What do you want to be when you grow up?

Yesterday, we had a visit from Smoky Hill High School's leadership group, "The Brotherhood." During Principal Chats they spoke to our students about the importance of having courage, doing well in school and being successful in life. One of the questions that the young men from Smoky Hill asked our students was, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The kids shared all kinds of dreams they had, from being an astronaut to being a professional athlete. Now, more than ever, children are seeing that there's nothing they can't achieve.

So what can we do, as parents, to expose our kids to career choices? Children can't know if they're good at something unless they try it. By having a wide variety of supplies available, your children can explore different skills, while having fun in the process. Calculators, math puzzles and games, and building sets are appealing to those who might end up in math or engineering careers. Toy medical kits and a supply of Band-Aids are always a hit and can light a fire in future health professionals' lives. Art supplies, craft kits, and musical instruments may spur an interest in the arts. 

Talk about your own job with your kids! Many parents have jobs that their kids can't really comprehend. They might only know that you work in an office building or a store. If you can, participate in Take Your Child To Work Day (this year, on April 23rd) so they can see what a work environment is like. Talk to them about the education and training you needed to get your job.

Sometimes, it can be tempting for us to see a talent in our children and then focus only on that. However, the most successful people in life have a wide variety of interests and abilities. Be proud and encouraging of your young artist's work, for example, but make sure that he or she also does well in math, science, reading and other areas.

It's also important to be realistic. Many of our kids want to grow up to be professional athletes, rock stars, or the president. While shooting for the stars is wonderful, and you should encourage all of their hard work to succeed, help them also realize that the competition for those superstar positions is fierce. Help them expand their dreams to include their ideal job as well as other related careers. If your child wants to be a pro football player, for example, make sure he or she knows about careers in physical therapy, sports medicine, physical education teaching, coaching sports law, etc.

And, of course, connect their dreams to the importance of staying in school, working hard and listening to their teachers! 

 

CSAP is here!

At schools across Colorado you can hear the sound of number two pencils being sharpened and students shushing each other as they begin CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) testing. Sunrise third, fourth and fifth graders will be testing through February and March in the areas of reading, writing, math and science (science is only tested in 5th grade). The data collected via these tests reflect individual student progress toward state standards and allow us to measure their academic growth across school years. 

Many of the tests begin as early as 8:15 so it continues to be crucial that students arrive to school on time. Please help prepare your child for success by ensuring that they get a good night's sleep and have a healthy breakfast each morning. Sharing words of encouragement help to build your student's confidence and help them feel prepared. Thank you so much for your continued support!

• February 24th-25th: 3rd grade ABC tracks Reading CSAP
• February 26th-27th: 3rd grade A track Writing CSAP, 4th and 5th grade A track Math CSAP, 5th grade A track Science CSAP
• March 2nd: 5th grade A track Science CSAP
• March 3rd-4th: 3rd grade A track Math CSAP, 4th and 5th grade A track Reading and Writing CSAP
• March 5th: 4th and 5th grade A track Reading and Writing CSAP
• March 12th-13th: 3rd grade B, C, D tracks Writing CSAP, 4th and 5th grade B, C, D tracks Math CSAP
• March 13th and 16th: 5th grade B, C, D tracks Science CSAP
• March 17th-18th: 3rd grade B, C, D tracks Math CSAP
• March 17th-19th: 4th and 5th grade B, C, D tracks Reading and Writing CSAP

Sunrise Advisory and Accountability Meeting

On February 10th, the Sunrise Advisory and Accountability Committee (SAAC) met to discuss how students are progressing toward learning goals and proficiencies and were invited to share concerns, thoughts and celebrations for next year as we switch to a traditional calendar. The graphs shown here compare last year's CSAP scores (in blue) to this year's MAP scores ("Measure of Academic Progress"). As a staff we spent time analyzing our assessment data and created a top priority list for reading. Students' learning will focus on identifying the main idea of a selection or text, summarizing a text, and making inferences while they read. We are also choosing a common framework to use to teach writing. This will create aligned expectations in writing across all grade levels and will utilize a common language/vocabulary for teachers to use when teaching writing to their students. In addition to having a set time for writing every day, the intermediate grades are integrating more writing into their science.

We are enjoying watching the growth that our students are making across the curriculum! Our next SAAC meeting will be at 6:30, after the PTCO meeting on April 14th. Our intent is to talk more about next year and how a change in our calendar will impact our students. Hope to see you there!

 

Super School News

Our very own students will be featured on Rocky Mountain PBS "Super School Newscast." Mrs. Liggins, our technology specialist, works with our 5th grade students to conduct the morning announcements on our own television channel here at Sunrise each day. She and our broadcasters were selected to give a report about our school and some of the great things we do here. I hope you'll be able to tune in and catch our broadcast. It will be aired on channel 6 at the following dates/times:

Dec. 21/ 10:25 am, Dec. 22/4:55 pm, Dec. 23/2:55 pm, Dec. 24/10:55, Dec. 26/4:55 pm and Dec. 27/2:55 pm.

School Accountability Reports

Beginning Dec. 9, School Accountability Reports will be available online on the Colorado Department of Education’s Web site, www.cde.state.co.us or you can link to it via Cherry Creek School District’s Web site at www.cherrycreekschools.org.

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) annually issues the School Accountability Reports, also known as SARS or School Report Cards, for each school in the state. They include information about the school's academic performance, CSAP results, safety and discipline incidents, student/teacher ratio, teacher qualifications and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

CDE gives each school a rating of either Unsatisfactory Low, Average, High or Excellent. More than 60 percent of Cherry Creek Schools were rated Excellent or High. No school in the Cherry Creek School District has ever received a Low or Unsatisfactory rating.In prior years the reports were widely available as a printed hard copy. This year, the primary method of distribution for the reports is electronic. If you would like a hard copy, you can print it from the Web site or ask one of us in the Sunrise front office to do so.

BINGO Night

Thanks so much to all of you who came and enjoyed an evening of BINGO and tacos. We had an amazing turn out and a good time was had by all. I especially want to thank our PTCO volunteers for their time and hard work. They took charge of the planning, cooking, baking and prizes. I really enjoyed getting to visit with our students and their families - it's always such fun to meet siblings, parents and even grandparents at these events. Your dedication to Sunrise is one of the reasons that our school is such a wonderful place where our students can learn, laugh, grow, dream and belong! 

Principals Chats

Today we had our second round of principals chats. This is a time for Mr. Hardy and me to meet with each grade level to discuss relevant topics to our school. Today's chats centered around the topic of tardies. We've had over 1170 tardies in the past 10 weeks of school, so this is definitely a significant issue facing Sunrise. Our students know that coming to school to learn is their job. Many of you know the importance of getting to your job on time and the implications of arriving late. We are trying to instill this behavior in our students as early as possible so it becomes a habit for them. Our office ladies monitored the number of tardies from July 8th through September 10th and came up with the data contained in the above chart. We will continue to monitor and update our data frequently in order to share it with you and our community.

Learning starts at 8:00 am sharp. We allow students in the doors at 7:55 to help this happen. If students come for breakfast they may arrive as early as 7:25 am and enter through the cafeteria. During our chats, students came up with the following ideas for getting to school on time:

• get up earlier
  
• go to bed earlier
  
• pick out clothes the night before
  
• pack lunches the night before
  
• leave the house a few minutes earlier
  

We know one essential piece for students to be successful in school is to be here on time. Not only do we want our students to be successful in elementary school, we want to ensure future success in middle school, high school, college and beyond. Please let us know how we can best be partners to make this happen. Thank you for your support!