Staff Weekly Update
Week of January 21st, 2019
Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
@Sesamestreet: Today we honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy with these important words, spoken by Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street in 1971. Now, more than ever, we must remember these words and treat each other with kindness, respect, and love.
Thank You to Melissa Rent and Joy Club for Hosting our Winter Gathering!
Calendar Items
Mon. Jan. 21st
- No School in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tues. Jan. 22nd
- AIMSweb - 1/7 to 1/31
- NWEA - 1/8 - 1/25
- WIDA - 1/14 to 3/1
- Martha out - personal day
- 8:05 - Morning announcements + Morning movement minute
- 8:30 - OLSAT practice - 1st & 2nd grade
- 9:00 - OLSAT practice - 2nd grade
- 8:15 - Connie on phone conference
- 9:00 - NWEA help - Largent/Wagner - Connie's office
- 11:00 - Staffing for 1st graders - Largent, Benefiel, Clare, Spillman, Wetzel, Slonaker, Fure, Hall - conf. room
- 12:15 - Parent Phone Call w/ Dr. Slonaker - Largent/Wetzel - Jessica's office
- 1:00 - USS Team Mtg. w/ Dr. Slonaker
- 2:20 - Largent out for bus duty
- 2:30 - Parent mtg. re: 1st grader - Largent/McDaniel - Kyla's room
- 2:45 - Wetzel in meeting
Wed. Jan. 23rd
- WELCOME BACK, MARTHA!
- AIMSweb - 1/7 to 1/31
- NWEA - 1/8 - 1/25
- WIDA - 1/14 to 3/1
- Janelle Drisko at SGE - all day
- 8:05 - Morning announcements + Morning movement minute
- 8:15 - 12:30 - Randee Kleeman at SGE
- 9:00 - Largent in parent meeting - Connie's office
- 9:00 - OLSAT - 2nd grade
- 2:40 - RtI Team Mtg - Westin's room
- 3:30 - Connie/Martha in weekly meeting
Thurs. Jan. 24th
- AIMSweb - 1/7 to 1/31
- NWEA - 1/8 - 1/25
- WIDA - 1/14 to 3/1
- 8:05 - Morning announcements + Morning movement minute
- 8:20 - Wetzel in ACR
- 8:30 - OLSAT - 1st grade
- 9:00 - OLSAT - 2nd grade
- 10:00 - OLSAT make-ups - Wetzel
- 10:15 - 2:00 - Randee Kleeman at SGE
- 11:00 - Largent OUT - 1/2 day PM for my mom's dr. appt.
- 1:00 - ACR for 4th grader - Watson, Knueven, Farley - conf. room
Fri. Jan. 25th
- PTO Spirit Day - Crazy Socks!
- AIMSweb - 1/7 to 1/31
- NWEA - 1/8 - 1/25
- WIDA - 1/14 to 3/1
- K-4 PLC Meetings - all day w/ Largent & Farley - conf. room
- 8:05 - Morning announcements + Morning movement minute
- 8:30 - OLSAT - 1st grade
- 10:00 - OLSAT make-ups - Wetzel
- 10:30 - Meeting w/ Parents - Largent, Fure, Benefiel, Clare, Slonaker - conf. room
- 1:30 -- OLSAT make-ups - Wetzel
Upcoming Events . . .
JANUARY 2019:
- 28th - Feb. 1st - Box Top Collection Week
February 2019:
- 1st - PTO Staff Luncheon - Superbowl Snacks Theme!
- 4th - 8th - School Counselor Week
- 8th - 3rd Grade Specialty Fair
- 11th - 15th - PTO Food Drive
- 14th - Valentine's Day Parties
- 18th - No School - President's Day
- 19th - Staff PD Day at PVE (no school for students)
- 22nd - 3rd Gr. Field Trip to Children's Museum
- 22nd - PTO Spirit Day - ZCS spirit wear
Morning Movement Minute Starts on Tuesday 1/22!
Deb has reviewed ALL of the 10 moves that are pictured in the PPT below with our students during their Wellness times. I will be doing each one over the next two weeks. After that, we'll do a combination of the moves (30 seconds each) just to keep it engaging! Feel free to join in w/ your class! Our students will love seeing you also embrace physical movement!
2019-2020 CALENDAR
You may have noticed on the large wall right by my office door, I have stapled the 19-20 calendar for each month. Our ZCS calendar is also right next to it.
As you and your team start making plans for annual events and/or any new events, please go ahead and write in your event on this calendar. This will give us a full year-long visual of all of our school events and also help us to "balance" out events if some months simply look too busy! The deadline for this will be Friday, May 3rd. The goal will be to give you our 19-20 SY calendar before you leave for summer break!
Valentine's Day Party Details
Be sure to remind your parents to please purchase cards that DO NOT have candy attached to them. You're welcome to use this statement I've written below:
We look forward to celebrating Valentine's Day with our students at their classroom parties on Thursday, February 14th. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to emphasize the life skills of friendship and kindness with all of our students. As you are out shopping for Valentine cards to share with classmates, please select cards void of candy. Regretfully, we will be unable to pass out the candy. We have many students with food sensitivities and allergies and as always, our main goal is to keep everyone safe. If you elect to purchase cards that contain something extra attached to them, please ensure they are inedible. This could include pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. Thank you for ensuring that all students can have a safe and fun celebration.
Additional Announcements & Reminders
ZTEP Middle of Year (MOY) Conferences
- Be on the lookout soon for an email from your ZTEP primary evaluator about our MOYs in mid to late January!
Color Printer Reminder
- REMEMBER . . . PC1-Front Office = Color Printer
Please Join Our REMIND Group
- SGE (staff only) has an all-staff Remind text messaging group called: 18-19 SGE (all staff).
- To simply *receive-only* the text messages, please text the number 81010 and in your "message line" type in the code: @k29hfe.
- If you'd like to be able to text back and forth w/ me via REMIND, please download the app or create an online account.
- As a friendly reminder, please do not share this code with non-SGE staff members.
Leaving EARLY afterschool and you've gotten permission from Connie/Martha . . .
- If this is the case for you, please help us by always emailing the entire office team to let them know you've gotten permission and also leave your cell # in the email message, in case we need to contact you.
- Who is the "office team?" Connie, Martha, Angie, Jen, Jessica, Hailey
Virtual Snow Day - E-Day Tips
Now that we've used our first Snow Day of the year, the next canceled day of school will be an E-Day Virtual Snow Day. Below are very helpful reminders and tips from Kyle for creating your E-Day Modules.
Things we have learned from our eDay experiences:
1. Physically go through your entire eDay module as a student (Student View) paying close attention to the following:
- Does your eDay button work correctly?
- Are there any modules/pages/links/documents that are not published?
- Do my students know how to access the portal to get to all external tools (i.e. BrainPop, Raz-kids, Newsela, Typing.com, etc.)
- Do all of my students have accounts and have they logged in successfully?
3. Content will look different on the Canvas app vs. website. Encourage them to use a web browser instead of the app.
4. Add a “YOU ARE DONE!” page to the end of the Canvas module so that students (and parents) know they have completed all of the work.
5. Include a reminder for your students to complete their Related Arts class work for that day.
6. Be sure to remind students to go to the Dashboard on Canvas to access the Related Arts course.
7. Your eDay should NOT include modules filled with worksheets that need to be filled out and turned in to the teacher (Ask Kyle how you can do these activities online). We continue to hear from parents about this topic.
Important Note:
Please remember that our eDays should be utilizing our online resources so that all students can access the content during an eDay. We have many online tools available that allow students to write, read, reflect, create, compute, etc. online. We don’t want to assume that students have materials at home, other than a device, to complete this eDay work. Below is a list of just some of the tools that you can use for a successful eDay.
BrainPop:
- Movie and Quiz (make sure to create an assignment for students)
- Make a Movie
- Make a Drawing
Canvas:
- Discussions (can be written or video/audio recordings)
- Quizzes.Next (great option for math)
- Embed videos directly into Canvas
Raz-Kids (K-2nd):
- Reading practice
- Quizzes
Newsela (3rd & 4th):
- Reading with attached Quiz
- Writing
EveryDay Math (1st-4th):
- Online activities
- Online lessons
Typing.com (2nd-4th)
Please let Kyle know if you have any questions or would like him to help as you develop your next eDay. It may be here sooner than we think! Kyle Beimfohr - kbeimfohr@zcs.k12.in.us
***IMPORTANT LINKS***
Professional Development Requests
- If you would like to attend any type of professional development, please click here.
Technology Work Orders - Reminder from Dan Layton:
- Click here to access this link.
- It is always extremely helpful if you can submit actual technology work orders for any help you need. Please refrain from picking up the phone or emailing a question.
Above & Beyond Nomination Form
- On our ZCS website, any ZCS staff and/or community member can nominate the work of any ZCS employee that has done extraordinary work. If you've experienced professional support that is above & beyond, feel free to recognize them through this nomination! Please click here to nominate.
Marquis Work Orders:
Did your trash not get picked up? Does it seem the carpet didn't get vacuumed? Please help Angie & Jen out by filling out the Marquis work order on your own. Thanks!
1. Go to the Zionsville web site
2. Click on Teachers/Staff tab
3. Scroll down about halfway
4. Look for: Custodial Work Orders by Building
5. Click on Stonegate
Click here to access the Teachers/Staff tab
18-19 PTO Wish List - NEW GOOGLE FORM LINK!
- Click the NEW LINK HERE to access this Office 365 Form
Personal Business Leave Request - NEW GOOGLE FORM LINK!
- Please click the NEW LINK HERE to access this form and then don't forget to SAVE this page under your "favorites."
- Finally, as a friendly reminder of our ZCS Personal Business Leave + good information to know for our newest staff, I have copied/pasted the email about personal days sent by Becky Coffman on 5/8/16. This is per our CBA - Collective Bargaining Agreement
- A. Amount – Each employee shall be entitled to be absent from work three (3) days each school year for the transaction of personal business or the conduct of personal or civic affairs. Such leaves may be used in whole or half day increments. Requests for personal business leave should be made 48 hours in advance in writing to the building principal. In cases of emergency or other similar unforeseen circumstance, requests may be made orally to both the substitute coordinator and the building principal.
- B. Employees are discouraged from using personal business leave on staff development days or to extend a school vacation. If used on a staff development day then the employee remains totally responsible for securing the learning lost from their being absent during that activity.
- C. Accumulation – If an employee does not use all of the personal business leave in a given school year, the remaining personal business leave shall be accumulated for use in later school year, except that no more than a total of two (2) days may be accumulated from earlier school years for use as personal business leave, so that the maximum total personal business leave available in any one school year is three (3) days earned during the school year and up to two (2) days accumulated from earlier school years or a total of five (5) days.
- D. Conversion to Sick Leave – Any unused personal business leave not accumulated for use in later years as personal business leave shall be added to the employee’s accumulated sick leave.