The Dodgeland Download (DES): March 25, 2022

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Many of our students were struggling behaviorally this week, but so many of you continued to support them and allowed them to start fresh each day.

Teachers providing opportunities for students to prepare for the Forward Testing to help relieve anxiety when the test comes up next month.

Students' talking about what they want to be when a grown up and different careers they were learning about in GG as well.

Building will be closed to all from 1pm on April 1through 3pm on April 3. Please plan accordingly. (Although I hope you are enjoying your spring break so much that this won't affect you at all!)

Trash those old digital files before saving to the cloud! Check out the staff resource page for more saving tips or stop by the tech department for a quick one-on-one session.
Turn off your classroom display by holding down the power button on the board or the remote control. You can give your board a quick clean by spraying a microfiber towel with the pink rejuvenal spray and wiping it down.
Encourage students to clean their iPad by cleaning yours too! Spray a microfiber towel with the pink rejuvenal spray to clean the screen and the case too. DO NOT take the iPad out of the case to clean and DO NOT spray directly on the iPad.

To prepare for recess after break, Teresa has created this video for us and our students to help emphasize the expectations for recess, including what to wear for recess. Please plan to show this short 2 min. recess to kids when we return from Spring Break.

Our 3rd-5th grade students will be taking the Forward exam on iPads from April 11-April 14. Two of the days will be spent on ELA and the other two will be on Math. While not all of us are teaching grades that are taking the test, we all need to work together to encourage our students, be flexible with our schedules, and help keep hallways quiet/peaceful during the morning hours of the assessment.
Our 4th graders must also take Science and Social Studies sessions and will be completing these during the week of April 18th.
In order to provide small group settings for students that need a smaller setting, it will be an all hands on deck situation. This means that many staff members will be helping to proctor groups and may not be able to do their regular schedule.

Friday, March 25 is the last day of this round of Rise. The interventionists will be testing students next week and meeting with their WIN groups. The final Rise round will start on Monday, April 18 and will end on May 13th.

If you have any parents that have reached out to you regarding the summer school registration process, please refer them to me. There are far less classes and openings this summer due to the construction and condensed schedule. This is not typical of Dodgeland Summer School sessions and next year it will have more options. If you have sent any recommendations home with students, please make sure I have a copy of this list so that I can double check it with the registration portal.

In order to store items for the movement of classes safely, the elementary gym/multipurpose room will be used to place items for teachers who need to totally vacate their rooms for the construction. Please note in your planning that there will be NO PE classes on Friday, May 27th.
This is in addition to the cancellation of art during the week of May 23rd. The last day of art this school year will be Friday, May 20th.

The committee met again this week and discussed the options that have come to our group. I am aware that there are lots of reviews from teachers, administrators, parents, and publishing companies. It makes the work so much harder to weed through all of the information to determine what is fact, opinion, or just hype. I have no interest in just choosing whatever is new and flashiest out there. I do care deeply about the professional development and training that is available, as well as making sure that there is a focus on foundation skills that is systematic. (Of course, I want there to be time for read to self, as well as instruction in comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and writing.) At the end of the day, I work with very talented teachers and want you to have the resources to teach and reach our students and their needs, but even more importantly, I want you to feel comfortable and supported during the implementation.
I also want to reiterate that there is no plan to implement a new literacy curriculum until the 2023-2024 school year. However, there are a few teachers who are interested in being part of piloting group for next school year. If you are interested in this, please make sure to let me know this as soon as possible. If you join this group, you will be part of the leadership team that will support us during the full-implementation process in 2023.

My plan for the week is work very sparingly in the building and spend time with my extended family. I will check email sporadically, but if you need me next week, please feel free to call or text me any time. I sincerely hope you all have a great week. You all deserve a really great week!

A 5th grade student came up to me this week to tell me a joke that I thought was clever. What do you think of it??

"I just lost my typing job. I missed too many shifts!" (Get it? HeeHee)