September 23, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Teachers working together to provide support for stressful situations.  These situations are easier for all when we know we have someone else to walk alongside during them.

• As we continue to work on completing district assessments, it's exciting to see some growth and imagine what is ahead for them in school this year.  I can't wait to see their growth!

• Third Graders working through hard work and not giving up.  I love hearing about how proud they are of their work!

• Special Education department working together to help students all across the building. This is an inspiring team!

• Finally - Did you hear that Stephanie Schuett was named the Dodge County Teacher of the Month?  Please help me congratulate her for this honor!  We are so lucky to have you here at Dodgeland Stephanie.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, September 26
• Reading Corps tutoring begins this week
• Bus Duty: Huso, Huelsman, CaineT(4K/5K playground)
• Movie Character Day
• School Board Meeting @ 6:30pm

• Tuesday, September 27
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Schuett, Chambers
• Jenny is in a meeting from 8:30-10am
• Pajama Day

• Wednesday, September 28
• Hawaiian Day
• John Schlender will be in the district to meet with staff he will be observing this year. Watch for email with more details if this pertains to you.
• Staff meeting 3:10-3:55pm

• Thursday, September 29
• Western Day
• Paula is out for the day

• Friday, September 30
• Purple Pride Day
• Homecoming Pep assembly @ 1:30pm
• Paula is out for the day
• Elementary Family Watch Party for the Homecoming Parade starting @ 4pm on grass near access road behind playgrounds

Nitty-Gritty

• MyView and Schoology
• Brad worked extremely hard this week to get this in place for us to use the online portions with Schoology. Christina also sat through some long meetings to learn how this works so that she can support us on the usage and implementation of this part as well. Please watch for some information in the next couple of days on how to use Schoology for those using MyView this school year from Christina or myself.

• Did you check out Trisha Caine's email that described some helpful information to help with implementing and planning instruction with MyView?  She shared a site to find mentor text ideas and also reminded us of our subscription to Flocabulary that may help in your planning as well.  I am certain that Trisha would be glad to answer any questions you may have about these resources.  Thank you Trisha!

• EP and Observations
• Now that you have completed the Rapid Cycle Feedback form (due 9/23), we can begin scheduling our first conversations. If you are in your first 3 years of observation in the district, I will be completing your observations this year.  (Remember that we had one year where we suspended all evaluations, so that year was repeated for the purpose of EP only.) Watch for an email to sign up for a time to meet with me about your focus area for this school year.  If you are a continuing teacher that is not in your summative year, it is not required you meet with me, but if you would like to I would be more than willing to meet with you regarding your focus area for the year as well.

• On Wednesday, September 21, Jessica sent an email with resources and details regarding the EP guidelines.  The slides are HERE and the handout is HERE from Monday's meeting that describe the SLO/PPG and survey process.

• Duties - Recess and Lunch and Bus, Oh My!
• It is extremely important that everyone knows what days, times and location their daily or weekly duties are.  Students are still learning routines and expectations.  When we are short supervisors in any of these areas, it makes it much harder for those that are present to remind or reteach students when it is needed.  Students that are not retaught in the moment may create new habits.  Plus, it is very important that there are enough adults there to help with emergencies and keep students safe.  Click HERE to access the chart in our shared drive.

• Intervention and WIN
• Next week, Rise and interventions will begin.  Please watch for an email from the academic interventionists on students that are involved with the interventions.  We will use our Staff meeting time to talk about WIN so that we can begin to put this in place the first week of October.

• Cesa 6 Looking for Volunteers
• The Herb Kohl Educational Foundation is looking for volunteers to evaluate applications for the 2023 awards.  Anyone can be a reader!  You just need a computer and the internet.  Scoring takes approximately 20-30 min. per application.  There is a brief online training is required before beginning.  Click HERE to register to be a reader.  

TechKnow Tip

• There is an amazing new feature on all devices for staff and students! This new feature allows for text recognition on photos. You are able to select text, copy and paste, or translate right from an image. Check this out for more information!

PD Spotlight

I truly believe that active listening is a skill that must be developed.  As a child, (and let's be real, even as an adult still) I was much more of an introvert.  Almost every report card said, "Jenny should speak up more," or "Jenny is too quiet."  My mom and dad never seemed overly concerned about this.  I had a younger sister who had plenty to say and I was more than happy to let her be the spokesperson!  However, what this eventually allowed me to do was to become more observant and hear multiple sides of an issue or situation.  I learned that quietly taking in what others were saying allowed me to learn at higher levels.  While, I may not be a super quiet person now, I still enjoy a conversation with others where they are sharing with me.  So when I came across Daniel Pink's newest Pinkcast video, I wasn't sure what he was getting at.  The title made me think that sharing this with you would send a message that I didn't want.  However, once I watched this 2-minute video, I realized that it fit with my own philosophy and that the title was purely an attention getter for people to click on it.  How do you feel about his three little words strategy?

Friday Funny

I do love watching the clips that Dude Dad puts out, but I think I like them even more when his wife is recorded reacting to them.  This one is about the 5 types of parents at Drop-off.  I don't know if we have any of these at Dodgeland or not!  lol