Mr. Mark Solimo
Superintendent’s Message
On behalf of the administration, staff, and Moonachie Board of Education, I am proud to welcome you to the 2009-2010 Robert L. Craig School website.
The Moonachie School District actively engages the community to create a shared responsibility for student and school success. The Board’s goal for this website is to enable educators, students, parents, and community members to share key information about the district’s activities and especially to showcase Robert L. Craig School achievements.
The focus is about learning and teaching and to create a great school where all students achieve at high levels. To create a school in which quality teaching occurs in every classroom and teachers and students alike experience success, joy, and satisfaction each day.
The Moonachie School District strives to offer the best educational program possible at Robert L. Craig in order to develop the mind and character of each student.
Robert L. Craig staff work on teams to design curriculum; plan instruction; develop authentic assessment tasks based on specific, agreed-on standards; problem solve; counsel students; support each other; and teach. Teachers are encouraged to develop a wide repertoire of teaching strategies and use a variety of techniques in their classroom to enhance the curriculum delivery system and meet the varying needs of students.
Mission Statement
It is the Mission of the Robert L. Craig School to help its students achieve the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards at all grade levels, and gain the academic skills and knowledge, intellectual integrity, and individual courage as risk-takers, which will lead to their personal success. ~We will provide an education, which enables our students to operate as active citizens in America and in its democracy, as well as informed and concerned citizens of the world. ~This education will be provided in an atmosphere, which is disciplined and fosters respect for others by a dedicated teaching staff and administration who maintain a knowledge of contemporary teaching approaches and strategies.
Vision Statements
- To provide students with the necessary academic and social/moral skills that will enable them to achieve in the future as a meaningful part of society.
- To increase social skills i.e. respect for authority, common courtesies such as greeting someone in the hall, picking up papers in the hall, etc.
- To develop programs focusing on problem solving skills, social-emotional intelligence and character building. To develop recognized programs focusing on reading and writing.
- To become a community of active lifelong learners in partnership with students and their families.
- To provide students with more literature-based learning and to expect not accept what will make our children well prepared for high school and beyond.
- To help students grow and develop into capable, caring, and aware adults who can take their place in their society in a positive, responsible way.~ They are the future and the leaders of tomorrow. Let us give them the tools and values they will need to fulfill that role.
- To provide knowledge and understanding regarding the importance of physical activity on health, both now and in the future.
- To foster student's self-esteem, respect for self/others, along with awareness of new technologies and changing practices.
- To provide a coordinated program in math and language from Pre-K to 8th grade in which all teachers communicate with each other as we work towards a common goal of academic excellence.
- To help students gain the academic skills, knowledge, integrity and courage to become risk takers in order to be successful in an ever changing word.
Shared Values
- If you cannot learn the way we teach, we had better teach the way he can learn
- Alignment of curriculum is as important as anything a district can do to improve learning and student performance.
- Positive expectations yield positive results.
- Collaboration must have the goal of improving student achievement if it is to pay off. Relationships are the core of successful learning communities.
- All children can learn to high standards when there is a supportive environment, when high expectations are held by all stakeholders, and when there is clear accountability on the part of students, staff, families, and the community.
- To build capacity for continuous improvement, districts must focus on four key strategies: interpreting and using data, building teachers' knowledge and skills, aligning curriculum and instruction, and targeting interventions for~low-performing students or schools.
- Effective teachers actively engage families in their children's schooling, make family members aware of their important contributions, and encourage them to feel comfortable in working closely with schools.
- When parents are actively engaged in their children's education, those children tend to have higher grades and test scores, better attendance, and complete homework more consistently.
- A positive, supportive atmosphere contributes directly to a student's improvement in school attendance, academic achievement, and attitude.
- For the at-risk student to learn, teachers must make sure that students feel cared for, supported, respected, and~challenged.
- Students live up to or down to the expectations of teachers.~ Teacher attitudes have an enormous influence on student academic performance and behavior.
- When students are taught through an aligned curriculum, personalized instruction, and a "can do" attitude from caring teachers, remarkable improvement can occur.
- Teachers need to do everything possible to help students understand and connect the relevance and importance of classroom learning to their lives.
- When teachers work together to establish measurable goals, monitor students' process, and assess instructional~effectiveness, remarkable gains in achievement occur.
- Homework leads to better retention of knowledge, increased understanding, better study habits, better self-discipline, and better time management.
The Language Arts Literacy Program at the Robert L. Craig School promotes students' capacities to construct meaning in any arena. Students are provided with differentiated instructional strategies to address individual learning styles and diverse student needs; ‚"active learning", in which students are engaged in active questioning, active listening, authentic activities, and the learning process; immersion in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing strands that leads to deeper and wider understanding; and explicit and systematic instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development.
The Mathematics Curricula is designed to acquire the skills, understandings, and attitudes students will need to be successful in their careers and daily lives. Students solve real problems, reason effectively, and make logical connections.
Science in Moonachie is not merely a collection of facts and theories, but a way of investigating the world in which we live. The study of science includes the diversity, complexity, and independence of life and earth.
Through the Visual and Performing Arts Program, students develop the capacity to perceive and respond imaginatively to works of arts. The development of sensory activity enables students to perceive and acknowledge various viewpoints. Students observe, describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate artistic expression and quality in both their own artistic creations and in the work of others.
The Health and Physical Education Program promotes each student‚ optimum physical, mental, emotional, and social development. The program is student-centered and utilizes multiple learning theories and models to support and promote health-enhancing behaviors. As a result, students are empowered to develop and demonstrate increasingly sophisticated knowledge, skills, attitudes, and practices.
The Social Studies Program fosters in all students the ability to understand their world and to have an appreciation for the heritage of America with a high degree of literacy in civics, history, economics, and geography. Students acquire a basic understanding and appreciation of American traditions; develop critical thinking skills which enable them to function as lifelong learners; understand world history as the context for United States history; and participate in activities that enhance the common good.
The World Language Program prepares students for the demands of an independent world by teaching world languages for communication, heightening students‚ linguistic and cultural awareness of their local, state, and world community, encouraging interdisciplinary and workplace readiness connections that may involve business and community members as mentors and models, and preparing students for using a world language in whatever career choices they make.
The Technology Education Program in Moonachie was developed to ensure the literacy needed by all students to succeed in a highly technological world. Computer and information literacy is integrated and applied in all the content areas of the Core Curriculum Content Standards. Students use technology tools and applications to conduct research, solve problems, improve learning, and produce products and presentations in conjunction with standards in all areas. They also develop, locate, summarize, organize, synthesize, and evaluate information for lifelong learning.
Career Education Program identifies key career development and life skills that students must accomplish in order to achieve continuing success in various life roles related to continuing education, career development and personal growth. Individual, Group, and Crisis Counseling is conducted focusing on family, peer, and academic concerns. Family sessions are held by the school psychologist and school social worker to work on improving the quality of family relationships and resolving behaviors that prevent students from reaching their potential.
Character Education is offered to students in grades 1-8 to foster the development of values, which function as the cornerstone of ethical behavior.
Conflict Resolution is conducted during the lunch period to help students find appropriate ways to diffuse and handle problems between students.
Peer Mediation is offered as an extension of the conflict resolution program where seventh and eight grade students are trained by the school psychologist to mediate disputes between students and help them arrive at mutually beneficial compromises.
Peer Tutoring and Peer Mentoring provide additional support to struggling students in the mainstream setting and assistance to classified students in the special education setting. Seventh and eighth grade students volunteer their time and give up their participation in non-academic subjects, specials, and afternoon activities to work with students on a one-to-one basis.
Common Planning time will continue for the 2009-20010 school year.~ During daily common planning sessions teachers between 8:10am - 8:50am participate in staff training, curriculum development, articulation meetings, and providing additional assistance to students.~ The primary goal of common planning time is to develop techniques in order to increase student achievement.
The following are Moonachie School District goals for the 2009-2010 School Year:
1. To increase student achievement
2. To maintain and enhance support services.
3. To assess, modify, and enhance district curriculum.
4. To engage the community to create sharing responsibility for student and school success.
5. To provide a full continuance of services and programs in the home school district for educating children with
disabilities in the least restrictive environment.
6. To enhance the School District Operations.
7. To increase Technological Literary Skills.
The following are Moonachie School District initiatives for the 2009-2010 School Year:
- Reading Workshop (Grades K-8)
Reading Workshop is an organizational framework for teaching reading. It is designed to foster a love for reading within our students, and to differentiate, or personalize instruction in order to accommodate the learning needs of all students. In Reading Workshop, the students take more responsibility for their learning, choose books that appeal to them and are at their own instructional level, respond to the text they are reading, and share thoughts and ideas within small groups. In Reading Workshop, the teacher teaches mini-lessons based on observations of student needs, conferences with individual students, personalizes instruction, and keeps records of student progress.
- Writing Workshop (Grades 6-8)
Writing Workshop is an organizational framework for teaching writing. In a writing workshop, students develop most of their writing projects. Teachers push for authority and purpose: students writing with passion about what they know and care about, for reasons they believe in. During genre studies, students choose their own subjects, themes, and approaches. The teacher’s mini-lessons grow from his observations of what students don’t know or will need to know to produce excellent, literary writing. Teachers meet with individuals to confer about their writing; they focus on content, style, and structure.
(Atwell, Lessons That Change Writers)
- HSP Math 2009 (Grades K-5)
HSP Math is the new basal K-6 math program from Harcourt School Publishers. HSP Math, carefully reviewed by mathematicians, offers an assortment of learning materials designed to provide students with meaningful and diverse educational experiences, including hands-on activities, literature connections, and problem-solving strategies. It also provides teachers with instructional materials that offer easy planning, options and suggestions for every stage of instruction. HSP Math is aligned to specific state standards.
- MUZZY World Language Program (Grades K-2)
The MUZZY language program follows national foreign language standards which emphasize the use of functional language, repetition and “spiraling.” In MUZZY, words and concepts are first introduced, and then introduced again and again in many new contexts. MUZZY’s multisensory teaching technique appeals to all types of learners. MUZZY employs a natural immersion approach, surrounding learners with visual, aural, and contextual language, modeled on the way we learned our first language.
- Rosetta Stone World Language Program (Grades 3-5)
Rosetta Stone®, a web-based language program, uses rich visual imagery to help students learn and think in a new language. Rosetta Stone systemically builds nouns and verbs into complete sentences and dialogue. Keeping with national and state standards, the program helps students build everyday proficiency in each of the four key language skills: listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Advanced speech recognition technology guides students to more accurate pronunciation. Contextual Formation™ engages students in lifelike conversations that let them produce spoken or written sentences from words and phrases they’ve learned. Adaptive Recall™ schedules review material to
appear at optimal intervals to test new language knowledge and ensure retention.
- Type to Learn, Jr. (Grades K-4)
With Type to Learn, Jr. students experience age-appropriate instruction that will help them use the computer keyboard with greater use. The small size of young students’ hands are kept in mind in this animated program that takes students from keyboard awareness to typing carefully selected words into short sentences. With Type to Learn, Jr. students will locate the letter of the alphabet and numbers on the keyboard with increasing reliability as they divide the keyboard into left-hand or right-hand keys, use the shirt keys to type uppercase letters, type short words and sentences, and master simple punctuation, the space bar, and the Return/Enter key.
Oncourse Lesson Planner is a web-based tool that automates the lesson plan process and comes pre-loaded with NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards. Teachers electronically create, archive, update, and collaborate on lesson plans. Staff websites are included to afford parent opportunities to participate in the education of their children. Teachers can automatically post homework online for students. Real-time reports indicate standards covered by individual teachers, how often and when standards were linked.
Teachers will be completing curriculum mapping projects in the areas of Social Studies, Science, Special Education, Art, Music, and Physical Education. Curriculum mapping is a process for collecting and recording curriculum-related data that identifies core skills and content taught, process employed, and assessments used for each subject area and grade level. The completed curriculum map then becomes a tool that helps teachers keep track of what has been taught and plan what will be taught.
The Moonachie School District places student and adult learning at its center, setting high expectations and standards for the academic and social development of all students and the performance of adults. The Board of Education has developed a culture of continuous learning for adults tied to student learning and other school goals. In the classroom, education in Moonachie means encouraging respect for each student and helping students do their best, shared ideas, and taking risks as they learn and work individually and cooperatively. The goal is to create a condition at Robert L. Craig which will offer every student and staff member the opportunity to access and engage in learning and to fully develop his or her talents.
The Moonachie School District is a culturally diverse school district with the primary goal of ensuring all its students are provided the opportunity for an exemplary educational experience and are challenged to a high level of performance. The Moonachie School District has developed a strong school community, finely attuned to the needs, values, talents, and interests of the students. Enjoy your visit and we encourage you to contact us with your questions and/or need for additional information at (201) 641-5833 Ext. 100.