Winter Break 2019

Dear Burr Families,

Progress reports for the first trimester are available in Infinite Campus. Some quick notes about progress reports:

• Fairfield’s progress reports are standards based – which means they provide detailed feedback to you regarding the progress of your child and the growth they are making towards specific grade level expectations.
• A student’s ability to meet the learning standards will be determined by using a variety of methods. These may include formal, informal, oral and written assessments, and teacher observation.
• The standards-based progress report measures how well an individual student is doing in relation to the grade level standards, not the work of other students. It is important to note that these letters (E, M, P, and N) do not equate to the traditional letter grades (A, B, C, D, and F). For example, a P is not equal to a C on a traditional report card. In fact, when a new standard is introduced, a student may receive a P because they are just beginning to understand the standard and are moving toward mastery.
• Students are assessed on work habits and social skills. A 1 equates to appropriate and a 2 means needs improvement. Teachers base their assessment of these skills on a variety of tools including daily observation, looking at student work, monitoring homework, and discussions with students. They ultimately base their score on patterns of behavior and work habits across the semester.
• The following link will take you to more information about Fairfield's Elementary Progress Reports including to the rubrics that help guide teacher grading. https://www.fairfieldschools.org/academics/progress-reports

Finally from the entire staff at Burr, we wish you a peaceful, joyful holiday break. Take time to enjoy your family and friends. Reflect on all the great things that happened to you and your family this year, help your children set personal goals for next year, and be present in the moment with them. They grow older quickly. Here is a great read aloud that gets that message across. It's called Here and Now by Julia Denos.

Also, my apologies again for Songfest. While this has been a special Burr tradition, we'll just have to create a new tradition in the new year. I will be in touch after the break (once I have a chance to talk more with Mrs. Maravich) about how to bring students and parents together for singing.

Happy holidays and my best for the beginnings of a great 2020!

Jason

Upcoming Dates

Winter Break - December 23 - January 1