GATE Staff Newsletter
11.3.19
Happy Sunday everyone!
This weekend was full of rest and relaxation for my household! I hope you all enjoyed the extra hour. A few new things in here this week - check it out! See you Monday!
This week also brings us to the end of Ms. Ray's long-term sub position. Thank you, Lea, for giving your time and energy to Amanda's students! We appreciate you! Amanda will be out for one more week. Ms. Siwicki will be in for most of the next week. Amanda will be back on Monday the 18th.
I'll be sending these newsletters out every Sunday/Monday. Please take 10 minutes and read this newsletter thoroughly - there's a lot of information in it and hopefully many of your questions answered. Let's have another great week of learning!
Coming Up This Week...
Tuesday 11.5: 1/2 Day - Election day. Teachers may leave after dismissal.
Wednesday 11.6:
Thursday 11.7: Kate meeting 8am and 4pm, Cookies and Canvases PTO event
Wednesday 11.8: Tours at 9am, Hive Huddles @ 2:30
Other School Dates
- Nov. 4-15: Internal Application Window for residents and students already enrolled in Avondale thru schools of choice
- Nov. 5: 1/2 Day - Election Day
- Nov. 7: PTO Event - Cookies and Canvases 6-8:30 @ GATE
- Nov. 8: ALICE discussion with our Security Officer Mr. Dan. 2/3/4 Classes and then 4/5/6 classes will have separate discussions. (Shelter-in-place/intruder discussion)
- Nov. 11 - Nov. 22: Gleaner's Food Drive @ GATE
- Nov. 12: Fall Photo Retakes
- Nov. 13: Vision Screening
- Nov. 14: PTO Meeting 7pm, Media Center
- Nov. 22: 1/2 Day; Teacher Records in PM.
- Nov. 26: 1/2 Day; Teacher Records in PM. End of 1st Trimester.
- Nov. 27-29: No School
- Dec. 2: Art Gallery Walk 6pm @ GATE
- Dec. 2-6: Scholastic Book Fair all week!
- Dec. 12: PTO Meeting 7pm @ Media Center
- Dec. 20: Classroom winter parties - time TBD by classroom teacher
- Dec. 23-Jan. 3: Winter Break
- Jan. 9: PTO Meeting 7pm @ Media Center
- Jan. 16: Early Dismissal @ 1:05pm
- Jan. 17: Blanket Making event sponsored by PTO - details to come
- Jan. 23: GATE Open House Showcase Event - details to come
- Jan. 27-31: NWEA MAP Winter Testing week
Don't Forget for November!
Once/month meeting to discuss grade level data! We did October together as a staff, but from now on it should be with your grade level team.
Nov. 8th ALICE discussion
Mr. Dan will be talking to our two groups of students, more than likely in the media center. This discussion is meant to bring information to a hard topic. There will be time for Q and A.
Teacher Leadership and Help
Remember that I know that we are all growing and have our own strengths and areas of need. I think this doc is a fantastic opportunity to help each other. As we edit this, I'll continue to add to the "results" side. There's a lot here - it may not all get addressed at once - but we'll focus on the highest areas of need. I'll be facilitating these "helping" areas.
Please know that this is all an effort to help you grow as an educator at GATE and is not tied to your 5D+ evaluation. However, it may help your growth results! :)
Social Skills Group?
I'm exploring the idea of leading a social skills group once/week with a small group of students in need of help with:
-having appropriate conversations/manners
-making friends/keeping friends
-social cues/body language
-finding strategies to deal with our emotions
-perspectives
-discussing and role playing real life scenarios
What I'd like is your input....do you think you have 1-2 students that could benefit from more explicit instruction beyond what you're doing in the classroom? I would likely do this at the end of the day around 2:30.
Gleaner's Food Drive - Next Week
Our food drive will run November 11-22.
There will be 2 goals:
1. School-wide goal: 550 lbs = We all earn a Pajama Day!
2. Classroom goal: Most pounds donated = Pizza Party!
Next week you will receive a class donation box. I already have a parent volunteer lined up to collect items from your classroom boxes. I think it would be awesome to have student helpers - but I just can't manage that this year. Next year for sure!
About Hunger
More than 720,000 people in southeast Michigan live in poverty.
One in six people in Michigan will need emergency food this year.
34% of households served by Michigan food banks have at least one employed adult.
62% of people served by food banks live in suburban or rural areas.
38% of the people Gleaners serves are children and 7% are seniors.
Child poverty has more than doubled in the past decade; one in four children are now at risk of hunger.
About Gleaners
Gleaners collects and distributes over 34 million pounds of food annually, providing more than 28 million emergency meals to our neighbors in need.
How it works: Food is donated by major food processors and retail chains, collected through food drives, or is purchased by Gleaners at deep discounts. The food is then brought to a Gleaners Distribution Center to be inspected and sorted by the 48,000 volunteers that we rely on each year. Gleaners distributes the food to more than 510 partner agencies throughout southeast Michigan that provide pantry supplies or prepared meals directly to hungry people. Those partners include pantries, schools, shelters, senior citizen centers, and soup kitchens.
Volunteers Reminders
I wanted to clarify some things about volunteers in Avondale and what regulations we have to follow. There are two different levels of volunteers:
Level TWO Volunteers:
-Just submit the volunteer form and driver's license copy.
-Examples of activities they can do once cleared: field trip chaperone, classroom helper, copy parent, can volunteer for lunch/recess but must be monitored by GATE or SafeEd staff, etc.
-Parents need this when they will be doing activities that still involve a GATE staff member or SafeEd guard monitoring the room/area.
-These volunteers are never alone with a child.
Level ONE Volunteers:
-Must go to HR to get a fingerprinting sheet, get the fingerprinting done, and pay for it themselves.
-Examples of activities they can do once cleared: hold small group activities without a GATE staff member or SafeEd guard in the same room, overnight field trips, book room volunteer on their own, can volunteer for lunch/recess and monitor on their own, etc.
-These volunteers can be alone with a child.
Field Trips: Prior to signing up to be a field trip chaperone, submit your volunteer form and ID.
Special Events: No volunteer status needed, but you do need to sign in and get a name tag. In January we will have a new system for any visitor which will involve everyone bringing their ID called Raptor. More info to come on this from the district soon.
If parents send the volunteer forms in, please make sure they also send in a coy of their IDs. You can submit the form/ID to Brenda in the front office. It typically takes about 3-5 days to process. From now on if parents don't have it in prior to a field trip, we will not rush to get it done - it was a bit too stressful this last time. Thank you for your diligence and understanding with this!
Secure Doors: During the school day, parents may not let other parents into the building, even if you know them. Only GATE staff members or SafeEd staff may do this.
For those of you that run a club....
We've had a significant issue with multiple students being picked up late (more than 5 minutes) after the clubs have ended. This results in our teachers having to stay far past their designated time. To be respectful of their time, I want to make you aware of our club pick-up policy, which is listed below. This policy applies to all clubs.
-1st time late = warning
-2nd time late = unable to continue participating in the club; no refunds
*Ukulele club has an additional $10 childcare fee assessed with the warning since it is run by a separate company and not Avondale SD.
Thank you for your help with this important matter.
No toys, please
Please discourage students from bringing in toys/games etc from home. If you have your own policies IN the classroom, I'm totally fine with that. BUT they're bringing them out to lunch, recess, etc. Busy Bees allows toys, which is fine, but they need to keep it in their backpacks during the school day if that's the case. Thanks for your help!
Notice to parents sent in Gazette:
Exceptions would be made if there was a special event or if teachers specifically asked for students to bring in an item.
Thank you for your help with this!
Weekly Dose of Encouragement
OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW
Positivity Project
Professional Development Slides - For Your Reference
FOSS Kits
Please let me know if you have any questions about the FOSS kits you received.
We will have two FOSS kits this year. They will be used during Trimester 1 and Trimester 2.
2nd-Pebbles, Sand, Silt (Fall drop off, Dec. 1 PU), Solids and Liquids (Nov Drop off, Feb 19 PU)
3rd- Water and Climate (Fall drop off, Dec. 1 PU), Motion and Matter (Nov Drop off, Feb 19 PU)
4th- Soil, Rocks, and Landforms (Fall drop off, Dec. 1 PU), Energy (Nov Drop off, Feb 19 PU
5th- Earth and Sun (Fall drop off, Dec. 1 PU), Mixtures and Solutions (Nov Drop off, Feb 19 PU)
2nd/3rd: Amanda Merrill - 2nd grade kit
2nd/3rd: Kimberly McDermid - 3rd grade kit
3rd/4th: Rachel Breeden - 3rd grade kits
4th/5th: Michelle Gierman - 4th grade kits
4th/5th: Erica Burmann - 5th grade kits
Academic/Behavior Concerns
Staff Meeting Dates
Well, the survey results were 50% wanting AM and 50% wanting PM. As a compromise we'll do every-other staff meeting at 6:45am-7:45am and every-other at 3:05pm-4:05pm. Please mark your calendars.
11/12 3:05pm-4:05pm
12/10 6:45am-7:45am
1/14 3:05pm-4:05pm
2/11 6:45am-7:45am
3/10 3:05pm-4:05pm
4/14 6:45am-7:45am
5/12 3:05pm-4:05pm
6/9 6:45am-7:45am