Thankful

It is that time of year when the holidays are all around us.  We are reminded of the blessings and gratitude we feel for the people in our lives.  I am so grateful for the Carpenter Hill Colts and  every person that is a part of our school community.  

Our students have engaged in a gratitude project throughout the month of November.   The idea sparked and has grown into something much bigger.  At the top and bottom of the stairs are materials to write a note to someone in the building to share your gratitude.  This idea has continued into the month of December in the form of gratitude Christmas cards.  In addition, this project has extended beyond our four walls.  All of our first through fifth grade students created a Christmas card for a young man who is in the hospital.  I was overwhelmed by the care and warmth extended by our students.  They do not know this young man, but they know he is in the hospital during this time of year.  It melts my heart to see the outpouring of love our students have for others.  

Colts (and their families) are working hard to stay healthy and attend school every day.  We know that attendance matters.  We miss our students when they are away.  We continue to strive for 97% and better each week.  Even with holiday plans and illness entering the school we had 96.97% attendance last week.  We want our students present to grow their brains and continue to share their knowledge and understanding with others.  

We are working hard to finish the semester strong.  When visiting classrooms students are all abuzz with excitement and eager to share their learning and knowledge. Whether they are working on Dreambox, talking about geometry, writing in their journals (and adding a detailed picture), playing soccer, practicing for a holiday performance, coding, or meeting with their teacher in small groups they want to share their experiences.  Our teachers continue planning engaging lessons.  Students are actively involved in their learning.

Our students continue to grow in math.  We are tracking student progress with our resources Formative Loop and Dreambox.  We know math can be difficult and that practice and persistence are necessary.  Our students, teachers and families are committed to the task.  Our students have mastered 16, 565 math skills in Formative Loop, which averages to approximately 31 skills per student.  Wow!!  Our students continue growing in their math numeracy in Dreambox too.  I am thankful for hard workers.

“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” around Carpenter Hill as holiday decorations or winter scenes fill our hallways.  Next week we will have a few dress up days for our students and staff to participate in should they choose.  With all of this fun we still have valuable assessments to complete to gauge progress.  

I am so thankful to be a part of this school.  What an amazing experience!  We have a community filled with hard working, good people desiring to make a difference for the students at Carpenter Hill. Blessings to everyone this season.

All my best,

Debbie

Celebrate...good times...come on!

There is a lot to celebrate at Carpenter Hill!   This year, we have been sharing about our growth on the morning announcements and during our staff PLCs as we continue our focus on math fact fluency and writing.  Another factor impacting our growth besides our planning, instructional delivery, talented teachers and hard working students, is our positive attendance data.  Because our students are present and excited to come to school each day, our campus earned the highest attendance rating for the first 9 weeks.  WooHoo!!  We know and believe attendance matters, but we can’t do it without your support, so thank you.  We have also shown an improvement in our attendance rating since last school year, which is equally exciting.  Not only are our students present, but we have 12 staff members with perfect attendance.  

Each week our students in grades 1-5 take Formative Loop assessments.  Our students are practicing their math facts to increase their automaticity.  Automaticity shows up in our second grade TEKS under number and operations and has shown to be an area we need to grow in at CHES.  The second grade standard 2.4 states, “The student applies mathematical process standards to develop and use strategies and methods for whole number computations in order to solve addition and subtraction problems with efficiency and accuracy.”  In a nutshell, automaticity can be defined as executing a basic fact with speed and accuracy with little or no conscious effort.  Assessing students on math facts in isolation will not necessarily help students achieve automaticity; however, it does provide valuable information that allows our teachers to create additional strategies and targeted support to help our students based on individual needs. Targeted support comes in many forms such as games, flashcards, partner work, and time with the teacher. Overall, our desire is to grow independent learners.

Our students are involved in monitoring their progress of Formative Loop skills mastered.  We have some exciting data sets to share.  Our students have mastered 13,780 skills so far this year, which averages to about 26 skills per student and it is only November. This is significantly greater than last year at this time.  In addition to the growing skills mastered, our students and teachers have verbalized the improvement and ease of acquisition of newly introduced math as a result of truly understanding previously taught concepts.

Dreambox is another resource we are using with our students to track and monitor growth in math.  Hays CISD has purchased the program for our K-2 students and our most recent fundraiser, the Colt Stampede, is purchasing the program for our 3rd - 5th grade students.  We have seen a 17% growth since we began using this program this school year.  Teachers are able to set students on a path based upon student need, previously taught content, or upcoming content.  Our students have already completed 14, 437 lessons.  Our students love it!  The program is engaging and sophisticated.  

Both of these resources are supporting the work our classroom teachers are doing for our students in the classroom.  Our most recent interim assessment data for our 2nd - 5th grade students supports that statement.  Each grade level showed growth from last year to this year from 3% - 44% gains on passing the assessment.  We are also monitoring the percentage of students mastering the content, which also had gains.  Most grade levels saw an increase in the number of students mastering the content from 4% to 21%.  This is exciting news!!!  

Our students are writing all around our school.  Writing is displayed in our hallways and in classrooms.  Our students are writing in math, science, social studies, english and just because.  It is exciting to see our students’ taking risks in their writing.  When you are on campus I invite you on a tour of our hallways, and check out our students’ writing.

We are committed to challenging ourselves and our students to grow as learners in a community of respect.  We want to empower students with the tools to grow through nurturing relationships and innovative educational experiences.  

Celebrate...good times...come on!  

Off to a Healthy Start

Our Colts are off to a healthy start this school year.  Colts are running laps on our track, choosing a healthy snack midday, participating in Go Noodle movement breaks, talking about emotional wellness during class meetings and/or guidance lessons and spending 2 days a week in physical education class all in an effort for a more balanced, healthy lifestyle.  Our students have engaged in 30, 905 minutes of Go Noodle during late August and September.  

In an effort to communicate aspects of our wellness plan information will be highlighted throughout the school year. Information has been sent home to families about some changes regarding our nutrition guidelines.  We do have some exempt days such as class parties.  During these exempt days additional foods may be served; however, we will consistently be mindful of food allergies some of our students have in each class and avoid those foods.

Our 3rd through 5th grade students are practicing aspects of the Fitnessgram.  They are supporting one another as they count curl ups, push ups and measure flexibility with their trunk and limbs.  

Our Colt Stampede is coming up on October 13th. Our students will run/walk laps during their Specials time.  Pledges will be made ahead of time and donations collected.  This is our big school fundraiser.  Family members are welcome to join us on Friday to participate with their student.

Some other school-wide physical activity events on our calendar this school year are:

School Walk for Diabetes

5th grade Track Day

Field Day

Some healthy tips:

Drink lots of water

Take the stairs when possible

Choose Go foods and not Whoa foods.

Consider joining us for some of our school-wide physical activity events. Support all of us as we continue to explore and participate in healthy lifestyle choices.

New teammates

We continue to grow at Carpenter Hill.  We have added some new staff to our team in the last 3 weeks..  Please welcome:

Ashley Scasta - Special Education paraprofessional

Peyton Perez - 1st grade teacher

Tanya Spain - Attendance Clerk

It is great to have our team complete!  Looking forward to building on the strength already here at CHES.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

We have been talking about respect at Carpenter Hill.  What does it look like and sound like?  Each morning on our announcements we say the Carpenter Hill Pledge.  It is as follows:

I am a Carpenter Hill Colt

I will respect myself, others and property

I will strive for my personal best everyday

We have been sharing the importance of what those words mean.  We are encouraging students to mean what they say when they say these words each day.  It is a collective effort to reinforce manners and respect.

Unfortunately we have needed to address some ways in which our students are showing disrespect to our school property.  Partner with us as we continue providing examples of what it means to be respectful, what it looks like and sounds like.  We have talked about the power of words.  

Welcome Back

Our first day of school was gorgeous.  The air was cool and the sun was rising as families entered our parking lot to walk their children in for first day of school photo ops.  Carpenter Hill is somewhat unique in that we do not have walkers and bike riders; therefore, students ride a bus or are dropped off in a car.  

Each morning during our first week we had beautiful cool weather.  I love starting my day opening car doors and greeting our students and families as they arrive at Carpenter Hill.  I am given a smile, a hello and sometimes a hug.  It is definitely a highlight in my day.  

All week long as I walked around our campus and into classrooms students were getting to know one another, engaged in fun, purposeful activities, problem solving, reading, laughing and smiling as they discovered something about their teacher or a classmate, thinking, writing and getting into a routine.  

We have some new faces around campus, both staff and students.  It has been fun watching our campus community build relationships this week.  Our first week has been filled with positive interactions and community building.  I look forward to hearing many fun stories and sharing adventures throughout the year.

We're Growing...

We’re growing and I do not mean only in our enrollment.  Everyone, staff and students spent a great deal of time focused on growing in our knowledge and understanding of content last year.  At the end of the school year we took inventory of the progress our students made and posed questions when progress was lacking.  We value the importance of being informed and also being reflective of our practices.  I was thrilled to welcome our staff back and to celebrate some areas of progress.  Below are some sets of data we reviewed and took time to celebrate.

All of our students Kinder - 5th grade are assessed multiple times a year using the Developmental Reading Assessment.  Our end of year results are:

DRA:

Kinder - 90% of our students read on or above grade level.

First grade - 73% of our students read on or above grade level.

Second grade - 59% of our students read on or above grade level.

Third grade - 47% of our students read on or above grade level.

Fourth grade - 81% of our students read on or above grade level.

Fifth grade - 85% of our students read on or above grade level.

We initiated a math fact fluency focus using two different programs and the results at the end of the year are as follows:

Dreambox - Kinder only

11 standards were met before school let out.

We saw a 67% growth.

Formative Loop - First through fifth grade

1st grade -51% of our students have completed the first grade loop.  82% of our first graders know their addition facts.

2nd grade - 43% of our 2nd graders have completed their loop.   95% of our second graders know their addition facts and are on their way with subtraction facts. We have 35 2nd graders that have mastered all addition and subtraction facts within 20 with automaticity, which is the state standard at 2nd grade.

3rd grade -27% of our students have completed the 3rd grade loop.  The state says 3rd graders should be able to recall facts to multiply up to 10 by 10 with automaticity and recall corresponding division.  6 of our 3rd graders have mastered all operations so far.  Several of our 3rd graders struggled with some of the skills introduced in 1st and 2nd grade;therefore, they have not made it to the multiplication and division facts yet.

4th grade - 28% of our students completed the 4th grade loop.  46 of our 4th graders have completed the 3rd grade standard of all operations.

5th grade - 36% of our 5th graders completed the 5th loop.  93 of our 5th graders have completed the 3rd grade standard of all operations.  

As a campus we selected some areas to focus on during the school year based upon data and the growth demonstrated by our 3rd - 5th grade students on STAAR is as follows:

Focus Areas:

MATH	3rd	4th	5th
Whole Numbers		0	-5
Add/Sub.	+4
Mult./Div.	+1
All Operations			+3
Geometry		+5	0
Measurement	+1	+9	0

READING	3rd	4th	5th
Fiction	+5	+5	-3
Summarization	+1		-6

SCIENCE	5th
Force, Motion and Energy	-7
Earth	+9

The State has 4 areas they monitor from year to year and our results are as follows:

	2016	2017	Growth
Student Achievement	87	89	+2
Student Progress	40	37	-3
Closing Gaps	46	49	+3	Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged
Post Secondary Readiness	51	53	+2

We are showing progress, which is important.  Our goal is 100% progress, meaning everyone is growing and learning.  We will continue to work as a staff to create meaningful relationships, plan purposefully, and empower our students to think and problem solve when exploring and learning.  

We have determined our focus areas this year and for the most part our data indicates we need to stay the course.  We need more professional development, collaborative planning and imbed more opportunities for our students to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the content.  

We are looking at our results in comparison with 40 other campuses with similar demographics.  We are growing, and we will keep seeking ways to help our students in their learning.  We are not in the top quartile of our like-campuses.  We have reached students and made progress.  We have grown and our students have grown in areas that are not reported on a STAAR test too.  Lots to celebrate at CHES.  

I am thrilled for another school year to work with such talented, hard working staff, a dynamic group of students and their supportive families.  

Summer is Here!

The hallways are so quiet.  The hustle and bustle of activity has died down as it is summer vacation at Carpenter Hill.  However, summer is a great time for students and staff to rest, reflect and rejuvenate.  

We have said best wishes to our 5th graders that are moving on to middle school.  It is bittersweet as we know this is the next step, but will miss the daily interactions and leadership exhibited while they were here.  We wish everyone in our Colt community a fun, safe summer and look forward to their return in August.  Sometimes summer brings about changes with members of our Colt family such as moves and opportunities to try something new.  Best wishes if that is you and your family.  Once a Colt always a Colt.

The last week of school we sent home some letters with our first through fifth graders sharing where your student is on their journey to mastering their math facts at their grade level or at 3rd grade level(all operations).  Our kinder students still have access and may log into Dreambox this summer, which is a valuable resource to continue working on their numeracy skills.  A quick way for students to access their account is through our website under the “Students” tab.  Our 1st through fifth grade students will want to log into Xtra Math or onto our campus website to access additional math programs.  The students may log into the Technology Specials area and select their grade level to find activities there to work on.  In addition, they may choose Summer School because there are Fun Friday Math games there.  We want our students to practice their math skills(even during the summer),  increasing their automaticity.  

We also sent home a bookmark with digital book resources for our students.  We want our students reading during the summer.  Four resources were provided with login information.  An electronic version was sent home through Parent Link.  Our students can read books online using these resources as well as dropping by the public library.  The Buda Library presented to our students about the fun programs available during the summer.  

We are reflecting on our school year and making plans for the upcoming school year.  In the coming months we will share some of our plans for this next school year.  We are making some subtle changes to our website during the summer as well.  We are hoping to delete outdated content and upload current information.  We want you all to be informed about the great things that are taking place at CHES in addition to easy access to programs supporting student learning.  Visit the various tabs every now and then for updates.

Have fun with family and friends this summer!  Enjoy a vacation or a staycation.  There are plenty of day trips from our home base that are great fun for the family.  Rest, relax and rejuvenate.  See you in August!

Spring is in the Air at CHES

Spring is in the air and Carpenter Hill is a flutter.  Activity is all around us.  Our Green Team has been working diligently in our learning gardens.  Other students have been taking opportunities to work in our gardens around our school as our science standards address organisms and environments.  Learning and growth are happening.

Our learning gardens are not the only areas where growth is taking place.  Our students are growing in the classroom.  One area in particular is in the area of math.  We have been focusing all year on math fact fluency and supporting our students in increasing their automaticity of math facts.  Evidence of growth is all around campus.  Our kinder students are working through numeracy skills via DreamBox.  For those of you that do not have a kinder student, DreamBox is an online math program for students to work on at school and at home.  

Forty-six percent of our students are working above grade level as they have mastered the lessons addressing kinder TEKS (standards).  

Our kinder students are excited about their growth.  We are tracking their progress on a bulletin board in the kinder hallway.  They have completed over 9, 460 lessons in DreamBox.  Our first graders through fifth graders are working on their numeracy skills using a program called Formative Loop.  Our students take a series of five minute test 3-5 times a week.  The tests are individualized for each student; therefore, students are able to focus  on the skill they need to, whereas a classmate may be working on a different skill.  This program is developmentally appropriate and aligned with our TEKS (state standards).  Along with the individualized checkpoints, the program also provides students with targeted  homework.  In addition, teachers are able to look at results and address areas for students to work on or perhaps clear up a misunderstanding.  Games are provided to students to practice their math skills, increasing their automaticity.  Based on the student’s need some math games are sent home for students to use as additional practice.  

Fifty-four percent of our 4th and 5th grade students know all of their facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).  

Our numbers in 3rd grade continue to increase as students demonstrate mastery in addition, subtraction and multiplication.

Ninety-five percent of our 2nd graders know their addition facts and are working on subtraction.  

Eighty-two percent of our 1st graders know their addition facts, which are on grade level standards and are moving into subtraction.  

It is exciting to see our students growing their brains and making such an effort to learn new skills and refine others.. Math is one of many areas we are growing in at CHES.  Our students are realizing that sometimes school is hard and that with practice and effort you can accomplish difficult tasks.

Our 5th graders recently received their STAAR results and we have a lot to celebrate.

Ninety percent of our students met the reading state standard and 89% met the math state standard.

Some more exciting news are the students that demonstrated

mastery of the tested material.  In math, 23% of our students mastered the material and 41% mastered in reading, job well done!

We are all learners at Carpenter Hill.  Not only do our students set goals, but our teachers do as well.  End of year reflections are fast-approaching.  We all know the importance of focus and intentionality; therefore, working together, talking about it, and supporting one another are necessary steps in growth for all.  It is hard at times, but the benefits on the other side are well worth it.  Help us celebrate the growth occurring at CHES.  It is exciting!!!  Our students (and teachers) deserve it!!