October 30, 2020

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Teachers working and supporting one another with so many things, including using PowerTeacher Pro.  This week's staff meeting was full of such GREAT questions that were so helpful. If you missed the meeting, the link is HERE.

• Coach Jena shared what a great job our students were doing with the games and getting along during recess today!

• A student read her writing to me today and was using dialogue, figurative language, and some incredible vocabulary words like fierce, hideous, and exclaimed.  So impressive.

• Teachers communicating with parents daily about successes from the day.  Parents love to hear good news too!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, November 2

• Tuesday, November 3
• Election Day

• Wednesday, November 4
• Work Out Wednesday

• Thursday, November 5

• Friday, November 6

Nitty-Gritty

• Daylight Savings
• Reminder:  Saturday, Oct 31 is Daylight Savings.  Don't forget to set your clocks back 1 hour.  Enjoy your extra hour this weekend!  :-)

• Math Resources
• As promised, HERE is the link to a list of resources of instructional strategies or activities that were put together by the CESA 6 math center.  Susan added youtube links and ideas to use some of them virtually to help us all.   As we discussed last week, adding more student talk during Math this year will be one way to prepare students for the Bridges Math curriculum next year.  If you have any questions or need help, please contact Susan or myself.

• Toy Bank email from Lisa
• Just a reminder of Lisa's email from earlier this week about referrals to the Toy Bank.  Below is the details.
• The holiday season is right around the corner and the Dodge County Toy Bank is already working hard to create special memories for our families in need. The Toy Bank is only taking applications from referrals that meet certain income criteria. Unfortunately, this places a heavy administrative burden on our families. If they meet the criteria, then I will send them a special code in order for them to complete an online form. Please share with me any families that you feel would qualify and would be open to completing an application. Please consider families that will be willing to share their financial information and have access to wi-fi.
• Another program, A Child's Smile, has also reached out to assist families. This program is confidential and provides gift cards for families in need. 
• Please reach out to Lisa to refer any family that you think would benefit from this assistance.

• Emotions Survey
• I have compiled the 5 feelings that we most want to feel when we are at school.  Click Here to view them and the brainstorm list of observable actions that we came up with originally.  Many of the groups were not able to get through all 5 in the time we had available last time.  Click HERE to take the survey with ideas you have to add to our lists.  
• "What can we do for everyone to feel this way?"

• Monday and Tuesday, November 23 and 24
• If you have any questions about the Mon-Tues prep days before Thanksgiving, please see Dr. Thompson's email from Tues, Oct. 27.  If you have further questions, please let me know.

PD Spotlight

We have been working on target based grading for a number of years, but Dr. Thomas Guskey is one of the researchers that has been studying grading policies and practices in schools.  His work has influenced many school districts including our own.  I came across this video and I just liked how he explained the purpose.  Not that I didn't know this, but he stated it in such a way that helped remind me of what we are doing in our system.  I was getting so involved in the nitty-gritty details, that I had lost my why.  This short video was a great way to focus my attention.

Friday Funny

I feel this each and every year!