Principal's Update 09-14-2012

Thank you to all of our parents who attended Curriculum Night this past Thursday! It was great to see so many interested parents present in order to learn more about what can be expected for their children's education. Please continue to stay involved and communicate with your child's classroom teacher and me throughout the year.

We finished up our beginning of the year assessments with students this week in order to prepare for our first set of data review meetings for the year. Over the past two weeks, our students have taken both Reading and Math assessments that will inform our staff of their current abilities and provide us with information as to what our students still need. During our data review meetings this coming week, our grade level teams and supporting staff members will discuss how we can best meet the needs of each student. We will also continue these discussion next Friday during our institute day which has been set aside for us to complete School Improvement Planning (SIP). Parents can expect reports from the STAR Reading and STAR Math assessments that the students completed to be included with the students' report cards for the first quarter. Individual student scores from the ISAT Tests that were taken last March  are being mailed to families at the end of next week. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions regarding the assessment results you receive. Sometimes the test results are hard to understand and I am more than happy to answer questions regarding these reports.

Tuesday marked the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the United States and was the day of remembrance for this historical event. September 11th is considered a day of commemoration and according to Illinois School Code, teachers and students are required to devote a portion of the school day to study and honor the occasion. As a result,  Willow Creek teachers did talk with students about this event or completed activities related to this event as they deemed appropriate for the students in their classrooms and grade levels.

Thank you to our PTO who hosted our Kindergarten Meet and Greet Picnic on Friday. It turned out to be a beautiful day for the picnic that had to be rescheduled as a result of the rain from the week before.

Please note the following dates for this coming week:
Monday, September 17th- Beginning Band Open House, 5-8 p.m., JJH Band Room
Thursday, September 20th - Willow Creek Spirit Wear orders are due. Orders may be completed online or turned into the school http://www.boomerts.com/yourstore/willowcreek.html
Friday, September 21st - NO SCHOOL for students, School Improvement Planning Day for staff

The pictures below are of the students whose names were drawn in this week's "Positive Paw" raffle.