Monday Connection
K-3 Staff Weekly Newsletter - Week of 11/5/19
Memo from Mary and Todd
Continue working hard. No matter your job title, remember you are an educator in our school and I am honored to serve such an amazing staff. Much love and gratitude.
PD Moment
I was reading an article this last weekend and I was reminded of something we talked about at our retreat. Teach and talk to our students how you would like your child to be taught and talked to. This really hit me hard, as I know that as we head toward Thanksgiving break and Winter Break, we may feel tired and weary. Coming back from Fall break is a good time to reevaluate our routines and procedures and decide if there are item that need to be adjusted and tightened up. When we have solid routines and procedures, the class is more efficient, positive and there is no wasted time. When I think about routines and procedures, I think back to what my dear friend and mentor used to say...5 minutes of wasted time a day, equals 3 days of instruction by the end of the year. By evaluating your routines and procedures, you are making sure that student learning is taking place at all times and you will have happier, more productive classrooms and you will not go home as emotionally tired.
Coach's Corner - Hannah Planansky
Are your student's using manipulative in math? How often? Are they still tucked away on a shelf somewhere? Are you worried that they will become toys in your classroom? Manipulatives are a key component to strong math instruction and are key for helping students become strong mathematicians. If you're not sure where to start, let's chat, I would love to work through a coaching cycle with you around manipulatives during math instruction.
Leadership Survey
https://forms.gle/MmnEvsbisTtxqVvWA
11/5 - Staff Meeting Agenda
Midyear Observations
1. Observation (40-60 minutes)
a. Schedule an observation with your evaluator.
b. Provide a lesson plan for that lesson.
2. Post observation followup
a. review the observation and receive feedback
b. set goals
As we stated at the beginning of the year, this is an opportunity to help you be the best you can be in the classroom. It is truly a collaborative event of learning and growing.
Please email your evaluator a time to be observed the week of 11/4/19 - 11/8/19; 11/11/19 - 11/15/19 and 11/18/19 - 11/22/19. After the observation we will schedule a post observation meeting.
Attached is the observation form that we will be using. If you have any questions or would like to meet prior, please reach out to your evaluator.
Classified Staff:
If you are a TA, please schedule a time with your evaluator to observe you in your role. If you have a noninstructional role, please just schedule a time to meet with your evaluator.
50's Day
Informational Letter from PBIS Team.
SRO Lessons
https://forms.gle/oNV9SKZxCVWEgWJL8
Shout Outs
IC Communications
Duties
Substitute Information
You can access all the information through the intranet. https://sites.google.com/newvisioncharterschool.org/nvcs-staff-intranet/employee-absences?authuser=0
Frontline Absence request link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C0KRlsprg1BcfnKAGDpbaAf55XAkY55iKDUTdaHGw-c/edit?usp=sharing
Purchase Requests (per Pat)
All purchases must be approved in advance, including any purchase a teacher makes and then requests reimbursement for. It is still up to the teacher to secure a copy of our sales tax exempt form from the office before making any purchase as we do not reimburse for sales tax.
Each regular classroom, full time teacher (this excludes specials teachers as they have a different budget), have $150/year available to them for expenses specific to their classroom. These funds are not to be spent on regular items that we already purchase for classrooms, (which is another reason for the prior approval). If they put in their purchase request through the normal intranet process, we can usually purchase items at a lower cost through our established vendors. I try to process all purchase requests at least twice a month.
If they intend to use these funds for their classrooms, they need to do so prior to spring break.
Counselor Corner
MTSS Memo
You may VIEW the MTSS Meeting Calendar to see "Open" slots, but it will not let you directly schedule on it.
Calendar of Events
November 5
Staff Meeting - 4:00 - 5:00
November 6
Conferences - 4:00 - 8:00
November 7
Data Team Meetings during plan time
November 8
Golden Feather Lunch - 11:30
November 11
PTO Meeting - 6:30 - 7:30
November 12
50's Day of School
Happy Birthday
November 5 - Nikki houser
November - Robin Ramsey
Shout Outs
From Hannah:
Shout Out to Shelbey for allowing me to visit your class this week and take over for awhile, thank you for being so prepared and planned out, it made it so easy to step in.
Autumn for being welcoming and friendly and willing to reflect and engage in work around math!
Kristi for working hard on RACE responses and reflecting on instructional practices.
Ashley for building a bridge where there could have been a wall and pushing hard to make a relationship instead of bowing out. Also, for keeping your head in the game and constantly trying to reach these kids and push them academically while loving them always.
Brandy for being a management ninja and bringing in new ideas and supports and being persistent in doing whatever you can to help your class.
Sara V and Anita for always being able and willing to problem solve with me and being my sounding board.
Savannah for not giving up on kids and pushing hard for answers and solutions and more information so that you can help serve kids the best that you can.
Kelsey for her patience with IC, and with me, and navigating elementary grades for the first time.
Tona, Heather and Jessica for their amazing cooperative teamwork on the first floor copier.
Nicole, your positive attitude and sense of humor are a gift that you give to everyone else. Thanks for cleaning my teeth! Hold my baby.
From Robin:
Thank you Hannah P for going to Walmart to get me drugs and cough drops!! You rock!
Thank you cool administrators for giving us the day off to recharge. You guys are amazing!!!!
From Todd:
Ms. Auster-putting the I in KIND
Everyone for staying late and meeting with parents at PTC
Ms. Auster-filling in for Mrs. Nevilles sub who had an emergency
Ms. Regh and Ms. CHRISTMAS for assisting Ms. Auster
Mrs. Chalupka-her words of wisdom to our new teachers
Mrs. Webber-thanks for taking the shirts to be embroidered
Mrs. Anderson for helping me with a student who was having a rough day
Mrs. Baker for her support, understanding, and positive attitude
From Melissa:
Shout out to Mary for shoveling the sidewalk before drive line for me:-)
Shout out to Debbie for the amazing highlighters:-)
From Savannah:
Jessica Hargadine gave me some fun resources for my class to use for Halloween! Thanks for sharing, it’s appreciated!
Charolette Lesko for coming in and doing an awesome math activity with my class! Thank you so much, the kiddos loved it!
Hannah Planansky has been so supportive of me. She has come into my room and observed multiple times, and has made sure that I am receiving the support that I need. I appreciate her SO MUCH! Thanks for all you do Hannah!
Sarah Willits has been on top of checking in with my SPL friend. I appreciate how assertive she has been with getting him the support he deserves. YOU ROCK SARAH :)
Mary Baker helped me so much the past week with my report cards. She took an hour of her busy day to call TS GOLD and talk with them! I truly appreciate how you take the time to make sure all the teachers are taken care of!
From Tona:
Non-Gen-Ed teachers who provided support during indoor recess.
Mrs. Lesko & Mrs. Lynch who are so flexible and took new grade level assignments with a smile and a willing heart.
Mary and Todd for being our backbone!
Anita, Sara, and Mrs. Lesko for having FUN specials time for the kinders. They love that time with you all.
Denise for believing me when I tell her a kiddo is "just not right today" and we need to keep an eye on them. You are amazing in the health office!
The kitchen staff and those who help in the lunchroom each day for getting the hot lunches up and going and taking care of our kids when they are in the lunchroom (especially those noisy kinders...I'm sorry!)
Debbie for fixing the copy machine so that teachers could print report cards and other important things like scarecrow projects.
All TA's in this building who jump in whenever a teacher needs something...always being WILLING and LOVING members of this team!
Brandy who loved on a sad girl by making that girl her favorite soup...thank you from the bottom of my heart.
All of the new team members in this building who have seamlessly become part of the NVCS family! We love you!
Mary for spending an hour and a half on hold with Gold to get the reports fixed! WOW!
From Kristin Carter:
Shout out to the 2nd grade teachers for doing such a great job with CogAT testing!
From Gina Thollot:
Anita! Thanks for taking the time and sitting with me to show me how READ plans are filled out!
It would have taken me a while longer without you! :)
From Samantha Auster:
Shoutout to Ms.Pal for teaching her kiddos sign language using a cool sign language song!
Shoutout to Ms. Bauknecht for having a smile on her face and letting me decompresss in her rooms cozy corner at the end of each day.
Shoutout to all my ladies in the office thank you for being the face of our school and being a positive presence the kids and parents see as soon as they walk in!
From Jessica:
Shoutout to Ashley for picking me up when I was not feeling well and for giving me some great resources for substitutes.
From Shelbey:
To Ashley:
For being an amazing help with parent teacher conferences and getting my grades posted correctly.
To Fran:
For being so patient with me when there were problems with grades posting.
To Hannah:
For covering my room when I had to attend a meeting mid-day!