Principal’s Report – January 2014 – Sacred Heart Elementary
Faculty- We are directing our staff development focus to differentiated instruction for January.
This full-day in-house workshop will focus on identifying and meeting students’ diverse needs
within the classroom. This training will help teachers to retain students that learn differently and
have a better understanding of different types of learning styles. Teachers (Carrie Mathias,
Library/Media Specialist and Patrice Boussy, Kindergarten) attended a national conference in
Boston for technology integration. Mrs. Mathias was named a Common Sense Educator, one of
only a few in the state, by Common Sense Media for her expertise in the digital citizenship
curriculum.
Mission- We have completed the hiring process for the campus minister position. Jen Duffey
and Chris Connelly have started here at the Elementary School to assist with campus ministry.
Sister Myra’s talk on Mission Integration was extremely well received. She will be returning to
help us identify more ways to integrate the mission into our daily activities. Sacred Service, our
newly named school-wide service organization (replacing Student Council) has started to meet.
Sr. Lydia and Jen Duffey facilitate this group. The students will soon be identifying a service
project for this school year.
Planning- The Christmas Concert was a great example of the integration of arts and academics.
Due to a collaboration between Señora Balaschi and Mrs. Paine, students sang songs in Spanish
that were very well received by our families. Mrs. Thomas is had an art show, displaying the
works of 4th, 5th and 6th graders at our parent-teacher conference night in January and will display
the works of our younger students later in the year. One of our students is planning a science
project focusing on recycling in time to kick off our school’s recycling efforts. For the first time,
we are hosting an Open House at the ECC (preschool – kindergarten) for interested new families
during the school day on January 16 from 9:30-11:00 am. There will be a General Open House for
interested new families from Preschool to Grade 6 on February 9 from 1 to 3 pm. We are adding
large pictures of the students to the lobbies of both the Elementary and Early Childhood Center. New
offerings for the coming year include a basketball skills program, Russian Language Club, fitness
club, and others. Camp Morning Star will be adding programs for younger children and older
children this summer. The preschool day camp will draw more families to our school and the
adventure camp will serve middle school aged students from the area.
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Improvement of Instruction- Formative assessment continues with Aimsweb in grades K-2.
This program will add a grade a year until we reach grade 6. We have met with grade level
teachers to identify students in need of extra help. With the winter benchmarking period
completed we will be initiating a 6-week pilot intervention program starting in first and second
grade. This program will allow us to have a designated intervention teacher (Nicole Fabricius)
work directly with the students identified. Progress will be monitored weekly through progress
monitoring probes to determine if the intervention is successful. This type of monitoring is
called Response to Intervention or RTI. RTI has been shown to increase student achievement.
This program differs significantly from special education as there is no specially designed
instruction, the students are not identified as having a disability, and there is no modification or
lowering of the standard.
Technology- We have rolled out our classroom iPads and Apple TV’s. Students and teachers
were very anxious to get their new tools. These tools will be used for center-based learning and
research as well as reinforcing and developing skills in a fun and interactive way. We will be
adding smartboards to the Kindergarten classrooms. The teachers have really embraced the
technology and are currently sharing portable smartboards. The portable smartboards will be
used in the preschool and pre-K classrooms.
Committees- The Technology Committee met and plan to focus on digital portfolios, Google
apps for communicating tech ideas to all staff, and identification of technology needs and
problems. They have already set up a Google docs for sharing, an email address, and shared
their minutes with everyone. The Faith Committee will be planning for Catholic Schools Week
in January. The theme of Catholic Schools Week is Communities of Faith, Knowledge, and
Service.
Early Childhood Center Focus- Two teachers (Patrice Boussy, Kathleen Jennings) went to an
all day conference in NH - 2013 Conference for New England Pre-Kindergarten and
Kindergarten Teachers. ECC supports the SHS Mission Statement particularly through the
months of Nov. & Dec. with their Giving Tree Project to local needy families. The ECC/ES
Parent Assoc. collaborated with the project by sponsoring 4 local needy families and their
Christmas needs. Fifth grade buddies with Kindergarteners created and shared a Christmas story
(“Twas the night…”) and an activity with their friends at the ECC. Each kindergarten class has
“adopted” a preschool or prekindergarten class for the school year. The class will invite them to
participate in a project/activity periodically. Prekindergarten will combine classes for special
projects/activities and as schedules permit will invite the preschool. ECC parents are invited to
be a “Mystery Reader” or helper with special projects and help with lunch duty on a volunteer
basis and/or monthly schedule. All classes will come together for special occasions/activities
with the Director (i.e. Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, etc.) Periodically, the Pre-K will join
the Kindergarten for a special video/story/etc.