February 13, 2026 (What a week, huh?)

 All in the same week, are you kidding me????   Friday the 13th, Valentine's, 100th/101st Day of School, Parent/Teacher Conferences...What else could we add to these 5 days?

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Nobody is as happy as the Math Interventionist on the 100th Day of School!  Thank you for adding your expertise to our students for the day Sue!

• Shout out to Shanalyn, Samantha, and Teresa that used ingenuity and old-fashioned teaching know how to help a student struggling to come in from recess.  To some it may have looked like just a fun chair ride across the blacktop, but to others it was modeling, care and support and most importantly creativity to solve a problem.  Way to go guys! :-)

• Shout out to Taylor who solved a problem I didn't know I had at the beginning of the week.  Then when I figured it out, she determined how to solve the problem by making a chart for the data points and saved me HOURS of work.  I know I said this to you before; you didn't have to do this, but I can not thank you enough for it!

• With all of the changes in the schedule and the illnesses and the weather changes this week, there were a number of our students that had a rough week. Thank you to all of those that stepped in to help them out, support them, communicate with others about the events and make plans for helping to improve their days.  Whether this is discussing recess issues for an exhausting amount of time with a group of 4th graders, talking about the bathroom mess AGAIN with a student, helping students clean up a mess they made, or even just patiently redirecting the student for what probably seemed the 100th time in an hour. Thank you for all you do and know that it is noticed and appreciated!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 16
• PD Day!  Schedule is HERE
• 3K/4K Screening from 12:30-6:30pm

• Tuesday, February 17
• Happy Birthday Christina!
• Morning Duties
• Blacktop/Playground - Chambers, Fortmann, Caine-Arnes
• 3K/4K buses/Rm 109 - O'Toole, Schuett
• Breakfast - Schulte, Braunschweig
• Lunch Duties
• 12:00 - Schuett
• 12:30 - Miller
• 1:00 - Klink
• Afternoon Duties
• Blacktop/Playground - Juech, Klink
• Circle Drive - Rollins
• Social Media Posts due to Jenny: Huso, Stampfl, Miller
• Jenny in a meeting from 9-11am

• Wednesday, February 18
• Workout Wednesday
• Lunch Detention Supervisors: Ellefson, Juech, CaineT
• Jenny in meeting from 8:30-10:30am

• Thursday, February 19
• Seals on Wheels visit
• 5th Gr. Field trip to Discovery World (all day)

• Friday, February 20
• newsletter articles due to Patti!

Nitty-Gritty

• Lavender Reminder
• Please refrain from using lavender items on Mondays to help one of our students that has a severe allergy.  This includes lotions, perfumes, air fresheners, etc.  Thank you!

• Low Power Mode on iPads
• Please make sure you have read Brad's email earlier this week about the low power mode on our iPads.  While it seems like it is a way to conserve battery, it actually causes a lot more problems than it helps.  Please help our students (especially 4th-5th graders) understand this as well so that their learning tool is working well for them for their work.

• Feb 16 PD Day - Details you should know
• On Monday, there will be a few important tasks to work on and complete before April 22, our last PD of the year.  Anyone that will be proctoring the Forward test for students in grades 3-5, must attend the Forward training with Dom in the IMC at 8am.
• For teachers that teach 5K-5th grade, please plan to meet with me in the IMC at 9am to work on the next steps for preparing for next year and the digital citizenship lessons for each of our grades.  Mrs. Rollins will be on hand to assist with this work as well.
• Finally, at some point when it works for you or your team, please go into Cox Campus and complete the Reading Fluency module.  As always, you can do this as a group, or individually. When you complete the assessment, please print or email the certificate with everyone's names on it for my records. This may take about 2 hours.  It just has to be done before April 22.
• Dodgeland Den will be open in Room 109 (and for a short time in room 102/gym) during the day. There are only about 15 kids signed up for the day.
• 3K/4K Screening will start in the hallway near the office and the Early Learning hallway at 12:30. Right now, there are about 30 students that will be coming in that day to see our school and meet our staff.  If you pass through this area for the copiers, lunch, etc, please keep this in mind as many of these students get very nervous when they come in.

• Disinfecting
• If you are like me, somedays, I just want to take a bath in the sanitizer to keep germs away.  I am taking the emergen-c vitamins faithfully to hopefully help with this too!  One other thing that may help is helping our students to also be deligent with disinfecting hard services frequently and whenever possible letting it sit for 10-15 min.  Of course, frequent hand washing can never be over stated either! Every little bit helps!

• School Supplies for the 2026-27 School year
• It's time to look at the supply lists already for next year.  We will again be using 1st Day School Supplies for families that want to utilize this for purchasing a kit to have at school for the next school year.  The prices may have changed and we want to be sure that students will use all of the items that are on the list.  Last year's list is HERE.  I will send you a link for the 1st Day site to make any revisions to the items that you had in it from last year next week.  

Behavior Specialist Information

Help me, Help me!

Thank you very much for continuing to report behaviors so we can get ahead of issues as much as possible. While I very much appreciate being told about behavior incidents that require more immediate attention, PLEASE also write them up in Powerschool so I have the report to tie the consequence to and can be as timely and as accurate as possible in informing families. 

As always, please make sure that you are only using the student you are writing ups name in the reports, use as accurate and professional/neutral language as possible and leave any feeling or interpretational words out of formal reports.

Thanks for your help and please reach out if you have any questions!

TechKnow Tip

Google Chrome’s live caption and live translation are tools you can use which turn spoken words into text in real-time, making digital audio content more inclusive for all students. 

When accessed, live caption and live translate will auto launch within Google Chrome whenever spoken content is detected. The small text window can be moved or resized.

These accessibility tools are game changers for all our students when sharing videos or audio during your whole-group instruction. 

To get started:

• Open Chrome settings

• Click Accessibility along the left-hand menu

• Toggle live caption on

• To translate, toggle live translate on and select the preferred language

Watch a demo HERE

ML Information

Empowering Multilingual Learners: The Magic of Scaffolding

Think of scaffolding in the classroom just like scaffolding on a building: it’s a temporary structure put in

place to help a student reach heights they couldn't scale alone. For our Multilingual Learners (MLs),

scaffolding isn't just "help"—it’s the bridge between understanding a concept and being able to express it.

The secret to successful scaffolding isn't just putting the support in place; it's knowing when to

gradually take it away.

Teacher's Scaffolding Checklist

Phase 1: Heavy Support

• Sentence Frames: Provided full sentences with blanks for key vocabulary.

• Visuals: Paired text with images or icons.

• Bilingual Glossary: Provided translations for tier-three terms.

Phase 2: Moderate Support

• Sentence Starters: Provided the first few words of a response.

• Word Bank: Provided a list of relevant academic vocabulary.

• Graphic Organizers: Used Venn diagrams or flow charts to organize thoughts.

Phase 3: Light Support

• Think-Pair-Share: Allowed oral rehearsal before writing.

• Checklists: Provided a list of "Must-Have" elements for the task.

• Paragraph Frames: Provided transition words (First, Next, Finally).

Phase 4: Independence

• Student-Led: Student completes the task using only their own notes or memory.

Friday Funny

I came across this 13 sec. video online this week and it made me laugh. Then I was challenged to see what would happen if I tried this. I openly admit that I was perhaps a bit too overconfident. Today's Friday Funny is a run down of what happens when Jenny is rightfully put in her place by the cutest kids on the planet and their teachers.

Good Start: It looked okay at first. We were moving, had one little one bouncing off the wall literally, then a pretty big gap that I haven't noticed yet, but all in all, it's a good start. After all, we are only going to the music room!

Early Boast: By the end of the hallway, I'm feeling pretty good about myself as I look back and they are all in a line against the wall so they aren't in the way. I see Lexi and do a little cheer for all of us. See how HAPPY I look!

Sabotageur: Then, as we get closer to Lexi getting ready for recess duty, she of course is doubting my skills. AND THEN, do you see the sabotaging she does by encouraging a student to get out of line?! I believe her negativity and her blatant corruption of this innocent child caused my ultimate failure... Yep, I said it.

Wheels Came Off: By the time I get to Mrs. Houk's room, I have now stated at least 10 times, "Stay in line please. ___ walk straight please, ____ turn around so you don't run into anyone." And, I learned exactly what you all probably knew already, "That definitely didn't look the same as when Tina, Mandy and Bethany do it!" They make it look soooo easy, but I always knew that kindergarten was not the grade I could teach, but walking in the hallway I thought I could at least do! Guess not! :-)