August 30, 2019

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

What a great week of inservice we just had.  Thank you all for your hard work preparing for the school year and Open House.  Thank you for your professional work with prioritizing standards and collaborating with as a team.  Our Playworks training was fun and I always enjoy laughing and learning with you.


What's Happening at Dodgeland

• Monday - No School
• Tuesday - First day of School, Trojan Rodeo
• Monday, 9/9 OR Tuesday, 9/10 - Optional listening session for staff about the facility study from 3:30-4:30 in the IMC
• Wednesday, 9/11 at 3:10pm - Staff Meeting--New Location - **IMC**

Nitty-Gritty

• Trojan Rodeo details are here.  Day 1 has Lunch, recess and Playworks stations, Day 2 has bus and gathering area stations, and Day 3 has Oasis and iPad/IMC stations.
• Specials (Art, Music, PE) will start on Wed, 9/4. 
• Green Oasis Passes are in your mailbox.  Please use when you need to send a student to the Oasis.  Watch here for a short video about the highlights of the Oasis handbook.
• Staggered Lunch release times seems to be one way to address the unstructured time.  Please watch for specific details about this.
• Don't forget to sign up: Newsletter articles, Reading to your class, Event Committees and Lunch duties.

PD Spotlight

After the Playworks training today, I was thinking about how it fits with the ideas we discussed earlier this week about SEL.  How can play help our students with relationship building and self-awareness and management of their feelings and actions.  I read this article about how play helps with children develop SEL skills.  I thought it was timely considering our training. Click here to read the article.

Friday Funny

August 22, 2019

What's Happening at Dodgeland

• Monday, 8/26 - WELCOME BACK!  See the Inservice Schedule sent out for our week together.
• Tuesday, 8/27 - Wear Purple for the all staff picture
• 6pm - Trojan Jr. Football team (5th-6th) first home game
• Wednesday, 8/28 - Open House from 5-7pm
• Tuesday, 9/3 - First day of School - Trojan Rodeo (See below)

Nitty-Gritty 

• Reminder: If you haven't filled out the Google Form for Mindy to create the Meet the Staff bulletin board, please do so before August 26.  The link to the 4 questions is here.

• Our Trojan Rodeo for 5K-5th grades will be similar to last year's schedule with the exception of 5K, which will spread out their stations between the first couple days.  In addition, students will be learning and practicing Play-works games for a longer time period to alleviate some of the rushed feelings from last year.

• Schedules, Duties, Committees and more - Click here for a short video to explain this year's plans.  These documents are found in the Shared drive.

• On Thursday, August 29 our new Playworks coach (Jena) will be conducting a training about Playworks in the classroom during our Elementary staff meeting time.  The goal is to help kids to transition successfully from one activity to another.

• Finally, just a quick personal note.  I am moving Mason to college on Wednesday morning.  His assigned time is 9:30.  I will return to school after I have him settled, hopefully by 1:30-2pm.  Just ignore any red-rimmed eyes that afternoon!

PD Spotlight

At the Dodgeland Summit, I shared a short video with those that attended my Learning Environment session.  I wanted to share it with all of you.  The takeaways are that: 1. Our mood is contagious. 2. Charisma is communicated nonverbally.   Why do I share this?  It is a reminder to all of us that even without our words, we have a tremendous effect on our students.  Click here to watch the 4:40 min. video.

Friday Funny 

August 16, 2019

The first ever Dodgeland Download edition is now available for your reading pleasure!  This is the name of our weekly Dodgeland Elementary blog.  Many of you stated that you found the weekly blog from Jessica to be helpful and wanted to see something similar with me.  So, I have spent some time learning how to blog this summer.  I have to say, I'm fairly proud of myself. I figured some stuff out with the help of google and youtube that is!  But with that said, if it is not working on your end, please let me know so I can learn how to fix the issue!

I have decided to have the following consistent structure every week.  (You will notice the similarities to Jessica's blog.  This was intentional so that there is some consistency, but also because I liked reading it when I got her blogs last year too!)

Hear Ye, Hear Ye - this section will include information about all the great things kids are learning and doing throughout the week that I saw as I visited classrooms as well as things that kids share with me about what they are learning.  This section may also include actions that align with our collective commitments.

What's Happening at Dodgeland - this section is about calendar events, including upcoming events for teachers and students, including community events.

Nitty-Gritty - this section will be the important notes or reminders about things coming up in the future, or tasks to complete

PD Spotlight - this section will include a link for an article, a video, or other information for professional development.  I don't really tweet a lot (ok, fine, never) but I do read a lot and this is a spot to share what I am reading and learning that may be helpful to you.

Friday Funny - this section is a place for me to share something that I hope makes you smile.  I love puns and bad jokes. It is a leftover from my Middle School days. :-)

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What's Happening at Dodgeland

• Monday, 8/19 - Dodgeland Summit for all certified staff . Click Here for the schedule.

• Tues-Thurs, 8/20-8/22 - New Teacher Inservice.  Mentors for first year teachers please join us on Thursday from 7:30-3pm

• Friday, 8/23 - NVCI training for some staff (you have been contacted if this pertains to you)

• Monday, 8/26 - WELCOME BACK!  

Nitty-Gritty 

• If you haven't filled out the Google Form for Mindy to create the Meet the Staff bulletin board, please do so before August 26.  The link to the 4 questions is here.

• As new students enroll or students withdraw, I add or strike-through names on the document for class lists.  At this time, I do not anticipate any changes to the class lists.

• Stay tuned for information and the schedule about the Trojan Rodeo on the first day of school.  If you have any feedback from last year's schedule, I would love to hear it!  But, as you plan, keep in mind that your class will not have specials or their regular recess that day due to this event.

PD Spotlight

I read this short article from Michael Linsin about the goal for the first day of school.  There is something about this article that resonated with me.  Maybe it's because the goal was straightforward, or maybe it was because it seemed so doable and logical.  Hope you find it helpful as well.  Click here to read it yourself.

Friday Funny 

Knock, knock

Who's there?

Soup

Soup who?

SUPerMAN!