April 17, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Professional conversations multiple times this week with various staff members about target based grading, math curriculum, student needs, and instruction.  Our school gets stronger and stronger when we work together to discuss professional topics openly.

• Teachers encouraging their students to greet each other when they join BlueJeans.

• Staff members giving extra 1:1 assistance when they are struggling with work.

• Staff going above and beyond contacting parents and working with students to continue learning.

• JUST FOR YOU!  Our students miss you all too.  Many of them submitted pictures or videos to share how much they miss you.  Please enjoy this video.  https://youtu.be/x7IL614G66c

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, April 20, 2020 (Start of another Virtual Spirit week)
• Making Creations Monday - Share a photo of a creation you've made.
• Target Based Grading Dept Meetings continue

• Tuesday, April 21, 2020
• Tourist Tuesday - Share a place you would like to take a virtual field trip to

• Wednesday, April 22, 2020
• NO STAFF meeting - Use this time to collaborate with your teams to work on success criteria for your prioritized learning Targets. 
• Wellness Wednesday - Share a photo of a healthy snack that you enjoy.

• Thursday, April 23, 2020
• Thankful Thursday - Share something you are thankful for.

• Friday, April 24, 2020
• Fun Day Friday - Share a picture of something fun that you like to do.
• 2pm - Live virtual keynote with Adam Welcome.

Nitty-Gritty

• Virtual Keynote - Friday, April 24
• Your virtual teaching duties are relieved early for you to join in a bluejeans session for a live virtual keynote from Adam Welcome.  If you don't know who this is, you are in for a treat. Adam is co-author of Kids Deserve It (and other books). He is a highly sought after speaker for education conferences and I guarantee you'll end your week feeling pumped up!  Please thank Jessica for setting this up.  She will be sharing a BlueJeans link next week.  I am really looking forward to ending my week with this keynote!

• Virtual Spirit Week (We all may need a fun pick me up next week.)
• The week is not necessarily about dressing up for the day, but instead ways to share other fun thoughts and likes with our school community.  There will be a visual shared with you on Friday afternoon if you'd like to post to your own classroom pages.  I will be sharing on Dojo and FaceBook as well.  Click here to view a table with all of the days in one place.

• Schoology
• If you are using Schoology, can you please add me to your Schoology classes?  Some parents contact me with questions about Schoology, but I can not see the same things that they are seeing from their child's iPad.  Thank you in advance.

• Chat Feature on BlueJeans
• After Brad tested this out with BlueJeans, he has reported that system does not have the option to shut down only the direct message feature of the chat box.  Please let Brad and myself know if you would like the chat box turned off for your class.

• BlueJeans Reminder
• Now that the setting has been changed that BlueJeans session needs a moderator in order for it to start, it is important to be logged on right before the official start times.  There have been students and parents reporting that they are logging on, but nobody is there for them.  Please remind students of this setting so that if they are early, they know to wait.  Please communicate if you will not be on BlueJeans for students.

• Alternative Classes Ideas for Students
• I love the ideas shared on Wednesday for other ways to help our students connect with each other.  (Cooking with the Zastrow's was a pretty fun watch too!)   Please let me know if you'd like to work on a team putting ideas together for a calendar for the month of May.  RaChelle leads students with fun Movement activities (many of them from Sue Kuhn) that all are welcome to join at 1pm. BlueJeans #768744832

PD Spotlight

Today's PD Spotlight is something I learned today from the wonderful ladies at the Greater Watertown Health Foundation.  They shared that the Compassion Resilience toolkit website had a number of videos directly related to staying resilient during COVID-19.  I was devastated by the news today, and while I want all of you and our students to be healthy and safe, I selfishly wanted to go back to school and have "normal" school.  As I tell my daughter, we can only control our reactions to bad news, I really just wanted to scream and go back to bed.  I watched the stages of Fatigue video and recognized many of those stages in myself in the last few weeks.  The tips they shared gave me strategies to realize this is temporary and that I will be okay.  If any of you need someone to talk to, cry with, scream with, please let me know.  I am always here for you.  Take care and be safe.

Friday Funny