From The Principal
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a restful break filled with warm memories. As the weather turns cooler and we move into flu season, runny noses, sneezing and coughing will unavoidably start increasing among our students. There are some very easy steps that parents can take to help the school community minimize the commonplace viruses of winter.
- Wash hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds;
- Avoid touching eyes, noses and mouths with unwashed hands;
- Cover mouths and noses when coughing with a tissue or a sleeve, NOT your hands;
- Disinfect frequently commonly touched surfaces, like toys and doorknobs
Despite our best efforts, sometimes our children get sick. Students should remain home when they are experiencing vomiting, fever or severe colds. They need to remain home for 24 hours after the fever is gone before returning to school. Some illnesses require our students to be home for multiple days. It would be helpful to send in a doctor’s note when your child returns to school for our attendance records.
Our staff continues to meet regularly in instructional teams to develop ways to enhance instruction. We believe a cross-curricular approach sharpens connections to real-world context for our students which makes the curriculum more significant. The connections we guide our students to make across disciplines are explicit and lead to higher level critical thinking. For example, you see more writing occurring within mathematics assignments where students explain how they arrived at their solution. The staff also integrates technology in meaningful ways to increase student engagement and deepen our studies within a content area. Discovery Education, eSpark, Dreambox, and ConnectEd are some of the digital curriculums that we utilize. It is our hope that your children come home excited to talk about what they are learning about at school.
During this month, Flickinger staff will monitor student progress through the use of assessments by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The staff will, as always, ask our students to do their personal best with these online assessments. You can learn more about NWEA testing and how it aligns with Michigan’s Academic Standards by following this link: http://www.nwea.org/.
These very important assessments are used by staff to evaluate individual student progress as well as assess the effectiveness of our teaching strategies and best practices we currently employ. All of this information is incorporated into our School Improvement Plan. As a staff, we are committed to a cycle of continuous improvement in student performance in order to achieve the district goal that Every Child Achieves.
I thank you for your continued support and dedication to all of our students achieving their potential.
Sincerely,
Nancy Brunetz, Proud Flickinger Principal