More "Nuts & Bolts" Notes

Wow, our time flew together flew by fast! I apologize that we didn't get to these items below in our meeting, but I left them for the end of our agenda, because really....you can just read them. So, if you have any questions about any of this, please just send me an email or bring it to Wednesday's meeting.

Please complete this quick survey for me: Quick/Painless Survey

*There will be a purple handout from me to please have out on each desk for student/parent handouts. If a family doesn't show up, just send home on the first day. Thank you!

*Do you have any September dates for the calendar? Please send them NOW! Please email them to myself/Sarah. (My previous post said Marie, but she's super busy with a crazy new change in PowerSchool so that's consuming her time.

*2 new sign up sheets in the DES Handbook google folder include:

• Buddy Classrooms - if you want to keep the buddy class you partnered with last year, please add yourselves in this doc. After a while I will partner up the rest so that everyone has a buddy class. There are no requirements of how often you need to do something with a buddy class, but I'd like for us to not wait until Read Across America week. There are so many good reasons to get older/younger students together throughout the year!
• Newsletter (each grade level/department must sign up for 2) - The District newsletter is a thing of the past, so our monthly school newsletter will need to be beefed up with all of those great articles that used to go to the district newsletter. Never give up an opportunity to share the good work that is happening in your classrooms!

*Student Announcements will still be on google doc for in your classrooms.
*Lunch count form - no more emails! This link will be in Marie’s daily staff announcements.
*Check out my ew tool to try to solicit Parent Volunteers: http://bit.ly/desvolunteer If you have any ideas for me to put on there now, please let me know. If you want to use this tool for your classroom it was easy to set up, just go to: https://signup.com/volunteerspot/
*Specials schedule - I know there are still concerns about missing specials on Mondays/Fridays when we don't have school. I am planning to create a modified schedule for those weeks, but just haven't gotten to it yet.
*Science stuff in work room...I know that the stuff in the cupboards gets used once in a while, but what about the supplies on top of the cupboards?? Please answer this question in the google form survey (this is the same as the beginning of this post) Quick/Painless Survey

*Staff apparel orders are due by this Friday....but if you can't order now, it's ok!! Sully's in Waupun is going to let us order anytime throughout the year!!!! (I have already planned my new shirt for Homecoming, my Christmas present, and my Birthday present!) We plan to take orders in every 2 weeks.

*Our new elementary student t-shirt will be through the same place, so we will have an initial order to get shirts in for Homecoming, but then I will be taking orders in once a month, so new families can get some Dodgeland Pride too! Here's a sneak peak:

Back to School Business

As I walk the halls, I know that many of you have been in your classrooms working quite a bit. I didn't get to see when each of you were here, but the evidence of many hours of hard work is already in your classrooms being ready for the start of the school year, so I know you can relate to the meme above!  I feel as if I still have so much on my to-do list to accomplish before next week and have so many ideas that I know I need to prioritize, because they just won't all get done in time. Ready or not, here comes a new school year!

As you see in your back to school agendas, you have quite a bit of time in your classrooms. Because our time together as an elementary staff is limited, I'm sharing as much "nuts & bolts" items for the first week that I can here. In other words-- If you can read it instead of me having to tell you it, then it's in here!

For our times together at In-Service: We will be meeting in Room 120.

• Please bring your iPad to Monday's meeting at 12:30. Support staff are invited to join us for the first hour of our time together. 
• Support staff-please plan to bring your iPads to our meeting on Tuesday.  We will also meet in Room 120.

"Nuts & Bolts:"

• Detention duty sign up is HERE. Please sign up for 2 days. 
• Please sign up for a time for me to read to your class in the first week: Mrs. Johnson's Sign Up
• Please use THIS GOOGLE DOC to sign up for 2 event committees. 
• Future All Stars Academy (FASA) will be located in 124--a much better location for many reasons!

First Day/Week of School Business:

• 1st Day start of day: All teachers in hall by classrooms, all specials outside on blacktop. Marie will give specials teachers packets of all class lists to help students find where to line up.
• First week of school  is a modified schedule for MS/HS. Lunch will be 11:35-12:05/12:05-12:30. Music times are affected for some (I sent an email to those affected with proposed changes).

• Recess Rules Orientation outside with Mrs. Jaeckel (teachers: please stay with your class)

Thursday

9:30-9:45 3rd grade

10:15-10:30 2nd grade

11:20-11:35 4th grade

Friday

9:15-9:30 Kindergarten

9:30-9:45 1st grade

10:15-10:30 5th grade

• Lunch Room Rules Orientation with Mrs. Johnson (teachers: please stay with students). This orientation will be before am recess for K-2 and after am recess for 3-5 so we can also rehearse the line/hallway procedures for transitions for lunch/recess.

Thursday

9:15-9:30 1st grade

10:00-10:15 4th grade

10:15-10:30 5th grade

Friday

9:45-10:00 2nd grade

10:00-10:15 3rd grade

*Kindergarten yet to be scheduled

• If you have any student events during September, please email Marie and I to make sure we have it on the September newsletter/calendar.

• 1st assembly in the elementary gym: Friday, September 2nd at 2:35.  This will be a very brief assembly to talk about Code of Conduct, Bucket Filling and Friday celebrations.  Please have students packed up before coming to the assembly.

*Please review assembly expectations with your students prior to coming.

• 

  Don’t assume that your students know how to do anything! Use the Bucket Filer’s pledge/Bucket Filler’s books. Teach the procedures, practice them, reinforce them, practice them, and practice them again!

*Classroom *Hallways *Bathrooms

*Lunch Room -beginning and end of lunch *Recess-to and from

*Arrival/Dismissal *Assembly *Lockers

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!

*The 40 Book Challenge Revisited - a great reminder of why we challenge students to read a lot and push individuals to expand their reading, not require a certain number of books with required/tedious book reports that crush the enjoyment of reading. 

Click here for activities

What you've all been waiting for...

I know that we thought we had our class lists set at the end of the school year, but with staff changes and 1st and 2nd grade each dropping a classroom some of the lists have been changed. You all still have access to the google doc of class lists. Any students that have moved are in red font to make it easier for you to see changes. For those of you that have already been excited to look at student data in Educlimber...the tags that identify who are your students this year may be wrong, because I have NOT changed them since making changes in the google doc. I do plan to work on that next week. 

If you haven't already checked my memo site, the schedules are up (under the tab for Schedules)! These are also available to use in your google drive folder "DES Staff Handbook." Some notes for you about the schedules: 

• There is a google spreadsheet for all schedules pertaining to teachers and a spreadsheet for support staff schedules. At the bottom of each spreadsheet you can find a tab for each separate schedule.  They are not fancy/pretty schedules being in this format, but they are easily accessible.  
• Please do not laminate them just yet.  I'm not planning to change anything, but I'm realistic that additional eyes looking at them will find mistakes that have few pairs of eyes may have missed. You will get copies of all of them in our first week back. 

What about your classroom schedules for reading, writing, math, WIN, etc?

• You will make your specific classroom schedule for each subject, but please try to stay within the core schedule framework (for some of you with odd specials times, I know this is not likely). 
• Please try to follow the minutes of: 60-90 minutes reading, 45-60 minutes writers workshop, 60+ minutes math. Yes, science/social studies can be every other day or even just one subject for a unit and then switch to the other subject for a different unit. 
• You will see that the schedule for WIN allows for some cross grade level collaboration. Just imagine the possibilities that this will allow!