Tuesday, January 31, 2012

ROARING NEWS

Dear Baldwin Community,

I have some GREAT NEWS to share with you!

This morning at morning assembly, we announced the 2011-2012 Baldwin Teacher of the Year- Mrs. Gayle Grance.





Mrs. Grance has worked for Austin ISD for 16 years and previous to this, she worked in Ohio and Pennsylvania for another 14 years. Mrs. Grance provides "hands-on" experiences that become the cement to connect lessons to real life situations. She enjoys watching children have "ah-ha" moments as they discover answers and make connections. She also believes that all children have gifts and talents and she tries to offer opportunities for each child to share their gifts. Mrs. Grance has been instrumental at Baldwin. She was one of Baldwin's founding teachers and has worked tirelessly to organize science equipment and materials for teachers to check out for use in their classrooms.  She was also a leader in finding volunteers to build us a solar shed and teaching gardens. Mrs. Grance has helped us enrich our curriculum in so many different ways. She is a team player and contributes to all aspects of our learning community.

Mrs. Grance inspires a love of learning in students of all backgrounds and abilities. She provides a high-quality, well-rounded educational experience to all students that is rigorous, culturally relevant, healthful and engaging. Mrs. Grance is well respected by her colleagues, parents and most importantly her students. She plays an active and useful role in the community as well as in our school. Mrs. Grance is poised, articulate, and possesses the energy to withstand a taxing schedule.

Previously, Mrs. Grance was Teacher of the Year at Kiker Elementary in 2000 and 2004. We are so lucky to have such a talented and dedicated teacher working with us at Baldwin!

Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña

Monday, January 30, 2012

ROARING NEWS

Dear Baldwin Community,

This Wednesday, February 1st, will be the 100th day of classes which is unbelievable!! This morning as I walked through classrooms, I saw all of the children focused on learning and sharing their thinking. I observed three students in Ms. Seitz's class, Jaxon, Joopsy and Joey, sharing the 100 charts they created at home. Two of the students explained that their 100 charts included 10 groups of 10 which equaled 100. The other student explained that she drew a tree trunk and added 100 leaves to it. All three students received a round of applause for their good work and for their explanations. Thank you parents for helping our students complete their displays of 100 and for continuing to enhance their understanding of number sense. 

As I walked through the 1st and 2nd grade hallways, I noticed some excellent work on the bulletin boards and in the classrooms. In the early weeks of January, the first and second graders honored Martin Luther King by learning about the importance of his dream and understanding that words have power. 
Some of the second graders wrote their own dreams and it was evident that they have BIG dreams. The children learned how historical figures and good citizens help shape the country and the state by their contributions.

Our third graders learned that the earth consists of Natural Resources and that its surface is constantly changing. They learned this by creating models of the 3 types of rocks found on the earth: metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary. The children will now be using this information to identify and compare different landforms, including mountains, hills, valleys and plains. In the orange wing, I also saw third grade work where the students created their own number lines naming points using whole numbers and fractions, including halves and fourths. 

In the green wing, our fourth and fifth graders have been working extremely hard in all academic areas. I know these students are relieved that science fair is behind them and I want to congratulate them for their great work and perseverance to get it done! I learned so much from their projects and I thank the parents for helping them get through this phase of their learning. I spent quite a bit of time in the green wing today reading the fourth graders narrative and expository compositions. They are such creative writers and they are doing such a great job using their learning within their writing. In the same way, the fifth graders had some excellent work displayed in the hallway. Their work showed that they are able to use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills in both assigned and independent reading to understand an author's message. Today, as I walked through the fifth grade reading class, the students were beginning their study of poetry learning about poetic techniques such as alliteration and onomatopoeia, figurative language and graphic elements. Be on the lookout for your child's creative, poetic side.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents and grandparents that heard our plea for more reading volunteers. This week alone, I saw an increase in volunteers coming in to help our first graders improve their reading skills through our Great Leaps Reading program. We still have space for more volunteers so please checkout the Baldwin PTA website for other volunteer opportunities. Thank you again for all of your support!

I look forward to reporting more on your children's learning later this week.

Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña

Saturday, January 14, 2012

ROARING NEWS

Hello Baldwin Community, 

Happy New Year and Welcome Back! The past seven days have been busy ones at Baldwin. The children returned from winter break full of energy and excitement. During morning assembly, I have been reminding the students that January is a good time to reflect on the fall semester and set goals for the spring semester. I explained to them that their goals could be focused on improving their reading levels, earning more points in the AR program or learning more of their math facts. I also told them that it is important to reflect on their personal skills such as being more responsible by returning their homework everyday and completing all of their classwork on time. We also talked about being better friends by sharing, talking nicely to each other, and respecting each other's space. Perhaps you can have a conversation with your child to see what goals he/she will be working on during this second part of the school year. As I visit classrooms, I will be asking the children what goals they have set and how they expect to achieve their goals.

I have been hearing all of the "ROAR" about science fair! The children are very excited about sharing what they have learned through this process and I can't wait to see their work. Don't forget the deadline to submit science fair projects is this Tuesday, January 17th. Please help your child finish their project this weekend. You have an extra day since Monday is a holiday. Students will first share their projects with their class and their teacher before they can go to the next level of judging. Those projects that make it to the next level will be judged on January 26th and you will have the opportunity to come and see all of the great projects that evening from 6:30-7:30. Thanks so much for supporting our Baldwin scientists and their efforts! (We also need volunteers to help us organize all of the projects, set them up in the cafeteria and lead the children's tours. Please consider helping us with this event. It will make a HUGE impact since the children are very excited about science and learning!)

Speaking of volunteers, I want to personally thank all of those that have been coming to help some of our first graders improve their reading skills through the Great Leaps program. Because of the efforts of our volunteers, some of our students are showing great improvements. Since the volunteers started working with our students, these first graders have increased several DRA reading levels. What does that really mean? Well, we have some students that have improved from a DRA reading level 3, which is a beginning Kindergarten level, to a DRA 12, almost a mid-year first grade level. Those are some tremendous gains! These volunteer efforts have definitely been paying off; however WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS because some of the first grade classes do not have enough volunteers to meet the needs of our children! Please consider helping our first graders reach their reading goals. Being a better reader will help the children gain more confidence and help them be better prepared for learning in all academic areas. Again, I am sending a loud, strong ROAR for more volunteers. Please help us in these efforts by contacting Tawnya Savoy at tsavoy@austin.rr.com. I guarantee that your volunteer efforts will make a HUGE impact on our children and our school. 

At this time, I want to congratulate the following four students for advancing to the State Level in the Reflections competition:

Zoey in Mrs. Magana's first grade class; Vivian in Ms. Brady's second grade class; Hannah in Mrs. Reaves' fourth grade class and Catherine in Mrs. Beeler's fifth grade class. 

Additionally, I want to congratulate Jason in Ms. Murphy's second grade class and Ivey in Mrs. Lee's third grade class for receiving an Honorable Mention at the Area Level of the Reflections Competition.

I am very proud of these six students for advancing in the Reflections Competition but mostly for being courageous Bobcats and participating in this program. Thank you to these six students for representing Baldwin in such creative ways!

I hope you enjoy the long weekend and I look forward to seeing your children and you at Baldwin next week!

Roaring with Pride,
Dr. Peña