April 28, 2023

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Staff and Students pulling together to help students complete their Forward testing sessions this week.  Now that that's over, it's time to start our district assessments next week! :-)

• Shout Out to Michelle who went above and beyond all week covering the many comings and goings in the office with the extra students coming and going for testing as well as more adults out of the building or covering said tests!

• 5K students learned how to use the equipment on the "big" playground.  They were so proud of themselves!  Thank you to their 5K teachers for going through the expectations with them!

• We have a couple of students tend to elope when they become frustrated or upset.  Thank you to all the staff that step in to assist in keeping them safe even though they are very busy.  The goal is to help them handle this differently, but while they are learning I appreciate the teamwork!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, May 1
• Bus Duty: Crane, Mosher, Murphy
• Elementary Gym is closed to students/staff (except Talent Show preview)
• Talent Show Preview: 2:30 in the Elem. gym
• Art Show @ 5pm
• Talent Show @ 6pm
• i-Ready and FastBridge window opens

• Tuesday, May 2
• 3rd Grade SEL meeting 12:05-12:55pm
• Social Media Posts to Jessica:  No one signed up this week, but feel free to submit a bonus one!
• Para Meeting in Elem. Conference Room @ 3:10pm

• Wednesday, May 3
• Workout Wednesday
• 5K Academic data meeting - 12:05-12:55pm

• Thursday, May 4
• Star Wars Day - May the Fourth Be With You!

• Friday, May 5
• Cinco de Mayo

Nitty-Gritty

• Elementary Gym work
• On May 1-2, there will be continued work occurring in the gym.  I appreciate Michael and all of you with your flexibility with the displacement of PE this year, including Monday and Tuesday next week.  Many things were back ordered that caused delays in the installation from the original plan.  Watch for information from Michael about where PE will occur on those two days.  (The preview of the talent show will still occur in the elementary gym starting at 2:30pm.)

• Playground sign up
• Now that the weather is getting nicer, many of us want to take our students outside for breaks or extra recesses as rewards.  If you are planning to do this, please check the sign-up schedule HERE to be sure that we don't end up with too many classes on the playground at one time.  Please remind students to follow the same expectations as all other recesses when they are on the equipment.

• Recess Reminders/Updates
• Soccer at Recess
• Grades 1-2: 
• Morning Recess - Soccer is CLOSED
• Lunch Recess - Jr Coach will run Hot Shot Soccer, no open play
• Grades 3-5:
• Morning recess - 3rd grade Soccer is CLOSED
• Morning recess - 4th-5th - Traditional soccer for both grades
• Lunch Recess - Rotation of grades, it will be posted on the 4th/5th grade doors each day.
• General Reminders
• There is NO version of tag or chase on the playground.  There is a tag zone for this.  This also includes made up games that require them to chase each other around the playground in a quest to capture each other in some way!
• Students should leave the trees alone at all times.  There is no reason to touch them, including picking off the bark or branches or leaves that seems to be occurring frequently.

• Library Lessons and End of the Year Planning
• The week of May 8th will be the last week of library classes and book checkout. The week of May 15th, library will be consolidated into one day, Tuesday, May 16th to accommodate our guest visitors, the librarians from our community public libraries. Books will continue to get picked up throughout the week of May 16th and 22nd. Feel free to keep any books that students are using for projects - last day for book pickup will be Wednesday, May 24th. Late notices will be sent home that night to families.

• On Tuesday, May 16th, we have special visitors from our community libraries who will be promoting their summer reading program. Flyers will be given to you for students to take home after the presentation. Below is the schedule for that morning. Thank you for your flexibility as we tried to accommodate our school schedule as well as the schedule of community librarians that are coming to us before the library opens.
• 8:15-8:45am - grade 4K & 5K
• 8:45-9:15am - grade 2 & 3
• 9:15-9:45am - grade 4 & 5 (recess will be pushed back to (9:45 for the day)
• 9:45-10:15 - grade 1

• iPad Turn In
• For the elementary wing, iPad turn in will be from Thursday, May 18 - Tuesday, May 23.  Christina and Brad will give more specific details at the next staff meeting.  However, as you plan for the end of the year, please think about when you will have students turn in their iPads for the school year. The available times are HERE.  Christina will be coming to classrooms to assist with this process again this year.

Tech Know Tip

Looking to connect your students outside their known world? Try any of these 12 Websites for Virtual Field Trips. One highlight on the list is “The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks” where you go on an interactive tour (including videos, audio recording, activities, and 360* views) with a park ranger at one of our beautiful U.S. National Parks. Another favorite from the list is Explore.org Live Nature Cams which has an endless variety of staffed nature cameras including a kitten rescue sanctuary in California, an osprey nest in Montana, a puppy nursery in Maryland, or inside a honeybee hive in Germany. Many of these relaxing livecams have soothing music accompaniments, making them great to use at the start of the day, during work time, or a way to calm down before quality learning.

Friday Funny

Spring is always a very stressful time of year for educators. There is so much to do and schedules that seem to be more and more packed every week. For me personally, it's also a time of year that brings back memories both bittersweet and quite frankly, difficult. One of the ways that I try to deal with this stress is by using humor. One of my favorite comedians is Nate Bargatze. I know I have shared about him before. (This weekend he is performing in Milwaukee and by the time I went to buy tickets it was almost totally sold out. Sigh.). So, I guess I will use YouTube to enjoy his jokes. Funnier yet, is that I know the punchlines, but I can still watch them all over and laugh like it was the first time I heard it. If you need to laugh, click HERE for an 9 min. video with some of his funniest stories. I hope you all have a great weekend!

April 21, 2023

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 3K and 4K staff and specialists worked very hard to welcome new students for next year.  They were organized, kind and helpful.

• Teachers were so consistent and helpful all across the building to help our students do their best work on their state test.

• Students were bragging to me all week how they were really taking their time and how proud they were of their essay.  I love that!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, April 24
• Jenny will be out of the building for a family funeral from 9-3:30pm
• Bus Duty: TCaine, Prod, O'Toole
• School Board Meeting @ 6:30pm

• Tuesday, April 25
• Forward Testing for 4th grade and make up testing
• Social Media Posts due to Jessica: Murphy
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10:30am
• 4th grade SEL data meeting 12:35-1:25pm
• Middle School Science Fair 6-7pm (If you want to visit former students' projects!)

• Wednesday, April 26
• Workout Wednesday
• Forward Testing for 4th grade and make up testing (Jenny proctoring testing between 8-12)
• 1st Gr Academic Data meeting 12:05-12:55pm
• Staff meeting @ 3:15-3:55pm

• Thursday, April 27
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-9:30
• Talent Show Dress Rehearsal 3:30-4:30pm

• Friday, April 28

Nitty-Gritty

• Intervention and WIN
• Starting on May 1, the interventionists will be putting their WIN groups, RISE/SOM, and in class support on hold in order to help get all district assessments completed.  In the past they worked around these things and then it took weeks to complete the testing.  Since there are a number of field trips and other things planned in May, I would like to make sure the assessments get done and then they will return to the interventions.  They will only be completing Benchmark assessments for students they work with unless they have time at the end of the year to add others.  If you would like a refresher on how to give this assessment, please see an interventionist or myself.

• iReady and FastBridge
• The window for spring assessment will start on Monday, May 1.  If you would like your student to take this test in a small group, or 1:1, please contact one of the interventionist.  2nd grade will need to complete the aReading and aMath assessment on iPads.  For grades 5K & 1, students will be doing this 1:1 with an interventionist.  They will be in contact with you to set this up.

• Class List Creation
• As an FYI:  We will be using some of our time on the PD days between May 30-June 1 to meet as teams to create class lists for the 2023-24 school year.  Watch your email for information on class creator to prepare for that work.

• Art Show and Talent Show
• The Elementary Art show will start on Monday, May 1st at 5pm.  If you are on the art show committee, please plan to come to the commons to help set up after school on Monday. The Talent Show will start at 6pm in the elementary gym.

TechKnow Tip

This week's tip is related to emailing a large group of parents at one time, please remember to keep the email addresses confidential.  I have been cc'd on a few emails this year where everyone's address is visible to everyone else.  Best practice is to put all of the emails into the BCC section so that they all receive it, but it maintains the confidentiality of student information and contact information.  If you need help with this, please let me know.

Friday Funny

So very true this week.  What a crazy weather week!

April 14, 2023

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Shout out to Nurse Leah for handling a whole lot of things this week calmly and professionally.  I am so glad you joined our team!

• 1st graders practicing phonic sounds with vowel teams, even tricky ones like "oi" and "oy."

• 3rd, 4th and 5th graders practicing to write an essay for the TDA part of the forward.  They are getting more and more comfortable with this task.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, April 17
• Bus Duty: Braunschweig, Klink, Zastrow
• Forward Testing Starts for Grades 3-4-5 (8-12pm)

• Tuesday, April 18
• Teach a Child to Save Day (Grades 5K-2) Assembly in IMC (see below)
• 8am - 2nd grade
• 9am - 5K
• 10am - 1st grade
• Forward Testing between 8-12pm
• Social Media posts due to Jessica: Chambers, Lucht, BCaine
• Talent Show Auditions after school

• Wednesday, April 19
• Workout Wednesday
• Forward Testing between 8-12pm
• 3K/4K Screening 3:30-6:30pm

• Thursday, April 20
• Forward Testing between 8-12pm
• 3K/4K Screening 3:30-6:30pm

• Friday, April 21
• Wheelchair Basketball Assembly 1:30-2:10pm (see below)

Nitty-Gritty

• Teach a Child to Save Day
• I apologize for the late notice. On Tuesday, 4/18, we will have guests in the building from Farmer & Merchants Union Bank from in town.  They are participating in the Teach a Child to Save Day.  They have a ~45 min. presentation that includes reading a Curious George Book to the students and will take place in the learning commons of the IMC. This is for grades 5K - 2nd grade only. 
• 8am - 2nd grade
• 9am - 5K (recess for 5K will be at 10am on Tuesday)
• 10am - 1st grade

• Tornado Drill
• Please see Brad's email from today about the tornado drill coming up on Thursday, April 20.  The watch will begin at 1pm with an email notification and the warning will begin at 1:45pm.  Please see your safety plans for more details about the procedures for the drill including filling out the attendance sheet following the drill.  The safety map will indicate the safe areas in blue for where to go for the drill.  Let Brad or myself know if you have any questions.

• Wheelchair Basketball Assembly
• There is a slight modification to the assembly on Friday, 4/21.  The elementary school will attend the assembly in the HS gym alone starting at 1:30pm until 2:10pm.  Please bring your students in to the gym to begin at 1:30, sitting on the north side of the gym.  (Opposite side than normal). The assembly is interactive and will ask for volunteers to join them on the court.

• Forward Testing Reminders
• There will be a variety of rooms used throughout the elementary wing next week during testing.  For those not testing, please help keep the hallways quiet throughout the building.  This includes students quietly walking through the halls, but also adult conversations outside testing rooms, shutting lockers as quietly as can, limited to no entering classrooms with the testing signs on the doors.  I know this seems like a lot, but it's one way we can support our students to do their best work.  

• Tech Dept Reminders
• Don't forget with a smaller tech department for the foreseeable future, there are a few changes for us to remember.
• Use the Help Desk ticket system to notify them of all tech issues.  This will make sure that there is a response for these issues.  This includes issues with the copiers.
• For tech emergencies, please call 1040.
• If you have things you need on the digital signs, please send them to Mrs. Rollins.
• Do not send students to the tech center.  Have them complete a help desk ticket for student tech issues as well.

• Alt Comp Form
• If you missed an XPD, or are still looking for ways to complete your professional learning items for the alt comp form, you can earn Apple Badges.  Each badge can count as an XPD.  See Jessica's email from March 30 that gives the directions, but to start you go to appleteacher.apple.com

• Mystery Doug
• I know many of you use Mystery Doug in your classrooms.  If you missed this week's email, Mystery Doug will no longer be a part of the Mystery Science site after July 1st.  The lessons will remain though.  Given this information, please let me know if you still plan to use mystery science in your classroom. 

• Field Trip Reminders
• If you haven't filled out a field trip form for trips yet this year, please do so as soon as possible. I just want to make sure that you are able to secure transportation for your trips.  Also, please let me know if you have other school personnel attending as chaperones so I am aware of coverage that might be needed.

• MyView Update
• After going through the feedback that I received regarding the MyView curriculum, I have decided that we will adopt this curriculum next school year.  I am working with the reps to determine the coaching needs from them for us for next year, as well as training for us as well.  I appreciate so much the feedback and have used it to guide conversations with the MyView representatives.  It is important that our students become strong readers and writers, and I am working to help you get the things you need to help with that goal.

TechKnow Tip

Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on resources and summer professional learning HERE!

Friday Funny

This is Molly.  She likes ice cream.  She is ready to order some from the drive thru, or at least look cute enough for someone to take pity and give her a treat!   :-)