March 1, 2024

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• It was wonderful to be back in the building and definitely was good for my mental and emotional health. For all that gave up instructional time for the kids to sign the sign for me, it meant the world to me.  And every time a student asks me if I saw their name, I say emphatically, "OF COURSE I DID!"  And then hope they don't ask me what color it was in or some other identifying detail! :-)  I am aware that I am not back to 100% and haven't even seen all of you in person yet.  For that I am truly sorry.  Please do not hesitate to contact me or make an appointment.  While the to do list will always be there, my colleagues, team and students are far more important to me!

• The Read Across America Team has planned and organized another fantastic week for us this next week.  Thank you all so much for your hard work on this.  I can't wait for our annual Vocabulary Parade and our family night.  Shout out to Christina, Stacey, Melissa, Sue and Brenda!

• The Academic meeting this week reminded me of the skilled and amazing educators I get to work with each day.  When you talk about your students, I am reminded of the connections you are making to your students and how much you truly know what makes them tick and your true concern for some of them and willingness to problem solve about them is inspiring.  I know that all of our teams do this, but it was a great meeting to sit in on my first week back.  Shout out to Team 3rd Grade this week!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 4
• Bus Duty: Schweitzer, CaineB, O'Toole, Braunschweig (3K/4K playground)
• Read Across America Week starts: Hunting/Fishing Day-Wear blaze orange/camo or fishing gear

• Tuesday, March 5
• Social Media Posts due: Riege
• Camping Day - Wear PJ's
• Buddy Up Reading Day
• Lunch Detention Supervision
• 12:00 - Stampfl
• 12:30 - Zastrow
• 1:00 - Open
• SEL Data meeting 3rd Gr - 12:05-12:55pm
• ParaProfessional PD meeting @ 3:15pm in IMC
• Reading and Math Under the Stars family Night 6-7pm

• Wednesday, March 6
• Wild Animal Wednesday - Wear animal print or shirt with an animal on it
• Jenny and Teresa in a meeting from 8-9am
• Academic Data mtg 2nd gr - 12:05-12:55pm

• Thursday, March 7
• Outdoor Sports Day - Wear a shirt/hat from a football or baseball team
• Lunch Detention Supervision
• 12:00 - Open
• 12:30 - Turcotte
• 1:00 - Open

• Friday, March 8
• Vocabulary Dress-Up Day
• 3K/4K Screening meeting 1-2pm in Elem. Conf room

• Saturday, March 9
• Happy Birthday Hailey!

Nitty-Gritty

• New Faces at Dodgeland
• Starting next Monday, you may see a few new faces around the Dodgeland Elementary.  We will have a student teacher from Maranatha teaching with Jahra.  Her name is Allie Gaul and she will be with her until May 1st.  Another new face will be volunteering in the 3K classroom on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  She may be familiar to some though as she is a former graduate of Dodgeland.  Megan Schaalma will be in the 3K classrooms from 8-11:30 three times a week.  Finally, Jessica Bauer is officially on leave to have her new little one starting Monday.  Jenny Kilburg will continue to be here each Tues and Wed in Blasia's room.  On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, Samantha Keberlein will be subbing for Jessica.  Samantha may be familiar as well, as she has children in our district. Both Jenny and Samantha will be here until the end of the year. Please help them all feel welcome at Dodgeland.

• AI Mini-Sessions
• Last week, the first AI session was presented by the Tech Team.  Those that attended found the session informative and the perfect length of time to learn such a valuable new tool. I would highly encourage you to attend these sessions as AI is becoming more and more prevalent.  In addition, there are some pretty great tools (many of which are free) that can help streamline your work or help save you time with tasks that you need to accomplish.  The sessions are planned as mini so that it hopefully fits in your schedules better.  The first 15 min. will be the presentation, and the last 15 min. will be exploration, questions, and finding ways to use the tool in your personal work.  The next session is March 7 and will talk about using a tool called Curipod AI to create Slide Decks. Please consider attending this session.

• Colorcycle Program
• Shout out to Ms. Amis who in the near future will be organizing the Colorcyle program at Dodgeland to collect dried up markers, highlighters, etc to be recycled.  It is another way for us to do our part in preventing these things from ending up in landfills.  Please watch for more information from Sandi in the near future.

• 3K/4K Screening Days - FYI
• In case you have any parents asking, or any ties to families with young children that are interested in our 3K or 4K program, our screening days will be coming up next Month.  There will be two days in two different locations. (April 10 and 11). A flyer will be sent home with families next Tuesday, but it will also be out on the website, FaceBook, Class DoJo.  In addition, flyers will be available to put out in the community. If you have a location and would like to take a flyer with you, please let me know and I will get one to you.

• Weight Room and Buddy System
• The weight room has some available times during the day where staff can use the room, but you must have a "buddy" to fulfill our insurance rules and to make sure it is safe for all.  The MS/HS wing has created a calendar to sign up for a time.  If you there are two names at a single time period, feel free to use the room and equipment. If there is a class in the weight room, it can not be used by staff however.  Most days the room is open during the following times:
• 7:50-8:30
• 10:53-12:00
• 12:50-3:05

Behavior Specialist Information

Please let me (Teresa) know if you need support on your upcoming field trips.

Recess Information

With the weather starting to get nicer, just a friendly reminder, please do not schedule any extra recesses or outdoor activities in our recess spaces during other grades already scheduled recess. Additionally, please do your best to be on time for your recess duties and please remind students that they can not be outside until their grades supervisors are outside to supervise (meaning 3rd-5th should not go to recess without 3rd-5th grade supervisors even if the K-2 supervisors are outside as they are trying to transition their group in, not supervise the next group). TIA

TechKnow Tip

This week’s AI mini-learning session was all about utilizing generative AI for lesson planning. No matter what AI tool you use (Magic School AI or Chat GPT for example), the AI response is only as good as the prompting you give it. Generative AI prompting is the information you feed the tool in order to get a response. For the best results, you will need to provide a lot of clear information. Prompting can be overwhelming and a bit frustrating, so HERE is a great resource to get you started! This Little Book of Generative AI Prompts for Teachers was created by Mark Anderson, an educator from the UK. These prompts are categorized by subject matters and are meant for you to use, tweak, or just get the juices flowing when using generative AI. There are also some great resources at the end of the book to keep your learning going!

Friday Funny

Last weekend, I finally had an opportunity to see a couple of very old friends of mine.  (In longevity of the friendship, not by age! :-)) While talking, we decided that adulting is not really all it's cracked up to be like we thought when we were teenagers and met each other for the first time.  Then my friend shares this joke with us about how "adulting is stupid, no one cares to ask what our favorite dinosaur is!"  I came across this meme below and then just like, it happened in my real life!  I got to talk to a 4K student today that told me the names of the lacing dinosaurs he was given to practice fine motor skills. He then proceeded to tell me which one was "a carnivore and that means they eat meat, Mrs. Huelsman" and the other is a herbivore and it eats plants.  And then I realized that before we both know it, he won't be talking about his favorite dinosaurs with others, but thankfully I got to be a part of it today!  What does that mean about my own adulting, I wonder...  :-)