Morris Memo
Febrary 19, 2019 LWE Newsletter
Principal's Letter
Dear LWE Families,
I hope you enjoyed the long weekend! After celebrating Valentine's Day on Thursday, our students (and teachers) were energized and excited about a four day break!! For me, it was refreshing and rejuvenating as I enjoyed downtime with my family.
In addition to celebrating Valentine's Day last week, we also got to celebrate some pretty amazing teachers and professional staff. Our four Teacher of the Year finalists were Mrs. Marie Wise-Miu (AU Teacher), Mrs. Hilory Harding (IRR Teacher), Ms. Michelle Levesque (5th grade teacher) and Mrs. Bethany Chapple (Adaptive PE Teacher). After our TOTY panel conducted classroom observations and interviews with these teachers, Ms. Michelle Levesque, one of our 5th grade Humanities teachers, was named our 2019 Teacher of the Year. Our finalists for Professional Employee of the year were: Ms. Anne McKown (CST), Mrs. Blair Boyle (Special Education Para), Mrs. Susan Brandon (Media Center Specialist), Mrs. Molly Pratap (Media Center Para) and Mr. Suresh Srinivasan (Technology Specialist). After a staff vote, Mrs. Blair Boyle was named our 2019 Professional of the Year. We are so thrilled to have all of these exceptional team members as a part of the Lake Windward family. Each of them show an amazing amount of dedication, talent and enthusiasm for the work they do. Well done to all of our finalists and winners!
Warm regards,
Julie Morris
Don't Forget! School Climate Survey- Due by March 1st!
Thank you to the parents who have taken a few moments to complete the School Climate Survey. Our school's CCRPI ratings are partially determined by your participation in this survey, and we want to keep our school's exceptional 5 star rating!! Please use this link: http://gshs.gadoe.org/parents
The last day to complete the survey is Friday, March 1st. Thank you in advance for your valuable feedback!
Neat things are happening in LWE Classrooms!
Valentine's Day Surprises!
School Governance Council Elections!
Parent/Guardian Declaration Form
The Declaration period ends February 20th! Check out our school's website for more info!
Literacy Week
Join us as we celebrate Literacy Week February 25th- March 1st with fun activities based on several of our students’ favorite children’s books. Literacy Week is intended to highlight the importance of reading in the continued success of children. This event culminates in the celebration of the National Education Association’s Read Across America event, which will be held this year on Friday, March 1st. This event recognizes Dr. Seuss’s birthday because of his love of motivating young readers. This year we will celebrate all week with fun activities for students to show their love of reading. On Monday, students can wear crazy socks in honor of the book Fox in Socks. On Tuesday, students can wear LWE Gator green in honor of the book Green Eggs and Ham. On Wednesday, students can wear a shirt from someplace they’ve visited or a shirt someone brought them from a place visited in honor of the book Oh the Places You’ll Go. On Thursday, students can wear their favorite hat in honor of the book The Cat in the Hat. On Friday, we want students to show their creativity by selecting their own favorite book and dressing as a character from that book. We ask that students not wear masks to school as part of their costume, though. We look forward to this celebration of literacy with our LWE students!
Lost and Found Items
Lost and Found: There are a lot of items currently in our Lost and Found including coats, hats, water bottles, etc. Please stop by and find your lost items before they are donated to charity!!
A Note from our Education Tech Specialist
Are you familiar with Seesaw? This digital portfolio tool helps students and teachers document learning that occurs during the day. Many teachers are using this as a way to engage their class in student-centered learning experiences and as a way to communicate with you.
Check out more here, https://web.seesaw.me/parents/, to see what Seesaw for Parents is all about!
I challenge you this week to...First, check your student's Seesaw journal (at least once). Next, leave an encouraging comment or like one of your students' post. Finally, if your teacher sends you a message through the inbox, replay using the Seesaw tools (found through the 'plus' sign).
More Seesaw support videos:
Tour of the Family App - https://youtu.be/fztA8m_4U5A
Family Messages in Seesaw - https://youtu.be/fpkBoHWe5gA
-Hannah Rome-
Book Fair Coming Soon!
Oh, the Places You’ll Go… with our spring book fair! We are excited to kick off our spring book fair very soon! Students will be able to preview book fair items Thursday, February 28th, and Friday, March 1st. The book fair will be open for purchases Monday, March 4th, through Wednesday, March 6th, from 8:15am-2:00pm. Parents are welcome to shop until 3:00pm. The book fair will also be open during International Night from 6:00-8:00pm. Parents are welcome to pay using cash, check, credit/debit cards or paying ahead of time using eWallet. We received quite a bit of positive feedback using eWallet from our fall book fair, so if you are interested, learn more on the LWE media center website. We hope to see everyone at the spring book fair! Remember, the money earned helps support LWE students!
Link to the LWE Media Center website: https://lwemediacenter.weebly.com
A Note from our PE Teacher
Starting in March, 1st - 5th grade students will participate in the state mandated fitness assessment. Per Georgia law, students in grades 1-3 are required to have their height and weight recorded annually and students in grades 4-5 are required to have their height and weight recorded biannually, and submitted to the state; along with their results from the other four components of the FitnessGram test. The following are the five components that all students in grades 4-5 will participate in:
1. PACER test (aerobic capacity)
2. 90 degree Push-Ups (upper body strength & endurance)
3. Curl-Ups (abdominal strength & endurance)
4. Sit & Reach (flexibility)
5. Height & Weight (body composition)
For more information, please go to Mrs. Van Loo's website at: http://lakewindwardpe.weebly.com/fitness-testing.html
LWE Calendar- What's coming up?
Feb. 22 – Father/Daughter Dance 7:00-9:00 pm
March 1 – Read Across America Day/Dr. Seuss
March 4-8 – Exceptional Children’s Week
March 4-6 – Book Fair Sales
March 5 – International Night/Book Fair 6:00-8:00 pm
March 6 – Family Balance Night
March 11 – Professional Development Day – Students Off
March 12 – LWE RFF Day – Students Off
VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION
All parents wanting to participate or visit classrooms must go through the volunteer registration process. Any person who has not gone through the training since June 2, 2018 must go through it again even if you did it last school year.
Applicants should be prepared to spend about 10—15 minutes for the training application process. In accordance with State Law, all volunteers must be current with Child Abuse Reporting Protocol Training BEFORE being allowed to volunteer in our schools.
It is very important that volunteers enter their full legal name as it appears on their government issued ID (please do not use nicknames or ‘goes by’ names on the application).
All applicants must wait 24 hours after applying for application processing and approval, before volunteering in our schools. When coming to the school to volunteer, you must bring your government issued photo ID to use when checking in at the front office.
For your convenience see link below:
Updated Procedure for Absence Approval in Extenuating Circumstances
Students should be present in school every day unless illness or other extenuating circumstances exist. The Georgia Board of Education lawfully excuses students for the following reasons: personal illness, death in the immediate family, religious holidays, and other educational days as pre-approved by the school principal. The principal has at his/her discretion according to Board Policy the option to approve a maximum of six (6) days per student per school year in extenuating circumstances. Parents/guardians must notify the principal of their request by completing the request form located on the school website at least two weeks prior to the absence. Submission of parental/guardian request does not grant automatic approval. A school administrator or designee will contact the parents/guardian upon the final decision. As in the past, absences for illness, death in the family or religious holidays can be approved by your child's teacher by sending in a signed note from you.
- The principal approval form is to be used for extenuating circumstances only, as stated in the information above.
- Two weeks ahead of the planned absence, print and complete the request form located on the Lake Windward website.
- One form is required per student.
- Submit the completed, signed, and dated form to the Lake Windward front office.
- Your student’s attendance record will be taken into consideration when reviewing your request.
- A copy of the decision to accept, decline or amend your request, will be sent to you and your child’s homeroom teacher.
Email requests will not be accepted.
Want to be a LWE Super Dad?
Stay in contact!
Email: morrisja@fultonschools.org
Website: http://school.fultonschools.org/es/lakewindward/Pages/default.aspx
Location: 11770 East Fox Court, Alpharetta, GA, USA
Phone: 470-254-7050
Twitter: @lwesprincipal