We were able to gather as a Janney community two times last week, both for celebration and in service. After third-fifth graders worked hard on the DC-BAS (thanks to Ms. Beumel, Ms. Leventhal, staff, and students for putting forth a top-notch effort), and the PreK - 2nd graders helped to keep the hallways quiet for our older students while continuing their own learning, the first 1,000 Paw Prints celebration finally arrived. With the help of Ms. Leventhal, the PBS committee, and many station leaders, all students enjoyed a Fall Festival complete with obstacle courses, relay races, corn hole, cookies and apple cider. Perhaps the greatest recognition goes to our students, for their respectful actions, and our staff members, for being quick to recognize those actions - together, we reached 1,000 Paw Prints in record time and are well on our way to the next mark!

Our second school-time congregation marked the Annual Walk for the Homeless. With the skilled leadership of Ms. Zallman and her team of volunteers, ThriveDC benefitted in the form $10,000 (as supplied by Fannie Mae recognizing the number of walkers who participated at Janney) and over 400 snack bags. The hundreds of Janney students circulating our block in the brisk fall air, united in service, were quite a proud sight to behold.

This week marks our second PTA meeting of the school year (Tuesday, November 10th at 7:30pm). Aside from general meeting topics, I will join our instructional coaches in literacy and mathematics in presenting information around understanding a variety of key assessments and progress reports, specifically discussing the DC-BAS, the Fountas and Pinnell Language Arts Assessment, Everyday Math 3 Assessments, and DCPS report cards.

On the same night, the School Improvement Team (SIT) will hold its monthly meeting with the Office of Public Education Modernization (OPEFM) to discuss the Janney modernization project. As we reach the final weeks of the design phase, the team and I will work with OPEFM to schedule a whole-community meeting to invite comment from the Janney community. Although no designs are final (if any final designs are released, they will be promptly posted to the Janney website), this process continues to move quickly. As of this time, the January start-date for the project holds; we must be cognizant of the fact that the next few months will be quite full with planning for construction, but also confident in the fact that at the end of the modernization period, we will be left with a school that matches the excellence of our students, staff and families.

Finally, after observing the Veteran's Day holiday (school will be closed on Wednesday, November 11th), we will hold our first Open House of the year on Friday, November 13th. On that day we will invite prospective families to visit our classrooms and learn more about our school from our student and parent tour guides, an information session, and through conversations with staff members. Although report cards will be made available by 9am in the office on Friday, our regular distribution time will be the Take Home Tuesday packets on Tuesday, November 17th.

In alignment with the assessment and progess report topics we will examine during this week's PTA meeting, I have provided four links for you to explore:

A relatively lengthy article around interim assessments (of which the DC-BAS is one) and the elements of successful implementation: http://www.marshallmemo.com/articles/Interim%20Assmt%20Report%20Apr.%2012,%2006.pdf

A description of the Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Benchmark Assessment system: http://www.fountasandpinnellbenchmarkassessment.com/aboutBenchmark.asp

Information about Everday Math 3 for parents: http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/

Advice for parents on using report cards as a goal-setting tool: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/report-cards/teaching-methods/3673.html

Have a fantastic week - I hope to see you on Tuesday night at the PTA meeting, if not before!

Sincerely,

Norah Lycknell
Principal

Janney Open House

The Janney Open House will be held this Friday morning, November 13th. We will start at 9:15. Please let prospective Janney parents know about it! Thanks in advance to those who have offered to help with tours and/or hospitality.

Questions? Please contact Julie Hamlin (JHamlink@aol.com) or Karen Garman (karen.garman4@gmail.com)

Janney Musical

It's JUNGLE BOOK this year! Dig out your fake fur, animal ears and any other beastly costumes you have for this one! All we'll need are the "bear" necessities!

Show dates are February 19-20, 2010. Auditions for 4th and 5th graders will be on Monday, November 30 and Tuesday, December 1 from 3:15-5:00. Students will come home with information sheets soon, but watch the Community News bulletin board for show details. Parents interested in helping out on production or the pit band, contact Ginny Curtin (GUCurtin@gmail.com or (202) 686-7058).

Pre-K and K Art Volunteers

For any pre-K or Kindergarten parents interested in helping in the sunny and joyful Janney art room sometime this year, we've created a simple online sign-up sheet for dates for the remainder of the school year. Sign up to come once, monthly, or as often as you wish to give the teacher a hand during your child's art class. You can see online which slots are already taken. You'll be sent an automated email reminder two days beforehand. Follow this link to sign on: http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/81-6214323185.

(By the way, for others organizing class events, field trips, etc where volunteers or any kind of sign-up sheet would be required, I think VolunteerSpot.com can be an easy solution for eliminating the "I'll bring the forks"/copy all emails that we all love.)

Deal Middle School Open House

Please plan to visit Deal Middle School on Tuesday, November 17th for its first Open House of the year, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Come visit our classrooms, and see why Deal Middle is the highest performing middle school in the District! Tour our newly modernized building, take a look at our advanced academic offerings, and see our amazing teachers and students in action!

You do not need to register to attend. Alice Deal Middle School is located at 3815 Fort Drive, NW. For more information, see the flyer in today's Take Home Tuesday packet, or visit www.alicedeal.org.

If you can't join us on November 17th, we will also have Open Houses on Tuesday, December 15th, and Saturday, January 9th, 2010.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
The Faculty, Students, Staff and Parents of Deal Middle School

Janney Elementary Day with AU Basketball

AU Basketball's annual "Janney Elementary Day" is right around the
corner! Saturday, November 21st at 12 Noon, the two-time defending
Patriot League men's basketball champions host the Florida Atlantic
Owls. Tickets are FREE to all Janney students by simply returning the
form that will come home with your student via Take Home Tuesday. All additional tickets for parents, friends, family, etc. can also be
purchased for just $5. This rate is valid for anyone you'd like to
invite! That's a FREE ticket for your Janney students and just $5
tickets for anyone else you'd like to see the two-time defending
Patriot League men's basketball champions! Additionally, prior to the
game, the Janney 5th Grade chorus will sing the national anthem on the court. For more information, call 202-885-2617 or email
andrew.bashuk@american.edu. GO EAGLES!

Janney Collection Case

The Janney Collection case offers a great opportunity for students to share their special treasures with our entire Jaguar community. We've had displays of decoupage pumpkins, shells, Legos spaceships, license plates, snow globes, and much more! We hope you'll take a moment to admire the contents when you're in the front hallway. Thanks to Nico Foxley, Max Karp, Abbey Korman, Alex Korman, Cameron Kelly, K-Rockwell, Grady Karp, Mikayla Hill, and Charles Bijeau for their displays. The next sign-up sheet will be posted in the front hallway in January.

Counselor's Corner

UNICEF:

Thank you to all the students who participated in Trick or Treat for UNICEF. We have raised over a $1,000 so far, those dimes, nichels, pennies and dollars add up! Please return any contributions this week so we can total up what Janney has raised to help UNICEF.

1,000 Paw Prints plus One:

We celebrated our first 1,000 Paw Prints with a wonderful outdoor celebration last Wednesday. We could not have been able to play one of the games, Corn Hole or "Bags", without the expert help of Pippa Trench who built two of the games over the weekend and painted them with the Janney Jaguar paw prints. In addition to Pippa's wonderful gift, Johnson's Flowers and Scott Cheney donated hay bales that were used in our obstacle course and bean toss games. Thank youf or your generosity! A huge thanks to Pippa and a big Paw Print to celebrate her wonderful contribution to our celebration!

Deal Buddy Day:

Our 5th Graders will be spending the morning at Deal Middle School on Tuesday, November 24, returning to Janney for the afternoon. We look forward to hearing about their experience visiting our neighborhood middle school.

Safety Patrol Tip of the Week

Teach your child to look all ways (left, right, behind and ahead) and to walk cautiously when crossing the street. Stress the importance of always using crosswalks. Samantha Cohen, Safety Patroller

In the Neighborhood

The Jelleff Boys & Girls Club in upper Georgetown is a great potential resource for cheap, informal and formal indoor activities during the winter months - like a game room with billiards, foosball and maybe ping pong. Not that many Janney kids use it - but why not check it out and organize after-school outings with friends? Annual membership is only $25 per child, with daily open access to the game room and, often, the gymnasium. They also organize sports activities, cooking, art, music, and more, at relatively low fees. It's a good facility with a large parking lot, just behind the big Safeway on Wisconsin. The website is not that helpful, so grab a brochure inside the front door of Janney and visit the club.

Janney Shopping

www.shoptoearn.net/Janney

Contributing to the E-Newsletter

All submissions to the PTA newsletter should be emailed to Janneynewsletter@yahoo.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday at 3:15 pm. Because the newsletter is reviewed by several individuals before distribution, we must adhere to this deadline in order to get the newsletter to you every week on time.

Please include all text in the body of your email (rather than as an attachment). Small jpeg thumbnails may be attached and can be included in the newsletter. All links or email addresses will be made active (clickable).

If a notice should be run for more than one week, please indicate the dates the notice should be run, or resubmit the notice by the Friday deadline for each week.

Please note there is no longer a box in the Janney office where hard copy newsletter submissions can be turned in. If you have prepared fliers to be included in the Take Home Tuesday envelope, those should be turned into the school office by COB Monday.

We will run notices about community or other non-Janney events of interest to elementary school children as space permits. It is the PTA's policy not to carry for-profit advertisements or classifieds. Thank you for your cooperation.

The Editors