Bobcat Families,

We had another great week here at Baldwin. Our teachers are diving into the assessment data that we have and are planning their instruction to meet the needs of the students. As I walk classrooms, I am seeing highly engaged teachers and students exciting about learning.

           

Families I wanted to remind you of the importance of students arriving to school on time and remaining in school for the entire school day. Students who are tardy to school miss key academic instruction in the morning and then teachers must spend the time to catch the students up on what they missed. Also, when a student is signed out early, they are also missing academics in the afternoon. I know that sometimes we cannot control emergencies that might require a student to be late or miss some of the day, but I just want you to be aware of how important every minute of every day is in our classrooms. Without even realizing it tardies and absences can add up quickly resulting in days of instruction lost for a student.

          

I also wanted to touch on another subject that our teachers have been receiving some questions about. Here at Baldwin, we call our foundational basic skills time “level up”. This time in the student’s day is to provide them with focused academics in areas they might need some additional support in based on classroom and standardized assessments. Some may think that the groups that the students are in is based on a “leveled” system based on achievement and a student can go up in their level or group. So, I wanted to clarify that the students are in their groups based on their areas of need and growth based on current academic data. Yes, students can move to different groups throughout the year but when a student is moved to a different group it is because they might need help in a different skill. The goal of that instructional time is for the groups to remain fluid so that the students can receive the focused academic support that they need in the moment to meet their education with as much success as possible.

           

I hope that you all have a great rest of your weekend.

Educationally Yours,

Mr. Schwartz

Principal