February 11, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 31 students signed up to audition for the Elementary Musical!  How exciting that there are so many students interested in this extra curricular activity!

• Students are practicing dribbling a basketball in PE.  I love how they are concentrating so intensely!

• 3rd graders were glazing their clay bowls in art and were patient when they were waiting for others to finish with the color they needed for their own project.  I love when I can hear students speaking kindly and respectfully to one another.

• 5K students were working on sequencing a story by identifying what happened in a story they had previously read in the correct order.

What's Happening At Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 14
• Happy Valentine's Day!
• Bus Duty: Klink, Lucht, Zastrow
• GG Lessons: Kindness/Bucket Filling (see below)
• Newsletter articles due (2nd Grade, School Counselor)
• Read Across America Committee meeting 12:05 in elem. conference room
• Mentors/Mentees Meeting, 3:15 in IMC (Year 1-2-3 teachers/mentors)

• Tuesday, February 15
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Donovan, Ganser, Zastrow

• Wednesday, February 16
• Workout Wednesday
• Jenny in a meeting from 9:45-10:55am.
• 3rd gr. level data meeting 12:05-12:55 in the elem. conference room
• Bring your shirt to Trisha if you'd like to participate in Twos-Day

• Thursday, February 17
• 5K SEL meeting 11:35-12:25pm in the elem. conference room

• Friday, February 18

Nitty-Gritty

• Random Acts of Kindness Week
• Thursday, 2/17 is Random Act of Kindness Day.  During Guidance, Mindy will be talking about kindness/bucket filling all week.  Please help encourage students to show kindness to others all week/school year long. Recognize students that are showing kindness in words and actions to help show students which actions should be repeated.

• Updates on Procedures for Recess/Lunch
• Recess Duty and Bathroom Break
• Teachers, please always report to recess on time.  At the end of recess, the support staff will blow the whistle and line up students.  Once students are starting to line up, teachers can go in (unless there is an unforeseen circumstance and more help is needed) to use the bathroom.  The support staff will let the students in and will have the "duty" teachers' class come in last so the "duty" teacher has time to use the bathroom at the end of recess.
• Recess Transitions
• 1st-3rd grade Teachers/Staff:
• In an attempt to have a smoother transition process, 1st-3rd graders will walk to the lunchroom using the maintenance/music hallway as soon as they are ready after recess.  We will no longer be lining up in the hallway after recess and walking down as a group. Junior coaches will be helping in the halls with this new procedure.  At the end of lunch, students will be dismissed directly from their table to walk back to class (or to their special if in 2nd grade) leaving through the doors by the district office.  --1st Grade teachers, please still come and pick up your kids.  They will line up closer to the IMC once you are in the Commons to avoid students rubbing on/picking at the new "We are Dodgeland" mural.
• 4th-5th grade Teachers/Staff:
• To avoid congestion by the district office, 4th and 5th graders should go to lunch using the maintenance/music hallway.  They will be dismissed by table to walk back to class leaving through the district office doorway.
• 1st-5th grade Teachers/Staff:
• Students with power player tickets should still drop off their tickets on the way to lunch.  They can drop off tickets and then walk down the maintenance/music hallway.
• Cones/poles have been set up in the hallway to help students remember to walk on the correct side of the hall in congested areas.  Please help reinforce this concept to allow students and staff to move through the hallway more smoothly.

• Reminder of Sanitizing
• During the last two weeks, we have seen an uptick in cases of pink eye and stomach flu.  Please continue to be diligent about good hand washing and wiping down surfaces in your classrooms.  If you need more cloths or Rejuvenal, please let us know.  These practices can help to limit the spread of these types of viruses.

• Forms 
• In order to streamline processes, you will find most of the forms that you need in the District office on the counter near Kimi.  The only forms that are still in the Elementary Office is Purchase Requisitions, Volunteer Handbooks, and Activity account forms.  If you are looking for any other forms, please see Kimi for help.  This would include field trip forms, timesheets, extra duty forms, and more.

• Virtual Teachers Conferences
• On Monday, 2/7, Brad sent out an email regarding using Google Meet for virtual meetings.  BlueJeans is currently only available for the special education teachers for their IEP meetings.  If you have any virtual meetings next week, please use Google Meet.  Directions are located HERE. In order for it to function properly, you must use the Chrome browser and your district google account.  Families will need to use their personal technology, as the students do not have access to Google Meet on the school devices.  Please contact the Tech Dept if you have any further questions.

• Door #29
• The doorbell has been removed from Door #29 now that the elementary office has been functional for a few weeks.  It is on an automatic timer to be unlocked from 7:35-8 and 3-3:30 each day.  Y-Care parents have been using Door #2 into the Commons.  If you happen to see any visitors at Door #29, please direct them to doors #1 or #2.  The sign outside the building states this change as well.

• Heads up about Sunday, February 13
• Sunday is the youth wrestling tournament at Dodgeland and the building and parking lots will be very full.  Just wanted you to know that in case you were planning to come in to the building on Sunday that parking will be an issue.

• Bathroom Writing
• There has been an uptick in incidents of writing on the bathroom stall walls.  Please reiterate how disrespectful this behavior is not only to our custodians who do not have time to continue to clean this up or repaint, but also to others that use those spaces.  If you can help with increased supervision of the bathrooms, I would appreciate it.  The bathrooms outside the gym (boys and girls) have been defaced the most often at this time.

PD Spotlight

I have been thinking a lot about social emotional skills of students for a number of years.  I believe that students that have strong SEL skills are better able to concentrate on their academics and connect better with their peers.  However, I also believe that COVID has affected students' skills in this area as well.  I came across this blog post that describes 5 activities for elementary students.  You will notice that 2 of the 5 are from familiar places, EveryDay Speech and Playworks!  I thought that the activities would be good for SEL WIN groups whether in small groups or even classroom wide activities.  Check them out to see if they would help your class!

Friday Funny

I did share this with a few staff members, but I was actually speechless at first when this happened.  However, it also tells us that students are listening during library and applying this new knowledge!

"I was meeting with a student about how important it is to keep his hands/feet to himself, that others are asking him to stop and the respectful thing is to stay out of their bubble and not to touch others.  He then told me that he couldn't help it because he was born in 'The Year of the Snake!'  For a few seconds, I wasn't sure how to respond!  :-)