On September 24th when you visit the Concession Stand at the White Oak Roughneck football game, you just might see YOUR teacher. Primary teachers will be working the Concession Stand at the Friday night football game and will be waiting eagerly to serve you. Stop by and see your teacher and order lots of nachos and hotdogs. We want to see them working hard.
Category Archives: Intermediate
Building Students of Character
Here at White Oak Elementary we believe in building students of character by teaching good citizenship. At the primary level, we use the Keystone Character Traits, and at the intermediate level, we use the Chick-fil-A Core Essentials programs. When applied, these traits will build a community of good citizens from our young students. This month’s character trait and core essential is KINDNESS for primary and RESPECT for intermediate. We will work together to build students of character as we teach and learn about the characteristics of a good citizenship foundation. Watch as our foundation grows stronger and stronger.
Winning Teachers
Each year Sonic sponsors an event called Limeades for Learning for the purpose of providing classrooms with those extra tools needed to enhance the learning of our students. Teachers write up their projects and submit them online. The list of projects from all over the United States is then voted on (and donated to) by visitors to the site. Votes are limited to one per day for each email address. At the end of each week for five weeks, the projects with the winning number of votes are funded completely by Sonic.
Congratulations to three of our White Oak Teachers who took the time to write, submit, and solicit votes for your children. Second grade teachers, Mrs. Saccoccio and Mrs. Richeson, will be receiving iTouches for their classroom, and third grade teacher, Mrs. Hunter, will be receiving a digital recorder and microphone for her students.
It is still not too late to submit YOUR projects and start to get the votes coming in for your students. We are waiting to give you our VOTES!
Important Dates
I have just finished updating my website with testing dates and thought that there may be those interested in making note of them. They are linked below:
On November 15th, the TAKS Alternative assessment tool becomes available to administrators, and the TAKS Alt assessment window will be January 3rd through April 15
Closed Monday, September 6th
Labor Day
What is a Probe?
A few parents have asked, “What is a Probe?” I am so glad that you asked that because of two reasons. First of all, you are subscribed to our elementary blog and therefore, keeping up with all that is going on at school. Secondly, you are truly interested in your child’s education enough to ask questions. Please allow me to explain the concept of a Probe through this scenario.
You are preparing a delicious chicken dinner for your entire family. The bird is placed in the oven and cooked for the determined time. As soon as the timer goes off, you place the roasted bird in the center of a serving dish and set it on the table. The first piercing of the fork hints of a pink stain warning you that the chicken is not ready. Decision time – You can serve an unsafe dinner or disassemble the dish and return the fowl to the oven for extended cooking time.
Wouldn’t it have been better to have “Probed” the chicken during cooking to check for readiness?
Our district has chosen to check for readiness before serving up students to new skills for which they are unprepared.
Probes are given every week or two in the form of five or so questions to quickly assess the instruction that has just been completed. It lets the classroom teacher know if reteaching needs to take place or if the class is ready to move on to another skill. Often times it helps to target prerequisite skills that could be missing and consequently makes it difficult for a student to grasp a newly introduced concept. Without these small assessments on specific skills, or probes, teachers would be left to make decisions without the necessary data.
So, how can a student prepare for these probes? Generally, students who pay attention to classroom instruction, complete their homework, arrive to school on time, and remain at school for the entire day perform quite successfully on most probes. At times, some students may need the information retaught in a different way before they can show understanding. At other times, a few students may even need the assistance of another instructor to supplement the classroom teacher. In any case, we will use the data to “check for readiness” to insure that your student is fully prepared.