December 13, 2024

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Our students put on wonderful performances both Monday and Tuesday this week.  I heard such positive remarks from our families.  Shout out to Carrie for her hard work putting this together and for all of you that supported them before and during the concert.  Our teamwork was on full display this week.  SO AWESOME!

• Our Jr. Coaches are showing again their leadership skills. They manned a table asking for donations to help them with the cost of their end of the year field trip.  They collected almost $200 and got a very generous donation to pay for the bussing for the event.  Shout out to Teresa for organizing this, finding the volunteers and setting it in motion!

• I overheard a 5K student say to their teacher today, "I subitized over there!"  He was explaining to her about how he figured out the answer for his question during WIN.  I love the language he used!

• The hallways and doors are so fun!  It makes the school look so great and I LoVE that our students' work is all over the walls, doors and ceilings.  Thank you for taking on this project and still the learning that is planned for the day!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, December 16
• Happy Birthday Rick!
• Wear Red and Green Day
• Bus Duty: TCaine, Huso, Lucht, Donovan (3K/4K playground)
• Lunch Duty: Braunschweig, Turcotte, CaineB
• 12:00 - Braunschweig
• 12:30 - Turcotte
• 1:00 - CaineB
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am
• Door Decorating Contest voting takes place
• School Board Meeting @ 6:30pm

• Tuesday, December 17
• Timber Tuesday - Lumberjack/Flannel wear
• Jenny in meeting from 8:15-9:15am & 1:30-2pm
• Lunch Detention Supervisors
• 12:00 - Ellefson
• 12:30 - Open
• 1:00 - Open

• Wednesday, December 18
• Holiday Character Day
• Holiday Photo Booth in the Green Screen Room (Everyone that gets their picture taken will be in the gift card drawing.)
• Jenny will be providing a special Xmas present treat for staff in the lounge. Stop in to grab one!
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am

• Thursday, December 19
• Wake Up and Go Day - Wear PJ's/Comfy clothes
• Xmas Gathering/Secret Santa get together at Harvest Place (See Trisha Caine's email and RSVP to her if you plan to attend.)
• Lunch Detention Supervisors - All are open if you are looking for an extra duty!  :-)

• Friday, December 20
• Festive Friday/Ugly Sweater Day
• Santa will be visiting our classrooms (See below for more details)
• Personal Day Giveaway Day
• Pyramid Model Leadership meeting @ 1pm
• Elem. PPS mtg with our Healthy Minds, Healthy child consultant - Golshan @2pm
• 5th graders performing Santa on Trial for parents at 11am and leaving at 1:45 to perform at Clearview for residents.

• Saturday, December 21
• Happy Birthday Alexis U!
• PowerSchool will be down for maintenance for 9 hours starting at 8pm.  (You better not be working on PowerSchool that night!). :-)

• December 22-Jan 1
• WINTER BREAK!!

• Jan. 2
• Happy Birthday Trisha P.
• Bus Duty: Chambers, Schulte/BCaine, Vertz, Ellefson (3K/4K playground)
• Lunch Duty:
• 12:00 - Wagner
• 12:30 - Miller
• 1:00 - O'Toole
• New Para Duties for January
• Breakfast Duty - Lexi, Vicky
• AM Circle Drive - Eneida
• PM Parent Pick Up - Sandi, Jessica
• Jan. 3

Nitty-Gritty

• Santa's coming!!!  I KNOW HIM! (but not as well as a few others at Dodgeland. lol)
• Santa will be visiting Dodgeland Schools on Friday, December 20th. The plan is for Santa to greet MS/HS students at their doors before school and then head to the elementary classrooms. Similarly to last year, Santa and his assistant will bring a bag of treats to the teacher in the room. The teacher can hand out the treats whenever they feel it's appropriate. If you take any pictures please be sure to share!  This year Mrs. Claus will NOT be in attendance due to being run over by a reindeer and needing to get a new knee last week. We will be sure to tell the kids that Mrs. Clause is back making sure all the elves are working hard!

• Reminders before Break 
• Before you leave for the break, please make sure that you have taken your things out of the fridge that might go bad while we are gone.  Be sure that your Viewsonic board is off, that all lights including any decorative lights that were put up this week and that students have taken home any food items, etc from their lockers that could go bad while we are gone. James and his crew work a few days during the break, but they won't have time for locating and cleaning up spoiled food, etc.  Thank you so much for your help with this!

• Mid-Year Assessments
• Starting on January 6, the winter assessment window will open for all grades.  i-Ready and FastBridge can be started for reading and math after that date.  If you have students that need small group setting or other accommodations, please reach out to special education and intervention teachers ahead of time to coordinate times for students to take these tests with them if that is what is needed. Please know that with the added requirements for assessments for Act 20 as well as the Forward testing moving earlier in the year, there will be no retakes for i-Ready and FastBridge.

• Everyday Speech Survey
• For teachers in grades 2-5, please watch for an email from Sophie regarding the Everyday Speech program.  Please complete this short survey by Dec 20.  We want to check in to see how it is going and if any of you need any other resources or help with implementation.  Thank you in advance for your feedback!

• Breakout EDU and Savvas Details
• Sam has been continuing to work hard on getting our programs onto classlink so that it is easier to use them.  Earlier this week, he sent out an email describing the process to integrate Breakout EDU in your classlink.  Also he shared with me a document that has screenshots to login in to Savvas for the resources for MyView curriculum.  Click HERE to see this document from Savvas directly.

• Medical Clinic Resources
• Leah has put together a document that lists of free or reduced price clinics that are nearby our area.  Click HERE to read this document.  If you know of any families that is in need, please use this to share the items on this list.  Thank you Leah for putting this together so that we can help our students and their families.

• Hallways and Supervision
• One way to prevent incidents from occurring that involve conflicts between students or horseplay and then take up our time, including instructional minutes, is to be visible and present during any transition times in the hallway.  This includes in the morning before school and after school, before/after recess and lunch, etc. Please be diligent to be in the hallway near your class's lockers to supervise students so that we can intervene if there is any inappropriate student behavior.  Thank you in advance for your supervision.

TechKnow Tip

Cult of Pedagogy is a great website by Jennifer Gonzalez for all things instruction, classroom management, and technology. She has outstanding blogs, podcasts, and videos about the art and science of teaching. I particularly love her article “What to Do on Lame Duck School Days” where she shares 30 alternatives to movie watching on “lame duck days” such as the days before a holiday break. She has the activities broken down into low, medium, and high-prep to help find a good fit for you and your classroom.

Recess Information

Please watch for an email from Teresa to set up a time for her to come in to your classrooms to do a "Recess Reboot" after break. This way we can be sure that students all have a review after being away from school for so many days.  It is important that each classroom sign up for a time. 

PD Spotlight

Friday Funny

Now this is MY KIND of decorating!  :-)  (Although I would label it as efficient, not lazy!)