April 30, 2021

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• A 4th grader shared all kinds of interesting facts about Wayne Gretzky.  I love when our 4th graders work on their biography unit.  I love hearing the interesting facts they are learning and how excited they are to share.

• 5th graders successfully completed their THINK program. Way to go!

• A parent sharing how excited his child was to learn new things in his classroom.  Our students know learning is important at Dodgeland.

• Teachers rallying together to help a student cope and problem solve an unfortunate accident before school on Thursday.  Thankfully, everyone is going to be okay.

• So many teachers are communicating often with families/parents.  In this unique school year, I appreciate all of you continuing to work on strong home-school connections.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, May 3rd
• Teacher Appreciation Week begins!  :-)
• i-Ready assessment window opens
• Teacher surveys on Class Creator are due

• Tuesday, May 4th
• Jenny is Forward testing starting at noon.
• Staff Meeting #2 @ 3pm in room 141

• Wednesday, May 5th
• Workout Wednesday

• Thursday, May 6th
• Staff Meeting #3 @3 pm in room 137

• Friday, May 7th

Nitty-Gritty

• Important News
• Starting this fall, Nathan Crane will be joining our Dodgeland team full-time as a special education teacher.  Currently, you will find him student teaching in Kathy Miller's classroom. :-) The special education team will work together to determine how to support and meet our students' needs next year.  Please welcome him to our team!

• Milk calendars
• Friendly reminder:  All classroom teachers must fill in the milk calendars for Ms. Lamb by the end of the school year.  This is important for the end of the year reports that Cathy must complete.  Click HERE for the spreadsheet.  Find your class in the tab at the bottom and then scroll through the months to complete them.

• Taking your class outside
• Just reminder that it is important that you are communicating with others when using the playground, blacktop, etc at other parts of the day.  The calendar contains each day until the end of the school year.

• District office doors
• The doors to the district office are OPEN!  Students in grades 1-3 can return to entering and leaving through that door.  There is an extra door now that is on a time release lock to enter straight through the hallway.  For staff, you will just scan your fob twice to get through.  It looks so nice!  

• End of the year Assessments
• i-Ready testing window opens on Monday, May 3rd.  Please let me know if you need support or assistance with completing these assessments.  
• Our interventionists will begin assessing students with the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark assessment.  They will be assessing students that are below grade level and in an intervention group in grades 3-5.  In grades 1-2, they will assess all students.  When these are complete, they will move to 5K.  
• PALS window has opened and will be open until the end of the school year.  Let me know if you see any errors in your class list on the PALS site.

• Summer School
• Remind students that Summer school registration is still open!  There are lots of fun courses with plenty of seats left for students.  Breakfast and lunch are free for all students this summer. 

• Bridges Training reminders
• This is just a friendly reminder about our training for Bridges this summer.  The self study portion of the Bridges training is now in-person for all teachers grades K-5.  Having a knowledgeable math coach that can guide us through will be invaluable for us all.
• 5K-2nd grade: 
• Monday, June 7, 8:30-11am (Session with Sara)
• Monday, June 7, 12:30-3:00pm (Zoom Session)
• Tuesday, June 8, 8:30-11am (Zoom Session)
• Tuesday, June 8, 12:30-3:00pm (Session with Kristine)
• 3rd-5th grade: 
• Tuesday, June 8, 8:30-11am (Session with Kristine)
• Tuesday, June 8, 12:30-3:00pm (Zoom Session)
• Wednesday, June 9, 8:30-11am (Zoom Session)
• Tuesday, June 9, 12:30-3:00pm (Session with Kristine)
• 4K grade:
• Thursday, June 10, 8am-10pm (Zoom session with Hartford teachers)

PD Spotlight

I came across this article this week and I didn't know what to think at first.  I know I have shared many PD articles this year about self-care and its importance.  This one felt a bit different.  The goal of this article was to recognize how you are feeling and use it to determine what type of rest will help you feel rejuvenated. Since next week is Teacher Appreciation Week, I thought this may be just what you need to read/know too.  I recognize that this has been a truly unique and stressful school year.  I am always so appreciative of the work and people that I get to work with every day.  My hope for all of you is to feel fully rested each day so that you can enjoy all of the wonderful people, experiences and kindness in the world around you.

Friday Funny