February 18, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Teachers and parents connecting all week to work together to help their child to thrive and succeed at school.  Thank you for all the hard work you put into these communications this week.

• A student that avoids math most days wanted to play a workplace game against me this week.  This was totally unprompted!

• So many random acts of kindness were observed all week.  It makes me smile to see others making someone else's day!

• The 5th graders have been working hard on their Iditarod books.  I love hearing students teaching others all their new learning about the Iditarod, as well as their pride in their finished products.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 21
• Bus Duty: Schwoerer, Piekarski, Johnson
• Jenny in a meeting from 9-10am
• Rescheduled 3rd gr. academic data meeting in Elem conference room (12:05-12:55pm)
• GG Lesson for the week: Accountability and Responsibility

• Tuesday, February 22
• 3rd Graders: Field Trip in the morning
• Social Media posts due to Josh: Juech, Schweitzer, Lucht, Schuett
• Jenny - Attending a webinar from 3:30-4:30pm

• Wednesday, February 23
• Workout Wednesday
• Bridges Math Coach visit all day - Watch for email early next week
• Staff Meeting 3:05-3:45pm

• Thursday, February 24
• 5th gr. SEL data meeting in Elem. conference rm (12:35-1:25pm)
• Literacy Curriculum initial meeting 3:10pm in Elem. conference room

• Friday, February 25

Nitty-Gritty

• Sectional Wrestling Tournament
• Please be aware that the sectionals wrestling tournament takes place at Dodgeland on Saturday, 2/19.  The school and parking lot will be very full for the majority of the day, so keep this in mind if you plan to work in the building this weekend.

• Mark Your Calendars
• There is an all staff meeting on March 9 at 3:15pm in the IMC for all staff (4K-12 - certified and paraprofessional staff) regarding technology.  No IEP meetings should be scheduled that evening either so that all can attend to hear the important information.

• Literacy Curriculum Meeting
• For anyone that would like to join me to explore possible literacy curriculums for our future, please meet with me in the elementary conference room on Thursday, 2/24, at 3:10pm.  We will be discussing options, comparing them to our current programming, and finally creating a list of must-haves for our school curriculum and our students' needs.

• Victory Nutrition
• Earlier this year, the owner at Victory Nutrition brought tea samples to us to try.  They have now added delivery day/hours to their business.  Every Mon/Wed between 9-11am, they can deliver directly to Dodgeland.  I share this with you as an awareness.  There are a few people around the building that have tried a number of things from their menu.  Click here to see their menu for yourself.

• PLTW - Planning ahead
• The PLTW room is in the process of being straightened up so that it can be used for students for PLTW.  In the near future, you can begin signing out the lab to use with your students again.  Please make sure to plan for what modules you will be doing and in what months you plan to incorporate them.  If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. O'Toole or myself.

• Read Across America coming up
• Read Across America is coming up soon!  The committee is working hard on plans for the week including dress up days. Brenda sent out an email on Monday, 2/14, giving a heads up for dress up days. To plan ahead, each grade will be meeting with our guest author on Wednesday, March 2.  Watch for an email with your grade's time.

Friday Funny

I was talking to my friend on the phone today and she said something that just struck me as very funny.  She said, "You know what ruins a Friday?  When you wake up and realize it is Thursday, and not Friday!"

February 11, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 31 students signed up to audition for the Elementary Musical!  How exciting that there are so many students interested in this extra curricular activity!

• Students are practicing dribbling a basketball in PE.  I love how they are concentrating so intensely!

• 3rd graders were glazing their clay bowls in art and were patient when they were waiting for others to finish with the color they needed for their own project.  I love when I can hear students speaking kindly and respectfully to one another.

• 5K students were working on sequencing a story by identifying what happened in a story they had previously read in the correct order.

What's Happening At Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 14
• Happy Valentine's Day!
• Bus Duty: Klink, Lucht, Zastrow
• GG Lessons: Kindness/Bucket Filling (see below)
• Newsletter articles due (2nd Grade, School Counselor)
• Read Across America Committee meeting 12:05 in elem. conference room
• Mentors/Mentees Meeting, 3:15 in IMC (Year 1-2-3 teachers/mentors)

• Tuesday, February 15
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Donovan, Ganser, Zastrow

• Wednesday, February 16
• Workout Wednesday
• Jenny in a meeting from 9:45-10:55am.
• 3rd gr. level data meeting 12:05-12:55 in the elem. conference room
• Bring your shirt to Trisha if you'd like to participate in Twos-Day

• Thursday, February 17
• 5K SEL meeting 11:35-12:25pm in the elem. conference room

• Friday, February 18

Nitty-Gritty

• Random Acts of Kindness Week
• Thursday, 2/17 is Random Act of Kindness Day.  During Guidance, Mindy will be talking about kindness/bucket filling all week.  Please help encourage students to show kindness to others all week/school year long. Recognize students that are showing kindness in words and actions to help show students which actions should be repeated.

• Updates on Procedures for Recess/Lunch
• Recess Duty and Bathroom Break
• Teachers, please always report to recess on time.  At the end of recess, the support staff will blow the whistle and line up students.  Once students are starting to line up, teachers can go in (unless there is an unforeseen circumstance and more help is needed) to use the bathroom.  The support staff will let the students in and will have the "duty" teachers' class come in last so the "duty" teacher has time to use the bathroom at the end of recess.
• Recess Transitions
• 1st-3rd grade Teachers/Staff:
• In an attempt to have a smoother transition process, 1st-3rd graders will walk to the lunchroom using the maintenance/music hallway as soon as they are ready after recess.  We will no longer be lining up in the hallway after recess and walking down as a group. Junior coaches will be helping in the halls with this new procedure.  At the end of lunch, students will be dismissed directly from their table to walk back to class (or to their special if in 2nd grade) leaving through the doors by the district office.  --1st Grade teachers, please still come and pick up your kids.  They will line up closer to the IMC once you are in the Commons to avoid students rubbing on/picking at the new "We are Dodgeland" mural.
• 4th-5th grade Teachers/Staff:
• To avoid congestion by the district office, 4th and 5th graders should go to lunch using the maintenance/music hallway.  They will be dismissed by table to walk back to class leaving through the district office doorway.
• 1st-5th grade Teachers/Staff:
• Students with power player tickets should still drop off their tickets on the way to lunch.  They can drop off tickets and then walk down the maintenance/music hallway.
• Cones/poles have been set up in the hallway to help students remember to walk on the correct side of the hall in congested areas.  Please help reinforce this concept to allow students and staff to move through the hallway more smoothly.

• Reminder of Sanitizing
• During the last two weeks, we have seen an uptick in cases of pink eye and stomach flu.  Please continue to be diligent about good hand washing and wiping down surfaces in your classrooms.  If you need more cloths or Rejuvenal, please let us know.  These practices can help to limit the spread of these types of viruses.

• Forms 
• In order to streamline processes, you will find most of the forms that you need in the District office on the counter near Kimi.  The only forms that are still in the Elementary Office is Purchase Requisitions, Volunteer Handbooks, and Activity account forms.  If you are looking for any other forms, please see Kimi for help.  This would include field trip forms, timesheets, extra duty forms, and more.

• Virtual Teachers Conferences
• On Monday, 2/7, Brad sent out an email regarding using Google Meet for virtual meetings.  BlueJeans is currently only available for the special education teachers for their IEP meetings.  If you have any virtual meetings next week, please use Google Meet.  Directions are located HERE. In order for it to function properly, you must use the Chrome browser and your district google account.  Families will need to use their personal technology, as the students do not have access to Google Meet on the school devices.  Please contact the Tech Dept if you have any further questions.

• Door #29
• The doorbell has been removed from Door #29 now that the elementary office has been functional for a few weeks.  It is on an automatic timer to be unlocked from 7:35-8 and 3-3:30 each day.  Y-Care parents have been using Door #2 into the Commons.  If you happen to see any visitors at Door #29, please direct them to doors #1 or #2.  The sign outside the building states this change as well.

• Heads up about Sunday, February 13
• Sunday is the youth wrestling tournament at Dodgeland and the building and parking lots will be very full.  Just wanted you to know that in case you were planning to come in to the building on Sunday that parking will be an issue.

• Bathroom Writing
• There has been an uptick in incidents of writing on the bathroom stall walls.  Please reiterate how disrespectful this behavior is not only to our custodians who do not have time to continue to clean this up or repaint, but also to others that use those spaces.  If you can help with increased supervision of the bathrooms, I would appreciate it.  The bathrooms outside the gym (boys and girls) have been defaced the most often at this time.

PD Spotlight

I have been thinking a lot about social emotional skills of students for a number of years.  I believe that students that have strong SEL skills are better able to concentrate on their academics and connect better with their peers.  However, I also believe that COVID has affected students' skills in this area as well.  I came across this blog post that describes 5 activities for elementary students.  You will notice that 2 of the 5 are from familiar places, EveryDay Speech and Playworks!  I thought that the activities would be good for SEL WIN groups whether in small groups or even classroom wide activities.  Check them out to see if they would help your class!

Friday Funny

I did share this with a few staff members, but I was actually speechless at first when this happened.  However, it also tells us that students are listening during library and applying this new knowledge!

"I was meeting with a student about how important it is to keep his hands/feet to himself, that others are asking him to stop and the respectful thing is to stay out of their bubble and not to touch others.  He then told me that he couldn't help it because he was born in 'The Year of the Snake!'  For a few seconds, I wasn't sure how to respond!  :-)

February 4, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• A 5th grader was so proud of himself today.  He kept telling me that he is really started to get this math work! Thank goodness his teacher makes him show his work, huh?  :-)

• Staff members have stepped in to help their colleagues in a number of ways this week.  I appreciate all of you so much.

• Kindergartners were working on reading fluently and with a smooth voice.  They sounded so amazing!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, February 7
• Bus Duty: TCaine, Vertz, Murphy
• GG Lessons: National School Counseling Week
• Jenny leaving at 2pm for a dr. appt

• Tuesday, February 8
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Lisiecki, Braunschweig, Schwoerer, Ganser
• Jenny in Webinar about FastBridge 12-1pm

• Wednesday, February 9
• Workout Wednesday
• Playworks Coach visit - 11-4pm
• 4th gr. level data meeting 12:35-1:25pm in the elem. conference room
• Staff Meeting 3:05-3:45pm - All staff should plan to attend, including paraprofessionals

• Thursday, February 10
• 1st Grade SEL meeting 12:05-12:55 in the elem. conference room

• Friday, February 11
• SAEBRS and MySaebrs completed by today.

Nitty-Gritty

• SAEBRS/MySAEBRS
• Please have each student in grades 2-5 complete the Winter mysaebrs survey in Clever by Friday, February 11.  For homeroom teachers in grades 5K-5, please complete the winter SAEBRS survey for each student by Friday as well.  If you need to review the directions, click HERE for access to the how-to video from last fall.

• National School Counseling Week
• Next week is our week to show our appreciation for all the ways that our school counselor supports our students and us.  Mindy gets to support all of us and is our resident SEL expert, as well as our internal coach for the Pyramid Model for our 4K program.  Thank you Mindy for all you do!

• CTSO Week
• CTSO stands for Career and Technical Student Organizations.  February 7-11 is the week that our High School students highlight the extra curricular organizations that they are part of and growing and learning in.  As such, they will be sponsoring a coloring contest for elementary students.  The pages will be in your mailbox next week.  A basket to collect the completed pictures will be located in the elementary office near Michelle.  This is totally optional for students.  There will be a winner from each grade.

• Literacy Curriculum
• Last month, I shared with you information regarding a curriculum called MyView.  It has come to my attention that there is another, yet similar curriculum, called Into Reading from a different publishing company.  HERE is a link to read information regarding this program. I know that I have a number of people that are interested in piloting a reading curriculum.  At the end of February, I will be sending out an invitation for anyone that would like to discuss the curriculums, possible piloting options, and planning for the future.  Please watch for this in the coming weeks.

• Field Trips
• Please know that you can begin to plan field trips for your classes in the coming months if you would like.  Please choose trips that fit with what you are teaching/learning in the classroom.  Because we live in this era of COVID, also, research any precautions or requirements that are in place due to the pandemic as well.  There is a field trip form in the office to submit for any field trips that you are considering.  If you have any questions, please let me know. 

• Sub Plans
• Many of you complete sub plans using Google, especially when it is an unexpected sick day.  If you are not able to leave printed sub plans on your desk before you leave, please make sure to share it with Michelle in the office as well.  She is often the person that is handing a key to substitute teachers, and often they ask her about plans.  If she has this in email she can help the subs at the same time.  Thank you in advance for everyone that has helped out so much lately covering classes.  Please don't forget to write them down on your green extra duty sheet as these incidents occur.

• Personal Days
• Now that we are in February, I just want to remind you to plan ahead so that you know when you will be taking your personal day this year.  Below is the details from the Employee Handbook:
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PD Spotlight

Last week, I shared an article related to how to spread positivity while in the workplace.  I have to say that I do try, but I still had moments this week where I just felt annoyed.  (I do need to preface, that most of this has nothing to do with school, but rather home stressors.  However, I carried that baggage to school and I really hope that I didn't affect you or our students with those feelings.)

So I decided to do a little more research about how to help myself with these feelings.  I truly love my job, I feel fortunate to work in a place with so many wonderful people and students, and I do have a pretty awesome family too.  This doesn't mean that I don't get grumpy and I always feel guilty when I take my feelings out on others that have nothing to do with it.  Plus, most of the time I am not annoyed at a person, but rather a situation or frustration of not getting something done.  This article had some simple, yet practical ways to handle these feelings.  I found it helpful.  I thought I would share in case anyone else can benefit from these suggestions as well.  Please know that I am always here to listen, I want to hear your feedback always, and I want to help you feel better when you are getting frustrated or annoyed.  If you need a listening ear, please let me know.

Friday Funny

I wonder if I have a connection with any of you regarding my special skills.  Although, #3 is really just the time for how long to microwave it!  lol

January 28, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 4K students were so proud of themselves and how quiet they were walking in the hallway!  It was so awesome!

• An EC student communicated to his teachers purposely and was able to get his needs met.  It was a very exciting day!

• The nutrition instructor was sharing with me about how much she loves coming to Dodgeland.  She said, "I love coming here.  It's a great school."  After she said that, one of our students who was sitting in the chair waiting to be picked up for an appointment replied, "I like my school and am glad I go to school here!"  :-)

• Numerous staff members shared with me feedback, thoughts, questions and concerns this week.  I always want you to feel like you can come to me with your concerns and feedback at any time.

• 4th graders were able to take advantage of the decent weather to celebrate their monthly behavior and academic choices with a sledding activity.  One fourth grader was so excited that he "made it" that we had to remind him that others were still in class today!  :-)

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 31
• Bus Duty: Stampfl, Chambers, Ganser
• GG Lessons for the week: Avoiding Assumptions, Feeling Confident, Accidents
• Jenny in meeting from 9-10am

• Tuesday, February 1
• New Monthly support staff duties start:
• Breakfast: Fobes/Riege
• Parking Lot duty: Bolman/Wieneke
• After School circle drive: Hahn/Lexi
• Social Media Posts due to Josh: Miller, Jenkins, Piekarski, T.Caine
• Pyramid Model Leadership meeting 1pm in Elem conference room

• Wednesday, February 2
• Jenny in meeting from 9:45-10:45am
• Grade Level Data meetings resume: 5th grade, 12:35-1:25pm in Elem. conference room
• Workout Wednesday

• Thursday, February 3
• Grade Level SEL meetings resume: 2nd grade, 12:05-12:55pm in Elem. conference room

• Friday, February 4
• National Wear Red Day

Nitty-Gritty

• Recess Reminders
• Please be diligent of your recess supervision schedule.  There have been a number of times where students have been unsupervised at the beginning of their recess period.  This often results in conflicts between students and/or injuries.
• Students that only have boots on should not be participating in active games in the gym.  Just like in PE, there is a safety concern with students running, etc in boots compared to tennis shoes.
• With the cold weather lately, there have been more indoor recesses.  When your students are in their classroom, what activities do you have them participating in?  Do you have a brain break that is more like a movement break?  Please complete this survey regarding recess at your earliest convenience.

• P/T Conferences
• Our spring parent/teacher conferences are on the schedule for the week of February 14.  It is done this way to provide flexibility for parents and staff.  The expectations for this time is to communicate with your students' families about their progress and set up conferences (in-person, virtual or phone) for all students that you are concerned about.  If you would like me to attend a conference, please communicate with me.  It is not expected that you are present each night until 7:30pm.

• Literacy Night Coming Soon
• On March 2, we will be sponsoring an author for a literacy night for students and families.  The author's name is Marla McKenna.  She will also be presenting to our students during the day as well.  Click HERE to read about some of her books.

• Extra Hats/Gloves/Snow pants
• In the elementary work room, there are at least 2 boxes filled with hats and/or gloves for students to use.  If you see a student without a hat or gloves, please check out these boxes for students to have one to use while at school.  There are some snowpants as well, but far less of them.

PD Spotlight

Lately I have felt very out of sorts.  I can feel myself getting stressed over little things, I am cranky, I catch myself using sarcasm with others and using a tone of voice that is opposite from what I am intending.  I have also noticed that there are others around me that seem to be feeling the same way.  Then I think:  Are we spreading negativity/grumpiness without intending to?  I have read a number of articles and research talking about the harmful effects that negative thoughts have on people's mental health, their physical health and the culture of their workplace.  The fortunate thing is that positivity can be spread in the same way with far better effects.  

This article gave me 5 fairly easy ways to help spread positivity instead.  It has made me stop to think about what message I am sending.  How do my emails sound?  What tone of voice and/or facial expressions am I using when I speak to others?  This is a part of the school year that notoriously gets long and the pressure of getting through content starts to feel heavy.  In Wisconsin, it is coupled with cold and dark weather.  So the easy thing would be to focus on all the things that bother us and tell anyone that will listen about it.  However, the more helpful strategy (for ourselves and our colleagues) is to problem solve the issues we are seeing, talk with your team or myself and try the strategies from the article.  It will help our stress levels and overall mood.  What is your plan to help spread positivity?

Friday Funny

Sometimes I am even fun on a Thursday!  LOL

January 21, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 5K students were learning to compare lengths by measuring using their feet.  They had so much fun counting steps to determine which "line" was the longest!

• I was able to witness a 3rd grade nutrition lesson today where they got to put their new math knowledge about grams to good use!  It was very cool watching them explain what they already knew about this measurement!

• A 5th grader was very proud of his recent growth in i-Ready and attributed it to his Rise intervention.  I love when they can see how their hard work pays off!

• There were a few students this week that I needed to talk to about their behavior choices.  However, there were a number of them who quickly admitted that what they had done was not okay, took the consequence that came with that choice and have learned from it.  I am anticipating that this mistake will not be repeated, which is the true goal of learning.

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 24
• Bus Duty: Bingen, Crane, Miller
• Seals on Wheels fluoride treatment visit
• GG Lesson for the week: Managing Anxiety (4th-5th), Making Friends (3rd), Feelings and comparing them (4K-2nd)
• School Board meeting at 6:30pm

• Tuesday, January 25
• Badger Day - Wear your Badger clothes
• Math Coach visit for the day
• Social Media posts due to Josh: Stanton, Bingen, Lucht

• Wednesday, January 26
• Playworks Recess Coach visiting from 11-4
• Staff meeting 3:10 in Learning Commons (all staff should attend) Playworks coach will be there to meet with us
• Workout Wednesday

• Thursday, January 27

• Friday, January 28
• January Citizenship grades due in grade book

Nitty-Gritty

• New Elementary Office opening
• It's so pretty! I can't wait for everyone to see it and use it!  Starting Monday, January 24th, Michelle and I will be operating out of the new elementary office.  At this point, the mailboxes will stay in the lounge and many of the supplies will be there for a little bit longer, but we will start operating out of the office.  In order to prepare for the opening, I have a favor to ask for each of the classrooms.  Could you please take your class on a walking "field trip" to show them how to get to the office after Monday?  If you bring them after 1:30, Michelle will be in the office to greet you and for the students to actually enter the office.
• Door 29 will continue to be open for families/students/staff to enter the building for a while yet.  The main entrance will continue to have fencing around the plaza because of the broken concrete.  However, there will be a walk way for visitors, students and staff to enter and exit the building from Door #1.

• New Reading Corps Tutor
• Our new full-time reading corps tutor is training this week and will be soon in the building each day getting ready to work with our students.  Her name is Alexis Uttech, Ms. Uttech, and will be working out of Room 104 for the rest of this year and will be primarily working with 5K and 1st grade students.  Please make her feel welcome!

• Bathroom in Music Hallway
• I wanted to update you on the staff bathroom in the music hallway.  One of our district's new students needs access to the space and table that is located in the other staff bathroom. We considered many other options, but this room has the space and features that are needed to care for this student. The bathroom will have numerous supplies stored in it and the student will be using it frequently throughout the day.  However, if it is empty when you need a restroom, you can use it.  Just be careful around the medical devices and supplies.  Thank you for your understanding and flexibility.

• Student of the Month Nominations
• Please complete the student of the month nominations by Thursday, January 27th.  If you need to see the previous month's nominations, they are further down the page.  Click HERE to write your nominees.

• Student Teacher
• There is a good chance that another student teacher will be joining our team in Gabrielle Zastrow's room.  Her name is Molly Christenson and she is currently a student at UW-Whitewater.  The goal is for her to start on Monday, January 24.  

• Student Expectations
• A number of staff members are noticing and commenting on student behavior in the last few weeks.  It is our intention to provide students with the instruction and clear guidance for what is acceptable and what is not.  Please refer to the videos for assistance and step in to help students with reminders when you see students struggling with them.  The more consistent we are, the more improvement we will see.  

• Middle and High School Student Visitors
• One of the best parts of working in a small school district where we are all under one roof is that we have opportunities for students from different areas of the building to learn and work with one another.  However, it is very important that we also have a system in place for when, what purpose and how MS/HS students are interacting with our elementary students.  This includes a sign in process in the elementary office as well as communication between the teachers, myself and the students regarding the logistics of the interaction.  Please watch for information on more specifics regarding this.  If you have visitors from the other buildings, please make sure that you have communicated this with me ahead of time.

Friday Funny

Couldn't resist... :-)

January 14, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• 2nd and 3rd graders were working on answering comprehension questions to a book that they just reread in intervention.

• So many of our students have been making gains in their i'Ready score and are excited to share!

• 5th graders were sharing facts with me about Martin Luther King Jr.  They were so interested in "teaching" me and I learned some new things as well!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 17
• Newsletter articles due to Jenny (3rd grade, school counselor)
• EP Meeting in the IMC at 3:15 - Mid-Year SLO, 2nd surveys
• Bus Duty for the week - Schweitzer, Lauth, Klis
• GG Lesson for the week: Equality vs. Equity

• Tuesday, January 18
• Social Media Posts due to Josh - Murphy, Vertz
• Bridges Coach Visit from Kris

• Wednesday, January 19
• Workout Wednesday

• Thursday, January 20
• Report Cards sent home

• Friday, January 21
• Jenny has a dr appt from 11-12:30pm

Nitty-Gritty

• Summer School
• If you are interested in teaching summer school this year, please click HERE to let me know.  The dates of summer school are June 6-June 30, Monday-Thursday.  Most of our classes will be held in the Middle School wing this summer.  If you are not sure if you'd like to teach summer school, please connect with me and we can talk about options.

• Bathroom in Music Hallway
• As I mentioned in the staff meeting, the staff bathroom that is in the music hallway is needed for a student.  This means that it will be unavailable for staff starting on Monday, Jan 17.  Once the district office is complete, there is a staff bathroom that you can use by entering the district office from the commons area.

• Behavior Expectations
• We are finding that there are students that are struggling with following the expectations for behavior in various locations throughout the school.  Please help reiterate the expectations throughout the day.  One time of the day that I know students seem to be struggling is with transitioning from lockers to lunch.  Please help monitor behavior in the hallway.  When teachers are visible, students tend to be reminded by your presence alone of how to meet expectations.  
• Another idea floated to me is to have hall monitors/Jr Coaches that are assisting in the hallways as well.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well.
• The videos will continue to be linked in the announcements so that you have access to them easily.  Please use them when you need them.

• Report Cards
• There were many staff that were wondering what the report cards look like.  On Friday morning, Michelle will run a 1st draft before you finish your grades to have a chance to look at it.  The reports will be in pdf form and emailed to you.  When the grades are submitted on Monday, she will run them again, email them to you.  You will need to check them and let her know they are accurate for her to print.  We are doing our best to save paper.  
• Michelle did a tremendous amount of work to figure out which parents need a report card mailed to them.  She will get envelopes to you for the families that need them.
• Finally, before you submit, please make sure that each standard you are reporting on has a target based grade on the standards page.  For elementary students, term grades are not printed.  The first column after their names should be blank.

• Reading Curriculum Information
• On Wednesday, I shared with you an example of a possible future curriculum for ELA.  I want to reiterate that this is not for next school year, but I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on it.  I'm also interested in anyone that may be interested in piloting it as well.  Below is the information for the digital demo for the curriculum. In addition to the digital demo, they also sent some electronic articles about research about the curriculum.  Foundational practice research, Foundational Skill overview with options to change to learn about the writing and word study portion at the top in the item section.
• SavvasRealize.com 

• Username: K-12ELAMidwest

  Password: Savvas2021

Friday Funny

Bah, Bah, Bah! 

January 7, 2022

 Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Second Graders were measuring all over the building this week!  It was so great to watch them so engaged and their excitement about sharing it with me was contagious!

• Third Graders have been working hard on their winter i-Ready assessments this week.  So many of them are growing.  I can't wait to see what the other half of the year brings!

• 4K students were participating in Number Corner and had to "correct" their teacher when she counted her ten sticks as 1, 2, etc.  They said, "NO, you have to count by 10's!"  So awesome!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, January 10
• Bus Duty: Huso, Huelsman, CaineB
• GG Lesson: Calming Down Strategies
• Next Rise rotation starts
• PALS window opened last week.  Please begin the Mid-Year assessments
• Jenny in a meeting from ~1:15-2pm. 
• Mentors/Mentees Meeting at 3:15 in the IMC for Year 1-2-3 teachers and their mentors

• Tuesday, January 11
• Social Media posts due to Josh: (Stampfl, Juech)
• Milwaukee Bucks Day (Wear your Bucks apparel)

• Wednesday, January 12
• Workout Wednesday
• Staff Meeting in IMC @ 3:05pm

• Thursday, January 13
• Jenny is gone all day

• Friday, January 14
• End of the Semester - Student celebration (Watch for email)

Nitty-Gritty

• End of the Semester Celebration
• I had some takers on an end of the year activity for students with me.  I will set up a schedule and you can decide if you want to send your students.  You do not need to stay with them so you have a little bit of extra time to work together, on report cards, planning for the next week, etc.  Watch for an email over the weekend for more information.

• Covid Updated Guidelines
• Earlier this week, Dr. Thompson, sent out updated guidelines for staff regarding COVID isolation and quarantining.  Please watch for an email in the coming days for guidelines for students as well.

• Updated Weather Guidelines
• Mrs. Chambers has been doing some research regarding guidelines for safely playing outside.  Through her research, she (and I quite frankly) were surprised how difficult it was to find a clear cut rule regarding how cold is too cold.  On top of that, we all know that our playground is very windy, all the time.  With that information as well as recommendations on when it is safe to play outside for 20-30 minutes, we are changing the cut-off temperature to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (including windchill).  Any time the temperature in Juneau 'feels like' 13 or below, students will have indoor recess.  We all want our children to play outside as often as possible, but I really do not want to have any kids/adults hurt from the cold.  This includes the morning bus duty "recess" as well.
• Looking ahead, it seems like we are going to be in a cold spell for a few more days yet.  To read one of the articles, click HERE or HERE.  While these are not specifically from WI, it is for states in the midwest that have similar weather to us. 
• Finally, please watch for an email from Teresa regarding Junior Coaches and their routine to keep them safe in the cold weather as well.

• Indoor Recess
• We may be in for a string of indoor recesses in the next week or so.  A quick reminder that if indoor recess falls on a Tuesday for the noon recess, grades 1-5 will need to stay in their classrooms for recess as the elementary gym is not available at that time due to classroom PE sections.

• Young Poets Collection Project
• Today I received a letter notifying us of an opportunity to submit student work to the project.  If this is of interest to you or any of your students, please click HERE for more information.

• The Trojan Way - Behavior Expectations
• Thank you so much for spending so much time reviewing expectations.  It is important that as a team, we are all on the same page with expectations for behavior and routines.  The goal of using and posting our Trojan Way matrix is to positively communicate the expectations across all parts of the building.  While we know that students will make mistakes and have moments where they are not following the expectations, the more positively we teach, reinforce and expect our students to meet the expectations and learn from their mistakes, the better it will be.  However, please know, that I will support you and students that struggle to meet the expectations.  Please reach out to me, or send students to me if it is disrupting learning in your classrooms.
• Please note the added videos in the announcements that the team has been putting together for our students/staff.  Even if you do not have a classroom to show the videos too, please watch them so that you know about the routines as well.

PD Spotlight

At the beginning of my career, I struggled a lot with being consistent.  My students called me on it all the time.  Then I would get upset or frustrated and it would keep escalating until both the student(s) and I hit the boiling point.  It was affecting students' achievement, as well as how I felt about my career.  I knew something had to give.  So, I began to research, and read and watch master teachers and emulate others.  There were growing pains, but this article is one that I hoped I would have had way back then.  (I am not saying that I have it all figured out, or that I don't fail some days, but I have strategies and ideas to draw from now that I didn't have back then.) The article is titled "3 Keys to Being Consistent."  I found it to have good reminders, for me today and I am hoping that you find it helpful as well.  

Friday Funny