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!  :-)