsibility. I also like to share some of my favorite books and quotes. Today I met with grades 1, 2 and 4. We reviewed our previous lesson about what to do if someone is mean to you and what to do if you see someone being mean to someone else. Students always have appropriate responses and take seriously their role in protecting others from mean behavior.

Grade 4 students read and discussed a few scenarios about behavior. Below is one of the scenarios we discussed:

• For years Andrew has made fun of his best friend Dave because Dave is obsessed with peanut butter. “You’d eat my gym socks if they were covered in peanut butter,” He once told Dave. One day in science lab, the students designed mazes to test the intelligence of white mice. When the teacher told the class that the mice would be rewarded with peanut butter for completing the maze, Andrew called out, “Better be careful – Dave might get to the end of the maze before the mice!” All the other students laughed.

• Is this harmless teasing or hurtful language? Why?

• What if after everyone laughed, Dave got upset and left the class?
• What if after everyone laughed, Dave said, “That’s right! I’m getting ALL the peanut butter baby!” and he laughed too?

Students engaged in good discussions about their beliefs of whether it was mean or not. They talked about how their thoughts changed based on the additional information in the bullet points at the end. Students quickly came to realize that the difference between hurtful language and harmless teasing is often how the other person feels.

Pictures of the week:

Still Life Drawing in Art

Buddy Reading

10/6/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

One of the fundamental challenges in education is that kids are all different! They come to us with a variety of skills, knowledge, strengths and needs. In a given classroom there is always a wide range of academic ability, social skills as well as interests. There are a number of good teaching strategies we use to address this variety. One of the strategies we are beginning to use at Doolittle School is Personalized Learning.

Personalized Learning allows students to have some choice of the resources they use to learn about a particular topic and choice in how they demonstrate their knowledge. This year in 6th grade for Science and Social Studies we are using a new tool for Personalized Learning called the Summit Learning Platform.

The Summit Learning Platform has three main components.

1. Personalized Learning Time - Students use a variety of resources including websites, articles, videos, blogs, podcasts, slideshows, etc. to learn about a given topic. Students can also work with their teacher in groups or individually to learn material.

2. Project Time - Students use the knowledge they gained through Personalized Learning Time to complete group projects that demonstrate their knowledge as well as their cognitive skills / work habits.

3. Mentor Time - Teachers meet with each student to set weekly goals and tasks to accomplish as well as review their progress and performance on Content Assessments.

There was a great article in the Cheshire Herald this week about Personalized Learning:

https://www.cheshireherald.com/articles/school-district-takes-learning-personal/

I’m looking forward to Doolittle School’s continued work on Personalized Learning to meet the individual needs of all our students.

Students working during Project Time in 6th Grade:

9/29/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

It’s hard to believe this was our last week of September! With the high temperatures it seemed like we were still in the first few days of school.

Now that we have been in school for a month, students have settled into routines and have had an opportunities to demonstrate some of their academic strengths and needs.

Take a moment to ask your child about his or her favorite activities and academic subjects in school. But also ask about what they think they need to work on. If you have questions be sure to email or contact your child’s teacher.

Parent Conferences are coming up in October. If you have NOT scheduled a conference yet, contact the school and we can set one up for you.

Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday 10/4 - Early Dismissal at 12:40

Monday 10/9 - No School

Tuesday 10/24 - Early Dismissal at 12:40

Thursday 10/26 - Early Dismissal at 12:40

Turkeys at Doolittle School

5th Grade Students sharing information about books they are reading

9/22/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

Today was our first Doolittle Town Meeting of the year. Six times during the year the whole school gets together in the gym. Our Town Meetings are completely run by the students. Two 6th graders serve as Emcees and introduce groups of students who share “spotlights” on different things going on at our school. Some of the Spotlights that were shared today included:

• information about the 6th grade community service project - Recycling Club

• 6th graders telling about the upcoming Geography Bee

• students singing the Doolittle School Song, “Welcome to our World"

• Emcees introduced Quiz-O-Matic, a game show where students answer questions from their current curriculum

• Several students shared about their summer reading and the projects they created

• I spoke about using the Mood Meter. 

Town Meetings are a very important part of the Doolittle School culture. Students learn from one another, model appropriate behavior and practice their public speaking. 

Providing Independent Reading Time EVERYDAY is a must at Doolittle School