Jerome Harrison School

Board of Education Brief

November 2010

  • Teachers have presented at recent PTO meetings on the topics of Storytown and Response to Intervention in an effort to assist parents with knowing what is happening in our schools.
  • BOE Briefs and other communications have been posted on the JHS website with its very own link entitled, “Communication”.
  • Halloween Activity Night was held on October 29th, sponsored by our PTO. This festive night brought families together as well as staff members from JHS to enjoy the Halloween activities and events.
  • First year teachers, Joe Amodio and Nicole Hartt each spent a professional day with their mentors, Susan Sandar and Aimee Aiken working on TEAM materials.
  • Special thanks to all the staff members, including Sara Querfeld, Alexis Christina and Liz Anastasia in participating in our Kindergarten Arena Assessments for math.
  • October 26th was a kickoff and prelude to our November 2nd Professional Development day as teachers met with Rosemary McGowen, Math Expressions consultant in learning more about the resource that supports our math curriculum.
  • Members of the North Branford Police Department spent the day at JHS on October 27th teaching all of our students about Halloween safety.
  • Lisa Douglas, Susan Sandar, Betty LaPointe, Cathy Elrick and Lisa Flannery met with Shawn Parkhurst for a full day to discuss and work out plans for ensuring that our assessments are providing us with the needed data to plan instruction to meet the needs of all of our students; this session proved very helpful as we continue to support teaching and learning at the highest level possible.
  • November 2nd, JHS staff spent the morning learning about the math routines within the Math Expressions program, followed by an afternoon of learning about Identifying Similarities & Differences, a Marzano high yield strategy for increasing student achievement.
  • Patti Darragh continues to support writing instruction at JHS through her direct modeling and coaching in classrooms with teachers.
  • Betty LaPointe, reading consultant, spent two different Wednesdays teaching our Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers on the effective use of a balanced reading strategy approach coupled with direct, explicit teaching of phonics.
  • Shawn Parkhurst, served on a panel at ACES, one of three educators selected from the state, to share how Symphony Math is being used at JHS along with specifics about the data that is being obtained and used from this program.
  • Parent/Teacher conferences were held the week of November 8th providing time for teachers and parents to discuss children’s progress to date.
  • Judy Bannon, lead teacher, organized and implemented a tear-filled assembly honoring our Veterans on November 11, 2010.
  • November 12th was a night of fun at JHS. A three-point shootout was held as a fundraiser to support the Veteran Anglers Association that our staff learned about at Opening Convocation; special thanks to Judy Bannon for her efforts in putting this event together.
  • Students in Mrs. Bannon and Mrs. Aiken’s second grade have begun their use of the ipod touches to support learning; special thanks goes out to Bruce Williams for his tireless efforts in working with our teachers to select apps that support our curriculum.