@ Alta Vista
January 7, 2019
WELCOME BACK!
As we ease back into the classroom, we'll kick things off with USD's Smart Restart on Monday. It's a chance to bring your classroom community back together with special activities. I'd like to spend most of the day with students, so let me know what what your class will be doing and if there is a special time for me to pop in. Don't forget - Monday is also USD Family Night, so please do not assign any homework.
This is also a good time of the year to review expectations around student behavior. Please let me know if you would like me to set aside time this week to remind your students about playground rules.
I'm waiting to hear back from the District Office about keys, gates, etc. I'll let you know as soon as I have more information. I'm hoping to send a "welcome back" email to parents on Sunday with details about the gates as well as a reminder that school starts on Monday. Hopefully this will help things to run smoothly when we return.
Enjoy your last few days of sleeping in or having that extra cup of coffee. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday.
COUGAR PRIDE
Research shows that increased recognition and celebration of students leads to a positive school culture. With this goal in mind, we will update our Cougar Pride Program as follows:
- Students will continue to receive Cougar Pride cards. Feel free to grab extras from the office and hand them out like candy.
- Instead of turning them into the office, students will turn them into the classroom. This means you will need to have a special box or container to store the tickets.
- Once a week, teachers will submit the name of a Cougar Pride "raffle" winner to the office. This could be the perfect opportunity to recognize a challenging student who made a good choice - a great way to reinforce good behavior.
- Teachers can share the raffle winner via this Cougar Pride Google doc or by adding the name to a paper copy in the office. The advantage of the Google Doc is that you can track who has been recognized because each week a new table will be added at the top, but you'll be able to review who has "won the raffle" in the past.
- On Fridays, we will begin the day with a short announcement. It will include the pledge of allegiance, special announcements (ice cream sales, etc.), Cougar Pride winners, and a Friday funny. Cougar Pride winners will come down to the office to select a special silicone bracelet to keep and wear with pride. These will replace the pizza lunches.
I'm sure you'll have some questions about Cougar Pride, so we'll talk about it at Tuesday's staff meeting. With these changes, I'm excited that we'll have the opportunity to recognize more students. I hope that you find the "new and improved" program promotes positive school culture and student behavior. Thanks for always going the extra mile to support our students.
MUSIC WITH JANE
To allow Jane some time to plan her curriculum, she will not be meeting with classes on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Music classes will resume on Friday.
YARD DUTY
Before our Winter Break, I shared the yard duty schedule for the remainder of the year. You can access it by clicking on this link.
Vicki will no longer be sending out weekly meeting/special event reminders. You will want to refer to the newsletter calendar (at the bottom of this page) for these details. For the time being, they will be included in the newsletter, but hopefully you'll soon get comfortable checking the schedule link and including the information in your lesson or sub plans.
I did not include specific area assignments for recess yard duty. Please work with your partner(s) to decide who will cover which areas. Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any suggestions for improving the schedule (or if you like it). We'll see how this works and decide if we need to make changes for next year.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
1/7 - Smart ReStart & USD Family Night (No Homework)
1/7 - IEP: Rob S. @ 3:00 (Debbie, Jeena, Cathy)
1/8 - Vision Testing (Fifth Grade)
1/8 - Digital TAT2 @ 11:00 (Riley)
1/8 - Digital TAT2 @ 1:00 (Hammer)
1/8 - Staff Meeting @ 3:00
1/8 - AVHSC Meeting @ 6:30
1/9 - IEP: Ivan P @ 2:30 (Karla, Caitlin, Cathy)
1/10 - Digital TAT2 @ 11:00 (Lueck)
1/10 - Digital TAT2 @ 1:00 (Standridge)
1/10 - ALL: Logan E @ 7:30 (Lisa H, Kari, Caitlin, Cathy)
1/10 - IEP: Audrey C @ 3:00 (Marika, Caitlin, Kari, Jeena, Cathy)
1/15 - School Leadership Team Meeting @ 3:00
1/16 - IEP: Brooke N. @ 2:30 (Karla, Jeena, Carla, Cathy)
1/17 - Third Grade Field Trip to Monterey Bay
1/17 - Fourth Grade Field Trip to San Juan Bautista
1/18 - USD Professional Learning Day @ Dartmouth
1/25 - KDS MATH & ELA SCORES DUE IN ILLUMINATE (Grades 3/4/5)