October 9, 2020

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• A Fourth grader described for me that she was learning about cells in Science.  She told me all about cell walls and cell membranes and was able to describe them with similes. She got to teach me!
• A teacher was problem solving with colleagues about a behavior issue in the classroom.  Working together helps people feel connected and supported.  We are a team and together we can create a plan to support our students too.
• A group of 5K students were so excited to point out all the star words they saw on the book video they were watching during lunch.  The words "a" and "is" were in the book a lot!
• I got to be the "office girl" in 4K this week.  (One of our littles didn't remember my name, but told a teacher that the office girl was her teacher for the day.) Our 4K students were able to tell me ending and beginning sounds to words already.  AND they were starting to recognize rhyming words too! 

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, October 12
• Healthy Minds @ Work email to download app
• Tuesday, October 13
• Complete this Google doc
• Wednesday, October 14
• Workout Wednesday
• Elementary Staff Meeting 3pm at https://bluejeans.com/9203861003
• 30 Day Challenge begins for Healthy Minds @ Work
• Thursday, October 15
• Jenny is at a virtual conference from 11-3:30
• Friday, October 16

Nitty-Gritty

• PowerTeacherPro and Target Based Grading
• Click HERE for the recording of the optional staff meeting from Thursday.  Also a FAQ document was started as well.  Feel free to add to this document, and I will respond to each question.  
• The next task is to add a September Citizenship skill grade for each of the learning targets from the citizenship rubric for your homeroom class in PowerTeacher Pro.  See video #3 for help.

• Reading A-Z/Raz Kids Update
• Please watch for an email from Learning A-Z with account information.  I spoke with the representative this afternoon.  He helped to combine all of the accounts for staff/students into one school account so that we could take advantage of a school discount.  I gave him the email addresses for each staff member that indicated they needed an account.  It may go to spam or your promotions folder, if you are not seeing it.  Let me know if you need help.

• Cesa 6 Looking for Volunteers
• Cesa 6 is recruiting volunteers to assist in reading and scoring the applications for the Kohl's scholarships.  Anyone can become a reader including teachers, administrators, community members, business professionals, school board members, retired educators and parents.  The scoring will take approximately 20-30 min. per application (most readers will have 5-10 applications/reader).  The scoring will be done online and will occur between Nov. 18 - Dec. 9.  If you are interested, please fill out the new reader registration form and choose Cesa 6 as the region.
• An orientation video is here for more information.

• October Month - Cybersecurity
• Please click HERE and HERE for helpful handouts/resources that the local 5-Stones group has shared with us.  This group is fighting to end human trafficking in our area and around the world. Please take the time to read and share as you see fit.

• "Hope Together" with Lisa Breselow
• Today Lisa sent an email to all of us introducing her new series titled, "Hope Together" where she will be supporting wellness for all of us.  In addition, she reminded us of two of the tools that we have access to at Dodgeland.  Consider using them during this stressful time.

• Steeping Wellness: You will be seeing monthly newsletters with encouragement for your personal use and to bring into the classroom, fun wellness challenges, live guided mediations and monthly virtual Self-Care Academies from Steeping Wellness. Watch for a welcome email from Kalise to highlight what's to come. Click here to watch a brief 4 min. video from Pam and Kalise.

• Healthy Minds at Work: If you haven't completed the assessment yet, please plan to do this today.  It takes about 10 min. and it is confidential.  Dodgeland staff and admin will not have access to your personal information. This assessment helps guide the program for each participant.  On Monday, October 12th, you will receive an invitation to join the Healthy Minds @ Work 30 Day Challenge with instructions to access your app.  Please do NOT download the app until Monday, 10/12, to ensure you are correctly enrolled in the program.  The challenge will officially launch on Wednesday, Oct 14. 
• Click here to take the assessment 

PD Spotlight

Last week, the PD spotlight centered on an article from Christina Cipriano and Marc Brackett.  It made me think about our days this school year and the many things on our plates.  All of us are working hard.  We are working at supporting each other, finding time to plan as a team, attend IEP meetings, cover breaks, create lessons and balance blended learning with in-person learning.  I started to reflect on how I want to feel when I am at school.  I want to feel happy and helpful.  I want to feel inspired.  Next week at our staff member we are going to talk about this in more depth.  Please fill out this anonymous reflection google doc before Tues, 10/13 to determine how we as a team want to feel at school.  Then we can work on how to make this happen.

Friday Funny

I don't know why, but it feels like this is something my son would do.  Anyone else have a child that would think of this "brilliant" idea?