March 20, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• So many staff members have taken on our new reality within the short time that we have had to prepare with enthusiasm, creativity and empathy.  Maintaining a calm presence in their lives, even if it is virtually, allows our students to mimic our resiliency and flexibility.
• Collaboration at a very high level.  Staff members working together to determine schedules and even students needing 1:1 check ins.
• The awesome videos I have watched are entertaining, but have a really great message embedded in them.  Students and parents appreciate them.
• Our first virtual staff meeting on BlueJeans worked!  The way you helped each other, found resources later to help out, and participated in the follow up is professionalism at the highest level.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 23
• Office Hours officially begin for staff.  The majority of students will have their supplies and their iPads for grades 3-5.
• Meals will continue to be delivered all week.
• Tuesday, March 24
• online tech bluejeans support 11:00-1:00pm if you want to drop in for help
• Wednesday, March 25
• Virtual Staff meeting at 11am
• Thursday, March 26
• online tech bluejeans support 11:00-1:00pm if you want to drop in for help
• Friday, March 27
• Last day for students to turn in anything for 3rd quarter grades.  Grades will be finalized next week.
• Monday, March 30
• Grades will be finalized at 4pm.

Nitty-Gritty

• Staff Questions
• Click here to add or read the answers to the staff questions that have been submitted.  We check this document often and we meet daily to check in with each other about the needs of our students/staff.  Let us know questions that you have!

• One Drive
• Amanda Beaudo created a 3 min. tutorial on using OneDrive to share videos with students.  Google is getting lots of video uploads and is takes a number of days to complete the rendering process.  Feel free to try this option too!
• Using OneDrive to post videos (thanks Amanda!)

• Staff Resource to help your families
• Watch your emails to a link to a Google Doc that has resources about common questions that students or families may ask about.  This may help you guide them to get their needs met.

• Parent Communication
• Friday, March 20, there will be a communication sent home to all parents to explain how to connect with teachers using BlueJeans, including the link for that classroom.  In addition, it will include some tips of how to navigate this new experience for their family.

PD Spotlight

I am sharing two resources that Jessica shared with me that you may find helpful during our School Closure.  One is from our very own Cesa 6, the other one is from the digital summit that she has shared with all of us in the past. Enjoy!

Ditch that Textbook online digital summit is back open :)

CESA webinars - two a day :)

Friday Funny

March 13, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Teachers giving direct feedback respectfully and kindly to parents this week to problem solve as a team.  The student was at the forefront of all decisions.
• Flexibility shown with unexpected news that allows are students to learn from our responses to  unexpected schedule changes.
• Teachers stepping in to help out at the last minute to provide a productive day for our students.
• Opinion writing in 1st grade is a multi-sensory experience.  Students told which Doritos they preferred this week and why.
• A couple of 3rd grade students continue to be good citizens of our school community by assisting Kari everyday with the lunch table chairs in their sections.  It is much appreciated!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 16
• PD DAY!!  :-). I'm so excited for our work. Click here for schedule

• Tuesday, March 17
• 5th grade Field Trip to Riveredge Nature Center
• Bellxcel training in the PLTW lab all day (Jenny will be with them for a majority of the day.)
• Beginning Band Parents Meeting 6:30-7:30

• Wednesday, March 18
• Workout Wednesday
• 5th grade Data Meeting at 12:05 in Rachael's room (Hope this is okay Rachael)

• Thursday, March 19
• Dodgeland Dress up like a DES staff member

• Friday, March 20
• End of 3rd Quarter
• TalkRead Play Group from 9-10am in room 109

Nitty-Gritty

• Teacher Recommended Courses for Summer School
• The summer school booklets will be coming out next week.  Late Friday, there will be a stack of forms to include with students that you would like to recommend for a remedial math or reading class.  Please send me a list of students that you are recommending for a remedial course so that I can watch the registrations as they come in.

• Popcorn Fridays
• As Dr. Thompson shared in her update regarding precautions we are taking in response to the COVID-19 situation, we will be not have popcorn available on Fridays for the foreseeable future.  Please share with your students.

• Assembly
• Please click here to let me know what your preference is about the Pride Assembly on April 2.  The Staff v. Students Basketball game will be held in the MS Gym on Friday, April 3 at the end of the day.

• Thank you
• Thank you all for your feedback on Wednesday.  I very much appreciate your thoughtful critiques.  Feel free to add anything that you think of later through email or rounding.  I am always open to feedback.

PD Spotlight

This week the PD Spotlight is going to be just a bit different.  This week the learning that I have spent the most time on (besides Powerschool, which we will talk about on Monday) is on the COVID-19 virus. In case you are like me and needed to read up on this, the link here has some information from the CDC.

Friday Funny

March 6, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 5th grade students sounded so great at this week's Band-O-Rama.  It was fun to listen to their excitement for the concert on Monday night.
• Staff members collaborated to provide needed services for students in crisis.
• Jr. Coaches modeling for younger students how to walk in the hallway.
• First grade students are adding with some BIG numbers this week!
• Fifth graders are very excited to choose and start their Fantasy Book Club unit for reading.
• A third grade student finished his first Harry Potter book in a single day!  A new generation of book fans is growing at Dodgeland!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 9
• Mentors/Mentee Meeting in the IMC at 3:15pm
• Jenny is in an online training for Powerschool from 9-3:15.
• Tuesday, March 10
• Day 2 of online training for Powerschool for Jenny from 9-4pm
• Wednesday, March 11
• 5K Grade Level Data meeting at 12:10
• Staff meeting in the IMC at 3:10
• Thursday, March 12
• Dress for Success Day
• Friday, March 13
• Coach Jena from Playworks visits recess.

Nitty-Gritty

• Gum
• I know that many students rely on gum to help with concentration/focus or for calming strategies.  I believe that it can be especially helpful for many students.  However, I need your help.  Can you please reinforce the expectation of placing gum in garbage cans?  We have a couple of young students that are finding it on the floor in other places like the playground or in the bathroom.  It becomes a distraction and irresistible for them.  Thank you in advance for your support.

• PLTW
• Now that it is March, it is time to check in on your plans for PLTW.  Do you have the units/modules scheduled in your plans for the rest of the year?  Do you need to sign out the PLTW Lab in the elementary?  
• In addition, there is a training for staff members (some from here and some from an outside district) in the PLTW lab on March 17 from 8-3pm.  This may affect any PLTW plans for some classrooms so I wanted to make sure you knew ahead of time.

• Mystery Science
• I am receiving emails about our free trial for Mystery Science for this year.  Have you used this with your students?  If you have used it this year at all, please give me feedback through email to tell me how you used it, what the strengths of it was, and your hope for it for future school years.

• Science Materials in the Lounge
• There are many, many science materials currently stored in the staff lounge.  A small group of teachers would like to organize the lounge and particularly the science materials.  If you would like to help with this process by looking through and organizing the supplies, please contact Mandy.

• Summer School Opportunity for students
• The Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation is sponsoring a new program that will be utilized in our summer school programming for remediation and preventing summer slide for students going into 1-2 (and some 3) grades.  The program is called Bellxcel. Mitch Wedel and Rose Fobes will be working with students in this morning course called Scholars on the Move.  The program provides a curriculum for SEL, Math and ELA.  This course will replace the Jumpstart to 1st and 2nd grade courses and will be by teacher recommendation only.  In the coming weeks, more information will be shared to help teachers determine students to recommend for this program.  We have a strict limit of 24 students total. 

PD Spotlight

This week the PD spotlight is centered on this book that I have been reading.  There was a study that was discussed in the book that almost 80% of parents agreed with the statement "it's more important that my children are kind to others" than "academically successful." However, when children were surveyed about what their children's top priority was for them, 44% of children said they wanted them to be happy, 33% said it was doing well in school and 23% said it was to be kind.  The hypothesis from the authors and researchers that they were citing is that kindness must be taught.  I think about all the work that we are doing at Dodgeland surrounding SEL and focusing on kindness.  It will be a long process, but I believe that we are on the right track.  It is important that we continue to expect students to be kind, model how to do this in the classroom and create habits where we practice affirmations and kindness to others with our coaching.  If you would like to borrow this book, please let me know.  It has some very practical pieces that I found useful as well.

Friday Funny

This made me laugh because at this point in my life, I just wait until the whole season is done so I can watch them when I want to.  (Or how about using the commercial break to go to the bathroom and rushing so much because you didn't want to miss anything!  My children have no idea the stress of watching TV back in the day!). Lol

February 28, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• The Read Across America's planning and kick-off assembly this week was so great!  A shout-out to all the members of the committee! --Sue, RaChelle, Brenda, Elizabeth, Mitch & Mandy--
• 5th graders are adding text features to enhance their informational pieces on the Iditarod.  Not only do they include them, they are explaining how the feature teaches more information and improves their writing piece.
• Vocabulary Parade - Need I say more!  So many adorable vocabulary outfits.  This was my first experience with this and I loved it!
• Many of us have stepped in again this week to help with students that need us, fellow staff members that need help covering in different places, and even just providing a calm and friendly ear to someone that needs to talk.  Thank you for taking care of each other and even me!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 2
• Hat Day/ Dr. Seuss' Birthday
• EP training - Documentation Log (optional) @ 3:15 in the IMC
• Band-o-rama for 5th-12th grade @ 7pm
• Tuesday, March 3
• LUNCH TIME CHANGE for grades 5K-5th - 11:30-12:30
• ACT test day at the High School - HS TA's will probably not be present in your rooms
• Dodgeland Referendum Open House @ Clyman Town Hall from 6-7pm
• Wednesday, March 4
• Step Up to Your Bright Future Day (wear neon/bright colors)
• Jenny has a GWCF meeting in Watertown from 9-11
• Grade Level Data meeting for Grade 1 @ 12:05
• Thursday, March 5
• Students of the Month announced @ 8:10am
• Submit the Bridges survey
• Friday, March 6
• Talkread Playgroup @ 9am in room 115
• Consumable packets due to Marie

Nitty-Gritty

• New Face:
• Please welcome Ms. Amara Hartmann.  She will be working with Shanalyn V. for the next month or so as a substitute.  She may look familiar to some of you.  She is also the after school Y-Care teacher as well.

• Students of the Month
• It's time to announce student of the month!  Please click here to fill in your nominee for this month.

• Bridges Math Input
• I am looking for your input on thoughts from your exploration of the Bridges preview and the scope/sequence.  Please complete the quick survey before March 5.

• March 3 Lunch time
• Due to the statewide ACT testing on Tuesday (that lasts until 12:30), our lunch times will change to 11:30 for K-2 and 12:00 for 3-5.  If you have a special at 11:30, please see Sue, Elizabeth or Justin to make sure that it still works for 12:30 that day instead.

• Target Based Grading Update
• The last two Thursdays have been so helpful and informative.  I can't wait to share all of my new learning.  However, I do have to say that the biggest thing I have learned is that we are on the right track!  There were many times in those two days where Mrs. Johnson and I looked at each other and said, "We are doing that."  That felt good.  I also have some answers for some of the questions you left for me last week.  Our next PD day is on March 16.

• FaceBook Faculty Feature
• I have lots of faculty features to use for the upcoming weeks.  If you have not sent me 3 pictures to use for the post, please do so.  Or I can come to take pictures of you in your classroom, just let me know!

PD Spotlight

On Wednesday, I referenced this article during the staff meeting.  Click here to read (or listen to) the entire article.  After spending a couple of weeks focusing on kindness in our school through the random acts of kindness week or the Read Across America week, I find this article to make me think.  I like to think that I am kind, but when I read this I thought, "What are my 'rules' and does this affect my actions/words and my quest to treat others kindly and with respect?"  She says that when you understand others' perspectives, the behaviors become far less frustrating.  At the end of the article, she talks about how to deal with these types of "secret rules."  I don't know if I can do all of these things, but I do know that I want to follow the path of "Judge Good" that Greg Wolcott and Ted Neitzke described.  I feel that these two ideas complement one another immensely.  Telling myself a new story about others' behavior allows me to be more at peace and calm.  However, with that being said, in the workplace, I do want feedback from our team.  It is important to me that I keep growing as a person as well as a professional.  Thank you in advance for your feedback!

Friday Funny

This week's Friday Funny feels like me this week.  I still remember my own name as of the posting of this week's blog!

February 21, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• The collaboration on Monday was energizing and productive. I heard many in-depth conversations that ended with consensus as well as clear success criteria rubrics.  Great Work!
• Students were so excited to receive tickets for showing kindness at recess this week. They seemed so proud of themselves when they were recognized for their kind actions.
• Students were engaged and followed assembly expectations at this week's assembly.  It was music to my ears to hear their laughs and giggles!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, Feb. 24
• Read Across America Week Starts with Assembly at 11:30 in the elem. gym
• School Board meeting at 6:30pm
• Tuesday, Feb 25
• Wear Red Day - Clifford the Big Red Dog Day
• Wednesday, Feb 26
• Vocabulary Parade at 8:15am
• Grade Level Data meeting for Grade 2 @ 12:05
• Elem. Staff meeting @ 3:10 in the IMC
• Thursday, Feb 27
• Author Visit, Stef Wade
• 8:30-9:15 for 4K-2nd grade, and 10:15-11:00 for grades 3-5
• Kindness Day - Do a Kind Act - Piggie & Elephant Day
• Jenny is gone for the day
• Read Across America Family night 6-7pm
• Friday, Feb 28
• Pajama Day - Good Night Moon Day

Nitty-Gritty

• PD Day Follow-Up
• Our last full PD day is on March 16th.  Before the day, please complete success criteria for 3 of the domains for ELA.  Art, Music and PE - Complete success criteria for 1 of your grades.
• Next steps for our Target-based grading planning is:
• Finalize our report card format (I'll take your information from Monday's grade level discussions to bring a second draft to analyze.)
• Brainstorm and create success criteria for the Citizenship grading rubric
• Finish the rest of the domains for ELA.

• Reminder:
• Please look over the scope and sequence documents and sign up to preview the Bridges Math from the email that was sent on Monday.  On March 2, I will be sending a survey to get your input and opinions. If you have any trouble getting on the site, please let me know.

• Assembly Follow-up
• In case you are interested, there are some follow-up activities to our energy conservation assembly from Tuesday.  Click here to see activities that you can use in your classrooms.

PD Spotlight

This week was Random Acts of Kindness and next week we start Read Across America with a theme of Kindness and Empathy.  There is a lot of research that has been reported regarding the benefits of kindness.  What I find interesting is that the kindness does not have to be given or received in order to benefit a person.  In fact, observing others being kind to others has noticeable benefits to the observers as well.  I watched this Ted Talk called "Kindness is the Cure."  The whole video is about 16-17 min. long and I realize you may not have time to watch the whole thing in one sitting.  However, I would encourage you to check it out.  So as we emphasize kindness and encourage our students to create habits of acting kind, it is also important that they are observing kindness as well. The past week (and this upcoming week), we have been (or will be) focusing our attention on kind acts.  Just as Cindy Grimes states, "Energy flows where our attention goes and it grows in your conscious awareness, whether it is objectively true or not."  I challenge us as a team of educators that are working hard to help our students develop strong SEL skills and habits of kindness, to pay attention to the kindness we see around us every day and allow our students and colleagues to benefit from observing kind acts that we participate in too. 

Friday Funny

February 14, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• I'd really like to hope that all of us (staff and students) are going to be healthy and feeling better by Monday.  However, thank you to everyone for being flexible and picking up extra tasks to fill in for sick staff members.  I love being part of your team!
• Teachers are posting the teaching point for students before beginning the mini-lesson.  Some have even underlined or highlighted the parts of the teaching points to help students see the goal and the strategy.
• Teachers sharing difficult news with parents in a compassionate and caring manner.  Parents and teachers that work together to problem solve and have open communication will benefit our students and their progress.  

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 17
• PD day - Click here for the agenda
• Tuesday, February 18
• All school assembly at 2:15pm in the Elementary Gym
• Read Across America Committee meeting at 3:05pm
• Wednesday, February 19
• Work Out Wednesday
• 3rd Grade Data Meeting 12:00 in D.O.
• Newsletter articles due to Marie
• Thursday, February 20
• Jenny will be out for the day.
• Friday, February 21
• New EC/4K Playgroup using TalkReadPlay with expanded age limits (ages 1-5)
• If you have any families with younger children, please encourage them to attend the playgroup from 9-10am.
• Kids Heart Challenge Packets due today.
• Donate $1 to wear a hat for the Kids Heart Challenge.

Nitty-Gritty

• Read Across America
• Read Across America begins the week of February 24.  The theme of the week is Kindness and Empathy.  Watch for more information from the committee this week.

• Summer School Update
• Summer School courses are being finalized within the week.  Registration will be online again this year starting on March 23 at 4pm.  Students that attend summer school, not only have the opportunity to continue their learning in reading, writing and math, but they also have access to a safe, caring environment to see peers that provides a healthy breakfast for all, and lunches can be ordered for students to take home as well.  Please encourage families to have their children participate. There will be lots of options for students, including some brand new options this year too.

PD Spotlight

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading this book.   I wanted to learn and to understand and be part of the solution.  I haven't gotten through every chapter yet, but I felt like others may be interested in his work as well.  One of the strongest pieces that he states is, "Kids do well if they can" and "Doing well is preferable to not doing well."  This made me think.  How can I be part of a solution that helps kids do well.  And I also wanted to read and reflect on whether any of my habits or responses are contributing to behavior issues at school.  Click here to read a one page FAQ page about Dr. Greene's approach, called the CPS model. (Collaborative & Proactive Solutions)

Friday Funny

This week's Friday Funny comes from the file of "Things that only happen to Jenny."  Some of you may have heard I got myself into a predicament yesterday morning before school.  I started to back out of my garage and all of a sudden, I notice the lawn mower coming with me.  Ella and I tried a few different ways to get the car unstuck from the mower, but with no luck.  Finally, we had to get Mason up.  I am certain he has not seen 7:15 am in more than a year!  Notice the look on his face below! He was very frustrated with his mom!

Eventually, we had to jack the car up to free the mower from the front of the car.  So while the normal thing would be to be stuck in the SNOW we just had, not me.  I am stuck on a LAWN MOWER!

February 7, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 1st graders responding to the statement, "I didn't fail, I found 1000 ways that don't work."  The insight these students had in was incredible.  They were thinking very deeply and discussing SEL skills at the same time!
• MANY staff members filling in to allow the math committee to go to a school to observe a math program at their elementary school.  This was only possible because we are a team!
• Staff members communicating with parents frequently to help students to be successful at school.  When we have open communication between home and school, our students really benefit.
• Staff members vigilant at recess, before/after school, and in the hallways to address unkind and inappropriate words and actions.  It is not okay when students feel picked on and uncomfortable at school.  Thank you for everyone's help with this.
• Students are so proud of their work in PLTW!  In so many grades, students are building, creating, engaged and learning.  It is so exciting to witness.  Great job everyone!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Friday, February 7
• Students of the Month announced (I missed it earlier this week.)
• At 2:30, please send the attendance raffle winners to the office to get their prizes. The videos are here.
• Monday, February10
• Wear Milwaukee Bucks Attire
• Tuesday, February 11
• Wednesday, February 12
• Donate $1 to bring a tech device to use at lunch recess.
• 4th grade Data meeting at lunch in the D.O. conference room
• Thursday, February 13
• Parent/Teacher Conferences - 4:00-7:30pm
• EC/4K Art Show - 4:30-6:00pm
• Jenny will provide some appetizers that night for everyone.  
• Friday, February 14
• Valentine's Day
• Donate $1 to wear PJ's to school

Nitty-Gritty

• Reminder:  
• If you or your class has not completed the National School Counseling Week Trivia, please do so before the end of the day.  The link is here. 

• Safety Updates:
• The Safety planning team met last week and there are a few updates/reminders to share.
• Please make sure that your Go Kits, class lists, binder, sub plans are all update with the most up-to-date information.
• Specials teachers, please make sure to go over safety procedures for your class.  Some students get confused when a drill occurs outside of their homeroom classroom.
• Please remember to wear your District ID badge every day.  If you do not have one, please see Kimi in the district office.
• Likewise, if you see visitors in the hallway during school hours, they should have a pass/sticker on.  If they don't, please ask if they need help or if you can assist them getting to a location.
• *NEW*  Finally, during emergency drill events, students need to be quiet.  If they are in the habit of staying quiet with no talking during drills, they will be ready to hear directions in the case of a real emergency.  At our next drill, please help to enforce this as it is new to us all.

• PD day is Monday, Feb 17
• Just a friendly reminder that we will be moving to the next step for the Target Based Grading system.  Below is the list from last month that needs to be completed before then.
• A completed learning framework with domains, priority standards, and learning targets for each domain.
• Reread chapter 2 (pgs. 13-29) to prepare for our work
• Review the report card draft and the citizenship examples that were handed out last month

• Parent Teacher Conferences
• If you would like me to attend a conference for one of your students, please let me know soon.  As a thank you, I will have some appetizers in the staff room after school for all staff members. 

• FaceBook Updates
• You may have noticed that all of the Dodgeland pages have been merged to one district page so that our families can find all of our information in one spot.  If you have a classroom page, please let me know so that I can follow it too.  I may share some posts to the district page so that even more people can see what awesome things our students/classrooms are doing.  The Staff Feature has started and will be out every Friday. (If you have pictures to share, please email them to me.)  
• Another weekly feature we are starting is a student spotlight feature.  If you have an idea for a student to highlight/nominate, please see me!  The first student was a former student from DES.

PD Spotlight

If your days are like mine, it seems like the to-do list gets longer and the finished tasks never seems to move.  However, sometimes I feel like I am in the middle of something and can't remember what I was about to do, or type or look up, etc.  I came across this 1-min video explaining something called a micro-break.  I am going to see if this will help me maintain focus and feel more accomplished.  Let me know if you try it too.  I would love to know how it works for you. 

Friday Funny

I think this is funny.  It might show my age a bit though.  This symbol was on a lot of stuff when I was growing up on our family farm.  I learned early to stay away from this "emoji."  :-)