February 28, 2025

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Shout out to Hailey for running an IEP meeting in a way that helped her student's parents feel proud of their child's growth and communicating well regarding next steps.  Very nicely done Hailey!

• Shout out to the 4K team for working as a team to take on extra students when we were short substitutes this week.  I truly appreciate your teamwork!

• Third Graders are working hard on writing their own story problems.  What a great way to make sure they really understand how to explain the math thinking of problem solving!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 3
• Bus Duty: Fortmann, Miller, Chambers, Jenkins(please meet buses at end of sidewalk)
• Lunch Supervisors
• 12:00 - Donovan
• 12:30 - Westphal
• 1:00 - Klink
• Read Across America Week starts - Hat Day

• Tuesday, March 4
• Social Media Posts due to Jessica - None, but feel free to send something though!
• Dress in Animal/Animal Print Day
• Band Preview Day for 4th/5th grades (8am for 5th gr, 8:30 for 4th gr in Elem. gym)
• Para PD Meeting in IMC at 3:15pm
• Family Rdg/Math Night @ 6pm

• Wednesday, March 5
• Workout Wednesday
• Reading Buddy Day
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am

• Thursday, March 6
• Wear a shirt with Words
• Jenny at Cesa, back at 1:15ish

• Friday, March 7
• Vocabulary/Book Character Day

Nitty-Gritty

• Staff Meeting Follow-Up
• Please complete this short survey about the end of the year picnic.  It should take less than 2 min.  Thank you in advance for your opinion.

• Read Across America Read Alouds
• Thank you to Christina for putting this together for us.  Each of the pages has two read aloud options for our students.  During snack time may be a great time to share the books. Click HERE to get the links.

• Budget Purchases
• Reminder from Jessica's email.  All budgeted purchases must be made by March 14 and should be for things that were already budgeted for and needed for this school year.  We can not forward spend.  If this is an issue, please see me ASAP to talk about this.

• Planning Ahead - Watch your Email
• The High School FFA club is planning a couple of Elementary events.  March 11 they will be reading to some classrooms a book about agriculture and doing a project with the students.  On April 30, the annual Petting Zoo is being planned.  Please watch your email for more details.

TechKnow Tip

Videos can be a great way to introduce a topic, take students places or show students things that are otherwise unreachable, and videos can be a great way to wrap-up or review a topic. Here is an article from Edutopia: Teaching Students How to Learn From Videos. The bigger question is: Where do I find quality, enriching videos for my class?! Check out these three great places:

• Brain POP - Short (less than 10 minute) videos introducing a variety of topics in student friendly language. Each video has embedded questions that will pause while watching for great discussions. Videos are organized with grades K-3, grades 3-8, Spanish, and French.

• Discovery Education - A variety of videos that can be shown in smaller segments. Videos can be downloaded and added to slide decks or our learning management system (Schoology or Google Classroom). Shout-out to having all the Reading Rainbow episodes!
  

Both of these resources can be accessed through ClassLink on your iPad or laptop!

PD Spotlight

We are on the Letter V this week. Vulnerability is not always easy, but when we feel safe to be vulnerable with those around us, we truly can grow.  Helping our students feel safe to take risks and be open, helps them to grow exponentially and build confidence too!

Friday Funny

This week's Friday Funny is a story that Ella told me about one of our 4K students.  The 4K's theme right now is Space.  The teachers have been reading books about space, including one about the planets.  One of our 4K students was very upset that she lives on the blue planet Earth. She said, "I want to live on the red one, the blue planet is ugly!"  Ella had a very hard time consoling her that she simply has to live on Earth and not the red one. Ella is so UNREASONABLE! :-)

February 21, 2025

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Monday's PD sessions on accommodation and accessibility was great learning for me.  I could tell that Jen and Christina and Brad put a lot of thought, energy and work into the presentations.  Thank you so much for this!!  I know that we talk about this a lot, but it is important to keep seeing the options so that we can use them when our students can benefit from the techniques.  Thank you for continuing to implement these things when students need it!

• Shout out to Stephanie Schuett for teaching our 4K students to successfully use the Think, Pair, Share strategy to talk about background knowledge about the sun.  It was so incredible watching even our youngest learners be so engaged and communicating with one another.  My favorite thing they "know" about the sun is that it has spikes!  :-)

• As you know, our 3K students main job is play and what a good job they do!  Plus, their teachers are modeling and prompting them to communicate with one another while playing, clean up after themselves, asking for help and even peers feeling good about helping their friends.  Shout out to Bethany and Chris for giving our littles such a great start to their education career!

• A week of indoor recess is a lot, but thank you to all of our paras and teachers that have kept that time period safe, fun and as conflict free as possible.  You're Amazing!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 24
• Happy Birthday Heather Stange!
• Bus Duty: Klink, Caine-Arnes, Lucht, Wagner (3K/4K end - please meet the buses at the end of the sidewalk in the am's)
• Lunch Supervisors:
• 12:00 - Braunschweig
• 12:30 - Miller
• 1:00 - O'Toole
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am
• School Board Meeting at 6:30pm

• Tuesday, February 25
• Social Media Posts due to Jessica - Wagner
• Lunch Detention Supervisors
• 12:00 - Stampfl
• 12:30 and 1:00 - Open

• Wednesday, February 26
• Workout Wednesday
• Staff Meeting 3:10-3:55pm in IMC

• Thursday, February 27
• Jenny in meeting from 11-1pm

• Friday, February 28

Nitty-Gritty

• Safety Drill Volunteers Needed
• Please see Brad's email from last Friday (2/14) looking for people that are interested and willing to be volunteers that are participating in the drill.  This is taking place during our spring break, April 14-17. If this is something you'd like to do, please let Brad know as soon as you are able.

• Christina's Tech Slides
• Click HERE to see Christina's slides from Monday's PD session.  Please refer to this if you need help on how to provide accommodations or accessibility techniques to your lessons or communication for your students.  It is very important for our students that we make accommodations for them so that they can do their best work.

• Sound Equipment in Gym
• Next week, the tech department will start to move the tech equipment into the elementary gym to be used during the HS Musical practice after school.  This means that students will need to be careful around the equipment during PE and during any indoor recess times.  Please help reiterate to students to stay away from this equipment.

• Sense of Urgency
• One week from today, we will be at the end of February already.  This means we have only 3 months left of school.  Please continue to plan your lessons and days with a sense of urgency.  I don't want to be an alarmist, but we have limited time left that we get to work on SEL skills, academic skills and enjoy them.  Thank you in advance for making good use of every minute we have with our students!

PD Spotlight

This week's letter is U and in just a few words, it says A LOT!  This is not only true for our students but our colleagues as well.  When we talk about others (kids, parents and colleagues) and make assumptions about events that may not be 100% accurate, we are adding to these emotional backpacks.  This does not help us feel better, work together as a team, or feel good about our jobs.  Being curious and asking questions and then listening with an open mind for the answers is a great way avoid adding to the emotional backpacks, maybe even lighten the load, but also to avoid misplaced judgments. None of us try to get in these situations, and it is easy to do, but please remember we all have our own stories that comes with our own baggage that affects us from time to time. Be Kind and Be Curious as often as possible.

TechKnow Tip

This week we all learned what an asset Canva can be with everything from document translating to the creation of posters, worksheets, or presentations. Once you are done creating, there are a variety of ways to share your work. The “Share” button in the top right of your screen gives you the initial options of downloading or even sharing directly to Google Classroom (pictured below). The Google Classroom option will show up for students as a view only Canva project. If you choose “Download”, you will have a choice of what type of file you would like and where to save it (pictured below). Google Drive is a great place to save it when sharing it with others. OneDrive is a great place to save if you are printing things. Please remember to take time to save it to the cloud (Google, OneDrive, iCloud Files) and NOT your desktop or downloads.

Friday Funny

This week one of our 4th graders was helping Ella create a video for our March Attendance initiative.  I wanted a student voice in the video and this student is in the den every day so I knew that I wouldn't have to take him out of class!  Plus, Miss Alexis and Miss Ella were willing to share him!  Watching this happen in my office though was hilarious!  Almost every sentence started with a sniffle.  He'd fumble some words and tell me there was a glitch or that the wifi went out causing an error!  And the whole time Miss Ella got to build up her skill of patience.  It was so enjoyable for me to watch! Listen to one of his bloopers here.

February 14, 2025

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• What a week this has been!  So many exciting activities for your classrooms!  Shout out to all of you!  You made this week fun and full of learning! (just like every other week, but this week it was loaded with once a year events!)  These are the things our students remember for years. I know that it so much extra work, but I hope you see how much it is worth it for our students.

• 2nd grade students working together to estimate and build their number sense skills all the way up to 1000!  Way to go!

• Shout out to Teresa!  She has been working so hard at messaging parents to find ways to help their child, using our resources efficiently for kids and communicating with staff all over the building, not to mention the group teaching in 4K and the tier 3 groups for SEL.  Thank you Teresa!

• Students were so well behaved for the assembly today.  Thank you for helping to set the expectations for them ahead of time!

• Shout out to Ms. Westphal!  One of her students has been rocking it lately and Kari is cheering her on all the way!  Woot, Woot!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Saturday, February 15
• Happy Birthday Laura G.

• Monday, February 17
• PD Day - Schedule is HERE
• Happy Birthday Christina!

• Tuesday, February 18
• Bus Duty: Bingen, Juech, Stampfl, Schuett (3K/4K playground)
• Lunch Supervisors:
• 12:00 - Ellefson
• 12:30 - Turcotte
• 1:00 - CaineB
• Social Media Posts due to Jessica: Ellefson, Huso, O'Toole
• Optional Referendum info meeting for staff in IMC at 3:15pm (repeat from last week)

• Wednesday, February 19
• 5th gr. Field Trip to Discovery World - 8am-3pm
• Parent Teacher Conferences 4-7:30pm by appointment

• Thursday, February 20
• Workout Wednesday on a Thursday!  (Since we had to dress up for conferences yesterday)

• Friday, February 21
• Early dismissal for students at 2:20 (Staff dismissed after buses leave--2:30ish)
• Dodgeland Den is still open until 5:30 pm

Nitty-Gritty

• New Face around Dodgeland
• Starting next week, we will have a sub in for Rose while she is out with her much anticipated medical procedure!  (@Rose - I can't wait to see you pain free in a few weeks! Good Luck!!). While she is gone, Ali Sugden (former grad) will be covering for her.  She will be using her iPad to communicate in Spanish with students and taking them for small group work just like Rose does. You may have seen her in the building this week shadowing Rose.  Please help her feel welcome!  Glad you are here Miss Ali!

• PD day on Monday
• The schedule for the day is HERE.  Most of you will notice that you are meeting with Jen first for a session on accommodations and accessibility.  After that you will be meeting with the tech team to learn how technology can be used to help with this work.  Please make sure that you have both devices charged and with you for that session.  The goal is to be able to apply your new learning with your own lessons.  When you are not in a session, please use that time to collaborate with your team, prep for future units/lessons, or participate in a wellness activity for 30 min.

• Kids Heart Challenge
• The last day for Online donations for the Kids Heart Challenge is Friday, Feb 21. Teresa has taken over the challenge for this school year. She has a list of students that have earned prizes and will be handing them out on Valentine's Day and again next Friday at the conclusion of the event.  If you have any questions, please let Patti, Teresa or I know and we will find the answer!

• Mark your calendars!
• Read Across America is coming soon!  The week of March 3-7 and our family night will be on March 4.  Please watch for more details from the committee coming soon!

• Upcoming Dates?
• If you have upcoming events to get on the calendar or articles for the March newsletter, please get them to Patti by next week Friday.  She will be working on this soon and we don't want to miss anything!  Thank you!

• Happy Numbers Challenge
• Thank you all for encouraging student participation in Happy Numbers and also to Sue O'Toole for organizing the competition!  The more practice students have with math skills, the stronger their skills become!  While the challenge is over, the practice doesn't have to be!

• Green Bay Gamblers Teacher Appreciation Night
• The Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League is offering discounted tickets for the game on Saturday, March 29th for the 6:05 game vs. Dubuque.  The ticket code is HERE.  The game takes place at the Resch Center in Green Bay. 

PD Spotlight

This week's letter is T. We all have a story and many of us have similar stories to our students.  It helps them see that we have full lives and that we don't just sit around school waiting for them to come back the next day!  :-)

TechKnow Tip

Have you AirPlayed lately? With the newest update to your laptop, you now have choices of what you display while connected to AirPlay! Once you are connected to a display via AirPlay, you will have a “Change” option under your mirroring display menu. This button will give you the choice of mirroring your entire screen, a specific window or app, or utilizing it as an extended screen.

Recess Information

Snow Pants and Boots
Now that we have snow, snow pants and boots are required to go on the turf/play equipment and grass. It appears like we will be indoors all next week, but please send reminders to your families about sending snow gear.

Friday Funny

This is a picture of my 5K niece on her 100th day of school that was 2/13.  Yep, her class had 100th day and then Valentine's Day two days in a row.  Lydia is a spitfire and keeps her parents on their toes, which I secretly love to watch!  This shirt is SO HER!  Here's to all of you that survived 100 days this year too!  (including looking at 100 pictures of me all over this building.  Now that was painful, wasn't it??)

February 7, 2025

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• First graders are working hard on blending words together and noticing consonant blends at the beginning and end of words.  This is not an easy skill, but they are getting it!

• Staff coming together to make proactive plans to help struggling students with behavior and with academic challenges.  I am blessed to work with such compassionate and hardworking professionals.

• 3K students are learning to share their feelings and also to listen to each other when they share.  It is wonderful to watch them working on SEL skills too!

• Staff being flexible and helpful as we continue to help cover classes, duties, etc due to illness of ourselves and families.  The bugs going around are NO FUN!  Thank you for all that are stepping in to help out all over the building!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Saturday, Feb. 8
• Happy Birthday Dom!

• Sunday, Feb 9
• Happy Birthday Jessica J.!

• Monday, Feb 10
• Bus Duty: CaineT, Huso, Westphal, Braunschweig (3K/4K playground)
• Lunch Supervisors:
• 12:00 - Lucht
• 12:30 - Juech
• 1:00 - Schulte
• 5K Grade level Data Meeting at 11:35 in Elem. conf. room
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am
• Is your laptop updated to MacOs 15.3?  It's very important that this is done ASAP!

• Tuesday, Feb. 11
• Social Media Posts due to Jessica: Braunschweig, Donovan, Westphal, Miller
• Lunch Detention Supervisors
• 12:00 - Stampfl
• 12:30 - Open
• 1:00 - Open
• 100th Day of School!
• Optional: Referendum info meeting for staff at 3:15pm in IMC

• Wednesday, Feb 12
• Workout Wednesday
• 101st Day of School!
• Staff Meeting: This meeting will be replaced with the referendum info meeting for staff at 3:15 in IMC

• Thursday, Feb 13
• All School Assembly in the elementary gym at 2pm. (it will last about 45 min.)
• Family Night at 6pm - Bring your families for a night of laughter and fun!

• Friday, Feb 14
• Happy Valentine's Day!
• Harvest of the Month lessons for 4th/5th grades between 10-12

Nitty Gritty

• Phishing Email
• Please make sure that you read Brad's email from Thurs, Feb 6 regarding the phishing emails that DPI notified the state of.  I know that we have all completed the cybersecurity training, but this is a good reminder so that we don't unintentionally give away your private information. The emails may look legitimate, but there are a few clues that helps us know that it is not from WI DPI.

• Assembly on Thurs.
• We will be sitting on the floor of the gym for the assembly.  We must leave an aisle for the performer to walk  through and there will be volunteers asked to come on stage during the show.  Please remind students to use their SEL skills if they are not chosen to participate.  In addition, there will be a handout to send home to encourage families to attend the evening performance as well.  We will start to sit down at 2pm, but please make sure that your students are ready to go by then so that the performer has time to complete the assembly before school ends.

• 3K/4K Screening and Registration
• The 3K/4K staff is planning for the screening night for incoming 3K and 4K students next month.  Their will be families within the building with their young students, some of which will be very nervous.  To prepare for this, if you know anyone that is interested in our program, feel free to share the information.  Post cards will be sent to homes and it will be on FaceBook and Dojo as well.  HERE is the English Flyer and HERE is the Spanish flyer for your awareness.

TechKnow Tip

There are SO many amazing tools that Canva offers! But, to get access to everything, your account needs to be connected to our district’s account. To check this, select your account in the top right of Canva when logged in. You will find “Dodgeland School District” under the Teams section. If you are not connected to the “Dodgeland School District” Canva team, please add your account with this link.

Behavior Specialist Information

Bucket Fillers

We are going to tweak our Bucket Fillers program slightly. We have noticed that our 4th/5th grade numbers are very low. Instead of doing tickets and poms, we would like to move back to just poms 5k-5th with a focus on the word of the month to earn those poms. As a reminder, students can earn poms for choosing the desired behaviors at lunch, recess or in the hallway. Ms. Mosher will be providing more information about the word of the month and what it looks like to use that skill. 

2nd/3rd lunch procedure change

As the year is progressing, we are noticing that students could use a break from each other and/or the opportunity to engage with other peers. As such, we would like to try "open seating" at lunch. The second graders will still be expected to sit with second grade and third graders with third grade but they will not be required to sit by classroom teacher. Students will be allowed to pick where they sit as long as they can handle it. Teachers will have discretion to move students as needed based on behavior. This change will start Monday, February 10th.

Recess Information

Bus Duty Update

Jonathanmose (2nd grade) should come straight in when he arrives at school in the morning.

He starts his day in the office for breakfast. Please remind him to come in if he forgets.

Are we going out???

Just a reminder an announcement will be made if we are having indoor recess. While 13 degrees is our

guiding number, there are times that we may make the decision to go out if the temperature is slightly

below 13 based on wind and sun, especially for the first recess when they are out for a short time.

There also may be times when we keep 4k in and send everyone else out based on the condition of

their playground.   We will do our best to make the announcement 15 minutes prior to the first recess

impacted.

PD Spotlight

We are human and we will make mistakes. Admitting it and apologizing to one another, including to children is a powerful message for one another. We also get to practice our skills of forgiveness and empathy as well.

Friday Funny

If you do not know who Jake Ryan is, I am so very sorry. That might mean you missed a pretty great decade of music, style and movies and it makes me sad for you. If you do know who Jake Ryan is, then this meme is just depressing and I am sorry for us too! :-) Let me know if you want a run down on a great movie to watch this weekend while it snows! LOL