Category Archive

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Winter Break. Our custodians worked hard over break, and the floors are sparkling. At last month’s PTA meeting, we discussed doing some resets around culture after Winter Break. Carissa, our SEL central office support person, will speak to us as a group about structured recess hopefully at our next faculty meeting. As Ms. Rottman and I discussed the reset earlier this week, we decided to try to have a little fun with it and call it The 15-day Culture Challenge. We have just fifteen school days until our professional development day on the 27th. The challenge is to do the one designated strategy/method/technique for strengthening our culture daily. We created a calendar and are providing more detail to staff weekly. This week we simply had a specific share at morning meeting on Thursday: Why are you glad to be back at school? Then, on Friday, we asked students to list their hopes and dreams for the rest of the school year. Typically, Responsive Classroom schools do this activity at the beginning of the school year. Voicing our hopes and dreams will help us with the reset. Responsive Classroom asserts: Inviting students … Read More

Dear Families, We are in the home stretch before Winter Break — five days to go. But, as always, we have an exciting and busy week ahead. Here is what is happening next week at Shepherd: Tuesday, December 17th — Community Center Groundbreaking Ceremony with the Mayor & ChancellorWednesday, December 18th — LSAT 4:30 pmWednesday, December 18th — PTA 6:30 pmThursday, December 19th — Winter Concert 6:30 pmFriday, December 20th — Winter Concert 8:50 am For the Winter Concert on Thursday, December 19, students should arrive no later than 6:15 pm. They should wear blue bottoms and a white shirt; school uniform works. The more students we have present the better our concert will be! Please let your homeroom teacher know if your child will not be in attendance. We had our largest family turn out yet for today’s All School Meeting, which was led by second grade. The second grade taught us about winter holidays around the world, how messages sometimes get lost in translation and got us on our feet to do the cha-cha slide. They did an outstanding job. Tomorrow some parents will join staff members at EdFest to recruit families to Shepherd. A big thank you … Read More

Dear Families, I have some important updates to share… “Aladdin” Musical Auditions: Aladdin Auditions will be held TODAY (Thursday, December 12th) and Friday, December 13th from 3:30-4:30 in the music room. Students have been working on audition songs during music class, and they have also been told about extra practice times offered next week before the auditions. The students have also signed up for auditions and character parts they are interested in.  Some students have signed up for crew as well, but more for the crew will come after winter break. The show will be cast before winter break, and students who receive parts will go home with scripts. They will also go home with a letter that will need to be signed by their parents, as well as the students. We are very eager to start this journey with the students to make the spring show wonderful! Community Center Groundbreaking Good evening Shepherd Park Community! On behalf of Mayor Muriel Bowser, DPR and DGS are pleased to announce the upcoming Groundbreaking Ceremony for the new Shepherd Park Community Center!  Please see below for event details. GROUNDBREAKING DETAILS: Date: Tuesday, December 17th Time: 3:00 PM Location:  Shepherd Elementary School (7800 14th Street, NW) … Read More

Dear Families, For the last two days, Mr. Mack, Ms. Scott and I were out of the building attending Courageous Conversation: Beyond Diversity with other DCPS employees at Phelps. Through readings, conversation and activities, we explored race and racism and how each impacts the culture and climate of schools. The first day, we focused on personalizing race: our personal stories, race in our lives and the social construction of race and racial knowledge. On day two, our focus was examining whiteness, and we discussed characteristics of white culture, systemic racism and affirmative action. Discussions with the Academic Leadership Team around eliminating racial achievement disparities prompted us to attend this seminar, and this weekend, the three of us are reflecting on how to share a similar experience with staff. It was powerful and emotional experience for all participants, and we left energized and excited about using this learning to benefit students. If you would like to discuss further or have questions, please feel free to reach out to me, Ms. Scott or Mr. Mack. Learn more about Glenn Singleton’s organization, Courageous Conversation, here. Next week, the learning continues as four staff members attend full day Responsive Classroom trainings. We also have … Read More

Dear Shepherd parents and families, The Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) recently released the second annual citywide School Report Card that includes information about how every public school in DC performed in School Year 2018-2019. At Shepherd, we are focused on ensuring every student receives an excellent education. This letter provides an overview of our results this year and background information on the Report Card and STAR Framework. For the 2018-2019 school year, our school received a rating of 4 Stars, which is consistent with our rating from last year. Our rating of 4 Stars indicates that we have much to celebrate as a school community, including strong student achievement. We’re proud of the high-quality education we provide our students and the great things happening in our school. With your partnership, we look forward to continuing to build on these results to ensure all our students achieve academic excellence through a focus on classroom-level data to provide differentiated instruction that meets the needs of all students. More detailed information is available here. Our team works hard each and every day to improve outcomes for all of our students. To understand more about our focus areas as a school, please review … Read More