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April 3, 2015 |
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In This Issue:
Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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Principal’s Message |
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Springer’s Teacher of the Year (and a little bit about SBAC testing) Starting last year, Springer’s teacher staff began selecting their own site’s Teacher of the Year. This year, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the staff has made Mrs. Linda Mooers their 2015 Springer Teacher of the Year. Anyone who has any contact with Mrs. Mooers understands why she was selected. I have not met many people in life who genuinely exude so much love and enthusiasm for her students. She has made an enormous impact on the children she has taught, and with over 30 years of teaching here at Springer, the impact goes far and wide! Mrs. Mooers, along with each LASD site’s winner, was honored at a reception on Tuesday at Covington. She was well supported at the event with a large contingent of Springer staff and her two grown children (Springer graduates themselves) Congratulations to Mrs. Mooers! We are so proud of you. SBAC testing... I know it’s a bummer to talk about testing just before Spring Break but I wanted to make sure you have the correct information regarding SBAC testing. This spring our students in grades 3-6 will participate in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium California state testing (SBAC). The SBAC replaces the STAR test many of you may remember from past years. The test is completely online for English-Language Arts and Math, while the California Standards Test (CST) in Science will still be administered in paper/pencil format to 5th and 8th graders across the state, including here in LASD. Our students in grades 3-6 last year took the pilot version of this test. We did not receive any results from that test; rather, it was to help us understand how the online test environment would function and what infrastructure we would need to support online testing. This year both parents and the school/ district will receive test results. Since the testing format is very different from the previous STAR test, it will take time to analyze and understand the information we receive. For example, the STAR was all multiple choice. The new SBAC testing has extensive open response questions, writing, math problem-solving (not choosing answers from a list), and performance tasks that build off a classroom activity prior to the test. In short, it is a much better test — though not perfect by any means.
Teachers have begun providing practice for students in how to access the test online and operate within the online testing environment. However, our job as educators (and yours as parents) is NOT to prep students for this test. Our job is to provide practice within the testing environment, while also delivering 180 days of quality, robust instruction that will allow our students to demonstrate their knowledge, competence and passion in a variety of ways — including this assessment tool. The SBAC testing window opens for us beginning on April 20th and ends on May 8th. Testing dates vary according to grade level. Teachers will be sharing their testing dates with families for each class. I wish you a restful and relaxing Spring Break Wade Spenader- Principal |
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Book Fair Coming April 20 - 24! |
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Monday April 20 – Friday April 24 Open daily in the Multi 8:00 am – 3:30pm Book fair Family Night & Spring Picnic: Thursday April 23 5:00-8:00pm |
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Junior Olympics Saturday, April 25 |
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Junior Olympics |
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LAEF |
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Did you Know?...LAEF funds Physical Education Specialists for Kindergarten - 6th Graders Your LAEF contributions fund PE for all Kindergarten through 6th grade students. PE specialists teach one lesson a week to Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders, and two lessons a week to 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. The PE program provides age appropriate gross motor skills, encourages teamwork and healthy living, and inspires a life-long love for physical activities. Your LAEF contributions also make possible the very special tradition of Junior Olympics. Make plans to cheer on our upper grade student athletes on Saturday, April 25 at Mountain View High School, and please continue to support PE with your donations to LAEF! If you have already donated to LAEF, we appreciate your support. If you have not, please donate before April 24th to assure that our PE is fully funded for this school year. LAEF strives for 100% participation from our LASD families. |
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Sixth Grade Basketball Tournament |
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Bob Celeste "Everyone Plays" 6th Grade Basketball Tournament
May 15th Girls Tournament |
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Yearbook Pictures Needed! |
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The Yearbook team is asking for pictures. Specifically, we need pictures of:
There are two ways to upload your photos: viahttp://community.pictavo.com/ website or download the pictavo app to your phone. You will follow the same registration prompts as below if you chose to use the app. To upload pictures via the website: Create an Account. Find your school using the drop-down menus: Select the state, city and school name. (Springer is in MOUNTAIN VIEW)
Please note, that the team will do it's best to include all pictures that are submitted. Questions? Please email: ybspringer@gmail.com Thank you! Yearbook team |
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Part-time Nurse Needed |
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NURSE NEEDED: The Los Altos School District needs Registered Nurse substitute(s). Must be available on short notice. Approximate times needed are minimum of three hours, 9:30am-12:30pm. Job will entail covering snack & lunch time to supervise students with type 1 diabetes blood sugar levels and insulin administration; both injection and insulin pump. Monday-Friday. To apply, call Marlene Revelo 650-947-1153. |
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Sixth Grade Students Bridging to Blach & Egan |
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For more information about bridging to Blach, please check out the Blach School website here. For more information about bridging to Egan, please check out the Egan School website here. |
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Sixth Grade Immunization Requirement |
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Pertussis Booster for Students in grade 6 Students currently in 6th grade must have proof of a Tdap or Dtap (Pertussis or Whooping Cough) booster given after their 7th birthday (after 10th birthday is recommended) in order to begin 7th grade in August of 2015. Please provide a copy of your child’s immunization record to your school office by March 13, 2015. |
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Spring Sessions Starting for Soccer |
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MVLA Soccer with Coach Ken starts the Spring session on April 15. Click here to sign up. |
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Student Extracurricular Activities: |
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Check out the other after-school activities at Springer for all grade levels. For a list of all of the activities and more information, please go to Springer’s website by clicking here. |
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Parent Education Opportunities |
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Through enriching presentations from local and national experts on topics of interest to parents, faculty and staff, the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series seeks to contribute to the academic, physical, and emotional health of our students. All events are free of charge and are for parents, faculty and staff in Los Altos and Mountain View public schools. For a schedule of upcoming presentations, please click here. |
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How to Submit an Article to the Springer Buzz |
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If you have an article to submit to the Springer Buzz, please send it to the editor at springer.buzz@gmail.com by noon on Monday for inclusion in the next edition. Late arrivals will be included if possible but can’t be guaranteed! All flyers must be in either WORD or PDF format, accompanied by a brief summary of the activity in the email. |