EXCELLENT...

Today W-T Elementary was informed we received an "Excellent" rating on the Ohio Department of Education report card.  This is very exciting for everyone at W-T!  This was a perfect way to end our years at the "old" building and prepare our "entrance" into the new building.  Thanks for all of your hard work at home in helping achieve this goal.  We look forward to next years "Excellent" rating too!

DIBELS...

I have started to create a page for the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) assessment. I have had many questions regarding the assessment and what it looks like and how it is given. On the left side of this page your will see a link to another page "DIBELS." I have started to describe the assessment and will include video of what the assessment looks like. I want to caution you though, when you view the video it is not exactly the way the assessment is given. We are under strict guidelines on what to say and the vocabulary we use; therefore, to keep the assessment valid I cannot use the exact language. I have included just a rough idea of how it is given and what it would look like. I hope this helps and check back often. I will be updating the page with more information about all the tests and more videos!

Travel Fun...

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer vacation! I know I am...I was packing tonight for a short trip to Chicago for some family fun this weekend. This made me think about what you could do in the car if you are traveling to help reinforce some skills. I have some great memories growing up being in the car traveling. Every year we would go on vacation and would travel for sometime in our van. It was fun, tiring, and at times stressful with my brother and sisters. This time in the car gives you a prime opportunity to talk with your children about various topics and to play some great games. One of my siblings favorite games is the "Alphabet Game," as you drive look for a word that begins with A and then B and go through the alphabet (X is hard and when I got to Q I always hoped for a Dairy Queen would be close by). This game I still play on long trips with my wife, Shannon (yes...I am a dork like that). The Alphabet Game turned into a competition between everyone in the car...I will say I was a champion, but if you ask my siblings they may say they were. You can play this game with using sounds or letter identification. You could also change this to numbers and search for numbers on various signs. Another game is "I spy" and you can encourage your children to use various geometry terms to help reinforce math skills. We would also do a lot of word searches. I loved working on these in the car and my sister, Susan, and I would work together to finish the search. If you have any great games, let me know...I would love to learn some new ones!

If you are traveling...travel safe!

Welcome Miss Todd...

On the last day of school we had to say good-bye to the other kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown decided to retire at the conclusion of the year. Mrs. Brown taught kindergarten for 30 years...that is about 1500 children! We are sad to see Mrs. Brown leave and we wish her the best. Even though we are sad about her leaving, we are excited about Miss Todd.

Miss Todd was hired to replace Mrs. Brown. Miss Todd will be at W-T only in the mornings and will travel to Merwin Elementary to teach in the afternoon. This is due to enrollment numbers at both W-T and Merwin. I am excited about working with Miss Todd next year. I think you will be just as excited to have her part of the W-T family! She is very excited about teaching kindergarten and working with the wonderful W-T staff and families!