March 14, 2025

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 4th graders using math talk with great vocabulary as they review geometric shapes and practice the concept of symmetry.  Shout out to Trisha Caine for the system she has put in place to engage them in this work!

• Shout out to Melissa Arnes and Shanalyn Vertz and their teams for stepping in and covering for our colleagues when they are pulled in different directions to make sure their students get the best support they can get.  Thank you all!

• The 3K and 4K team have been working so hard to get all the supplies and routines ready for our events coming up.  It is always fun to meet our new and youngest learners.  Their hard work helps make the event run smoothly and also helps ease anxious parents' minds too.  Thank you all so much!

• Shout out to Brent who is so flexible and is willing to help wherever needed in the building, even if it is last minute in the morning.  Thank you so much Brent for choosing us to spend your time!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 17
• St. Patrick's Day
• Bus Duty: Zastrow, CaineB, Schulte, Donovan (please meet buses at the end of the sidewalk)
• Lunch Supervisors:
• 12:00 - Vertz
• 12:30 - Mosher
• 1:00 - Fortmann
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10am
• EP Mtg - Documentation Log in IMC at 3:15pm

• Tuesday, March 18
• Social Media Posts due to Jessica - Donovan, Mook, O'Toole
• Forward Testing starts for grades 3-5, Please help keep hallways quiet! (8-11:30)
• 4th-5th gr morning recess moved to 9:45 for the day

• Wednesday, March 19
• Workout Wednesday
• Happy Birthday Chris V!
• Forward Testing from 8-11:30
• 4th-5th gr morning recess moved to 9:45 for the day
• Jenny in meetings from 8:30-10:30am
• 3K/4K screening takes place from 3:30-6:30 in the Elementary (in the 3K/4K hallway, please exit door #2 or door #28 between Zastrow and Stampfl's room)
• Dodgeland Den is moved to rooms 123 & 124 for the night.
• Instrument Petting Zoo from 4:30-7pm in the Band room for 4th-5th graders

• Thursday, March 20
• Forward Testing from 8-11:30
• 4th-5th gr morning recess moved to 9:45 for the day

• Friday, March 21
• Happy Birthday Brittany!
• Jenny at dr appt, be in by 9:30 am
• Pyramid Model Leadership mtg @ 1pm in Elem. conf. room

Nitty-Gritty

• Email labeled External
• Reminder from Brad's email that if you receive an email from outside of Dodgeland it will be labeled [External].  This is another clue to help you apply your training on cyber security before opening any links, attachments, etc.  In addition, if it looks suspicious, please use the phish alert button on the web version of Gmail to report it.

• Forward Testing
• This is definitely not one of my favorite events of the year, but it is important yet taxing on many of our children.  Please help support our students and staff that are proctoring these assessments for our students.  Encourage our kids to do their best work, help our younger students stay quiet and avoid testing rooms whenever possible, and model flexibility during the weeks to help our students with any changes to routines.
• As I shared earlier this week, the specials may have changed for your class.  Please look at the schedule carefully to determine what your schedule might have for next week's planning.  I know that this is difficult, but I wanted to be sure that our 3-4-5 students had these courses in their week to help them.

• Our Celebrities
• Did you see our celebrity and supporting cast in the paper?  On the front page of the Daily Citizen is one of our very own classes!  Click HERE if you haven't read the article yet.  The picture draws you in and the article shares some great information for all.  Share with anyone you think may be interested!

• Homeless Liaison
• Ashley Neis is our district's homeless liaison and she sent out some important information for us regarding this.  HERE is the pdf of information to help us identify what it is and how we might determine if a student qualifies or needs resources.  If you have questions, please contact Ashley. 

• It's Spring!
• With spring, comes an increase of biking to school.  We have already had a few of our students that are cutting through the parking lot to get to school.  I have talked to the ones that I know about and have contacted home as well.  In addition, there are a number of students that are coming to the playground after school.  Due to the Dodgeland Den programming, the playground area is closed to the community until 5:30 when that program ends.  This will be in the next newsletter and signs will be posted as well.  If you see any students that are making unsafe choices, please remind them of these expectations and/or let me know the situation and I will address it as well.

TechKnow Tip

Brad's email for us is below.  Please fill this survey out as soon as possible!

We are committed to continuously improving our educational environment and ensuring you have the tools you need to succeed. To better understand how laptops and iPads support your daily work, we are launching a brief survey on technology usage.

This survey aims to gather valuable insights into how you utilize these devices, how often you use them, and how they contribute to your job functions. We believe that understanding your experiences with these tools is crucial for optimizing our digital resources and empowering you to deliver the best possible learning experiences for our students.

The survey will ask questions about:

• How often you use laptops and iPads?
• The specific ways you utilize them in your daily tasks.
• How your work would be impacted without these devices?

Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtWeXcku4DAYmg2amG0RnBMxGmdYaTxmZtom6tM3Y_qQtfUA/viewform?usp=header

We value your honest feedback and appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences. We appreciate your commitment to our students and your willingness to contribute to our ongoing efforts to enhance our educational practices. 

PD Spotlight

We are on "X" already!  When we model our flexible thinking and mindset, we are influencing our students and peers.  And, we get to grow as people and professionals too.  Win-Win!

Recess Information

Please, Please, Please make sure that you are at your recess duty on time and that you are covering the zones on the playground.  I know it is tempting to chat with our colleagues or some of our students that want all of our attention, but we must be diligent during recess to be sure that we can head off injuries or behaviors that should not happen.  Thank you in advance for your help with this.

Friday Funny

The meme below was shown at a staff meeting a few weeks ago.  And when I was talking about the song that goes with it I remember saying, "When I sang it she asked her mother for fifteen cents."  Then many of you told me that it was FIFTY cents.  Now I am wondering if it was always fifty cents but my horrible hearing heard fifteen cents and I was the only one!  So what I thought was an inflationary change was really just me making my own lyrics I guess!  :-)

(I have been known to do this with other songs as well!  I just realized a few years ago that during the song "Drift Away", one of the lines is "Give me the beat boys, and free my soul..."  I ALWAYS sang this song with the words, "Give me the Beach Boys, and free my soul..." It made total sense to me because the Beach Boys were one of my parents' favorite groups and I listened to a LOT of their songs as a kid.  It's embarrassing that I was in my 30's before I realized that those were not the right words! sigh.)