IN THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER:
- PSP NEWS
- COLORADO STATEWIDE ASSESSMENTS
- CHAP WISH WEEK
- FIELD DAY INFO
- WELCOME TO THE CHAP FAM
- BE EPICER
- WHAT'S HAPPENING IN WELLNESS
- COUNSELOR'S CORNER
- CALENDAR
- FROM THE PRINCIPAL
- NEW FLYERS
PSP NEWS
12APR - Spirit Night at Noodles & Co
28APR - All School Dance @ 5:30-7:30pm
MAY - School Supply Kit Orders due
1-5MAY - Teacher Appreciation Week
PSP Meetings @ 5:30pm
April 25th
COLORADO STATEWIDE ASSESSMENTS
Students at CTE will be taking the Colorado Measure of Academic Success [CMAS] tests 10-20Apr23.
State assessments matter. CMAS testing will allow families and teachers to see yearly academic growth since the pandemic and will provide more insight into the areas where students continue to be impacted by the disruptions from the pandemic.
Benefits to Students and Families
* The tests help students, families and educators know how students are performing compared to their peers across the state. They also help inform student academic growth over time.
* The statewide assessments provide information on how well the state’s education system is meeting the goals of helping every child attain academic proficiency.
* Assessment results help students, parents, schools and districts understand if students have mastered the content they need to know by the end of the school year and whether they are on track for college or careers after graduation.
* Assessment results let parents/guardians know how their student is doing compared with their peers across the school, district and state.
Benefits to Schools
* School ratings are based on average scores on state assessments as well as growth students show from year to year on assessments.
* Data from state assessments can help schools (and feeders of schools) build master schedules, offer appropriate coursework, and meet the needs of all students, particularly as they transition from one school to the next.
CMAS At a Glance
This fact sheet offers a succinct explanation of this spring's statewide tests, including the expected dates and duration of each test: English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)
What to Expect for 2022-2023
This fact sheet provides background information about statewide assessments in Colorado: English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)
Role of State Assessments
This fact sheet explains the role of statewide assessments in increasing academic achievement: English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)
This fact sheet explains why participation in statewide testing matters to students: English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)
CHAP WISH WEEK - CAITLYN WEYHRICH
There has been a lot of communication about Wish Week (an annual fundraiser organized by Chaparral HS to support Make-a-Wish Colorado), so here is a summary of all of the events, in one place for your convenience! Here is a video of previous Wish Weeks.
All participation is voluntary, and all donations will go directly to Chap and to support this year's Wish Kid, Aria!
Meet Aria's Family video
Deck out the School with Stars
We will be selling Make-A-Wish stars starting on Monday, before school (8:30-8:40am). The stars will be $1 and you will get a sticker with your donation. Each star can be decorated and returned to CTE to display in the halls - let's cover the school with stars!
Crowns and Tiaras for Sale
We will be selling Crowns and Tiaras next week starting on Monday, before school. They will be $2 and you will get a tattoo with your donation.
CTE Spirit Week
Each day will be themed (see below) - students are encouraged to bring a $1 donation for each day they dress up.
Dream for ARIA
Our Wish Kid, Aria, loves princesses! Click here for some of her coloring pages.
Fundraisers around Parker
Chap has organized business around Parker for participation in Wish Week fundraising (see the schedule):
Wish Festival
Will be on Saturday, April 8th at Chaparral - this is always a fun, family event!
FROM PE - MICHELE WHITTINGHAM
Field Day is coming up quickly (May 12th) and field day spirit wear sales begin TODAY! You can purchase t-shirts and shorts for the big event online at this LINK. Fliers will be coming home in the next few days.
All shirts and shorts can be ordered in youth and adult sizes and will be delivered directly to students at CTE just before our event. Stay tuned mid-April for sign ups for volunteer opportunities for Field Day.
WELCOME TO THE CHAP FAM
Know anyone who is new in the neighborhood? or has children ready to start Kindergarten? Please spread some Chap Fam pride and share this video so they can see just how amazing our school and feeder are!
BE EPICER @ CTE
At Cherokee Trail we focus on six traits, teaching and fostering them in our classrooms and school-wide in order to create learners who are strong academically and socially. They are:
ENTHUSIASM * PERSEVERANCE * INTEGRITY * COURAGE * EMPATHY * RESPECT
Read more on the EPICER page!
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN WELLNESS - NOELLE DUNKER
Grades K/1/2: Our focus this week will be honesty. Honesty is more than just telling the truth, it’s about building trust and having integrity. We will be doing an activity using Jenga pieces to discover the importance of being trustworthy.
Grades 3/4/5/6: We will focus our attention on effective communication by playing “Back-to-Back Draw”. This activity highlights the importance of clear communication.
Needed for Wellness:
We are in need of tissues. Please feel free to send a box in with your child. I am grateful for your support.
Please click on the links attached for information on Mindful Mornings with Mrs. Dunker. We still have a few spots left. Thank you.
Grades K-2
Grades 3-6
APRIL COUNSELOR'S CORNER - JANE STEINER
Healthy Activities Night! Sierra Middle School is hosting a healthy activities night for the entire community! There are a lot of activities planned for ALL ages, bring the whole family! (flyer)
CLASSROOM LESSONS
In fourth grade, we completed our bully prevention unit from Second Step. The students took a pre and post survey to assess specific attitudes, knowledge, and skills taught during the unit.
Pre-survey grade 4 average 78%
Post-survey grade 4 average 96%
Wow! That is an increase of 18 percentage points!
In fifth grade, we started our bully prevention unit from Second Step. This unit has a total of 4 lessons that will cover 1- recognize, report, and refuse bullying 2- bystander power 3- bystander responsibility 4- cyberbullying. The students have been very engaged in situational discussions and sharing experiences.
If you are interested in reading more about bullying or how to help your child, take a look at this website. Bullying can also be reported to Safe 2 Tell Colorado.
Stay tuned- in second and third grade, I am planning a 2 lesson series to teach students about the brain and regulating emotions.
PARENT INFORMATION
Which Parenting Style Works Best?
What Is Digital Self-Harm?
Mental Health Resources:
* Do you know someone who is dealing with a serious mental health crisis? Are you concerned about their immediate safety and well-being? Colorado Crisis Service is a free service that offers immediate assistance in 3 formats. You can call for expert help 24/7, visit one of the various walk-in locations, or chat with them online.
* Denver Behavior Consultants – Social Skills groups now forming in Parker
* Is your child or someone you know struggling with anxiety? The district has partnered with Dr. Scott Cypers to release a series of videos for parents with a ton of information and how to help someone. All the videos can be found here.
* I Matter – Parents and youth (ages 12 and older) can take a brief mental health screening and schedule 3 free counseling appointments.
* STEM Center for Strength – mental health and well-being resources
FAMILY RESOURCES
DCSD Virtual Calming Corner
Life can be challenging at times! The great news is you have the power to overcome these challenges by integrating purposeful pauses throughout the day to calm both your brain and body. Maybe you need a quick nature fix, a guided relaxation practice or some quiet music in the background. Enjoy it all and explore! Be careful, some of these links can be rather mesmerizing -- you may want to use a timer ;-).
SAFE 2 TELL COLORADO
Do you know how to report a concern that threatens you, your friends, your family or your community? Safe 2 Tell Colorado is an anonymous reporting tool for parents and students. There are 3 ways to make an anonymous report – via website, app, or phone call.
Weekly snack/food bags provided by Parker Task Force – If your family is interested in having a bag of snacks/food sent home in their student’s backpack weekly, please fill out this brief form.
Families with housing instability
Free/Reduced Meal Benefits
UPCOMING CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS
FROM THE PRINCIPAL - JOSH MILLER
The Principal Chronicles continue ...
Here at Cherokee Trail, we are in the midst of so many things; from testing to teaching to concerts to just simply keeping our heads above water. When the sun comes out, the running shoes go on. On top of that we are trying to wrap up our hiring for next year. The teacher pool this year was extremely thin but having said that, I am proud that so far we have been able to bring in top-notch talent to fill in our open positions. We currently have only one more position to fill and so far we have been able to secure all of our top choices. This puts us in a really good position moving into next year, a lot better position than many many other schools. Not to brag, but we are so awesome that people want to come here instead of us having to find people. Certainly makes my life a lot easier and better still, it ensures our students are learning from the best possible teachers. Also, we are doubling down to support students by adding two new positions. And in addition to keeping all of our current programs (wellness, STEAM, etc.) we are adding a second counselor next year to work with Mrs. Steiner. That way we can maximize the impact of meeting our student's emotional needs. We are also adding a new position called a "behavior interventionist". Already on staff, we have several academic interventionists who support our students who are below grade level, but we wanted to also have someone on staff that can help students who struggle with regulating their behavior. It is just another layer of support for our students. As always, we want to make sure we are the best school we can be, and consistently try to fill any gap our students may have.
On the home front, there has been a new development in my daughter's academic career. She has been accepted into the Cosmetology program at Highlands Ranch High school so she will be working on becoming a licensed Cosmetologist by the time she graduates high school. The plan is for her to work in a salon and earn money while she is in college. Not too shabby and makes me happy that she has this type of opportunity in high school. All that is left now is to figure out how to get from Aurora to Highlands Ranch to Legend to Aurora each and every day. Guess we need to ramp up those driving lessons before she turns 16 in July.
That is it for this week's edition, stay tuned for next time when the Principal Chronicles continue ...
NEW FLYERS
ARCHIVED FLYERS (ALL)
* Co-Ed Summer Volleyball Camps (flyer)
* Douglas County Cotillion 2023 (flyer1 | flyer2)
* DCSD Community Events (flyer)
* Lego Masterbuilders club (flyer) *corrected dates*
* Robotics & Coding club (flyer)
* Chap Youth Wrestling Club (flyer)
* LEGO Storytelling: Marvel vs. DC (flyer)
* Science Matters - before/after school STEM Clubs (flyer)
* Chap Dance Team - The Mini-Wolverines (flyer)
* Robotics & Coding Club (flyer)
* CTE STEM CLUBS from Science Matters (link)
* Cub Scout Pack (flyer)
NONDISCRIMINATION NOTICE: The Douglas County School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, age, marital status, genetic information, or physical characteristics, disability or need for special education services in admissions, access to, treatment of, or employment in educational programs or activities. The School District’s Compliance Officer is Ted Knight, Assistant Superintendent, 620 Wilcox Street, Castle Rock, Colorado, [email protected], 303-387-0067. Complaint procedures have been established for students, parents, employees, and members of the public.