Challenge



=CHALLENGE=

Welcome to the Challenge Page on our COES Wiki Space!

As many of you know I am working part time this year. My schedule is as follows:

Monday: off Tuesday: I am in the building all day. Wednesday: I am scheduled during the a.m. hours. However, depending on what is happening on Wednesday afternoons, this may be flexible. Thursday: I am in the building all day. Friday: off

Please remember that even though I am working part time, I am always only an e-mail away if you need to communicate with me for any reason! I promise to try to get back to you in a timely manner.

In addition to our Wiki Space, I participated in the LAPTOPS program this summer where I had an opportunity to develop my own webpage. I plan to keep useful information here for teachers, parents and students. Please feel free to add suggestions with ways to improve my webpage to make it more user-friendly for you and with items you would like to see there! Thank you! The link is below:

http://www.ccps.org/teachers/skilchenstein

September:

During the month of September I have been collecting data on students who were receiving challenge services last year or were recommended to receive challenge services this year. Please remember that at this point students in 4th and 5th grade only are "formally" identified through the Challenge Program. Third Graders will be formally identified this year as well, but not until January. Fourth and fifth grade parent letters will be distributed shortly to inform parents that their child is being considered for the Challenge Program this year. If parents do not receive a letter they can nominate their student if they so desire. Once we collect parent data we will conduct team meetings with fourth and fifth grade students to "formally identify" them. I will also be monitoring accelerated and highly able students in grades     Pre-K through 3.

I will be meeting with parents 30 minutes prior to each Open House to provide an overview of the Challenge Program. All parents were invited to attend this information sharing session through the September Newsletter. Below is the PowerPoint I will be sharing with Parents that night if you are interested. : )

Please look for me to visit your classrooms. I am really excited to meet all of the students at Conowingo. I would like to visit all classrooms for a little while just to say hello, meet students, put some faces with names I have seen on "the spreadsheet," and to start to feel comfortable being in a collaborative setting with all of you.

**Spelling Homework Alternatives**
Attached is a homework sheet developed for a student. The student's parent was hoping for some "higher level" spelling homework. Spelling is an easy place to provide differentiation for students.