May 3, 2024

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Shout out to Stacey for looking ahead and sharing with me reminders for things to think ahead about before it happens.  We will avoid some serious schedule conflicts and situations because of her forward thinking!  Thank you!

• Have you seen Leah's cool new Ear tool?  Shout out to her for getting this for our school and also for how she uses it to help our parents know when to get them to see a dr.  It's been used quite a few times already!

• Today a 2nd grader was in the office to see the nurse quickly and came back to say hi to me before leaving.  I was with a 4K student that was having a rough day, but this 2nd grader was so kind, patient and such a good role model for how to follow directions and respond to redirection.  Since she at times can struggle with this herself, it was so great to praise her for this and watching how she kindly said goodbye brought a huge smile to my face.  It reminds me to watch for these moments in the middle of stressful situations too!

• A teacher came to share with me a concern she had about a situation in the building.  I appreciate that she took the time to do this even though she has millions of things on her to-do list.  I want you all to feel comfortable to share with me concerns and we can talk about it and come up with a solution for it together.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, May 6
• Bus Duty: Klink, Lucht, Wedel
• Teacher Appreciation Week Begins!
• Jenny leaving at noon for a Dr appt
• Spring Concert for Grades 3-4-5 (students arrive at 6:15, performance starts at 6:30)
• District Assessment Window opens today (Last week of Intervention from the interventionists)

• Tuesday, May 7
• Social Media Posts due: Stampfl
• Lunch Detention Supervision
• 12:00 - Schweitzer
• 12:30 - Open
• 1:00 - Anderson
• Last Paraeducator Meeting for the year @ 3:15-3:45pm
• Spring Concert for Grades 5K-1-2 (students arrive at 6:15, performance starts at 6:30)

• Wednesday, May 8
• Workout Wednesday
• Jenny's in a meeting from 8:30-10:30am
• Academic Meeting for 5K (12:05-12:55pm)
• Staff meeting @ 3:10-3:55pm

• Thursday, May 9
• Jenny at Cesa from 7:30-12:30pm
• Lunch Detention Supervision
• 12:00 - Open
• 12:30 - Open
• 1:00 - Anderson

• Friday, May 10
• Jenny's getting older!
• FFA Teacher Appreciation Breakfast (Sign up by Thursday to get it delivered to you.)
• 4K Field trip to the zoo
• 1st/3rd gr Field trip to Clearview (1:45-2:45pm)
• Jenny in meeting from 1-2pm

Nitty-Gritty

• Safety Drills
• This week, we were sadly reminded why we must continue to do the drills each year.  If you haven't read Brad's email from Thursday morning, please read through it carefully.  There are a lot of important reminders for us to keep in mind.  The most important is that by following the procedures in place consistently the whole system and building is much safer for everyone.  If you have questions, please reach out.

• Personnel Update
• As changes occur to prepare for next year, I will share with you as I am able.  The one change that I want you to know about at this time is regarding next year's 3rd grade.  There will be three sections of 3rd grade next year and Sabrina Anderson will be moving from 5th grade to 3rd grade to join that team.  In addition, she will be moving classrooms and will be located in Room 124 next school year.

• Window Decals
• Reminder that Anna Vitale and her students will be coming around to our classrooms to affix the window decals of the room numbers on the outside of our classrooms as an additional safety measure.  There may be a slight disturbance to your class while they are completing this task.  This will take them some time to get around to all of the rooms, but will be complete by the end of the school year.

• iPad Turn in - Looking Ahead
• For the elementary wing, iPad turn in will be from Thursday, May 23rd - Tuesday, May 28th. As you plan for the end of the year, please start to think about when you will have students turn in their iPads. The available times are HERE. You can find details of the iPad collection process HERE. A copy of these directions will be handed out at the staff meeting. (or in mailboxes for those that are absent.)

• Americorps Reading Tutors
• I applied to keep Americorps in our school and have been approved!  Americorps/Reading Corps is looking for new tutors for our school (and others). If you know of anyone that is interested please share with them the application site or send them my way!  I am SO GLAD our students get to benefit from our Reading Corps tutors this year and every year!

• Reading A-Z & Raz Kids
• This week I received a message from Learning A-Z that shared that it is possible for our students to access their accounts from home during the summer.  In order to help them with this, you can download the student login cards and caregiver letters to explain to parents.  Under the Student Management Page click on My Classroom > Class Roster > Student & Parent Documents to print the documents for your students.

Recess Information

This time of year, many of us like to use our outdoor space for additional learning or for extra recess for students. To help us communicate with each other, I have updated our sign up sheet for using the playgrounds/blacktop area at school.  Please write your name on the times where you are taking your students outside so that we do not have too many students at one time there and so that you know who else is outside. Thank you!

TechKnow Tip

As you work through sorting, saving, and organizing this year’s materials for next year, be sure you are logged into iCloud! You may notice a red notification bubble on your settings app (iPad) or you may be prompted with a pop-up (laptop). These frequent logins with iCloud are set for security measures. Be sure to log into your Apple ID on your iPad or laptop whenever you see the notification or you get a pop-up notification. Being logged into your Apple ID ensures proper iPad backup of your files, photos, and apps. This is the same for students too, so feel free to encourage them to stop tapping “Later” and log in to ensure their priceless work is saved.

Friday Funny

I am getting more observant, I think.  Or there are so many kids in and out of the office that I am starting to notice things.--Although to be fair, I have no idea how long this has been there.--  There are now a gaggle (is that what it's called?) of owls that have taken residence in my office.  I don't know when they arrived, and I don't know how they got there, but it is like the ducks all over again.  Which I am okay with sharing that I NEVER figured out how they all got there and around the school, which drives me a bit batty too. So, I am looking for any ideas for how to catch the owls "flying" into my room--especially since I failed so spectacularly with the duck person!