November 14, 2025

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Thank you to all that stepped in on Thursday morning while we were short staffed for student behavior calls.  I so appreciate the teamwork!

• Shout out to Mr. K who always responds to my early morning texts and helps out as often as he can all over the building!  Thank you so much Brent!

• First graders are writing information pieces and I loved listening to a student tell her teacher how to start sentences and even where to start writing on the lines! The foundation is being built every day in our building!

• Teachers are working hard at getting math and reading Aimsweb assessments and I know that it is taking a lot of your time.  Thank you for your diligence on this though!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Sunday, November 16
• Happy Birthday Ashley Gunderson!

• Monday, November 17
• Seals on Wheels (8-2pm in Elem. Conf. Rm)
• Morning Duty
• Playground/Blacktop: Westphal, Stampfl, Tietz
• 3K/4K Playground: Houk, Ellefson (meet the buses)
• Breakfast: Mook, Neis
• Lunch Duty
• 12:00 - Braunschweig
• 12:30 - CaineB
• 1:00 - Fortmann
• After School duty
• Playground/Blacktop: CaineT, OPEN (Let Patti know if you can help!)
• Circle Drive: Betsy
• Lunch Detentions for this week: Schuett, Miller Klink (usually on Wednesday or Thursdays)

• Tuesday, November 18
• Social Media Posts due to Jenny: Klink, Bingen, BCaine
• Jenny in meeting from 9-11:30am
• Pop-Up PD in IMC from 3:20-3:45 on Gemini in Google Classroom

• Wednesday, November 19
• Workout Wednesday
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10:30

• Thursday, November 20

• Friday, November 21
• Jenny in meeting from 9-12pm
• Newsletter articles and Dec. Calendar events due to Patti

Nitty-Gritty

• Submissions to Tell our Story
• Please continue to share what is happening in your classrooms with me for Social Media. The more we can share with our community the learning and happenings in our building, the more they understand the depth of the experiences, learning, and opportunities our students have while in our school.  When submitting pictures, please try to include a variety of pictures that include student faces showing their work along with the pictures of them participating in the work.  Just be careful that you are following the photo release alerts in PowerSchool. You may have a post you put on Dojo that can be shared with me to put on the district FaceBook page too.  Just let me know that there is one there and I will work on getting it to Sam.

• PLTW and ClassLink
• At the staff meeting this week, Sam showed us how to roster our students into PLTW through Classlink.  The slides are HERE to use to get this ready for your classes before you teach PLTW.  If you have questions, please put in a helpdesk ticket and Sam will help you with this!

• Purple Purpose Room Donations
• If you or anyone you know has donations for the Purple Purpose room, please place it in the bin outside the elementary office for the NHS to go through. Mr. Mate and his students are working on organizing the room and donations to make it even easier to find items.

• PD Schedule for 11/24-11/25
• There will be a number of things on the agenda for our PD days in November.  There will also be a lot of work time for you built in to the day as well.  I'm grateful for this time.  The agenda will be out mid-week next week. Thank you for your patience with this!

• Optional Survey for DPI - Please see the message below from Joshua Robinson, the Assistant State Superintendent in WI

Dear colleague,

To better support school districts in meeting American Indian Studies requirements (Wisconsin Act 31), the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), along with tribal partners, is conducting a survey to gather input on current practices and needs related to American Indian Studies instruction. We hope to learn how to best provide information, training, technical assistance, and support. In your role as a teacher, we invite you to participate in the survey.

The survey is expected to take no more than 15 minutes of your time. Your participation is voluntary but would be greatly appreciated. The Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is conducting the survey on our behalf. Your responses will remain completely anonymous. The SRC will share survey results based on aggregate data only.

To take the survey: Wisconsin Act 31 Teacher Survey

Thank you for participating in this important survey!

Joshua Robinson
DPI Assistant State Superintendent

ML Information

This week’s ML Tip is to use Total Physical Response (TBR), a kinesthetic approach that supports students at all proficiency levels to teach vocabulary and concepts.

The Teacher’s Toolkit informs teachers that “Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using physical movement to react to verbal input. The process mimics the way that infants learn their first language, and it reduces student inhibitions and lowers stress. The purpose of TPR is to create a brain link between speech and action to boost language and vocabulary learning.”

Learn how you can use TPR in the classroom Total Physical Response.
Check out this 3 minute video of a third grade teacher using TBR in his classroom to help ML students make learning more meaningful using TPR.

Don’t forget you can find even more resources here: Dodgeland Teacher Resources. You can also feel free to email me or schedule an appointment! 😀

For Elementary Teachers Gr. 1-5:
You should have received a link to your ML student's Individual Learning Plans (ILPs). I understand the stress of teaching and everything that goes with that, but please take some time to review the ILPs. Please also note that ACCESS testing will take place from Dec. 1st-Jan. 30th. Letters have been sent home for both ILPs and ACCESS testing this week.

TechKnow Tip

As the Tech Team, we are constantly reviewing our procedures to streamline our support systems and ensure we are assisting both staff and students in the most efficient manner possible.

To help us manage the incoming support requests and prevent requests from being overlooked, we are reminding everyone of our helpdesk system as the recommended process for all technical issues, problems, and implementation requests.

To ensure your request is routed and addressed as quickly as possible, we have launched new categories within the helpdesk system. When submitting a ticket, please select the most appropriate option:

• Hardware / Device Issue

• Login Issue

• PowerSchool / Skyward Issue

• Software Issue

• Software Implementation

• Basic Request (Other)

It is critical that you fill out the form as descriptively as possible. The more information we have upfront, the faster we can potentially resolve the issue or complete the implementation, reducing delays for everyone.

Please encourage students to utilize the helpdesk system for their technical issues, ensuring they provide a full description of the problem they are experiencing.

• Please remind students to check their email for responses to their submitted tickets, as we often need more information or clarification.

• We aim to be as non-disruptive as possible to the classroom environment, which includes avoiding pulling students out of class to come to the Tech Center.

• Teachers are always welcome to submit a ticket on a student's behalf, but please ensure the student is aware that you have done so.

Friday Funny

Last Friday, we went to see the comedian, John Heffron.  He was quite entertaining and it felt really good to laugh. Lexi and Ella were by far the youngest people in the audience, but they shared that they understood the jokes because they live with me.  I don't know how I feel about that, but honestly, I definitely could connect to his theme of getting old is hard work sometimes!  :-)  He performed some new jokes and some that I had heard before, but it was so cool to watch it live.  Here is a clip for you to enjoy!