Dear Families,
Thank you to those families who helped make Neighborhood Day happen on Saturday and all those who came! The kids had such fun and reconnecting as a community felt wonderful.
It is both Election Day and city-wide professional development day for staff. TNS staff spent the day thinking about our pre-COVID practice of collecting student work over time. Teachers select some work throughout the year for each child and put the work in a portfolio folder, and pass it to the child’s next teacher. At the end of a child’s time at TNS, they leave with a portfolio of work spanning their grades in the school. But why?
Today we started looking closely at collections of works from two TNS graduates, which sparked a rich discussion and raised many questions. How do we envision TNS using portfolios? What feels important to include? What units, activities, or studies lend themselves to collecting pieces of work for a portfolio? Today’s work and subsequent meetings this year will help us answer these questions and provide a clearer vision for TNS. Looking at these students’ work collections also allowed us to know them deeply and in ways not captured by grades, tests, or screeners.
This year, we are electronically collecting students’ emergency information (formerly “Blue cards”). All families must submit one Emergency Contact Form per child each year. Only 75 families have completed it so far! Please take a few minutes to complete this. Thank you!
There is no school this Friday in observance of Veterans Day.
Warmly,
Dyanthe