Dear St. Joseph School Families:

Welcome Back to School! I hope everyone had a great summer. I am excited for this school year and to see all the returning families as well as meeting the new families. We have a great year ahead!

For those of you who are new to St. Joseph School, I would like to take this time to introduce myself. My name is Ms. Jaclin M. Rogalski. I am the AIS (Academic Intervention Services) teacher for English Language Arts (ELA) and Math.   My educational background includes: St. Hyacinth School, Kindergarten – 8th grades and Auburn High School 9-12 grades. I received my Post Bachelor of Science in Teaching at Utica College, Utica, NY and my Special Education graduate work – Students w. Disabilities at LeMoyne College, Syracuse, NY.

I have my NYS certification in General Education and Special Education. My Master’s degree is in Reading and Literacy. I have several years of teaching experience at SS Peter and Paul School in grades 1, 2 and 4. Also, one year teaching at John Paul 2 in grades 3 and 4. In addition, I have extensive experience working with children as a substitute teacher, special education teacher aide and various recreational programs.

A favorite quote of mine is “To Teach Is To Touch A Life Forever!” I love teaching and hope to inspire my students as much as they inspire me. Children develop at different rates, come from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and process information in their own unique ways. The classroom is a place where all cultures are taken into account so they will develop an awareness and appreciation for the world around them. My vision for my students is to foster a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

On a personal note, I enjoy reading, traveling, hiking and exercising at the YMCA. I like to take part in various races such as Shamrock Run, Majorpalooza, Color Me Rad and the Great Race. I have 2 Chihuahua’s named JJ and Joy. I work part-time at the Auburn YMCA front desk. Stop over and come see me some time!

Looking forward to a great school year!

Sincerely,

Ms. Jackie M. Rogalski

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What are academic intervention services?

Academic intervention services (AIS) are services designed to help students achieve the learning
standards in English language arts and mathematics in grades K-12.

These services include two components:
· additional instruction that supplements the general curriculum (regular classroom instruction);
and/or
· student support services needed to address barriers to improved academic performance.

The intensity of such services may vary, but must be designed to respond to student needs as
indicated through State assessments results and/or the district-adopted or district-approved procedure that is consistent throughout the district at each grade level.

Improving Fluency in Young Readers

What is fluency?

Why is it important?

 http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/fluency.html

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 DIBELS

What are DIBELS? 

DIBELS are measures that help teachers and schools determine how students are performing on important reading skills. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. These measures are designed for students in grades K-6.

What skills are measured by DIBELS and why are they important? 

The critical skills necessary for successful beginning reading include:

1) Phonemic Awareness – First Sound Fluency (FSF) and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)

2) Phonics – Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)

3) Fluency – DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF)

4) Comprehension – DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) and Daze

The DIBELS measures assess students on these four critical skills, which are often referred to as the “Big Ideas” of reading.

How will the results be used? 

A student’s scores on the DIBELS measures give the school information about whether or not a student is on track for grade-level reading success. A school can quickly identify students who do not meet the goals on each DIBELS measure and provide extra help. For example, if your child is reading words accurately, but slowly, an intervention can be provided such as extra practice re-reading stories and passages to improve his or her reading rate or fluency. The teacher can use the progress monitoring scores to make sure your student receives extra help to improve other reading skills during the school year. Teachers can review scores on DIBELS measures for all the students in a class to make decisions about how to prepare their day-to-day reading lessons. School and district staff can also study the test scores across classrooms and grade levels to make decisions about how to best use resources to make sure that every child in the school, including your child, is on track to become an accurate and fluent reader.

If you would like to learn more about the importance of early literacy instruction and assessment visit the University of Oregon’s DIBELS Data System website at http://dibels.uoregon.edu.

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Math and Movement

On January 27, 2015, I attended a Math and Movement Workshop by Suzy Koontz. She is the founder and director. The teachers here at St. Joseph School will learn to incorporate Math and Movement into the curriculum.

A recent National Math Panel report encourages more practice of basic math skills. “Few curricula in the United States provide sufficient practice to ensure fast and efficient solving of basic fact combinations and execution of the standard algorithms.” (National Mathematics Advisory Panel-Final Report, page 26). Practice is necessary for competence, but many children resist and/or resent doing math drills. Math & Movement™ allows children to enjoy practicing math basics while engaging in fun activities that keep them interested.

Eric Jensen writes “Research suggests that physical activity benefits learning. Movement increases heart rate and circulation, enhances spatial learning, provides a break from learning, allows cognitive maturation, stimulates the release of beneficial chemicals, counteracts excessive sitting, and affirms the value of implicit learning.” Moving With the Brain in Mind, Educational Leadership, v58 n3 p34-37 Nov 2000.

The Math & Movement™ program is based on research that suggests that moving during learning facilitates muscle memory, an important factor with younger children whose abstract thinking skills are not fully developed.

Math and Movement by Suzy Koontz

The Math & Movement website is http://mathandmovement.com/

What is Math & Movement?

Math & Movement™ is a kinesthetic, multi-sensory approach to teaching math that incorporates physical exercise, stretching, cross-body movements, yoga, and visually-pleasing floor mats designed to encourage students to practice math concepts. The Math & Movement™ program allows students to physically hop, walk, crawl, dance or touch the mats and banners as they learn thus using more learning modalities (visual, auditory, motor and kinesthetic) when practicing.

Math & Movement begins at pre-K and harnesses children’s natural love of movement and creative imagination to master basic math concepts. The floor mats and banners cover the concepts of addition, subtraction, telling time, skip-counting, multiplication, division, fractions, factoring, positive/negative numbers, Cartesian coordinates, money, unit circle, place value, decimals, percents, rounding and probability.

The movements in the Math & Movement program help the student master math while simultaneously offering teachers and students an overall sense of well-being. Incorporating these exercises during the day, before testing or during transitions, allows teachers and students to feel energized, focused, calm, and prepared to learn.

Some examples of the Math & Movement movements are the Nine’s Twist, Criss Cross for 7’s, Sailboat Sway, Jaguar Tummy Rub, Gorilla Leg Lifts, Bunny Hop, The Letter “L” Laughs and Skyscraper.

The movements are divided into six categories:

  • Active Math:Whisper/Loud Movements– Designed to give your students physical exercise while simultaneously enhancing math and reading ability.
  • Active Math:Skip Counting Movements– Designed to provide additional physical exercise while learning the multiples.
  • Sit-Down Math Activities– Designed for quiet time and involve stretching.
  • Tapping at the Table Activities– Designed to be used in between other activities, while students sit at their desks.
  • Hallway Math Activities– Designed to be used walking in the hallway to and from lunch, PE, art, music, computer or library.
  • Math ‘n Yoga Activities– Incorporate math practice into popular yoga moves.

                                   

What Math & Movement™ Does

  • Strengthens numeracy and literacy
  • Supplements existing curriculums
  • Allows children to exceed state standards
  • Integrates core subjects
  • Engages all learners
  • Is researched-based
  • Supports equity
  • Adds additional PE minutes while reinforcing learning
  • Is developmentally appropriate for pre-school children whose abstract thinking skills are not fully developed

In addition, Math & Movement™:

  • Makes learning a pleasurable experience for children thus motivating children to increase their practice time.
  • Makes math and reading concepts accessible to children beginning in pre-K, and earlier than possible with traditional approaches.
  • Makes math and reading concepts more understandable to students.
  • Allows students to practice at a level of comfortable success.
  • Allows students to practice and learn more thoroughly.
  • Engages the interest of students and appeals to their natural inclination for movement.
  • Helps schools to reach their equity goals as it allows more students to gain understanding of the concepts.
  • Facilitates the process of teaching. It makes it possible for older students to teach younger students while simultaneously gaining understanding of previously misunderstood concepts.
  • Offers efficiency in that it allows students to be physically active while learning and practicing math and reading concepts.

Suzy Koontz

National Math Foundation, Director

Math & Movement, Founder

 (office)