October 21, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Seriously.  I can not express my gratitude or how truly impressed by the Dodgeland team tonight.  Your professionalism, your preparation and organization and your relationship building with families was truly inspiring.  Thank you so much for all you have done.

• Interventionists are working so hard to provide instruction with students that are in need of extra practice and re-teaching.  I love listening to colleagues problem solve together when a student is in need.

• Listening to 1st graders sincerely offering up compliments and apologies to one another at the end of the day as a reflection was so remarkable.  What a wonderful way to provide a space to practice social skills as well.

• I would like to publicly thank Lexi and Ella for delivering the food Thursday and to Amber for helping to set it out for us.  I appreciate it so much!

What's Happening At Dodgeland?

• Monday, October 24
• PD day 7:30-3:30pm
• Dodgeland Den open from 6:30-5:45pm
• Bus Duty: Chambers, Schweitzer, Johnson
• School Board meeting 6:30pm

• Tuesday, October 25
• MyView Coach Visit from 8-2pm
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Koenings, Mosher, Turcotte, B Caine
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am

• Wednesday, October 26
• Workout Wednesday
• 5th grade field trip
• 2nd Grade Level Academic Meeting 12:05-12:55pm in elem. conf. room
• Staff meeting 3:10-3:55pm

• Thursday, October 27
• 3rd grade field trip
• 4K field trip
• 5K half day field trip
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-9:30am

• Friday, October 28
• Seals on Wheels visit

Tech Know Tip

Happy Digital Citizenship Week! We do so many great things here at Dodgeland that every week could be considered Digital Citizenship Week. Not only do we teach our students grades K-12 the Common Sense Media digital citizenship lessons every year, you all have meaningful conversations with our students about their digital lives. We know that the best way for students to learn about themselves as digital citizens is for adults to demonstrate what a digital citizen is through examples and discussions, as well as reinforcing ideas throughout the year in your content specific lessons. Remember that any of the Common Sense Media lessons can be retaught through the lens of your content specific lesson. Looking for some more resources to use throughout the year? BrainPOP digital citizenship has a variety of short videos that are always accompanied by a quiz and activities. Google’s “Be Internet Awesome” includes interactive lessons accompanied by online games which give students an opportunity to apply their knowledge. Finally, Discovery Education has a great teacher portal which breaks down different topics within digital citizenship and suggests resources to support each topic.

Nitty-Gritty

• Schedule Update
• The logistics committee met this past week to discuss some recess and lunch procedures.  Our 1st and 2nd graders are struggling more than any other grades during the unstructured parts of their day with extreme reactions to conflict, eloping and other unique behaviors in these two locations. Due to these student needs, we discussed rearranging 3rd grade's lunch/recess.  This would mean that our 3rd graders would eat at noon and then go to recess at 12:30pm.  This does require a bit of a movement of supervisors and other routines, but we decided it would be worth it to try it. It will provide more time and resources for re-teaching and direction for our 1st and 2nd graders so that more successful recess/lunch periods allow them to return ready to learn in the afternoon.  It also gives our 3rd graders an opportunity to become leaders and positive role models for our 4K/5K students.  Please watch for an email this weekend with specifics.

• NED show is coming to Dodgeland
• Please mark your calendars for an assembly for our 4K-5th grade students on Thursday, November 10.  NED stands for Never give up, Encourage others, Do your best.  The purpose of the show is to talk about positive behavior, character and building growth mindset. The show will take place from 2 - 2:45pm in the multipurpose room.

• PD Schedule
• The PD agenda/schedule is HERE.
• Greg Wolcott is returning to continue our discussion on SEL skills, relationship building and routines and reinforcement.  We began this school year talking about ways to help our students that have had an increase in dysregulation and behaviors at school.  Now that we are almost 1/4th of the way through the year, it is a good time to re-engage in this conversation to help our students thrive in our classrooms.  
• You will notice in the afternoon a Q/A section on grading. I have had a few questions lately about grading so I have this time period built in for staff and teams to meet with me about questions.  If you have specific questions, please add them HERE so that I can make sure to answer your questions.
• Finally, there is time built into the schedule for you to plan and work with your grade level.  If you are piloting MyView, please work as a grade level team to determine what questions or materials you would like Allison to discuss with you.  A schedule will be sent soon.

• Recess Doors Information
• The doors that we use for recess are on a time schedule for each day.  In order for the doors to be unlocked for students/staff during the schedule, someone must swipe their key fob after the door is scheduled to be open in order to activate the schedule.  Each door must be activated individually and if you swipe your key fob prior to the beginning time, it will not stay unlocked for the duration.  Below is the schedule for each door for your reference.
• Door 26 (4th/5th hall) & Door 27 (1st/2nd/3rd hall)
• 9:15-9:45 & 12:00-1:05
• Door 29 (3K/4K hall)
• 9:00-9:30 & 11:30-12:30pm

• IXL Resource
• HUGE shout-out to Gabrielle for taking the time today to create a 3 min. screencast to show us all how to use the textbook resource under skills plan in IXL so it can be tied to Bridges or for those piloting, MyView, especially when planning for WIN.  Please watch her video HERE to learn how to do this yourself if you are interested.  Thank you again Gabrielle!

• Seals on Wheels
• The first visit for students participating in the Seals on Wheels program is scheduled for Friday.  The hygienist will be using a cart to go from classroom to classroom to grab students and do the fluoride treatment quickly in the hallway so that students do not miss very much class.  A list will be shared with you as soon as I receive the final list from them.

• Did you Hear?
• The Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation has been a large supporter and champion for our work.  Thanks to their work and their support we have been able to implement long-lasting changes and improvements to our system.  They had an exciting announcement this past week.  Read their press release HERE on the amazing donation that they just received to continue their awesome work. 

Friday Funny

I am SOOOOO excited about Friday night.  I am going to see one of my favorite comedians, Nate Bargatze.  His delivery and content always makes me laugh. Stand up comedy is one of the ways that I use to relieve stress.  Watching comedians makes me laugh, which makes me feel better.  I am sharing this link with you HERE so that you can enjoy a little bit of his material as well.  Have a great weekend!