THE STALLION STAR
September 27, 2015
IN THE NEWS...
ATTENDANCE
Focus has been well under way for several weeks now. Attendance is a basic function that should be under control by now by all classroom teachers. However, each day we still have several teachers who are not taking attendance. STUDENT ATTENDANCE HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON OUR PEIMS NUMBERS, WHICH HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON OUR STATE FUNDING. Going forward, attendance must be entered by 9:30 each day. At that time, friendly reminders will go out to those teachers who have not taken attendance. After three friendly reminders in one grading period, the reminder will be in the form of a professional memo and added to your personnel file. If you are having any issues with your attendance, please address it immediately with one of our SDS's (Martha or Virginia) or ask one of our Focus leads (Jessica or Amanda), or seek the HelpDesk.
BREAKFAST -- PLEASE READ -- SOME STAFF MEMBERS ARE STILL NOT FOLLOWING
We are still having issues with students roaming the building before the start of school. If a breakfast table gets full before the 7:50 time, those on duty may select a handful of kids who are finished to throw their garbage away and SIT in the grade level designated areas in the cafeteria. NO STUDENTS SHOULD LEAVE THE CAFETERIA FOR ANY REASON UNTIL DISMISSED AT 7:50. At 7:50, teachers on duty need to dismiss tables ONE TABLE AT A TIME -- otherwise it becomes too chaotic around the garbage cans.
CARNIVAL
Pre-Sale tickets will be sold next week. Each classroom teacher will receive an envelope with your name on it. When students bring money for tickets ( 5 for a $1), put the DAY and their NAME and amount of MONEY they brought on the outside of the envelope. Put the MONEY inside, and put it outside your door. The ladies from ESOL will come by to pick them up. You will receive the envelope back by the end of the day to distribute back to the students.
COMMITTEES
The committee sign up list will go live on Google Drive on Wednesday at 3:30 PM. The live document will be shared through Google Drive. We have been working hard to get you acquainted with the basic access to Google Drive. If you are still unable to or unfamiliar with how to access the Google Drive, it is YOUR responsibility to work out the kinks -- please seek Taressa, Chris or a colleague for assistance prior to Wednesday afternoon. ALL PROFESSIONAL STAFF are expected to sign up for AND participate in a committee. Some committees already have a "lead" or "chair" who will help facilitate the committee. Other committees, the"lead" is still available for sign up. Your actual contribution to the committee will impact your PDAS. Signing up is NOT considered contributing to the committee; your actual contribution to the purpose of the committee is considered participation. Paraprofessionals, you are welcome to join and participate on a committee -- this too will impact your summative evaluation.
BRIGHT BYTES SURVEY
You should have received an email from James Holland about a survey called Bright Bytes. This is not optional. Please take the time to complete before Thursday 10/1. When completed prior to Thursday, you can print off one of the pages or take a snapshot of a page and send to Rachel for a Jeans Day pass. This should take about 15 minutes. If you cannot locate the email, here is the link:
Audelia Creek Elementary Teacher & Administrator www.BByt.es/AH7DT
LESSON PLANS
A reminder that lesson plans are due on SWAP by the Thursday prior to the week of teaching. A skeleton plan will be sufficient for GLIMs, however you must be prepared to dialogue about your plans in detail at GLIM regarding how you will meet the various needs in your class AND how you plan for RIGOR. Final plans will be due by start of school day Friday. Please refer to the guiding questions passed out at GLIM last week to assist your planning.
If you have any problems with submitting your plans on time, please communicate to one of your ILT representatives, prior to us notifying you.
STAFF DRESS EXPECTATIONS
Thank you to everyone who is supporting our professional look. Thank you also to the many staff members who turn in their Jeans Passes for permission to wear jeans on non-jeans days. General rule of thumb - "KEEP IT POLISHED". Whether you are using a jeans pass or not, please keep it polished. If you question whether or not something should be worn, please don't wear it. When in doubt, don't wear it.
SUBSTITUTES
Overall, we have been lucky with acquiring subs (knock on wood). Thank you to teachers who have been very prepared with detailed plans for their subs! Remember that this is ONE crucial step in retaining substitutes. The SECOND step is making sure that those of us who are here at school are expressing our thanks and support to the substitutes. Please, please, please... go out of your way to introduce yourself to subs, smile at subs, express your appreciation for them being here, and offering support whenever needed! A great idea one team did was to even take one of the "pickles" from a room where a sub was to be pro-active rather than re-active of potential issues. That is TEAM-WORK!
General rule of thumb -- Subs do not want to come back to schools who are not prepared for them OR who do not appreciate them. Let's make sure we are a school who understands that even though subs are not on our staff roster, we know how necessary they are to the daily operations of our school! Remember, we forget how important they are until... we don't have them!
PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES
P-T conferences will take place the weeks of October 5-16th. A letter went home in Tuesday folders to inform parents and to inquire about their availability and preferred conference time(s). You may also schedule conference outside these times to accommodate your parents' or your needs. It is an expectation for each teacher to attempt to conference with every student's parent or guardian. To encourage parents to attend conferences, it is stated in the initial letter that the first report card will be given to parents AT conferences. Of course, use your discretion - we will not permanently hold report cards. Please call parents who do not return the conference letter. After 2 or 3 attempts, please assign them a conference time. Send home with students a notification for each parent conference time. Log all attempts to notify parents about conferences.
We understand that a couple parents will be unresponsive to your attempts to conference with them. We must make sure we do our due diligence in attempting to meet with them and keep proper documentation -- this will alleviate any issues these parents may have in the future about the school not communicating with them about their child's progress. Please keep a log of conferences held (and attempts to conference) and turn in the log of all your conferences to Carlene for your PDAS file.
DISCIPLINE
Ideally, if there are issues between students in your class, teachers should essentially carry out some type of PRO-ACTIVE mediation between the students. This may mean you need to take time out to check in with them at lunch or during specials. You want the students to come to an understanding, seeing you in command (moreso than the liaison or principal or counselor). If you feel the problems have escalated to a serious level, you may then refer the kids for peer mediation or ask for liaison/administrator/counselor intervention. We want to support you, however, please be wary about giving away to much of your authority -- students need to see you as the one in control on a consistent basis, and they should be influenced to make good choices under your supervision.
Please do NOT just send students to the office for a referral. CALL for assistance. Many times, there are no administrators and/or liaisons available in the office, and so students just sent are sometimes left unsupervised. Also, if a student is removed from class for any portion of the day, please send work with that student - sometimes the student isn't able to be addressed right away and should be doing something while he/she waits; otherwise, if the student does not have work with them, the student ends up being rewarded by avoiding work.
When a student is assigned to ISS, work for the day(s) is expected to be sent to Polly. Soon, when assigned to ISS, an email notification will be sent to teachers from the liaisons. If that student receives any services from Special Ed, ESL, dyslexia, and/or speech, the classroom teacher will be responsible for notifying the case manager(s) about the ISS (forward the email). The case manager(s) will then make educational decisions about the services.
YOU MATTER JUMBO LETTERS DECORATING CONTEST
So what were those huge Y-O-U M-A-T-T-E-R letters about at Convocation? Glad you were wondering! RISD's 2015-16 theme of You Matter is intended to remind all of us that we matter, each day, in making a difference in our students' lives and success. Even small gestures that we may think of as unimportant can create a lasting impression on a child.
In support of You Matter, the jumbo letters will be part of a decorating contest. From September through April, letters assigned to the four high school feeder patterns will circulate among the campuses in that feeder. The goal is to decorate the letters creatively in support of the You Matter theme.
At the May Board of Trustees meeting, the You Matter letters will be reassembled and the feeder pattern with the best decorated letters wins! Fabulous prizes will be given to each staff member at all winning feeder schools, including:
• Exclusive You Matter memento
• Special gear to sport at 2016 Convocation
• Recognition by the Board of Trustees at their May meeting
So be creative, keep it classy, keep it collaborative, and have fun. Audelia Creek has the LETTER 'Y' and it is located at the front entrance. We have the letter until mid-October. Any grand ideas are welcome on how we can contribute to the cause!
COPIES
We understand that the elimination of the “district code” worries several staff members. We also understand that the math curriculum has changed significantly this year and will cross check with central admin to see if any accommodations are being made for math curricular items and/or assessments. If you find yourself in a bind, don’t fret… please communicate with us, and we will respond to your needs. However, please note that most campuses have functioned without a “district code” for several years, thus it is extremely important for us to monitor usage.
COLOR PRINTER AND LAMINATOR
We are over-utilizing our color ink and our laminator, and both of these items are extremely expensive. We understand that many items are very purposeful and necessary for color or lamination, but we’ve also found that several items are superfluous. CLASS SETS of items needing color print will need approval from Mike or Rachel. NO STAFF MEMBERS are to directly print to the office color printer. Please email items needed to be printed to Carlene, and she will print them. CLASS SETS of items needing laminating will need the approval of one of your ILT coaches. If approved, they will stick a post-it with your laminating request for Jessica. Please plan accordingly.
SUBMISSIONS TO THE STALLION STAR
Anyone is welcome to submit entries to our weekly staff newsletter. Please email any submission requests to Carlene by the Thursday before publishing.
NEWS FROM TEA
MEET YOUR FELLOW COLLEAGUES
New Staff - Ms. Tia Lee
Tiaa Lee is an enthusiastic and compassionate educator who is committed to providing a well-balanced, supportive, and engaging learning environment for all students. Her goal is to be a positive influence in the lives of children and help them become successful individuals in the community. She graduated from Texas A& M University-Commerce December of 2005 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies specializing in Early Childhood Education. She started her career as a Pre-Kindergarten 3 year old teacher at Phoenix Charter School for 9 years. She is ecstatic to have joined the Richardson ISD family and is proud to call Audelia Creek Elementary her new home.
Returning Staff - Mr. Jonathan Wimberly
Jonathan Wimberly is a fun loving dedicated teacher with 18 years of effective classroom experience. He began his career in education as a third grade teacher in 1996 in Little Rock, AR. Jonathan has taught fourth grade and sixth grade science here at Audelia Creek Elementary. He is very excited to be joining the 5th grade team as a math teacher. Mr. Wimberly holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Central Arkansas. You may contact him at jonathan.wimberly@risd.org.
Support Staff - Ms. Nikole Colson
My name is Nikole Colson I am one of the SPED Resource teachers. I am a product of Richardson ISD attending from first grade at Arapaho Elementary, moving on to West Junior High, and finally graduating from Richardson High School in 2011. While in RISD, I participated in activities from choir to sports. I was a successful varsity softball player but I also was the school representative on the Religious Advisory Committee and the RISD Bi-Racial Advisory Committee. Participating on these committees allowed me to develop a broad and comprehensive view of the district and for that I am grateful. The highlight of my time at RHS was participating in the Teaching Internship program with Mrs. Debbie Reese through which I served as the Texas Association of Future Educators Vice-President. This is my first year teaching and I cannot wait to see what the year has in store for me.
DUTY TIME
Sept. 28-Oct. 2
Hutchison - Student Entrance @ 7:20 (Stop students to breakfast at 7:50-Give stop sign to last student.)
Sebastian - Gym - Reading Corral @ 7:20 - Release students one grade level at a time at 7:50
Hanson - Gym - Reading Corral @ 7:20 - Release students one grade level at a time at 7:50
Cafe -- 2 teachers monitoring cafeteria, 1 teacher in food line
Huey - Cafeteria @ 7:20 - monitoring students - release tables at 7:50 one at a time
Lee- Cafeteria @ 7:20 - monitoring students - release tables at 7:50 one at a time
Brown - Expedite Food Line
Oct. 7 - 11
Farmer - Student Entrance @ 7:20 (Stop students to breakfast at 7:50-Give stop sign to last student.)
Saavedra - Gym - Reading Corral @ 7:20 - Release students one grade level at a time at 7:50
Syblik - Gym - Reading Corral @ 7:20 - Release students one grade level at a time at 7:50
Cafe -- 2 teachers monitoring cafeteria, 1 teacher in food line
J. Burke - Cafeteria @ 7:20 - monitoring students - release tables at 7:50 one at a time
Newman - Cafeteria @ 7:20 - monitoring students - release tables at 7:50 one at a time
D. Williams - Expedite Food Line
NO LIAISON OR ADMIN THIS TUESDAY!!
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2015, 07:30 AM
12600 Audelia Road, Dallas, TX, United States
KUDOS GOES TO!
* HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Jessica Lucas – 9/28, Jamie Stone – 9/30, Donna Williams – 9/30
UPCOMING DATES:
- September 28-October 9 - Gather student data/info for parent-teacher conferences and TRACKING
- Tuesday, September 29 - Run Draft Report Cards
- Thursday, October 1 - Grade Cycle Ends; Grade Posting Window Closes at 11:59PM
- Thursday, October 1 -- GLIMS - collect tracking information; NO STAFF MEETING; ACE Carnival
- October 5-16 -- Parent Teacher Conferences - Report Cards to Parents @ Conferences
- Tuesday, October 6 - Tutoring Letters go home
- Thursday, October 8 - No GLIMS - Team planning with ILT; NO Staff Meeting
- Monday, October 12 - Staff Development (All staff - all day)
- Tuesday, October 13 - Tutoring begins
- Thursday, October 15 -- GLIMs -- MEET TODAY; STAFF MEETING @ 3:15
AUDELIA CREEK ELEMENTARY
Email: rachel.sanjose@risd.org
Website: http://www.edline.net/pages/Audelia_Creek_Elementary
Location: 12600 Audelia Road, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: 469-593-2900