November 5, 2021

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 4th graders worked together to study for a summative assessment by explaining how they got the answers and working on breaking numbers apart to multiply.  It was so interesting to listen to how they explained their thinking.

• 3rd graders are starting to work on their state writing piece.  I love hearing students tell me what they are learning from their reading.  Two boys even read a Spanish paragraph to me and then explained the important points to me in English.

• 5K students were reading and spelling "star" words in their weekly message from their teachers.  They were using whole body listening even with distractions in the room and were excited to find them in the message!

• Staff members working together to create a routine to help out with a student with significant needs.  There is a plan, but yet flexibility and open to feedback, and focused on what the student needs.

What's Happening At Dodgeland?

• Monday, November 8
• Mentor/Mentee Meeting @3:15pm in IMC - Year 1 Teachers only (Mentors are optional)
• Bus Duty for the week (Schweitzer, Lauth, Klis)
• GG Topic this week: Empathy and Respect

• Tuesday, November 9
• Recess Team Meeting in Room 120 at 3:05pm for all paraprofessional recess supervisors and certified staff recess team members
• Social Media Posts due to Josh (Miller, Piekarski, Schuett/Turcotte, Bingen)
• Rise Intervention - Round 2 begins.  This round goes until Winter Break.

• Wednesday, November 10
• Workout Wednesday
• Academic Grade Level data Meeting - 4th grade in Rm 138 from 12:35-1:25
• Staff meeting (See below)

• Thursday, November 11
• Veteran's Day Assembly @ 9:30am (See below for more information)
• SEL Grade Level data Meeting - 1st grade in Rm 122 from 12:05-12:55pm
• Jenny is in a meeting from 1:45-2:45pm

• Friday, November 12
• Packer Day Attire

Nitty-Gritty

• Staff Meeting - 11/10/21
• On Wednesday, 11/10, I have a very important appointment to go to. It was the only time they had available.  I know how precious and limited our staff meeting time is this school year, so I am truly sorry for this.  I will send out a video of important information before Wednesday afternoon.  Please plan to watch the short video during that time period.

• Veteran's Assembly
• The district Veteran's Day assembly will begin promptly at 9:30 in the HS gym.  Morning recess will be canceled for the day. Many local veteran's will be guests in our building that day, please dress professionally.  Due to Covid precautions, the veterans will not be welcoming elementary students for handshakes/high fives this year.  If you are new to this assembly, we will sit in the same section as the Homecoming assembly.  Please revisit behavior expectations prior to the assembly.

• Locker Mischief
• I am just bringing attention to all about a behavior that seems to be increasing. It appears that some of our students find it funny, or a good idea to move the locker name tags from lockers to new locations to make it confusing for classes.  (For example, this last week 4th graders came back to their lockers with their name tags on totally different lockers than their own.). I have found some of them on the cameras but not all of them.  For those I have talked to, I am not getting a very logical or satisfying answer to the rationale for this.  At any rate, lockers are provided for students to place their items in and it is disrespectful for others to enter anyone's locker but their own or to touch the labels on the outside.  Please keep an eye out for this as you are moving through the hallways.

• Open Door Counseling Services
• I received an email about updated information about accessing the Open Door Counseling Services that are at Dodgeland weekly.  Click HERE for a copy of the brochure.  If you have any families that are interested in this for their child, these can be printed and sent home for students.

PD Spotlight

This week I had a very interesting conversation about students and their ability to attend and have the soft skills/executive functioning skills to be successful in a classroom.  The conversation made me reflect on how these skills are affecting their success in the classroom and learning complex skills as well.  Executive functioning has three main parts: working memory, control emotions and responses, and cognitive flexibility.  It appears that lately I have had more and more conversations with children working on their on emotion/response controls.  I came across this short video as a tip from an elementary school teacher that shared how she models this skill to help students build their own skills as well.  I believe this will take time, but it can be done and be effective.  In addition, the most important part is that this works when we have strong relationships with our students.  Just as many of our PD lessons in previous years have emphasized; relationships matter.  Students will learn and grow in a safe and kind classroom environment. Holding students accountable is the kindest way to show students that you care.  Please click HERE to watch this teacher describe how she models this skill to help students develop their own executive functioning skills so that they can learn at high levels.

Friday Funny

I don't know about you, but I plan to put that hour to good use this weekend!