September 18, 2026

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Supportive, Encouraging, Positive

• Shout out to Olivia and Samantha who are supporting one another and showing collegiality that all of the students that walk in the classroom will benefit from.  They communicate with each other clearly, they work together on proactive plans, and still find ways to laugh and bring joy to each other's days!  :-)

• I got to sit at all of the collab meetings this week and I heard so many wonderful encouraging words as we work through the work of teacher clarity, planning for student achievement growth and how to meet our students' needs.  Thank you for your work and being an active participant in each meeting!

• Shout out to Melissa Uttech who has been temporarily in a different schedule to support the transition of students to a new room.  She was positive and was a great support for the new team to learn new students, but also as a familiar face for the students making a change. Thank you for all you did to make this work!

• Shout out to Kari who is working so hard to build a relationship with one of her students.  It is starting to get through to him, but it is a slow process. I appreciate how she continues to create a classroom environment that is welcoming, but also focused on what is important for him and his learning.  Nice Job Kari!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, Sept. 21
• Homecoming Starts! Pajama Day
• AM Duties
• Breakfast - Miller
• 4K/5K playground - Schuett, Vertz
• Big playground - Stampfl, Oestreich, Vetter
• Lunch Duties
• 12:00 - Wagner
• 12:30 - Juech
• 1:00 - Knibbs
• PM Duties
• Big Playground - Ryan, TCaine
• Circle Drive - Huelsman
• Happy Birthday Patti! 
• 5K Collab Mtg on Math @ 11:00-11:30am
• Social Media Posts due this week on Class Intercom: Klink, Haan

• Tuesday, Sept. 22
• USA Day - Wear Red, White and Blue
• HS Council selling beads/tattoos to classes that signed up
• 5th gr Collab Mtg on Tech/Digital Citizenship @ 8:35-9:20am
• Jenny in a meeting from 9-11am
• 2nd gr Collab Mtg on Rdg @ 12:00-12:30pm (NEW TIME!)

• Wednesday, Sept. 23
• Happy Birthday Blasia and Gabrielle!
• Sports Day: Wear a Jersey
• HS Council selling beads/tattoos to classes that signed up
• 4th gr Collab Mtg on Tech/DC @ 11:35am-12:20pm
• Staff Meeting in the IMC from 3:15-4pm

• Thursday, Sept. 24
• Color Day - Dress in your grades color (or choose 1 or more of the colors)
• HS Council selling beads/tattoos to classes that signed up
• 1st gr Collab Mtg on Math from 9:35-10:20am
• 3rd gr Collab Mtg on Rdg from 2:05-2:50pm

• Friday, Sept. 25
• Spirit Day - Wear your Dodgeland Purple Wear!
• Pep Assembly starts at 1:30pm
• School Dismissed at 2:30pm, Parade starts at 4pm, Game at 7pm, Bonfire/dance following the game

Nitty-Gritty

• Frontline Hours
• When Kimi sets up the accounts in Frontline, the 30 min. lunch period is accounted for within all staff's hours.  This means that when you put in an absence, please write down the times that you are leaving the building until you return or the end of your day. This will help us to make sure that we know who has left the building.

• Recess Duties
• Whenever possible we ask for volunteers to help fill openings in duties if we are short staff and/or subs.  If there are no volunteers, we will be putting in place the duty assignment practice that we have used in previous years.  Ella (and later Patti) will keep track of who and when anyone is assigned to a recess so that it is equitable amongst our staff members. Thank you in advance for stepping in to keep things running smoothly.

• b.e.s.t. Assessment 
• I will be working on getting this assessment set up to work on during the PD day on October 2nd.  You will start to receive an email from b.e.s.t. to make an account.  Please do not delete this. You can create the account if you like, but please remember your password as I can not retrieve it. The actual screening window doesn't start until Oct. 30.

• Life Tools early Intervention Program
• Stephanie Buss is looking for a staff member that would like to co-facilitate the Life Tools early intervention program. The class is typically after school weekly (once/week) for 8 weeks. There is a stipend available.  Please contact Stephanie Buss if you are interested in this opportunity!
• Savvas (MyView) - Google Classroom
• Sam Santana shared with me that they did some updates in Savvas Realize for the MyView curriculum. In order to get your classes into Savvas, you must upload from Google Classroom. If you struggle with this process, please put in a help desk ticket.
• Visitor Aware for volunteers
• As we start to enter the Fall Field trip season, please remember that we have a new online Volunteer approval process.  The link is on our Dodgeland Website and must be completed online (no paper forms are accepted) and can be completed in the building if they need a device, etc.
• AimsWeb update
• AimsWeb+ is driving me and the interventionists crazy! It is slowly syncing students to the system, but for some reason it is not syncing classrooms from PowerSchool and not all of the students are in it yet either.  I know it is frustrating, but I wanted you to know about this.  Second, our students that attend through the tuition arrangement, must be assessed through AimsWeb with a customer ID for Hustisford. The interventionists will be assessing them since there are extra steps in place in order to get this to work. Thank you for your flexibility while this gets sorted out!
• Accommodations for 504
• If you have students that have 504 plans that require separate setting for tests, etc, please reach out to Teresa, Andy, Jen or myself (or an interventionist if they are available) for assistance with this.  Please plan ahead so that we can get this on our calendars to be sure we are available.
• Question of the Week:  (I really don't understand the 3 people that put the milk in the bowl before the cereal.  Is that truly how you prepare your cereal?  :-)

ML Information

Early ELD Standards (PreK3 - Kindergarten)

Did You Know? 

Language development in 3- to 5-year-olds looks different than in older grades. WIDA provides specialized "Early ELD Standards" that integrate language directly into play, outdoor learning, and circle time.

Take it to the Next Level: 

Check out WIDA's Early Years Resources for early childhood language play.

TechKnow Tip

When creating a post in Class Intercom, you may need to block student faces out of pictures. Watch this short video tutorial showing how to add stickers within Class Intercom, saving you a bunch of time!

Friday Funny

Almost every week when I work on the blog, I have the Golden Girls on the TV while I work.  It's just background noise mostly, but tonight I finished the whole series for the 10th time.  The clip below is on the very short lived spin off, Golden Palace.  It's just funny in a classical sense and reminds me of what a gem Betty White was!  Enjoy!