Newsletter
SENDAK NEWSLETTER FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 5 – MAY 9, 2025
To our incredible teachers and staff, thank you for your unwavering dedication and the countless hours you invest in our students. Your passion for education and your commitment to creating a supportive learning environment do not go unnoticed. Happy Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week! We are so grateful for everything you do.
Smarter Balanced Assessment
This week, all our Grades 3-5 students will be taking the SBA. 5th grade started last week. The testing will be on Tuesdays - Fridays, this week and next. No testing on Mondays. The daily schedule for testing is from 8:30 – 11:45 am. Some students and/or classes may take longer. Please remind your students to walk quietly through the hallways. (Which is a common rule.) Some students will be taking make-ups in Room 229 in the afternoon.
The office will not make any PA announcements or call the testing classrooms during the day. Grades 3-5 students coming in after 8:30 will not be allowed to go to their class when testing has started. Teachers are to pick up their testing materials from Room 229 before the first bell (7:55) and to return all testing materials after testing.
Finally, for teachers who are testing, remember the strategies to encourage and support your students during testing, remind them of the testing tools they can access, remind them to relax, give them confidence, tell them to go slow, and to do their best….You know what to do.
Tuesday Banked-Time PD and Staff Meeting (1:40 – 2:40) No Staff Meeting
This Week: Grade Level Meetings
HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
5/2 Jasmine Aldaco
5/3 Jill Horowitz
5/12 Ana Diaz
5/13 Blanca Mendez
5/18 Jenniffer McLaughlin
5/23 Jenny Miller
Monday, May 5
At Sendak: Laurie Bernhard, Kyung Lee-Kim (Music), Rose Jauregui Santillan (AP-EIS), Nurse Tina
7:55 First Bell
8:00-810 Morning Assembly
8:10-8:30 Breakfast in the Classroom
2:25 Dismissal
Tuesday, May 6
At Sendak: Leticia Panduro, Laurie Bernhard (Alt. Tues.) Rose Jauregui Santillan (Alt. Tues.) Nurse Tina, Margaret Younan
7:55 First Bell
8:00-8:15 Breakfast in the Classroom
1:25 Dismissal
1:40 PD: Grade Level
Wednesday, May 7
At Sendak: Nurse Tina, PSW Rocio Kang
7:55 First Bell
8:00-8:15 Breakfast in the Classroom
2:25 Dismissal
Thursday, May 8
At Sendak: Laurie Bernhard, Cintia De Laura (Art), Leticia Panduro (Alt. Thu.) Cindy Lemus (PSA)
7:55 First Bell
8:15 Breakfast in the Classroom
2:25 Dismissal
Friday, May 9
At Sendak: Laurie Bernhard, Nurse Tina, CFG, Rose Jauregui Santillan (AP-EIS)
7:55 First Bell
8:00-8:15 Breakfast in the Classroom
2:25 Dismissal
Upcoming Important Dates:
May 5 Smarter Balanced Assessment Starts
May 13 5th Grade Panorama Picture Day
May 22 Students Success Awards
May 26 Memorial Day – School is Closed
June 6 Minimum Day
June 9 5th Grade Culmination – Minimum Day
June 10 Last Day of Instruction
6 Instructional Priorities:
- Literacy – reading, writing, and speaking across all subjects
- Numeracy – real world application of math concepts
- Science – Integrating Next Generation Science Standards
- Assessments informing instruction – DIBELs, DRDP, iReady, and SBA
- Professional and Leadership Development – ILTs
- Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycles
To ensure District-Wide coherence, the following 7 Teaching and Learning Framework elements will be the focus for professional development, PDSA, Instructional Rounds, and classroom observations.
1b1. Awareness of Students’ Skills, Knowledge, and Language Proficiency Uses information about students’ academic strengths and needs, language proficiency and social emotional wellness in planning.
2a3. Academic Climate The academic environment is safe and supportive; risk-taking is encouraged, students freely share their culture, language, and ideas, and student mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, never with ridicule.
3a4. Use of Academic Language Academic language is used to communicate and deepen understanding of the content and is inclusive of the culture and language of students.
3b2. Discussion Techniques and Student Participation Techniques are used to ensure that all students share their thinking around challenging questions including strategies that affirm students’ culture and language.
3c1. Standards-Based Projects, Activities and Assignments Standards-aligned learning activities cognitively engage students in the lesson.
3c2. Purposeful and Productive Instructional Groups Students are grouped in order to promote productive cognitive engagement in the lesson.
3d3. Feedback to Students Students receive specific, culturally sensitive and timely feedback that will move their learning forward.