Forest Park News

From Principal Lisa Newlyn

I
I hope you all had a Happy Halloween last week and Feliz Dia de los Meurtos on Saturday.  With 

the beautiful weather and extra hour of sleep this weekend, this is a great time to enjoy a little down time.  School is hard work, and we've been keeping brains busy around here; no doubt you're all busy after school hours as well..  I hope your child enjoys a little down time to relax and reset their brain regularly.  Sleep is the best way to for all our brains to cope with stress and digest learning.


Here's a quick out take from the Rainbow Picture Day.  We look foxtastic together!  This year it was a drone shot, taken by Holland Studios.  I can not wait to release this year's pix.  It was colder than usual, but bright and sunny with green grass for a change.   Thank you for your support and making sure kiddos wore their grade level colors!

Our FOFPE Safety Committee met on Friday morning with Director Andrew Scott, zone 1 representative on the PPS School Board.  We walked the campus and shared concerns related to the recent CO2 letter and other issues of health, safety and security related to our portable classrooms.  Stay tuned for more information from PPS as district leaders respond to our collective voices.  A copy of the letter is inserted, below. 

Laura Axon and our FOFPE leads are gearing up for the first of two authors visits.  Please get ready to welcome local author, Trudy Ludwig to FPE.  She is spending the day with students and the evening with parents on 12/2.  See the link to RSVP for your attendance and childcare needs.  Trudy last came to FPE in 2014 and was well received.  Her books are fabulous, offering great mentor texts for for teachers, as well as readable and valuable for children to read on their own.  Book purchases will be available.  We look forward to an engaging day with Ms. Ludwig.  Thank you FOFPE for your coordination and planning - and THANKS to all of YOU who, through our Scholastic Book Fair purchases, made her visit financially feasible. 

Our November Spirit Assembly is right around the corner on Wednesday 11/6.  While we don't have room for many parents to join, I've welcomed those who linger after morning drop off.  If you plan to attend, we have space for parents in the back of the gym, behind the 5th grade classes.  And, please make sure to sign in and get a badge.  Parents who are with us after 8am must have a badge.  This is an essential step in our campus security protocols.  

Fall in Technology is always a time of revisiting and revamping routines and this year we are mixing things up with the introduction of a new program, Freckle. For several years we have used the online program IXL for math and language arts supports. IXL had its strengths, but there were problems with it, too.  After some research and staff discussions, we opted to drop IXL and move to Freckle, an online program that offers a much more differentiated platform. 

For now our focus in Freckle is math, where students take pre-assessments aligned to Common Core Standards, and in turn Freckle has them working on the topic at their precise level, whether that is at their grade level, below it, or above it. Using Freckle students will get practice tailored to their needs, complete with video tutorials as they progress toward end of year standards and beyond. Classroom teachers get great feedback from student time on Freckle and can use it to influence lesson planning. 

Some classrooms will use Freckle as a part of their weekly math lessons, as a part of an intervention or extension plan, and even as homework. When they are ready, your student’s teacher will pass on a document with your student’s accound credentials and step-by-step directions. Please remember to bookmark our Forest Park Technology and TechSmart website at bit.ly/fpetech and visit bit.ly/fpefreckle for video tours of Freckle and troubleshooting tips. 

Cheers,

Beth Gardner

FPE Technology Teacher and TechSmart Coach
egardner@pps.net