Important News

Jump Rope for Heart is now known as the Kids Heart Challenge. It will be held on Feb 14th and Feb 15th based on the half day schedule. In the event, if we are closed due to weather event, it will be held during the regular PE classes. All students are included even if they are not able to raise the funds or if they do not know how to jump. There are three ways to donate: a) online- at heart.org/kidsheartchallenge (info on how to do this is on the site, b) check--made payable to the American Heart Association and c) cash- no pennies please. For the online donations-the online donation report must be included in the donation envelope before the donations are sent. The donation envelopes will be sent out the week of Jan 29th in the Wednesday folder. For students raising monies early, their character gifts will given when their donation gifts arrive. In order to participate successfully, students need to wear sneakers or rubber soled shoes-no heels or boots.

Title I programs at each school will vary, depending on the needs of the school. Every child may benefit from the added services and programs that a School-wide Title I program can offer. A School-wide Program helps a school do more for all of its students. Early Childhood Compact Primary Compact Intermediate Compact At LoES, our Learning Compact and Plan includes goals for student achievement. This section of the LoES Eagle News will be used to share information parents can use to support their children in achieving the goals. We hope that this information is helpful to you! - LoES Goal: Reading aloud at home (all grades)

In order to support families of children headed to kindergarten, the Office of Early Childhood Programs is pleased to announce the upcoming Road to Kindergarten informational workshops. Howard County parents with children who will be five years old by September 1, 2019 are invited to come with questions and concerns pertaining to the kindergarten process. The workshop offers information for the upcoming kindergarten year, such as kindergarten registration, school readiness and kindergarten curriculum. The workshop will be presented at several locations throughout the county and childcare is available for children ages 2 and older. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. for child care sign-in; information sessions are from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Check out one of the flyers for more information: English Flyer - Spanish Flyer

LoES is committed to providing a safe and nurturing school environment that values diversity and commonality. Acts of bullying, cyberbullying, harassment or intimidation are prohibited as these actions compromise the learning environment and well-being of students, staff and community members. Reports can be submitted online, in person or by mail. Once submitted, the administrative team will conduct an investigation within 2 school days. Investigations may include, but are not limited to: interviews with students and staff members, a review of available video footage, collecting written statements or a review of student records. Based on the findings, corrective actions will be implemented in accordance with the HCPSS Student Code of Conduct. The families of both the victim and offender are notified and given updates and a summary of the investigation. The full policy, including definitions and standards, can be viewed here.

In January, LoES will hold its quarterly PBIS celebration where students engage in one or more fun activities with their classmates. One of the activities planned will be a Maker Space activity facilitated by teachers. We are seeking donations of recycled materials that student will be able to use. Please consider donating the following items if you have any readily available: Paper towel rolls Toilet paper rolls Tissue Boxes Water Bottles Milk/Juice/Soda jugs Egg cartons Paper/plastic shopping bags Magazines Plastic lids

Show us Your Talent! The LoES Talent show auditions are coming. Please look for a yellow handout with all audition information in your students' Wednesday Folder. Auditions will be held on 1/9 and 1/10. To sign-up for an audition slot for your student, please visit http://tinyurl.com/loestalentshow2019 Check out the flyer HERE

The latest federal legislation about school accountability is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law in 2015. Under ESSA, each state is required to submit a plan detailing how the law will be implemented, including how it will hold school accountable for student performance. Some parts of the accountability system are required by law - for example, all high schools, nationwide, are accountable for the graduation rate. The law also allows states to choose components of the accountability sys that are important to its students and stakeholders. Learn more about what this legislation means for HCPSS here. You can also Longfellow’s Report Card here.

One of the routines for our students and teachers across all grade levels is to communicate information through the use of agenda books or student folders. Students in Kindergarten and grade 1 utilize folders on a daily basis to communicate information while students in grades 2 through 5 use agenda books to write homework and communicate other information on a consistent basis. In the event that a student has to “take 5”, which is a component of our 123 Magic school wide behavior management program, they will receive the following label describing the incident: Additionally, students can also earn positive labels for demonstrating preferred behaviors including being safe, respectful and responsible:

The Young Authors' Contest has begun! This contest is for students in grades 2 through 5 who would like to write a short story and/or poem in their free time. The contest begins at Longfellow where students will compete with their classmates for the best short story and poem. One winner from each category will be selected at each grade level to compete at the Howard County level. Winners from Howard County will then go on to compete at the Maryland State level. This is a wonderful opportunity for the students of Longfellow to showcase their writing talent to the Longfellow community and beyond! Students in grades 2-5 were presented with the necessary information and were given the guidelines, cover sheet, and writing rubric to take home. Downloadable versions of these papers are below for your convenience. If your child would prefer to email his or her story, rather than print it, you can send all entries along with the completed cover sheet to catherine_baruah@hcpss.org. Please have your child save his or her story as a WORD Document. Longfellow winners will need to submit their entries to Howard County electronically. Students have until December 14, 2018 to submit their poem and/or short story. If you have any questions, please contact catherine_baruah@hcpss.org. We are looking forward to reading many amazing stories and poems. Happy writing!!

HCPSS will continue to use Synergy Conference Management to schedule Parent Teacher Conferences on November 19th and 20th. Beginning Monday, November 12, 2018 you can log into HCPSS Connect to access Synergy Conference Management. Check out this screencast for step-by-step directions on how to sign up. You can then choose your desired conference time from each teacher’s availability. Parent Teacher Conferences will be scheduled in 15-minute increments. To allow travel time from one teacher to the next, consider staggering your appointments to allow for full 15-minute conferences. Related Arts teachers have a limited number of conference times available in comparison to number of students they teach. You are not required to schedule a related arts conference, however we encourage you to schedule a conference if you have a concern or information you would like to discuss with the teacher. For parents without online access, please contact our front office staff at 410-313-6879 for assistance in scheduling conferences.