Morley School

Updated September Calendar is included at the end of this newsletter.

September 15, 2006

A Chirp of Knowledge…
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
-Henry Brooks Adams, American historian, journalist, and novelist

PRINCIPAL’S JOURNAL…
STUDENTS…I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Miss Udell’s first grade students. I was nervous. They asked tough questions. One question, “What does a principal do?”, left my mind swirling with a thousand different very lengthy responses with ‘big words.’ I knew not one of those answers would satisfy the thirsty inquiring mind of a six year old.. I eyeballed the questioning student who sat tall, waiting for an answer to come spewing out of my mouth! The student continued to glue her eyes on me, practicing all five listening strategies, and giving me ‘wait time’, as we all know to be an excellent instructional strategy! I wanted to quickly say with great drama and extreme expression, “Principals exercise a wide span of decision making, playing to diverse audiences, and serve a broad range of intergenerational constituencies!” Luckily, gently and simply, the words came forth and, still gazing and smiling at this student, I said, “Principals listen to students and teachers, so they can learn and teach.” Seeing a proud and satisfied face, I believe this student and I connected with the meaning intended in her question and my answer.
Another child asked me if I liked being a principal. That question prompted a very quick, passionate, “Yes, I love being a principal and seeing children learn and grow.” Other questions shot through the air, and our short time together was over. I was amazed at how deeply and intensely I was reminded, by these young learners, that they matter most in my work as a principal.”

Close to my heart, also, this year is the beauty of the school campus. I can’t remember a time when so many new plantings brought such robust beauty to our school grounds. I was surprised by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, prior to school starting, to open and announce the garden dedicated in my honor. Trying to savor the moments we can enjoy in the garden before the snow flies, has provided opportunities to share with students, while they share their books and thoughts about learning..

TEACHERS…Prepared, fourth grade teachers – Mr. Hack, Mrs. Kovar and Mrs. Reinhard ceased the opportunity to share their curriculum, discipline and academic rigor, rewards, and things parents can do to help, along with entertaining questions and answers, as well as conference sign-up dates and times, with parents of their fourth grade students.

It was a night full of very valuable communication, team building and energetic interchange. I was so pleased with our parent participation and teacher presentation. This is one of the reasons why there is always “More to Learning at Morley!”

PARENTS....We are so fortunate to have a PTO Board with such talent, dedication, enthusiasm and passion for making a positive difference for all at Morley. These are the tools used by President Vicki Fisher, Vice-president Anne-Marie Healey, Secretary Lisa Larson, and Treasurer Renee Faden. In addition to the hours they spend with others, they meet once a month in extensive planning sessions to lead our Morley PTO with excellence.

JOIN THE PTO – If you have not already done so, the PTO board would like to encourage you to join the PTO. The Morley PTO strives to support teachers and staff in their common mission to educate our children. The PTO works to enhance our children’s education through the purchase of resource materials and equipment, field trips, teacher grants, and community building activities. The PTO income comes from many fund raising activities such as magazine sales, student pictures, book fairs, and plant sales, in addition to many smaller efforts. PTO membership also provides a substantial contribution to our funds. JOIN THE PTO and support the education of our children. Membership is only eight dollars for both MEMBERSHIP and THE MORLEY STUDENT DIRECTORY! Thank you for your support.

OUR FIRST PTO MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 12 was a great success. Thank you to so many parents who came to hear the presentation by Mrs. Reinhard and Mrs. Sell on how to help your child learn. The business meeting was so informative. Again, our PTO board provided excellent leadership!

PTO/PARENT VOLUNTEERS - Classroom and individual pictures were taken this week. Chairing that huge project was Caroline Anton-Smith, mother of Zac and Issy. She is pictured here, after all the pictures were taken, with the Rehor family who take pictures of our beautiful children. Thank you, Caroline and other volunteers who helped with this successful activity. “Whew…What a big job!”

VOLUNTEERS ARE STILL NEEDED FOR THE PTO FAMILY FUN NIGHT ON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. If you can help for even an hour, please contact Lisa Larson or Anne Marie Healey, or just call the school office at 436-1154.

NEW STAFF – We are so pleased to welcome new and experienced staff members to Morley.
Miss Joanna Rempe is our new first grade teacher and we are so proud that Miss Rempe has chosen Morley to share her skills and instructional decision-making capacity.

"Hi! My name is Joanna Rempe. I’m so excited to be a part of the Morley family. Already, I see that it is full of supportive and dedicated people. Thank you to everyone who has made me feel so welcome! I’m a graduate of Lincoln Pius X High School, where I was a member of the track and cross country team. So, before ever setting foot here at Morley, I literally ran by the school thousands of times during the many distance runs I went on with my teammates. After graduating from Pius, I continued my education at Nebraska Wesleyan University and graduated in 2005. I’ve had so many great experiences in many excellent schools in LPS, such as Cavett (where I did my student teaching in a multiage classroom,) Belmont, Sheridan, and Huntington (for college practicum,) Elliott & Humann (working for after-school programs, teaching Spanish, dance, yoga, music, and more,) and at Zeman where I spent my first year teaching first grade. Through these experiences, I’ve gathered valuable knowledge that has not only shaped me as a teacher, but developed my passion for working with children, as well. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching students grow in so many ways, and helping to fuel their fire for learning! What a rewarding way to spend your days! I’m looking forward to a wonderful year!"

"My name is Britt Gilbertson. I am the youngest sister of a big family with six older sisters, one brother and many nieces and nephews. I grew up in Holland, NE., and graduated from Norris High School in Firth, NE. I am now a senior at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and am graduating with two degrees in Elementary Education and Special Education. I am presently student teaching at Cavett Elementary and Morley Elementary for Special Education during the first quarter, and planning to finish with Elementary Education during the second quarter."

"My name is Teresa Howell, and I am a resource teacher serving two schools in Lincoln – Cavett in the morning and Morley in the afternoon. I am married and have three children. My husband works at Laird Technology, my sons are students at the University of Nebraska, and my daughter is a senior at Lincoln East. I have taught in Papillion, Hastings, Kearney, and Grand Island."

"I so happy to be teaching Reading Recovery at Morley! It is such a privilege to be here working and learning in this wonderful community of teachers and students. This is my 19th year of teaching. I have taught kindergarten through third grade classes. Each student, each class and all of my schools have been very special and unique. I have two sons and one daughter. My daughter and son-in-law are expecting their first baby in November, and I am looking forward to having my first grandchild!"

"I am pleased to be working at Morley Elementary. My interest in working with youth started many years ago as a volunteer in Boy Scouts and church organizations. It became a natural extension after my career in the IT field to help youth in the public schools. I have many years of experience as a paraeducator in LPS working with middle school, high school, and elementary age students. I am looking forward to continuing the tradition of educational excellence your child receives at Morley."

NEW STUDENTS AT MORLEY - We are so pleased to welcome new students to Morley!

We are so proud of each and every one of these new to Morley students!
Again, welcome to our new students and their families!

WAYS TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT SCHOOL YEAR
.Encourage your child to try new things.
.Read information that comes home daily.
.Set limits on TV, telephone, computer and video games.
.Attend school events. Get information on academic expectations, assignments, homework policies, grading and what you can do at home to help your child.avoid over scheduling your child with sports and other activities.
.Make schoolwork and family time a priority.
.Meet your child’s friends. Find out who your children are playing with at school and after school. Get to know them.
Spend most of your time noticing your child doing well. Compliments will prove more beneficial than criticism.
Read aloud to your child.
.Encourage creative expression at home through storytelling and story telling. You might choose to write about these events and share your writing.
.For the visual learner, keep highlighters, markers and colored paper on hand to help liven up notes and study materials.
.For the auditory learner, urge children to recite aloud important information and ask questions.
.For the kinesthetic learner, encourage children to take short breaks, even if they are just stretch and stand time.
.Always create high expectations. To learn, children must believe that they can learn. The feedback you give your child – what you say and do about his or her abilities – will have a lasting impact on your child’s confidence.
.Be involved as a volunteer and tell about your experiences at home.

2006-07 SPIRIT TEAM MEMBERS
What is the Morley Spirit Team? Morley’s Spirit Team is a team of second through fifth grade students, two from each classroom and selected randomly from those expressing interest, who meet and plan citizenship activities.

Among those activities are recycling from classrooms, organizing and making posters for food drives for the Lincoln Food Bank, helping at the annual fall chili supper, and selling pencils/erasers to support programs at Morley and/or in the community.

The Spirit Team meets one Wednesday each month, before the school day starts. Sponsors for the Morley Spirit Team are Mrs. Lambert and Mrs. Smith.

The following students are Spirit Team Representatives for 2006-07
2 Mrs. Bergholz – Maggie & Peyton
2 Miss Brock – Kaitlin & Felix
2 Mrs. Lackey – Haley & Justin
2 Mr. Erickson – Shelby & Josh
3 Mrs. Livers – Maudie & Jessica
3 Mrs. Sell – Skyler & Gus
3 Mrs. Smith – Katie & Holden
4 Mr. Hack – Maty & Garrett
4 Mrs. Reinhard – Jacob & Matthew
4 Mrs. Kovar – Bailey & Ian
5 Mrs. Campbell – Kenzie & Conner
5 Mrs. Huseman – Katie & Sarah
5 Mrs. Peterson – Margaret & Kevin

We are proud of these students who will provide positive leadership with a positive attitude and a mission to promote character and citizenship.

STUDENT SUCCESS. Morley School continues to maximize student achievement. As measured by the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, our 2005-06 third and fifth grade students gained outstanding results.

In Total Reading, Morley’s third grade students scored at the 99% as compared to the district’s 79%.

In Total Math, Morley third grade students reached the 98%, as compared to the district’s overall third grade Total Math at 85%.

Morley’s fifth grade students Total Reading was at the 88% as compared to the district’s overall fifth grade Total Reading score of 73%.

In the area of math, Morley fifth grade students reached the 90% in Total Math, while the district’s fifth grade Total Math score was 80%.

Morley’s 2005-06 fourth grade students’ Criterion Referenced Test results in all math areas averaged 98.2%.

100% of Morley fourth grade students were proficient in the area of Reading Comprehension, as well as in the areas of Vocabulary, Presentations, and Active Listening.

98.2% of fourth grade students were proficient in Interpersonal Communication.

100% of fourth grade students were proficient and/or advanced in the area of writing, as indicated by the State of Nebraska Standards.

Our high student achievement scores reflect the high expectations and excellence held at Morley. As we have done in the past, we will strive to continue to sustain academic rigor and promote the passion for providing ‘more to learning at Morley!”

NEW CURRICULUM AND PRACTICES - WHAT ARE PLCs, RTI, AND DIBELS?

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have been studied and researched for years. Simply put, Professional Learning Communities are teams of professional teachers and staff working together to identify students in Kindergarten through Fifth Grade and who need extra support, or an extra stretch, and taking action to provide that support or stretch. It takes focus, time, and experienced educators to examine each student’s achievement and profile, and, then, implement curriculum and strategies to match each child’s needs. This approach is prescriptive, dependent on student needs. How different this approach is from planning for instruction, with the curriculum driving our work. It is a challenging approach and it raises expectations for each and every student.

Throughout this year, your Morley staff will be intensely involved with each other in teams, asking questions about each student in quest of reaching students at the ‘place of their learning’. In other words, making sure what we do as teachers, results in higher learning success and outcomes for each of our students.

Teachers and other staff will be meeting on special days and times, during and beyond the school day, to learn more about Professional Learning Community procedures. Just as in any other profession, if you ‘want to find better ways, you need to learn, practice, and evaluate your practices.’

Response to Intervention, or RTI, is a method for monitoring student progress and intervening early in order to meet academic goals. Presently, Morley teachers, especially at grade levels Kindergarten through Second Grade, are implementing RTI in the reading area. Teachers and others are taking a formal course in RTI. A key part of RTI is looking at each student, implementing researched based interventions on eight week schedules. A key component is this process is the weekly monitoring of student progress in reading.

DIBELS or Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills is a program by researchers at the University of Oregon to monitor student progress. These indicators are brief one-minute probes that measure literacy skills critical to early reading success. These measures are sensitive to small gains in early reading skills. DIBELS is an assessment tool used to evaluate the effectiveness of reading interventions.

The weekly results will be graphed and compared to normative progress in the district. A comparison is made of both the rate and level of student progress toward the established goal. If there is a discrepancy between student progress and expected progress, a decision will be made to either adjust the intervention and/or gather further information. DIBELs information is just a small part of a student’s overall academic progress. Therefore, we will converge data from other sources such as classroom assessment before making decisions about changing interventions or taking another approach.

What PLCs, RTI, and DIBELS is not. All of these interventions and classroom strategies are just that. These strategies are not curriculum content such as ‘what we teach’ students. It is more ‘how we teach students’ and measure the difference, that these interventions and strategies make, for each and every child.

Reading Recovery – A very effective intervention Lincoln Public Schools designed to give each first grade child the maximum opportunities to succeed in reading. We know when children read well, the likelihood of them excelling in all subjects, is raised to higher levels. Morley has two Reading Recovery teachers, Mrs. L. Lacey and Mrs. M Heim, who work with eight students, in intensive reading sessions.

On September 12, prior to the PTO meeting, several parents attended a session to learn more about Reading Recovery. This session was led by Mrs. Lacey and Mrs. Heim.

Mrs. Lacey and Mrs. Heim present Reading Recovery strategies at a parent meeting Morley specialists, also, provide extra academic support for students at all grade levels. Under the leadership of Miss Kay Monson, and with input from all classroom teachers, specialists give one on one or small group instruction for a short period every day. The extra instruction provides these students opportunities to practice and master skills, especially in reading and math.

Creativity or finding a better solution –We ask children to wear clothing that is appropriate and does not distract or disrupt the learning environment. One day, I did request that Evan turn a shirt inside out because of a graphic on his shirt. As of late, I was walking through classrooms and noticed that Evan’s shirt looked like it had been ‘turned inside out, with the seams and tag on the outside.’ Curiously, I examined Evan’s shirt. As you can see, “Boycott Homework” was on the “right side” of Evan’s T, and “The Principal Made Me Turn My Shirt Inside Out” was on the reverse side! I just had to take a picture. I believe Evan had the upper hand on creativity!

Morley Elementary School
Calendar for September
Monday, September 18 Constitution Day

Friday, September 22
All Day=Juggler (Dave Finnigan) at Morley
5:30-8:00pm=Juggling Family Night

Monday, September 25 Happy Birthday Mrs. Sell!

Tuesday, September 26 - 7:00pm=PTO Fall Parties Planning Meeting

Friday, September 29
2:30pm=QSP Kick-Off Assembly – Biggest PTO Fundraiser!
5:30-8:00pm=Family Fun Night (Blastin’ Off to Outer Space!)