Friday, August 29, 2014


Welcome to a new school year! It has been wonderful seeing all of the smiling faces coming through our doors. It is great to see all of the returning families and we welcome our new students to Ellis! We are out of the gate fast as students settle in quickly to the learning process.

This year we are focusing on the writing process as a staff. Writing is critical across the curriculum and will play a significant role in future education and eventually, employment. Teachers are taking additional training on strategies to enhance the writing process and create a challenging environment to encourage all students to maximize learning.

We are happy to announce that we again have MyOn resources available through the school. I have heard from many of you how your children enjoy logging on from home to read and that many of you use the resources for preschool children as well. Your child will have the information of how to login and access all of the books. You may also use smart phones, and tablets as well as computers. If you do not have access at home, the library computers provide computers are another option so all of our families can use it.

In math we are strengthening our knowledge this year through additional training with a focus on critical thinking skills, reasoning and problem solving. We want to ensure that students understand the underlying concepts in math, not just an algorithm that may not transfer into new situations.

For all subjects we are providing links to web resources that will support your efforts to support education at home, and links to information about the curriculum and the Idaho Core Standards are available. We are fortunate to be a Title I school and as a result there are additional resources for us. If you would like more information regarding this, the Title I link on the school site will get you started and in the event you would like to have more information do not hesitate to come in and talk to us. You will also be receiving additional information about how to support the educational efforts at home through the numerous events held during the year.

I want to say how wonderful it was to see almost everyone at Back to School Night! It was a great start to the year and we look forward to frequent opportunities to work with you this year!

Sincerely,

Dr. Betsy Goeltz