January 31, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Classrooms took advantage of the free Virtual Field Trip to the Omaha Zoo about sharks.  We learned that there were some HUGE pre-historic shark ancestors!  They were very engaged.
• PLTW is going strong all over the building.  Our Dodgeland student engineers are building compound machines, exploring sound, and coding/programming.   
• A parent of a new student to Dodgeland emailed me yesterday to share how pleased she is with the education that her child is getting at Dodgeland.  Her last line was, "Thank you so much for everything your school does every day."   This is all because of the incredible, caring staff that make Dodgeland great!
• The guests in our building on Tuesday, including Wi First Lady, shared how inspired they were by the work the Dodgeland staff has implemented to help students build SEL skills. In fact, I wish you all could have heard them praising your work.  It brought tears to many of our eyes!

What is Happening at Dodgeland?

• Friday, January 31
• Last day to add attendance tickets to the grade buckets.
• 1:30pm - Dance Team run for state
• 2:30pm - 2nd Quarter Pride Assembly (Please have kids packed up before arriving)
• Monday, Feb. 3
• 5th Grade Field Trip to Schauer Art Center (11:30-2:30)
• Jeans for Heart week starts (Add your donation to the envelope in the mailroom)
• Tuesday, Feb 4
• Jump rope for Heart Packets distributed to students.
• Wednesday, Feb 5
• Math committee observation out of the building from 11-3:30
• NO Grade Level data meeting
• Thursday, Feb 6
• 4th and 5th grades on Field Trips
• Referendum Update meeting for Staff 3:20-4:00
• Friday, Feb 7
• National Wear Red Day

Nitty-Gritty

• Survey - Last minute reminder...
•  If you haven't completed the Employee Engagement survey, please do so today.  It ends on January 31.  The link is below.
•  Dodgeland School District Employee Engagement Survey
• If your students have not taken it yet, please have them finish it today.  Let me know if you need the QR code again.  I sent it out last week in an email.

• Referendum Update meeting for Staff
• All staff is invited to attend a meeting in the IMC on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 3:20pm to receive updates to the referendum and facts related to the ballot question for the April 7th referendum. 

• Lunch Reflection
• Just a clarification.  Students with Educlimber incidents that require a lunch detention, often will meet with Kevin (sometimes they meet with me if there is a schedule conflict) as a lunch reflection activity .  The lunch reflections are usually coordinated by Erich or myself with Kevin's schedule.  The purpose of this 1:1 time is to talk through what happened, and help the student reflect on another way to handle this situation as well as ways to help make it right.  If a student is doing a reflection more than once, the student will call home to talk with parents about this incident.  Parents should be communicated with frequently so that this phone call is not the first time they are hearing about incidents at school.  If you need help or support with this, please let me know.  Students benefit from open communication between school and home.

• Student Behavior
• In the last week or two, there have been many reports brought to me about students being unkind to one another, using inappropriate language including swear words, threatening others, disrespect towards staff and other disappointing choices.  In some cases, the situations have been going on for quite some time. Our expectations have not changed at school.  Please be vigilant and observant throughout the day but especially during recess (before and during school), lunch and any unstructured time periods.  Students should not feel uncomfortable by the words that others are using around them, or afraid that they are not safe at school.  It is not okay with any of us for students to feel like this and it does not fit with our vision of how we want our school to feel and be like.  Thank you in advance for your support and for being consistent messengers of our expectations.  Our students can be kind, respectful and responsible, and they deserve our high expectations for their behavior.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

• Students of the Month
• Please fill in the student of the month chart for your class before Tuesday, Feb 4.  I will be announcing them on Wednesday morning.  Click here for the student of the month chart.

• Jump Rope for Heart
• February has lots of opportunities to participate in this fundraising program.  Please see Mrs. Scholfield's email for a list of all of the exciting plans the committee has in store for our school.

PD Spotlight

This is not a new graphic, but this week I wanted to review it again.  After spending the last week or so reflecting on all of the things we do at Dodgeland to help address SEL needs of our students, I found myself needing to return to the foundations of this work.  At some point in the near future, I want to be able to know these competencies so well that I can use them in conversation and in problem solving for student needs.  However, I am not here yet.  I was asked to take a survey this week regarding them as well, and one of the questions asked me to tell which of the 5 competencies was the most important and why.  I found it to be a very difficult question.  As soon as I thought I had it in an order, I second guessed myself.  I think it is because they are all so connected that it is hard to say that one is more important than another.  What do you think?  Click here to reread the descriptions of these competencies.  It is a good reminder of what skills we are trying to help our students develop while they are going through our system.

Friday Funny

It's only funny because it's true!  (Except I would rather have a book!)

January 24, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• An "escape room" math activity using Google forms provided a hands-on problem solving math task for groups of students to apply the math learning targets taught that day.
• First graders working on their PLTW unit drawing a picture to describe the problem they are investigating.
• 4K students successfully making "The Serious Goose" smile in their story during library. (This is a new book in the IMC.  Check it out!  It's a great book!)
• Jr Coaches describing for me the problem solving wheel and how it helps them and other students during recess.  It is so awesome to listen to the language that they are using and their opinions of how it helps younger students at recess.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 27
• Soup-er Bowl starts at DES with donations benefitting The Gathering Source
• Geography Bee Finals for 4-8 grades at 10:56-11:30
• School Board Meeting at 6:30
• Tuesday, January 28
• Visitors to our school to observe our SEL initiatives 10am-1pm
• Would there be anyone interested and available to help out in the lunchroom on Monday and Tuesday (1/27 & 1/28)?
• Wednesday, January 29
• Thursday, January 30
• Friday, January 31
• 2nd Quarter Pride Assembly at 2:30 (Have students packed up before the assembly please.)
• Last day of the Soup-er Bowl
• Make sure to complete the Employee Engagement Survey before today. (Link is below)

Nitty-Gritty

• Summer School
• Last call for interested summer school staff...  I will be working on this over the weekend and don't want anyone to miss out on the opportunity to join us this summer!  It is a wonderful way to try new activities and provide students with a safe learning environment.
• After School Y-Care
• This week the director of the After school program from the Y shared that they have 2 full-time openings for after school.  Please let me know if you know of any families that need after school care.
• Also, they have openings for employment to work right here at Dodgeland in the after school program through the Y.  Click here and here for more information regarding this opportunity.
• Featured Staff Friday
• Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the staff members that have submitted sheets for me to feature you this spring in our FaceBook feature.  If you have pictures you'd like me to use, please email them to me.  I plan to start sharing them on Friday, Feb 7.
• Attendance Initiative
• There is one last week for students to earn tickets for the Attendance Raffle for the month of January.  I will have a short video to give one final push for students to be present all week.  The attendance committee will be making a video where we draw names there.  Prizes will be handed out on Friday, Feb 7 at 2:30pm.
• February's Attendance Challenge will be a classroom challenge using the words Valentine's.  When your class fills in all 10 letters, please provide a class selected reward and post the class chart near the attendance chart in the hallway near the mailroom door.
• TalkReadPlay
• The Foundation is collaborating with us bring the TalkReadPlay initiative into our playgroups here at Dodgeland.  The initiative has a wealth of resources for parents of children from birth through age 5. The goal of the initiative is to bring awareness of brain and language development and provide ways to enhance everyday routines by stretching the routine by adding in language and learning activities.  This includes asking questions like, "How many _____ do you see?"  "What do you see that is red?" etc. This includes a free app for ideas to use with young children as well as other resources for parents. When young children have opportunities to build brain synapses early in their life, they enter school ready to successfully take on the academics and social situations at school.  Please see any of the 4K teachers for more information or click here for the website.
• Survey
• Please take a few minutes to complete the Employee Engagement survey that Dr. Thompson sent out this week before Friday, Jan 31.  We value feedback so that we can continue to grow and make our school and district even stronger.   Dodgeland School District Employee Engagement Survey.
• In addition to employees, we also would like to get feedback from our students.  Please plan a time for students to take this survey before Friday, January 31.  I will send out a QR code and link for students to take this survey.  The survey is similar to the one that students took last year.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

PD Spotlight

• A couple of weeks ago we learned how the teaching points are written and ways to help make our mini-lessons, mini.  Each teaching point has a goal and a strategy written into it.  Each lesson has a connection, teaching point with demo, active engagement, and link.  Sometimes the q/a section of a class gets away from us during the lesson.  Everyone wants a chance to answer, and before we now it, our mini-lesson has gone twice as long as we planned.  This article was shared with me from Mrs. Andrea Schulte.  It made me think about how often this happened to me when I taught Read 180.  Hopefully you will find this article thought provoking and helpful for your practice as well.

Friday Funny

A joke that can be shared with our students.  It just makes me laugh.  :-)

January 17, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• It was exciting to talk with so many students that were proud of the progress they made on their i-Ready winter tests.  I can't wait to see their gains at the end of the year!
• I am grateful to the quick responses to emergencies by staff members. I am so grateful to work alongside this elementary team.
• Our 4K students' executive functioning skills improving every week.  Have you seen them transitioning in the hallway lately?  They have grown so much!
• Flexibility with schedules this week to respond to student and staff needs, including covering for ill teachers.  (Let's hope this flu bug goes away soon!)

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 20
• Grades Due at 8am
• Click here to let me know you are interested in teaching Summer School!
• Optional EP training in the IMC at 3:15pm
• Tuesday, January 21
• Coach Jena visiting Recess from 9:15-1pm
• Wednesday, January 22
• Self-Care Academy in the IMC from 3:30-4:30
• Newsletter Articles due to Marie
• Report Cards sent home
• Thursday, January 23
• Attendance committee meeting at 12:10 in the D.O. conference room
• Friday, January 24

Nitty-Gritty

• GG Survey
• Don't forget to take the GG survey by Wednesday, January 22.  Click here to get to the survey.
• i-Ready Reports
• Please print off an i-Ready report to send home with students once your testing is complete.  If students are completed with the testing, the reports could be included in the report card on Wednesday.  Click here if you need a refresher on how to print the reports.
• WIN
• With mid-year testing almost completed, revisions to the WIN groups are probably ready to be determined.  When your team has the groups revised, please share them with me.  We will return to weekly data meetings in February.  If you need any help, feedback, or support on this process, please let me know.
• Curriculum Pacing
• It is hard to believe, but the school year is half over.  It would be a good time to take stock on where you are in the curriculum for the year. Earlier this school year, we talked about planning the Units of Study for Reading and Writing.  Are you on track for completing your plan?  How about Math?
• New Faces
• On Monday, a student teacher, Ms. Chrissy Mueller, will be joining Kathy Miller in 2nd grade.  She is currently a student at Maranatha and will be with us for all of 3rd quarter.  Please make her feel welcome!
• Also this week, Ms. Stephanie Wild will be returning to Trisha Caine's class to teach during her maternity leave. Please welcome Stephanie back to our team!

PD Spotlight

I came across this article and thought I would share it with you.  I hear this a lot when I talk to students about behavior incidents.  Of course, sometimes in my case, kids say this because they don't really want to discuss what happened.  However, I still found the chart at the bottom of the article to be thought provoking.  Perhaps you will find these details helpful as well.

Friday Funny

A couple of staff members know this story, and a special couple even got to witness this event, but this week's Friday Funny is a true story about me.

Last week, I was in Amber's room helping with a student that had entered the room.  I needed to call Marie in the office for assistance and saw this phone on the shelf.  I said, "Is this really her phone?  Why does it look so weird?" 

However, I needed Marie's help so I picked up the phone and embarrassingly dialed the first 2 numbers before I realized that this is a TOY in the EC room.  I then started laughing so hard at myself (along with the unfortunate witnesses to my error) it took me a little while to find the actual classroom phone.  It worked MUCH BETTER when I used the real one!  :-)

January 10, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• A team approach to helping students struggling this week.  When we work together to support each other, everyone wins, the students and the staff.
• Staff modeling how to deal with frustration when the i-Ready testing had technology glitches.  Students were frustrated too, but they take their cues from us.  Shout out to Mr. Modaff for working for many hours on this with multiple companies and tech support people this week to get this working for all of us.
• Kindergartners are working on number sense by understanding how teen numbers are 10 plus another number.
• There were a number of students very proud of themselves when Student of the Month was announced.  It made me smile!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 13
• Hand in your Featured Staff Friday planning sheet please!  :-)
• Read Across America planning committee meeting
• Tuesday, January 14
• Wear Milwaukee Bucks Attire
• Wednesday, January 15
• Workout Wednesday
• Thursday, January 16
• End of the 1st Semester
• Early Release @12:20pm --No AM recess, lunch period changed to 11-12 for K-5 (4K is 10:30-11:30)
• Report & Planning from 12:30-3:00
• Friday, January 17
• PD Day

Following Week

• Monday, January 20
• Grades due at 8am
• Wednesday, January 22
• Report Cards are sent home
• Self Care Academy in the IMC

Nitty-Gritty

• Target-Based Grading Follow-Up
• I received a few questions and some feedback recently about this process.  I wanted to take the time to respond to them.
• The guidelines are meant to give parameters for our work.  They are not strict "rules" for the work.  If we need to add more, let's have a conversation about this.
• The priority standards list does not have to be done in a way that every standard is a priority at some point during their elementary career.  We will teach skills from all of the standards, but we are identifying the ones that are the priority. These are the guaranteed curriculum that we are saying every child will be assessed and held to these skills while going through our system.
• Aren't we just teaching to the test?
• This is an unsettling statement isn't it? It sounds like we only care if kids can do well on a test, not on all the other unique abilitiies and skills that make our students. This is not at all what I believe a well-rounded education looks like for our students.
• However, I want to address this issue because it fits in with the target based work that we are doing. Our state assessment, the Forward test, is written with some of the most important reading, writing, matha nd thinking skills that we teach in a year.  Is it a perfect test? No.  But there are no perfect tests.  We must take into account the skills that our students are going to be asked questions from on this assessment. It would be very frustrating for a student to go through this testing process without having the advantage of instruction beforehand.  This is why it is important that our priority standards match the assessment. (The REAL process asked us to do this at the very beginning of this target-based work.)                                                                   

• But, what is important to remember is:  This is not the only education and skills that are taught at our school.  Yes, we are teaching the skills taught on the Forward, but we are also teaching skills that are not tested on the Forward.  We are teaching them to work collaboratively with others, we are teaching them to problem solve independently, we are teaching them to use organization skills, and the list goes on.  These are all important, even if they are not on the Forward.  For the Target based work, our priority standards must include a direct and realistic view of what our students will be asked to do.  This is why I don't believe we are "teaching to the test," but rather we are preparing them to be strong readers, writers, listeners, speakers, mathematicians and the Forward is just one way that our students will get to show their skills.
• Recycling
• Please help our students understand the difference between the two baskets in our classrooms.  If a milk container or other food remnants/wrappers/etc are put in the recycling bin, everything in the bin has to be put in the garbage.  

PD Spotlight

• The quick article this week is from Pernille Ripp.  It is related to conferring, but as I read it I also think it fits with our concentration on SEL and building relationships with our students.  The idea is that a single question can give us a glimpse into a child's world, help us see their perspective, and lets us in to the things that our students find important.  It is a question I want to add to my repertoire to use often with students.  Perhaps it will fit with your conversations too...

Friday Funny

January 3, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Since it is such a short week, I have very little for this spot this week.
• HOWEVER, it was so great to see everyone today.  I missed the kids and all of you during break.  I hope you had a great first day back!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 6 
• Mentors/Mentee meetings in the IMC
• Tuesday, January 7
• Wednesday, January 8 
• Wear Badger Attire
• Staff meeting in the IMC @ 3:15pm
• Thursday, January 9 
• Student of the Month announced
• Phonics Committee meeting in D.O. conference room @ 3:15
• Friday, January 10 
• Pyramid Model committee meeting @ 7:45am

Nitty-Gritty

• Target Based grading planning 
• Our next PD day will be focused on our target based grading work.  I will be following up with an email to help prepare for this work so that we can be efficient with our time on Jan 17.  Let me know if you have any questions related to this process.
• Literacy Block Visual

• As I stated in the last blog, I will be providing information and feedback on literacy instruction to support your SLO and PPG goals. One of the challenging parts of Units of Study is keeping the Mini-lesson--mini so that there is a lot of time for students to practice.  I like how the pie chart to the right visually shows a goal of how literacy blocks are spent.  Because mini-lessons are at the beginning of a lesson, it has the potential to throw off the timings of the block.  
• Staff Meetings
• Our staff meetings are the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month.  However, the 4th Wednesdays in Jan, March and April have been cancelled so that you all can participate in the self-care academy.  (On the Elementary Google Calendar, the meeting is described as a Self-Care Academy date for those three months.) These sessions are designed for adults to learn and practice their own self-care.  Our profession is very stressful and complex, and self-care is not always a top priority, even though it maybe should be.  This is our opportunity to fit it in to our schedules. Attendance at the Self-Care Academy is optional.  
• Self Care Academy Flyer (See the email from Kalise Horst for more details.)

• Upcoming Event - January 28, 2020
• I wanted to give a heads-up about an event that is occurring at our school on January 28. Representatives from the Office of Children's Mental Health and the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation, along with a number of other agencies related to student SEL skill development including First Lady Evers will be visiting Dodgeland Elementary to see the initiatives that we have in place regarding SEL.  This visit is in the early planning stages.  As more logistics and details are developed and planned, they will be shared.  At this time, you should be aware that there will be many visitors in the building that day.

PD Spotlight

• This week the PD Spotlight is a VERY short article that I would like you to read before Wednesday's staff meeting, January 8.  The article will give you some background information for the presentation that Andrea Schulte will be leading for us during the staff meeting.  I liked that the article acknowledges how difficult it is to teach a mini-lesson from UoS, but it also gives some helpful advice on how to work on getting it mini in our own classrooms.   This blog is one of my favorites.  Feel free to subscribe to it yourself if you are interested.

Friday Funny