First Grade Newsletter

We are excited to offer our very own "Standard's Institute" in partnership with Unbound Ed. We heard such amazing feedback from the hundreds of leaders and teachers that attended the Unbound Ed Standard's Institutes over the last couple of years that we decided to bring the opportunity to Pasco so we could engage many more teachers, coaches and leaders in this work. The content of the sessions offered at the World Class Learning Institute is the same, just with our teachers and leaders as co-facilitators and without having to travel far away from home to engage in the great learning. There is still time to sign-up and we have plenty of space in both Elementary and Secondary ELA and Math tracks. And don't forget that participants will receive their hourly rate of pay for 6 hours each of the 4 days!

Click here to register for the Pasco County World Class Learning Institute

This is your opportunity to be sure your voice is heard. The state is now asking for additional feedback about our state standards that is more in depth than the original feedback survey. We hope leaders, teachers, and parents have the opportunity to share their thoughts about our state standards.

Click here to create an account and provide your input: https://www.floridastandardsreview.org

Click here of the information on the standards review process:http://fldoe.org/standardsreview

We are very excited to see the high level of interest in Reading Endorsement Courses. Registration opened at midnight on May 1st and all 13 sections are currently full and many sections also have a full waitlist. We are currently in the process of opening additional sections of courses 1-4. As soon as those courses open up, participants on the waitlist will automatically be enrolled into the course and teachers will then be able to register to fill the open slots. We understand that you may have registered for multiple waitlists in hopes that at least one will open up, so we encourage you to remove your name, if you plan to only take one course this summer. We want to ensure that all teachers have the opportunity to enroll in a summer course, if needed. We will continue to monitor enrollment and add additional sections, when possible. Remember, we will also be scaling up course offerings for next school year to four times per year (fall, winter, spring, and summer).

Please email: readingendorsement@pasco.k12.fl.us if you have any questions. Remember that the recently passed legislation requiring reading endorsement only applies to teachers of 3rd grade retained students in the year of retention and teachers who provide intensive interventions in reading.

We thank you for your patience as we expand our course offerings.

• Be on the look out for the schedule of sessions which will be released during the week of May 27th.

• Registration will be open in myPGS on Monday, July 8th.

You will begin to use a preponderance of evidence to make PMP decisions. You will make end of year PMP determinations during the week of May 20-24. Here is a link to the Guidelines and PMP Matrices.

As you prepare to close out this school year, the Science team wanted to share some highlights from the 2019-2020 Science curriculum with you. When the 2019-2020 ELN launches, you will notice that the K-5 Science overview pages on MyLearning have a new look. The overview is now called ‘The Story of the Unit’ and directly supports planning for the unit. It will include a screencast with a quick overview of the tips and tricks for that unit. The K-5 Curriculum maps have additional resources which include additional assessments. The 5E menus have been refined to help with organization and flow. You will notice that the Explain section has text grouped by type and includes both word work and writing in science. There are also Tiered resources available in each 5E Maps. Lastly, screencasts have been recorded for all of the Academy or model notebooks lessons. This will allow you to see/hear a quick walkthrough of the notebook lesson. Below are the link to the drafts of the 2019-2020 Scope and Sequence for Science.

Draft 2019-2020 Science Scope & Sequence

Join us for grade level specific Unit Launches at Together We Learn. Look for these sessions in the schedule when it is released at the end of May. The sessions will introduce you to curriculum updates and provide a model lesson for the first unit of the year. You will also have time to work on planning around that unit. Discovery Education will also be offering sessions to help new teachers get started with DE and a Going Deeper session to expand our use of the platform. Studio/Board Builder will be highlighted in the Going Deeper session.

Starting May 1st, we celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month. Teaching children about the historical accomplishments, struggles and contributions of Jewish Americans benefits everyone by connecting our students with a rich history that is interwoven in the fabric of our culture. In the spirit of honoring Jewish American heritage and celebrating a rich culture, engage your students in activities and texts that develop compassion and a better understanding of cultural diversity, that will also support instruction to meet the Sunshine State Standards Mandate Holocaust Education requirement (FS 1003.42). You may find additional suggested instructional ideas using this link.

As shared in the March and April SMORE newsletters , the Medal of Honor National Convention will be hosted in Tampa next Fall and they have asked our county in welcoming all the attendees. Please find here directions for a letter writing campaign to have all Medal of Honor recipients welcomed by a personal note from our Pasco County students. The original date that was shared to submit student letters to Tina Stavrou was by May 1st 2019, but we understand that this activity may work better during the month of May with testing and activity schedules and would be able to extend the deadline to accept packages through May 31st. We would love to have every school represented in welcoming these honorable Veterans, and thank the schools who have already submitted their letters to us.

There is also an opportunity to receive additional learning around the Medal of Honor Character Development Curriculum on June 4th - please see the flyer below for more information.