May 2016

News from the office of……

TEACHING AND LEARNING Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

To inspire students to become lifelong learners

in order to succeed in a global economy.

Summer Letter Writing

Remind your students that summer is a great time to practice writing. Whether

they’re staying here or going there, this is the perfect time to practice writing

letters. Encourage your students to continue the awesome skills you have taught

them all summer long.

Keep writing!

Cara Herkamp

Director of Curriculum & Instruction

Writing All the Way: Across Content Areas

Teaching and Learning met with ELA teachers early this month and received great feedback from teachers. As a result of the feedback, we will continue to focus on writing as a district goal. Changes in benchmarks for next year:

Testing Dates: K-6: August, December, May 7-12: August, December, March

Benchmark Genres: 1st: Expository 2nd: Persuasive/Argumentative 3rd: Expository

Subject Areas outside of ELA will not be required to use My Access [but may if they so choose].

My Access is a writing tool; the final holistic score should not be used as a final grade. As a district, we will move forward with using the Jane Schaeffer model as the foundational writing approach for grades kindergarten through nine, enabling all students to have a similar foundational approach to writing across grade levels. Other approaches to writing instruction will be considered as supplemental resources. Writers’ Workshop will be encouraged across all classrooms as the best tool for supporting revision and development of writing skills. We will continue to meet with the ELA Writing and Benchmark committee in an effort to provide support for writing to all teachers. Please visit our Tips for Writing webpage for updates and support.

Contact Cara Herkamp at 480-575-2034 cherkamp@ccusd93.org for further information.

Teaching & Learning Support Team

Sharon Coil Administrative Assistant

480-575-2018 scoil@ccusd93.org Angela Hart

Office Assistant 480-575-2042

ajhart@ccusd93.org

Dr. Jana Miller

Associate Superintendent for Teaching & Learning

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/writing_workshop.htmlhttp://www.ccusd93.org/education/dept/dept.php?sectiondetailid=36482&&cms_mode=viewmailto:cherkamp@ccusd93.orgmailto:scoil@ccusd93.orgmailto:ajhart@ccusd93.orghttp://www.ccusd93.org/education/components/docmgr/download.php?sectiondetailid=36490&fileitem=52488&catfilter=ALL

Move On When Reading Update

Last school year, the Move on When Reading (MOWR) law was waived because 2015 was the first administration of the

AzMERIT assessment and scores were not released until October 2015. The Arizona Department of Education expects

that 2016 Spring AzMERIT assessment data will be available online for school districts on June 6, 2016. Although this

release date is later than anticipated, since the data regarding third grade students’ reading performance on AzMERIT is

available before the start of the academic year 2016-2017, school districts must apply the MOWR retention policies.

Since we will not have the AzMERIT results by the last day of school, a statement at the bottom of the 3rd grade report

card will say “Promotion pending state assessment results.” Once we receive the results in June, we will immediately

notify all 3rd grade parents on whether or not their child has passed the MOWR requirement and will be promoted to 4th

grade.

Contact Danielle Evans at 480-575-2035 devans@ccusd93.org for further information.

Contact Danielle Evans at 480-575-2035 devans@ccusd93.org for further information.

Danielle Evans Director of Research, Planning & Assessment

Another successful, busy year! 143 students enrolled in our 5 preschool programs; 497 students attended our Before

and After School Kids Club program; 280 students took advantage of our academic enrichment programs; and 475

students/adults attended our various before and after school enrichment programs. 581 CCUSD student art pieces were

displayed throughout the year at the FAC, local libraries, El Pedregal, and Hidden in the Hills. Students were also involved

with the CCUSD and Kiwanis Science Fair. Over 800 parents and community members attended our A.W.A.R.E (Adults

Working to be Aware, Responsible & Empowered) prevention education forums and workshops. Our students received

character, bullying prevention, human growth & development, healthy relationships, current drug trend education and

the do’s and don’ts of social media.

Thank you CCUSD staff for all your support and we are looking forward to the 2016-17 school year!

Contact Gina Durbin at 480-575-2026 gdurbin@ccusd93.org for further information.

Gina Durbin Director of Student Support Services

mailto:devans@ccusd93.orgmailto:devans@ccusd93.orgmailto:gdurbin@ccusd93.org

Nancy Pratt

Director of Instructional Technology

It’s been another awesome year in CCUSD with educational technology. Our highlights include: Two Technology

Integration Menu days, Digital Learning Month, Keyboarding Challenge, and much more.

We have seen so much innovative practice this year. Here are a few highlights: Google Applications for Education;

Robots-Dot, Dash and Sphero; coding; using applications for storytelling and presentations, and lots of Project Based

Learning! Also, we had a record number of teachers receive the Excelling Website designation! Thank you for

participating in the various trainings and challenges this year and for all your hard work!

Next year, you can look forward to more of the same with lots of learning opportunities including two Technology

Integration Menu days and Digital Learning Month.

Check out the DLD Showcase for some great ideas on how to integrate technology in your class next year!

Contact Nancy Pratt at 480-575-2027 npratt@ccusd93.org for further information.

Cristina Ladas

World Language Coordinator

Goodbye Adiós Au Revoir 再见 To several of our visiting teachers: Huang Xingguo, CSHS Chinese 1/2, 3/4 Jeremy Chen, HTES Chinese “Touch of Immersion”, FLEX 4

th-6

th grades &

Mentor to 1st

grade Chinese Immersion Li La, HTES College Board Trainee Ovid Peng, LMES, FLEX K-3

rd grades

Zhou Ying, STMS 7th

grade Chinese

To our retiring teachers: Dominique Flamm, STMS 7

th/8

th French

Al Martino, CSHS French & Spanish Linda Dunbar, CSHS French 5/6, 7/8, AP/IB Amy Stevens, DWES 3

rd grade Immersion

A Parting View of World Language Grants & Subsidies for 2015-16

Programs Schools CCUSD Savings/Awards College Board Teacher/Trainee -7th grade Chinese teacher -Language & Culture Assistant

STMS HTES

$13,000 $20,000

ASU Flagship Linkages Grant -to develop AP Chinese

CSHS

$20,000

American Councils for International Education Critical Language Grant -for CSHS sister school visit

CSHS

$ 6,000

4 ASU Confucius Classroom-Hanban Guest Chinese Teachers Subsidized LMES HTES CSHS

$40,000 $40,000 $40,000

Donations from ASU Confucius Institute to our Confucius Classroom Schools and/or guest teachers -for workshops, curriculum development & to attend conferences, pay for AAPPL testing

LMES HTES STMS CSHS

Total for all: $13,000

Participation in TL3C Project (Mesa Community College) -AAPPL testing and substitute teacher paid to attend conference

DWES

$1,000

FCF PIE Grant -K-2 Spanish Reading Program

DWES

$4,700

TOTALS $ 197,700

Contact Cristina Ladas at 480-575-2019 cladas@ccusd93.org for further information.

For your summer learning pleasure, please take some

time to review the links from Tech Tip Tuesday and the

Digital Learning Month Tiny Tips. I hope you have a

relaxed and wonderful summer! See you next year!

http://ccusd93.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=37809&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-232872mailto:npratt@ccusd93.orgmailto:cladas@ccusd93.orghttp://ccusd93.org/education/components/board/default.php?sectiondetailid=37198&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-232901http://ccusd93.org/education/components/board/default.php?sectiondetailid=37828&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-232872

Special Education Services has had a great year! We hosted two parent nights on special needs financial and life planning and employment in post-secondary lives of our students. Both were well received and parents are continuing to equip themselves with the network to support their children. As always, our staff attends parent events as well to become better able to support parents and teams as we plan for success after school. Janelle Perrin was honored this year as the Adaptive PE Teacher of the Year. We all know and love Janelle and are proud of her recognition! We look forward to next school year with the addition of a new self-contained special education program at Desert Sun Academy. The Developmental Kindergarten - 1st grade program will provide a bridge for our preschoolers to successful participation in Kindergarten. We thank our amazing teachers, awesome parents and incredible support staff in our department and our schools for

their hard work! Our programs in Cave Creek continue to be well-known for their quality and powerful outcomes!

Contact Janet Holt at 480-575-2009 jholt@ccusd93.org for further information.

Janet Holt

Director of Special Education

2016 CCUSD Teacher of the Year

Krista Quinn

Special Education Teacher

Sonoran Trails Middle School

Inspire Excellence

mailto:jholt@ccusd93.org