Dates to Remember

Charter School Day at the Legislature – February 3

Open House for Parents of New 2010-2011 Students – February 4 – 9:00 AM

Parent-Teacher Conferences – February 8

TTCS Spanish Spelling Bee – February 9 - 8:30 AM

Winter Concert and PTC Bake Sale – February 9 – 6:00 PM

Spring Portraits and Class Pictures – February 10

February 15 – Presidents’ Day Holiday – NO SCHOOL

Turquoise Trail Spelling Bee

Congratulations to Turquoise Trail Spelling Bee winners -- Dominic Hernandez – 1^st Place and Alexes Albillar – Runner Up. Both school spelling bee champions are 5^th grade students from Mr. Davis’ class. Dominic and Alexes also represented our school as contestants in the Santa Fe County Spelling Bee last week and did a great job!

Many thanks to Carol Brickler for coordinating both the TTCS Spelling Bee and the Santa Fe County Spelling Bee.

TTCS Winter Concert and PTC – Tuesday, February 9 – 6:00 PM

Please join us for the Annual Turquoise Trail Winter Concert Tuesday evening, February 9 at 6:00. The PTC will be offering a bake sale before the performance to support funding school programs. Music teacher, Laura Matthews will direct performances of the TTCS Chorus, TTCS Band and 3^rd and 4^th grade classes with recorders. Performing students should report to school at 5:30 to get prepared. The PTC Bake Sale will begin at 5:30. The evening will be filled with musical entertainment and good refreshments.

Basketball – Congratulations Coyotes!

Turquoise Trail hosted boys’ basketball games last week thrilling the home crowd with wins for all three Coyote teams! Parents and students were involved in helping prepare the gym and set up the concession area to raise money for the teams.  Walter Peralta not only helped with preparations, he had the event rocking and rolling and made it very fun for everyone!

 Parent-Teacher Conferences – Monday, February 8

Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Monday, February 8. There will be no classes for students on this day. Please reply to teacher requests for a conference or call to schedule a time.

Report cards and results from winter short-cycle assessments will be available discussion of your child’s academic progress.

TT Foundation Seeks Board Members

Our school has a non-profit foundation that was created to raise funds and accept tax deductible donations for school projects and facility improvements.  We are currently in need of volunteers to serve on the Board of Directors.  If you think you might like to serve or if you would like to learn more about the Foundation please contact our principal, Sandy Davis.

Student Intent Forms for 2010-2011

It is time to begin our planning for next year. Forms are being sent home this week for parents to let us know of their intention to have their child(ren) return to Turquoise Trail for school next year. Please complete and return the forms as soon as possible to reserve a place for the upcoming school year. The forms will have information about siblings that intend to enroll at TTCS as well.

Please share lottery registration information with friends or neighbors who wish to enroll their children at Turquoise Trail for next year. They can call the school at 467-1700 or come by the school to sign up for the lottery.

Council Corner—TTCS governance activity highlights

The GC is busy considering school priorities for the upcoming year. If you would like to participate in this discussion you may want to attend the upcoming meeting on February 18, 2010 beginning at 5:30 pm.

         Governance Council Elections

Our school is facing difficult decisions about how to live within our means. If you would like to play a part in school governance and have a voice in these decisions, consider joining the Turquoise Trail Governance Council. Governance Council member elections will be held this spring. For more information speak with Principal Sandy Davis or Council Member Linda Alvarez or come to a meeting to see what it is all about. Elections will be held later this year.

         School Lottery

Each year more students want to come to Turquoise Trail than we have space for. We are required to select students through lottery.  Turquoise Trail is currently accepting applications for our school admission lottery. Families who would like to attend Turquoise Trail next year must fill out and submit a lottery application no later than March 1, 2010. The lottery will be conducted on March 18, 2010 during the Governance Council business meeting. For more information about the lottery speak to Principal Sandy Davis or visit our school website: www.turquoisetrailcharterschool.info

Grace Philips

TTGC President

Professional Development for TTCS Staff

Turquoise Trail staff members have been participating in some intensive training of an effective instructional model called Guided Language Acquisition Design. The award-winning Project GLAD model is based on the extensive research-base of second language acquisition, brain research and effective literacy practices. GLAD is a standards-based instructional model that promotes high levels of academic language and achievement for students. 

The four components of Project GLAD consist of the following:

• Focus/Motivation (which is very similar to building background)
• Input (ways to make cognitively complex concepts understandable to students)
• Guided Oral Practice (practice of key vocabulary and language objectives)
• Reading/Writing (modeled, shared, collaborative, guided and independent)