GRE Staff Newsletter
For the Week of October 8, 2018
Dear Team,
What is going on with this heat wave?!? Hopefully you were able to stay cool and enjoy some Fall activities. Thank you for your hard work on Tuesday's staff meeting. As Ginna and I reflected on your 2 Stars and a Wish there were some common themes, one of which was time...time to try things, time talk to teammates, and time to plan how to implement ideas. If I could give you more hours in a day, I would. If I could take something off your plate to help you find time, I would. After 15 years in education, I've learned there will never be enough time...ever. With that grim awareness, I choose to think differently about time. I challenge myself daily to think there is enough time, if I reorganize my priorities.
Several years ago I was passionately studying innovation in education. I was staying up late to research, participating in Twitter Chats, doing Google Hangouts with educators all over the country getting all these amazing ideas. It was exhilarating! Except that I didn't have time to try any of the ideas in my classroom. I started to feel pretty defeated that all these other educators were doing so much yet I couldn't implement one new thing because of time constraints. One day I was on Facebook and I found an article about finding time to do an ab workout each day. I laughed as I read it thinking "who wants time for an ab workout"? Something made me stop and read it and it ended up changing my life. It talked about prioritizing your time differently and finding spare minutes in your daily routine to tackle the things you want most. So I tried it! Every morning while my shower heated up, I did a 3 minute ab routine. That was time that I took back where I literally was just waiting to get in the shower. I started looking for other minutes that could be taken back, which is why every time I straighten my hair and do my makeup, I listen to some kind of podcast. Whether it is a Tedtalk, and Audible book, or something for fun like Ear Hustle. It doesn't mean that there aren't moments where I feel like I don't have enough time, but I work very hard when those feelings come, to recognize that I can always make time for the things that are a priority. What are your priorities both personally and professionally? Let's help each other find time and challenge each other to tweak our language from "I don't have time" to "I can find minutes to do that".
Here's to another great week at GRE!
Kate
News to Share
1. We will be starting our Future Driven Book Trail. I have four copies of this book in my office. If you are interested in reading this, stop by and pick it up! My goal is for these books to trail around the school this year so that all staff members have read it by the end of the school year. Each staff member who finishes the book will have the opportunity to draw from my Staff Prize Bowl which includes some pretty rad prizes! Get excited to have your class covered for a period, get a free lunch, or even a chance at an Amazon gift card! Who will be the first to sign the book?
2. Don't forget to sign off on our Staff Handbook. This was due on Friday. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to stop by and see me.
3. We will have two drills this month. One will be an ALICE Evacuation Drill which will be preceded by a short staff refresher with Deputy Snyder. These will be held on October 18th and have been added to the staff calendar. The second drill will be a Fire Drill on the 30th, also added to our staff calendar.
4. This week is a Challenge Day Jeans week. If you participated in the Challenge Day collection feel free to wear jeans!
5. I will be communicating in my GRE Gazette information about our Animal policy. Dogs or other animals are not permitted on school property. Should you find someone with an animal onsite, please call the office and I will come and inform the party of our board policy regarding animals. This does not include class pets:)
PLC Challenge-A new weekly feature!
Part 1: This week, your PLC challenge is to have each member of your PLC come with a different Picture book (maybe this is a time to check out Epic or even grab a book from our school library-checkout system is currently the honor system, use what you need but put it back when your finished) and take 10-15 minutes to fill out the Interactive Read Aloud Planning form. In that short time, you will have 4-5 different Interactive Read Alouds ready to go.
Part 2: Complete an Interactive Read Aloud this week based on our PLC challenge and invite Ginna or I in to capture it.
If you complete both parts of the challenge you can earn a Casual Sticker! If you can only complete one part, that's great too, we'll bring you your favorite snack on Friday!
Supporting our Students
Week at a Glance
Tuesday, Oct. 9- B Day; Box Tops Due
Wednesday, Oct. 10- C Day; Happy Birthday Ginna!
Thursday, Oct. 11- D Day; PTO Meeting 6:30-7:30
Friday, Oct. 12- A Day; Eagle's Nests
Upcoming Important Dates:
October 16 Picture Retakes; 4th grade photo
October 18 P/T Conferences 4:00-8:00pm
October 19 NO SCHOOL
October 23 OST ELA: Part 1 (3rd Grade)
October 24 OST ELA: Part 2 (3rd Grade)
October 26 K-4 Harvest Parties 2:30-3:15