November 4, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Mentors and Mentees making plans to observe each other to build their craft.  Please reach out if you want to participate in this activity too!

• A teacher explaining his classroom procedures and instructional practices in a way that helped them to understand the situation better and also come to a plan for moving forward.

• Special education teams working together to come up with ideas and plans to help with students struggling with behavior in multiple settings in the building.

• Staff members sharing all the positive skills and improvements their student has made in the last IEP year.  It brought tears to her eyes!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, November 7
• Bus Duty: Braunschweig, Klink, Zastrow
• Fundraiser Pick up from 3-6pm in the Commons area.

• Tuesday, November 8
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Palen, Schuett, Jenkins
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am
• 4th gr SEL data meeting in El conf rm, 12:35-1:25pm

• Wednesday, November 9
• Workout Wednesday
• Staff Meeting 3:10-3:55pm in IMC
• 5K Academic data meeting at 12:05-12:55pm in El conf rm
• Jon Schlender is in the building for those that work with him.

• Thursday, November 10
• Purple Pride Friday on a Thursday!
• NED Assembly from 2-2:45pm in Elem. Gym

• Friday, November 11
• Jenny out until 9:30am
• Before/After School Yo-Yo sale in Commons
• Veteran's Assembly @ 9:30 in HS gym

Nitty-Gritty

• Elementary Parking Lot info
• Many parents need to walk their students into the building in the morning.  In order to make this process smoother, I am asking you to leave the 8 spaces that are around the crosswalk to Door 29 empty for parents. Please see the graphic below to show where these spaces are.

• Lockdown Drill 
• Our first district lockdown drill for this year will be the week of November 14.  This one is announced to staff ONLY.  Please do not share with students that you know the week it is occurring.  However, please remind students of the expectations for a drill like this next week so that they have heard the information before the drill comes up.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

• Recess Information/Updates
• PowerPlayers Returns: Starting Monday, we will be bringing back PowerPlayers for grades 1-5!  Please watch for an email from Mrs. Chambers with a short video explaining the program and check your mailboxes for tickets. Please remember, PowerPlayer tickets should only be given for the target recess skill which will be kindness.

• There have been several students playing "chase/tag/running" games ON the playground.  PLEASE remind students that the only place they should be running is in the tag zone or grass.  We never run on the turf/playground (at 1st-5th grade recess). Again, kids are not in control of their bodies when they are running by the playground and kids are getting shoved into the poles and getting injured.

• Heelys:  Students have started to wear Heelys to recess.  The rule is NO wheels at recess (or in school.) Students are not in control of their bodies and are running into each other.

• NED Assembly
• There will be forms to send home that describes the assembly and includes information about yo-yo's that students can purchase.  The profits made from the sale goes to pay for the next school's performance.  (This assembly is free for the schools they perform in.  They only make money off of yo-yo's that are purchased.). In addition, you will see some posters in the hallway to let kids know about this assembly as well.

• Veteran's Day Assembly
• The Veteran's Day assembly will start promptly at 9:30am.  Please make sure to dress professionally that day as we will have many visitors from our community in attendance that day.  (We can move purple Friday to Thursday next week!). In addition, if you are a specials teacher and normally have a class at that time, you should plan to sit with the group that you have at that time.

• Graham Fletcher Videos
• Did you see Sue's email about the videos from Graham Fletcher.  She has reminded us how important our work is for laying the foundation for math.  The link is HERE for the videos.  A reminder that Sue would be more than willing to debrief about them as well.

• Looking Ahead
• The Dodge County Health Dept will be holding a flu vaccine clinic at Dodgeland for students on November 29.  They will start at 9am and hope to finish all students K-12 before noon.  Students must have a signed consent form returned by 11/22/22 in order to participate.

TechKnow Tip

Have you opted in for text notifications from Dodgeland yet? 

To enhance communication to parents and staff, Dodgeland uses the BrightArrow telephone, email, and text communication system which enables school personnel to notify all households and parents by telephone, email, text, or app alerts within minutes of an emergency or unplanned event. It is also used to communicate general announcements and reminders.

 

To opt-in to text alerts, you may text “YES” to the short code 87569 at any time. You must have your phone number on file with the school to receive text messages. This is an opt-in mechanism, not a subscribe mechanism. Once you opt-in, BrightArrow will send you a confirmation that your phone number is opted-in. Once a phone number is opted-in, all text messages will come from the short code 87569.

 

If you are unsure of the number you have on file, stop by Kimi in the district office. You can always go through the opt-in directions a second time, just in case.

PD Spotlight

Behavior and classroom management continues to be a top priority for many of us throughout each day/week/month. Over the summer I was researching other ideas to help with this piece for myself as well. I cam across the Needs Focused Teaching site. It is from the UK, but the information hits home for me and I appreciate his work. Click HERE to read a blog post that has ideas that you may or may not have tried already. Please make an appointment to see me if you want to problem solve together about a student or situation. You are not alone. Ever. Please reach out to get help for your own sake as well as your students.

Friday Funny

Some of you may not understand this meme. But for those that do, your childhood was probably AWESOME! LOL