Friday Focus - May 26, 2017

A HUGE thank you to the Fuel Up to Play committee for all of their work to bring us the Packer Football camp--it was a blast! It was so great to see all of our kids having such a good time, teachers enjoying the time with their students and getting to see our high school football players be such great leaders for our kids.  Thank you to everyone for being flexible with your lunch times and everything else that was affected.  Now we are already on to the Walkathon with more fun, exercise and making memories with our students!

Remaining Events for the School Year:
Monday, May 29th -No School (whew, take a breath!)
Week of May 30th - iPad Collection
Tuesday, May 30th - Bike Safety presentation 2:15
Wednesday, May 31st - Staff Appreciation Dinner
Friday, June 2nd - grade level app list due
Monday, June 5th - Report Cards due 
*Added-Seniors graduation walk through the hallways (Time yet to be determined)
Wednesday, June 6th - recess carnival led by 7th graders
Wednesday, June 7th - Report Cards distributed
Thursday, June 8th - 4th Quarter Dodgeland Pride Assembly, End of Year Picnic

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Who left that article in mailboxes about the biggest time killers, including judgement, gossip and negativity? It was me. It's very easy to become stressed at this time of year (believe me, I totally get it, my list is long too!) and I think we all might need a reminder to focus on the right work. Just letting you all know...hearing rumors and gossip is definitely a pet peeve trigger of mine and I confess to getting "cranky-pants" hearing it happening. Having times of Dodgeland family loss is also a time to put things in perspective and look at the big picture in life. Some of those little petty things to complain about are not such a big deal anymore when you look at life.

*Approved budget sheets were put in your mailboxes. The next step is purchase requisitions. : )


Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!
*I absolutely love this blog post and the inspirational images to end the year strong: Finish Strong

Are you worried about what to do without your iPads? Maybe you'll find some good ideas here:

Turn any worksheet into an activity

Friday Focus - May 19, 2017

I am often reminded of the phrase "crisis reveals character" as I work with such an incredible staff. Fortunately, our power outage was a short crisis, but nonetheless, was a temporary crisis! I appreciate how you responded and observed many of you:

• Remaining a calm presence for students that were scared...some of you even turned it into a learning opportunity with your students (making educated guesses about what happened) or brainstorming "what if" stories.
• Lending a helping hand...several of you didn't have students with you during the power outage and helped out with little ones and getting around to each room to help spread the word on our plan.

Our days never really go as planned and I fully understand when our schedules get derailed. I appreciate how many of you always put student needs at the forefront, even when it is inconvenient for you!

Remaining Events for this School Year:
Monday - Staff meeting 3:10 (Agenda-tech news and end of year celebration/reflection activity. Please bring a device)
Thursday - Packer Youth Football camp for 2nd-5th grades
Friday - Walkathon
Monday, May 29th -No School (whew, take a breath!)
Week of May 30th - iPad Collection
Tuesday, May 30th - Bike Safety presentation 2:15
Wednesday, May 31st - Staff Appreciation Dinner
Friday, June 2nd - grade level app list due
Monday, June 5th - Report Cards due
Wednesday, June 6th - recess carnival led by 7th graders
Wednesday, June 7th - Report Cards distributed
Thursday, June 8th - 4th Quarter Dodgeland Pride Assembly, End of Year Picnic

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Just a reminder to please check the class lists draft. I will be putting tags in Educlimber at the start of next week.

"SLO's and Doc Logs and Summatives...Oh My" (ok, not exactly the same as Lions and Tigers and Bears!)

*Just like everything else on the to-do list, I'm behind in mylearningplan work too and haven't gotten to the point to give any follow-up reminders of what I haven't checked from you if you haven't turned something in yet. Here's a great reminder of: End Of Year EP Stuff

For those of you in your summative year I will be sending out an email next week to schedule our meetings. I know that many of you will not be done with your SLO's yet and that is completely ok, because your students are still learning! We always manage to work together to get it all done before you leave for the summer! :)

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!
*Understanding the Summer Slide: Sharing Data with Parents and Students

Friday Focus - May 12, 2017

Changing the message about the final days of school will have an impact on student engagement and behavior. If you want to have a sign in your room, why not try this one? 

Image created by Jay Posick

Upcoming Events:
Monday - Music concert for grades 1/3/5
Wednesday - Workout Wednesday
Friday - I will be out of the building for a DAC PLC meeting
Dodgealnd School Night Out at the YMCA 6:30-8:30pm. Please feel free to bring your own family for the fun! Dodgeland families get to swim, play in the gym or up in the loft.
Thursday, May 25th - Green Bay Packers Camp for Grades 2-5
Friday, May 26th - Walkathon

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*If I can get caught up I hope to have the tags in Educlimber for classroom teachers to be able to start looking at your next year's class. Thank you for being patient with me!

*Please make sure that you are working on the grade level app list for Ms. Abegglen which is due on 6/2.  She will also be emailing you information in the near future about the timeline/process for turning iPads.  As was shared before, we have to turn in our student iPads early this year, because the lease is up. We have to deactivate/send them back so we can start getting the new iPads ready for summer school learning. Yes, this means your end of year activities will likely be different than years int he past, but I've already heard great ideas being brainstormed for STEM activities, hands-on publishing work, group projects and other neat things not requiring iPads.  It may also just be a time when we realize how fortunate we are to have iPads!



Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!
*Ending the Year with Intention - Great ideas for reflection work at the end of the year with our readers/writers.
*High Expectations, All Students, No Exceptions

Friday Focus - May 5, 2017

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*5th graders incredibly engaged in a book club discussion. They had come prepared with several pages marked with post-it notes, ready to share parts they connected with, made predictions or had questions about.
*Students asking to meet with me to find out how to publish their own books...they came with a plan about a book they are all collaborating on together, each writing from different character viewpoints in a google doc together. Talk about student passion, engagement and personalized learning!
*Kindergartners literally diving in to math (picture a kiddie pool with balls of math facts to dive in for to solve). Talk about making math fun to spice things up!


Events Next Week:
Monday - Mid Quarter, yes it's already time to send home progress to make sure parents know how their children are doing in this final stretch of the year!
-Monday's Staff Meeting has been moved to May 22nd.
**That's all I see on the calendar...am I forgetting something?!

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
End of the year assessments...
 (don't stress, think of how much you'll get to celebrate!)
*The MAP window IS open and ready for your class. 3-5th likely will still want to wait as you're recovering from Forward. MAP testing will need to be completed by Thursday, June 1st.
*Math AIMSWeb will also need to be completed by the end of the year for 1-5th. 2-5th grade teachers you will be given the login info for your students next week. 1st grade teachers-Mrs. Stanton will be pulling your students for 1:1 testing.
*When you complete F&P, please add the instructional levels to the google doc so I can enter them in Educlimber.


Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!
*I love this post by Pernille Ripp, because this is in so many of our classrooms already: How To Be a Reading Role Model-Without Actually Reading in Front of Your Class
*Teachers, Do We Appreciate One Another?