February 14, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• I'd really like to hope that all of us (staff and students) are going to be healthy and feeling better by Monday.  However, thank you to everyone for being flexible and picking up extra tasks to fill in for sick staff members.  I love being part of your team!
• Teachers are posting the teaching point for students before beginning the mini-lesson.  Some have even underlined or highlighted the parts of the teaching points to help students see the goal and the strategy.
• Teachers sharing difficult news with parents in a compassionate and caring manner.  Parents and teachers that work together to problem solve and have open communication will benefit our students and their progress.  

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 17
• PD day - Click here for the agenda
• Tuesday, February 18
• All school assembly at 2:15pm in the Elementary Gym
• Read Across America Committee meeting at 3:05pm
• Wednesday, February 19
• Work Out Wednesday
• 3rd Grade Data Meeting 12:00 in D.O.
• Newsletter articles due to Marie
• Thursday, February 20
• Jenny will be out for the day.
• Friday, February 21
• New EC/4K Playgroup using TalkReadPlay with expanded age limits (ages 1-5)
• If you have any families with younger children, please encourage them to attend the playgroup from 9-10am.
• Kids Heart Challenge Packets due today.
• Donate $1 to wear a hat for the Kids Heart Challenge.

Nitty-Gritty

• Read Across America
• Read Across America begins the week of February 24.  The theme of the week is Kindness and Empathy.  Watch for more information from the committee this week.

• Summer School Update
• Summer School courses are being finalized within the week.  Registration will be online again this year starting on March 23 at 4pm.  Students that attend summer school, not only have the opportunity to continue their learning in reading, writing and math, but they also have access to a safe, caring environment to see peers that provides a healthy breakfast for all, and lunches can be ordered for students to take home as well.  Please encourage families to have their children participate. There will be lots of options for students, including some brand new options this year too.

PD Spotlight

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading this book.   I wanted to learn and to understand and be part of the solution.  I haven't gotten through every chapter yet, but I felt like others may be interested in his work as well.  One of the strongest pieces that he states is, "Kids do well if they can" and "Doing well is preferable to not doing well."  This made me think.  How can I be part of a solution that helps kids do well.  And I also wanted to read and reflect on whether any of my habits or responses are contributing to behavior issues at school.  Click here to read a one page FAQ page about Dr. Greene's approach, called the CPS model. (Collaborative & Proactive Solutions)

Friday Funny

This week's Friday Funny comes from the file of "Things that only happen to Jenny."  Some of you may have heard I got myself into a predicament yesterday morning before school.  I started to back out of my garage and all of a sudden, I notice the lawn mower coming with me.  Ella and I tried a few different ways to get the car unstuck from the mower, but with no luck.  Finally, we had to get Mason up.  I am certain he has not seen 7:15 am in more than a year!  Notice the look on his face below! He was very frustrated with his mom!

Eventually, we had to jack the car up to free the mower from the front of the car.  So while the normal thing would be to be stuck in the SNOW we just had, not me.  I am stuck on a LAWN MOWER!