May 22, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• A 4K student explained to me that in her school at home, her mom is the principal and her dad is the teacher, but she would really rather go to school at Dodgeland!

• Teachers celebrating when they hear from students that they have had limited contact with since the school closure.

• Staff members continuing to focus on relationship building and how they can provide closure to students at the end of the year.

• Staff coming together to provide a Talent Show for our students this year.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, May 25
• Memorial Day - No School

• Tuesday, May 26
• Virtual Recess for 4K-2 with MR. LANGE and COACH JENA!!!! at 11:15am on https://bluejeans.com/411624574

• Wednesday, May 27
• Virtual Staff Meeting at 11am on https://bluejeans.com/901415692

• Thursday, May 28
• Virtual Recess for 3-5th grade with MR. LANGE and COACH JENA at 3:00pm on https://bluejeans.com/411624574

• Friday, May 29
• Last Day of Virtual Learning

Nitty-Gritty

• Budget Process
• By June 1, staff will receive their budget requests back so that you know what purchase requisitions will need to be completed and turned in.  I will be looking over all of the items that you have submitted over the weekend.  If you have not submitted it, please do so as soon as possible. 

• Week of June 1
• During this final week of the 2019-20 school year, there will be a number of things that need to be done and planned.  I will be meeting with each grade level team that week to discuss: class lists finalization, review the target based work, reflection on virtual learning and planning for the fall.
• There will also be time built in to the week to complete: paperwork (i.e. report cards, IEP's, etc), purchase orders, and Effective Project forms.
• During this time, you may choose to join meetings from home on BlueJeans, or you may choose to come in to the buildings for them.  However, we still must maintain social distancing and groups smaller than 10.  If you are experiencing any symptoms or have a fever, please do not leave your home.
• A full schedule will be shared with you early next week, but for now you should know that grade level meetings will take place on Monday, June 1.  Each team will have about 30-45 min. to meet with me.  Also, our very last full staff meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 3 at 11am.

• Report Cards
• If you have any questions about completing report cards for this 4th quarter, please let me know.  Many of our students will receive P or DNP for all categories across the board.  However, in some cases, students have participated in reading, but not math or vice versa.  You may find that you are giving different scores depending on the subject. Please still provide an overall comment at the bottom of the report card that communicates with parents their overall performance from this grade that may or may not include the virtual learning experience.

• End of the Year Celebration
• Thank you so much for your creative ideas of how we could end the school year for our kids.  Due to the many regulations that we must follow, anything we do will need to be done virtually.  Here are some ideas that we could do:
• Virtual School picnic - (RaChelle's idea) We log in to a single BlueJeans site and eat lunch together outside or on a blanket in the house if it's raining while a slide show of pictures is shown on screen share.
• Dance Party - (Teresa's idea) We end the day with a dance party on one site while we celebrate the end of the school year.
• Handwritten notes/Postcards sent to each student to mail on June 4-5.
• Please click here to provide me feedback of the idea(s) that you think we should do.

PD Spotlight

It is possible that I am feeling out of sorts with the end of the school year fast approaching because it doesn't have the normal excitement and expectations of completion that most school years include.  It is why I have spent so much time thinking about how to close this school year in a way that is meaningful.  I came across this article that provides ideas for how to do this.  Many of them are meant to be ideas for students.  However, they could easily be used for us as adults as well.  How can we reflect on things that have gone well?  How do we go back and remember all the experiences that occurred before March 13?  I found this to be thought provoking for myself, even if it is meant as a practical piece for educators.  Hope you find it helpful as well.  CASEL has many wonderful resources relating to SEL and COVID-19.  It will be important that we have a plan for welcoming our students back into the building that will address these needs.  In order to do this, we have to stop and think about all that we have been through as a society, a community and as a school.

Friday Funny

I saw this earlier this week and could totally relate to the music teacher's original song. It made me laugh out loud.  Hope it brings you laughter today too!