Please join us for our November PTA meeting on Monday, Nov. 8 at 6:00 p.m. 

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89057210558?pwd=VHNvRFI2YVRlVzdIYVJSL1ZES0Zodz09

Laura Koss Sheikh, Brooks’ Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) coordinator (not to mention amazing music teacher!) will discuss the school’s PBIS program. We will also talk about the results of our recent “how are we doing” survey and share some exciting new events we are planning.

In addition, all members will be asked to vote on the minutes from our September meeting as well as the Financial Report. Links to all files are provided below:

• October Minutes (DRAFT)
• Financial Report (includes YTD budget v. actual and profit and loss, as well as Oct. profit and loss)

On June 22, 2021 a new sign was unveiled, officially renaming Maury Elementary to Naomi L. Brooks Elementary.

Read more

It is time for Maury’s Third Annual Spelling Bee, but first VIRTUAL Spelling Bee!  

As in past years, Maury will hold two levels of competition. For the first level, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has developed an online testing platform that will allow students to participate in the bee remotely from your homes.  For the second level, in place of our traditional in-person spelling bee, we plan to host a virtual spelling bee via Zoom.

The first step to spelling bee participation is for you to register for the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s online testing platform by visiting https://online-test.spellingbee.com.  Any student that is not registered cannot participate, so please sign up promptly! 

Once at the above website, click the “Register” button and type in Maury’s zip code, 22301, to find Maury, and fill in the requested information. We encourage you to watch this video tutorial that will walk you through the registration process. In addition, you may view detailed registration instructions here.

Once you have registered, we will be able to assign the appropriate grade-level test to your child. Your child must complete the test before the given deadline, and these tests can be taken on any device with a web browser, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. The window to take the test will be 1/20/2021 to 2/12/2021. List of study words attached.  Level 1 words are geared for 2nd and 3rd grades and Level 2 words are for 4th and 5th grades.  

We will select the students with the highest scores in each grade to move on to compete at the school level, our Big Bee. The full list of all 450 words (Levels 1, 2 and 3) that are used for the Big Bee is available here.  This year, our school-level competition will be administered via Zoom in an online Bee. Our school champion will then move on to represent Maury Elementary School  in the Northern Virginia regional spelling bee program, which also may include online tests in lieu of in-person spelling bee events.

First Step: register at online-test.spellingbee.com.

Please register at your earliest convenience as the Bee Coordinators will begin assigning tests to students soon. If you have already registered in the online testing platform for another child, you can log in to your account and add an additional child to that same parent account. There is no need to register a different email address for each child in your household.

Here is a quick list of how all of this will work with prizes and acknowledgements all along the way:

1. Register your student

2. Check your email for notifications regarding the test

3. Administer the test for your scholar – remember, no helping allowed!

4. View results

5. If your student advances to the Big Bee, they and you will receive additional information

6. Compete in a Virtual Big Bee via Zoom

7. Finalist will advance to the Regional Bee

Please reach out to the Bee Coordinators if you have any questions about our school spelling bee program. We look forward to having your child compete to represent our school!

9/8 – 7am – 7:45am. Join ACPS students as we Walk the Block before the first day of school and start the day right. #ALXWalktheBlock

Reminder! Maury’s annual Open House will be held on September 4th, virtually, from 10-11:30AM. There will be three tailored sessions based on grade level, as well as optional sessions from 11:00-11:30 with the School Support Team, Talented and Gifted Team or Special Education/EL Team. Zoom links will be sent by your child’s teacher to the email provided to the school. If for some reason you have not received a Zoom invite, feel free to reach out to the Administrative team, [email protected], Principal or [email protected], Assistant Principal, in advance of September 4th.

ACPS has announced that in Fall 2020, students will attend school virtually and have access to additional resources, including:

• Enhanced and formalized social, emotional and academic learning supports 
• Childcare options with community partners
• Continued meal distribution
• Expanded technology resources

On Friday, Aug. 7, the Virtual PLUS+ reopening proposal will be presented to the Alexandria City School Board to vote on before submission to the Virginia Department of Education on Aug. 14.

Learn more and provide your feedback through the ACPS website.

Our amazing music teacher, Ms. Koss, has set up Google classroom pages (one for grades K-2 and the other for grades 3-4. Mr. Ramirez was awesome and made an encore page for grade 5). This may be the best way to receive some music lessons/activities because some of the music files are so large. There is plenty of information/activities up there that Ms. Koss sent out in emails already. This will be a place to have everything in one spot for music classes. Thank you so much for your patience as teachers navigate how to best teach online!

You can join from a student’s chromebook. Siblings with a chromebook can join the younger kids’ classrooms as well. Sharing is caring!

Google Classroom Codes for Music

K-2 code- ukosin6
3-4 code- q2x7vvv
5 code- hjlxnap