December 6, 2019

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• First graders working hard on story problems using math mountains and a missing addend.  They really had to use their reading skills in math. :-)
• 4K students helping to read the pictures in a Santa book in the library.  They learned a hard word to say-- ornaments!
• I'm excited to see the finished doors for the contest.  So many creative and fun ideas!  
• Students working on using their inside voices during lunch.  Thank you for reinforcing this in classrooms too.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, December 9
• Mid-Quarter for Qtr 2 
• Milwaukee Bucks Attire day (students and/or staff)
• Wear your Christmas Bling (staff only)
• Board Workshop in IMC at 6pm (School Perception community survey results will be presented)
• Tuesday, December 10
• Wednesday, December 11
• 1st grade Data meeting at Noon
• Staff meeting in the IMC @3:10 (Bring your target based grading materials to the meeting)
• Thursday, December 12
• Elementary Winter Concert for grades K, 2, 4 at 6:30 (Kids arrive at 6:05)
• Friday, December 13
• Santa's Ho-Ho-Ho Down (wear your flannel and western wear)

Nitty-Gritty

• FaceBook reminder - Please let me know if I can feature you for a FaceBook weekly post.  The more we can connect with our community, the more they will hear the positive things we do each and every day here.

• Playworks Update - Coach Jena emailed out a follow up after her last visit to our classrooms.  This is her final visit to classrooms, but she will be here a couple more times this year during our recesses though.  I encourage you to continue to use the Playworks games, activities and attention getters to develop/practice SEL skills and build community in the classroom. The few minutes that these activities take will pay off in upcoming lessons when students are ready to learn and focused.

• Food Service survey - The school board has asked that students be surveyed about breakfast and lunch.  Please watch your email next week for the link and/or procedure for giving the survey to our elementary students.

• Summer School - Yep, you read that correctly!  I'm going to begin planning for next year's summer school session.  The dates are: June 15-July 23 (Mon-Thurs from 7:30-noon).  Watch for an email in January with more information!

PD Spotlight

I am sharing a short article this week about managing teacher stress.  I truly believe teaching is a calling and one of the best careers in the country.  It comes with the opportunity to make a difference each and every day.  It also means that we make hundreds of decisions day after day.  We get to work with lots of different people that have a variety of perspectives.  The work is exciting but also can cause stress.  How we handle the stress is the key to taking care of our own well-being and enjoying this career.  I came across this article and thought about how I needed it after today in particular.  I want to draw your attention to numbers 8 and 9 specifically. (All of the tips are good, but I want to emphasize these.)  As a part of the elementary team, I want us all to find it easy to use these two tips here at Dodgeland.  Let me know if you need me!

Friday Funny