September 30- October 4
BRMES Staff ~ Weekly Garden Talk Update
{Week #6}
MONDAY, September 30: B Day: Lunch~ Chicken Nuggets
- State Building & Fire Inspector here (in case you wonder who is wondering through classrooms, hallways, etc)
- 4 morning choices start
- 2:15-2:45: 5th Grade Team Meeting in Conference Room
- PTA Deadline for Tortoise & the Hare money (although they'd still take it if it came in late)
- MAP Training Day in East Computer Lab (room will closed for the day and a cart of laptops reserved) 8:00-11:00 ~ Yuri, Covault, Winn, Van Middendorp, Pedrow / 12:00-3:00 ~ Cochrane, Val, Wave, Bledsoe, Blank, Hill
- AM: Val @ Admin. Meeting
- 2:15-2:45: 4th Grade Team Meeting in Conference Room
WEDNESDAY, October 2: B Day: Lunch ~ Nachos
- 8:20-8:30: Lockdown Practice Drill ~ This will be a full lockdown, where you lock door, hide out of sight, turn off lights, wait for someone to unlock your door to clear you (we will do an announcement after as well just for training purposes).
- 11:00-1:30: 3rd Grade Walking Field Trip to Brown's Park
- 12:40-1:05: 1st Grade Team Meeting in Conference Room
- 1:10-1:35: Kinder Team Meeting in Conference Room
- 2:15-2:45: 2nd Grade Team Meeting in Conference Room
- 3:30-4:30: Free Yoga @ MDHS
THURSDAY, October 3: A Day: Lunch ~ Pizza Pasta
- Eagle Eye Day: GUM Day (5 winners per class)
- No speech classes today ~ SLP rescreens 'recheck or referral kids'...
2:15-2:45: 3rd Grade Team Meeting in Conference Room
FRIDAY, October 4: NO SCHOOL for STUDENTS!
- Teacher Training Day 8:00-3:15: Classified OFF unless you are part of the MANDT/Special Ed. team (Sped Team: I'm assuming you will get your schedule/location)
ELA Adoption Training (If you don't teach ELA, let me know your plans): 8:00-10:30 Session #1 (K-2 with Cristianne (East Computer Lab)/ 3-5 with HMH in Library)
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-11:45 Session #2 (K-2 with HMH / 3-5 with Cristianne)
11:45-12:30 Lunch
12:30-2:00 Session #2 Cont... (K-2 with HMH / 3-5 with Cristianne)
2:00-2:15 Break
2:15-3:15 Grade Level Collaboration
HMH in the Library / Cristianne in East Computer Lab
Fine Arts Rotation: Spanish
Team Meeting Topics:
{All Weekly Team Meetings will now be the Conference Room to keep it consistent!}
Sept. 30-Oct. 3: Reading / Co-planning / Into Reading Adjustments / Problem Solving (Jamie/Michelle facilitate)
Oct. 7-10: Classroom Accommodations (Sara A/Carissa facilitate)
Oct.14-17: Reading Groups
Oct. 21-24: Math Groups
Oct. 28-31: Behavior
Lounge Cleaner of the Week: 1st Grade Team
- Wash dishes daily (until dishwasher is fixed)
- Wipe down counters/tables/tidy up
- Check Frig's once during the week - throw away stinky/expired things
- Throw away old flyers/old mail that piles up
- Adjust chairs/tables if shifted
Look at our BLOOMERS!
- Chris for helping new staff find solutions
- Mystery Person who left me chocolate in my box!
- Janna for her bal-a-vis-z expertise!
- Sara A. for finding a way to utilize the outdoor classroom with her kids
- Jodi for covering classrooms, recesses, and more when we are short on subs!
- Christine for getting us assessment results
- Natalie for showing strength in the midst of her vulnerability hangover
- Kim for being our 'art mom'
- Bathroom Fairy for keeping it stocked and smelling good
- Jamie for taking charge to try to come up with the perfect '1 month in' iStation schedule
- Kim & Felicity for being such a great support to a new team member.
To Do List:
- NEW online ONLY: RtI Referral Form ~ we are hopeful you don't have to use this a lot as our team vision is to strive for data referrals as a priority! RtI Referral Form click here (and I'll add it as a link below). In the next few weeks team meetings, we will be able to show you who is identified and on the 'Rti' list (based on data and past referrals). A link will live at the bottom of this newsletter forever too.
- Vote on our 'new Friday Assembly name' (one vote per staff member OR you can do it with your classrooms/groups of students and vote): Click here for survey.
- Due Oct. 31: 3 Goals & Self Assessment: Find these in the MDSD Staff Portal. Consider writing 1 goal to reflect on your previous year evaluation or myth area from our last staff meeting, 1 student achievement goal, and 1 goal that directly connects to the district goals. You can write team goals too!
- Midterms/Parent & Student Communication on Grades: Please be sure you know that parents are checking Powerschool or you have sent an update home AND let students know how they are doing. Also, be sure you have sent home IRI scores from our first round and MAP fall scores.
- Uploading Photos: Get in the habit of uploading them to the eBinder 'photos' folder and deleting them from your phones. It works best to find the ebinder from your phone. Then, when it's open, click, 'upload a file' then find your photos, and click 'upload'. If you need help, please ask.
- OPTIONAL: Interested in reading a book from home (or wherever) on a specific date from our PTA Facebook page? Sign here here if so.
Staff Notes:
- No Walk-tober Program this year....(in case you were wondering)
- Leadership Pay Sign Ups will come out AFTER the next board meeting (in case you were wondering).
- Red Ribbon Week/Halloween (Oct. 29, 30, 31): We decied we will just copy what we did last year. 3 days of dress up and on Halloween, your team must decide if you want costumes for all day, part of the day, etc. Each team must collaborate and do the same for your grade level. Communicate it clearly to parents in your newsletters for Oct. 31.
- Sarah W. Darn it. She wasn't able to join her class this week as her health didn't cooperate. Keep her in your thoughts as we just wait for her return. We miss you Sarah but know you are resting to get well soon!
- Sub Shortages: We have had to get creative lately as our sub pool is very small. If you put in a day off the morning of; it is highly likely it will NOT fill. Be prepared to shift students to other classrooms and/or cancel interventions as we have to pull folks to fill in. Keep spreading the word to get new and awesome folks to apply to our sub pool.
- Mix It Up Lunches: We are going to hold off on scheduling any and going to try to make these a school wide acknowlegement tied to Eagle Eyes....just not ready yet.
- Lunch Bunch Meetings: Yuri will schedule these periodically for new students that join our school throughout the year to get them caught up on all the expectations and lingo of BRMES.
- PBIS Documents you may find helpful: The PBIS/behavior team met this week. We talked about several tools and I just wanted to highlight two documents you may find helpful in the eBinder under 'PBIS'. Click here to see them: Behavior Interventions (Pyramid) & Consequences Rubric (which now indicates that to be consistent, we are striving to input into Milepost only column 2 and 3 incidents).
- BRMES Faculty: If you need/want to email our staff, please use the 'BRMES Faculty' list only. If you use the 'MES Staff' one it is tied to our calendar and goes into a folder (which many don't check).
- Screen Time Challenges: We have some concerns being shared about the amount on non curricular movies/videos/internet sites/information being used with our students. I have not observed this. So far the concerns are primarily from K-2; but it's a good reminder for us all to not use non-curricular movies for rewards, and to pick a G rated movie when we have to have an inside day and to just be aware of screen time in general and consider other alternatives when possible (other than any internet or movie reward). Kids don't seem to need more screen time.
- Please vote: See the link here or above to vote on our new name for our Monday Morning Meeting replacement. We are setting up a plan to do them the last Friday of each month, for everyone, in the gym from 2:20-2:50 but need a new name!
- Music Program Feedback: I met with every grade level team this week and asked what your ideas are in regards to our traditional Xmas programs. I will be putting together all the ideas you all shared with me on Monday. Please send me any additional thoughts or ideas by then. I will then get with Tyler and Traci to develop our plan moving forward.
- Writing Prompt Idea: For now, we are utilzing our Into Reading program for the writing performance tasks (not the previously used prompts of the past). We can hopefully talk more about this sequence next Friday at training with our rep.
- Laptops: I know it's hard to share. It's hard to remember to 'schedule' the 2 'roving' carts. Please follow the schedule, teach kids to put them back in the correct carts and slots as they finish and always keep them plugged in when in the cart. This week made me crazy as most were dead, in the wrong spots and carts were taken without being checked out which effected our iStation schedule. The cart should be returned to the East Computer Lab as soon as your reserved time is over.
PTA NOTES:
- Box Tops: download the app/scan your receipts / turn in any paper clippings to PTA box
- PTA Student Tshirt Contest student contest due by Oct. 18
- PTA Teacher Grants: Turn those into the PTA mailbox anytime (forms can be found in General Docs in our eBinder)
- PTA Membership: Their deadline for membership is November 1st. There are foms on their website or in our office. It is $15. to join for a year.