Lincoln Lion's Local Buzz
Start of School Edition
Welcome Back!!
I'm excited to announce a few new staff members that have joined our Lincoln Family over the summer:
- Katie Meade is our "new" first grade teacher. She has just finished being our interim in the first grade for the majority of last year. She has been an asset to the first grade team and we are excited to have her on board in this permanent position.
- Aimee Hutchins is joining our second grade team after several years teaching Kindergarten in Hamblin County. She brings a great deal of experience working with Ell students and will be a great addition to our staff.
- Rachael Farmer will be joining our SPED team and is coming from Jackson Elementary. Lena Lawson transferred to Roosevelt Elementary and Jordan Hainje will be full time at Kennedy. Rachael knows our population well and is a former Lincoln Parent. She and Trevor will be a power house team supporting our SPED students.
- Allie Ballinger has accepted a position as an IA in our SPED department. She has lots of experience working in a medical office--which translates to can multitask and wear many hats. She has most recently been home with her children. We are so excited to have her as part of our Lion Pride.
- David Perkins has joined our custodial crew. Stephen Dockery, accepted a position over at Sevier Middle. David is also a Lincoln parent (Nathan 2nd grade), and has invested interest in our building. Welcome to Lincoln--as an employee!
- Jocelyn Cradic has accepted the position of IA working with our 5th grade team. She holds a degree in psychology and is interested in getting her masters in school counseling. She has experience with teens with behavior concerns. She also has been a team lead at several restaurants and can multi task with the best of them! She will be a great fit with our 5th graders.
We did have some changes in our teams at the end of last year and with the additions of new staff, here is an updated list of grade level teams:
PreK: Misty Ezell
Kindergarten: Meghan McConnell, Donna Fletcher, Krista Manuel, Gail Smith
First Grade: Tonya McInturff, Penny Metcalf, Cathy Trapp, and Katie Meade
Second Grade: Kristen Galloway, Pattie Seabolt, Denise Brown, Aimee Hutchins
Third Grade: Leanne Taliaferro, Jaclyn Feldman, Sarah Owens, Melissa Rivers
Fourth Grade: Shawna Gragg, Sierra Sallee, Sharon Grass, Ashley Branham
Fifth Grade: Sarah Pike, Jennifer Wyatt, Mona Fulkerson, Jessica Carr
SPED: Trevor Brooks, Rachel Farmer, Greta Sims
Related Arts: Seth Wallingford, Martha Hyder Hall, Hollie LaRue, Krystal McReynolds
Behaviorist: Henry Stokely
Family Liaison/Social Worker: Marsha Musick
School Counselor: Kristen Way
Custodial Team: Scott Thomas, Brandon Fleming, Roger Quillen, and David Perkins
We are a great team of educators and we are ready for a fantastic year.
Google Drive
This is where everyone will find the master schedule, duty expectations, the school handbook, and all things that you need for the year. Please take time to visit it and familiarize yourself with the documents in each folder. Due to the work we do with the material in the folder you all have access to add/change/delete items. This means that some of the common documents that we heavily rely on need to be treated carefully. Do not delete, change, or modify any of the master documents (schedule, duty schedule, handbook, etc). If you notice errors or have questions about things please email me and I will make changes. I can't give view only access on some documents and not all documents--If I can figure it out I will do that, but until then please treat all master documents as read only.
To clean up and be ready for the new school year, I have placed all documents from each folder from last year in a "SY 18-19" folder. So if you need something from last year, just go to the main folder (ex: Grade 2 PLC) and then to the "SY 18-19" folder and there are all the documents that you created last school year. I hope that helps us all be more organized.
Some items in the drive are not updated yet (phone lists and lunch count) but will be as soon as possible.
Things to remember as you plan for the start of school:
- Make sure you have a Lion's Den in your room ready to go on the first day. We are continuing with Zones of Regulation and Lion's Dens in each room to reinforce self regulation of emotions.
- Please connect with either Kristen (grades K-1) Marsha (grades 2-3) or Henry (grades 4-5) to arrange time for them to come in and teach/reteach the Zones of Regulation. Grades K and 1 will likely get the same full course of lessons that were taught last year. Grades 2-5 will have multiple lessons to reiterate the zones work and to reinforce our common language.
- Make plans to teach the 4 expectation lessons (found in the google drive) during the month of August. All four expectations must be covered by the end of August.
- Set time aside to teach the art of goal setting and getting your data binders organized. (More information coming for how to organize it.)
Schedule For Teachers First Week Back (July 29-August 2)
Tuesday, July 30--Troy F. Reid Center--Convocation 8:00-12:00. Please wear a Lincoln shirt or be creative with Lincoln Colors. Royal Blue and Gold! Let your Lincoln pride shine! You will have the afternoon to work in your rooms/with your team.
Wednesday, July 31-- Content PD day. Please see communication from the district for start time and locations.
Thursday, August 1st--Your day to get things done that you need to get done. No meetings are planned UNTIL--"Sneak A Peak" from 4:30-5:30. Rooms should be welcoming and ready for students and parents to tour. You do not need any presentations or packets for parents. This truly is an open house.
Friday, August 2nd--Medications Training and Suicide Awareness Training 8:00-11:30. ALL Teachers must attend the Medications Training facilitated by Brandy. Staff who have not taken the online training for Suicide (at my last check that was all of you except 6 teachers) will work with Kristen and Marsha for the suicide awareness training that will complete your requirement for training through HR on this subject. Lunch is on your own and you have the afternoon to do what you need to prepare for Monday.
Less is More
Below are a few more articles that I have found in support of this approach:
This is the summary of the actual study referenced in the link above: https://www.cmu.edu/homepage/society/2014/spring/disruptive-decorations.shtml
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/decrease-classroom-clutter-increase-creativity-erin-klein
From a blog...mostly her opinion but had some good reflection points: https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/4-signs-classroom-decorated-fix/
Emergency Sub Plans
This is a second reminder and was first sent to you in an email from Judy. (Just trying to make sure no one is caught off guard with these plans)
From Judy:
Continuing the practice we adopted last year, please prepare 2-3 days of EMERGENCY sub plans to be stored in the office. Get your feet under you first, of course, but we'd like to have these in the office by no later than August 23. (That part is from Suzanne)
I've got a notebook prepared for each of you (except Way) in our records room up in the office. You will be asked to put your sub plans in that notebook. We can then neatly store the notebooks and use them as needed. Kristen, I'll get a notebook prepared for you.
Keep in mind this notebook is intended for days when you are out unexpectedly, not days which are planned! I've included an attachment to this document with suggestions for things to include in your notebook. This document was compiled from ideas I gleaned when looking at emergency plans submitted by some of you last year. Many of the items on this list are things you take for granted, but subs need to know them! It's not an exhaustive list, but a great place to get started.
If your plans won't fit in the notebook provided, please use a strong rubber band and rubber band your excess papers/materials to the notebook. If you want to reference what you used last year, please come get your 2018-19 notebook/materials. They are on the top left and center left shelves in our records room. I'm happy to help you find yours!
Building Hours and Cleaning
The custodians are still putting rooms back together and several are being pulled out of the building. It is hard to be patient when you have so much to do, but we appreciate your patience in the process this year.