Dragon Tales
March 23, 2020
Dessau Elementary will foster a child's love of learning
and support academic and social growth.
What a great week!
Dr. Seuss dress up days were a big hit and it was exciting to see so many teachers and students participating! As a way to say thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to our school, I would like to make this week jeans week! This means everyday you can wear jeans and a nice shirt to make it through to Spring Break! I appreciate all of you so very much!
Kudos:
- Thank you popcorn queen, aka Ana, for managing to get popcorn to all classes who earned it despite running the office all by herself! Amazing!
- Thanks Nurse Chavez for also helping to manage front office business on top of everything else you do!
- Thanks Literacy Committee for arranging our Dr. Seuss activities.
- Shout out to 4th grade for successfully turning around some new instructional pieces from math training and getting great results with students as evidenced in their data!
- Thanks EAs for managing all of the laminating! Teachers appreciate you!
- Shout out to Ms. Ramsey and her students' amazing art projects on display in the front display case!
- Special welcome to Ms. Overfelt, our new 1st grade teacher (in our old PLC room). Stop by and welcome her!
Have a sunshine filled week!
Carolyn
Things to know...
- We will all complete the mandatory state training on seizures together on Friday. Hopefully this will save everyone from having to use their own time to complete this task. Consider it a gift of time :)
- Please protect instructional time by limiting communication to parents to your conference period or after students are gone; not when you are with students. We do not want your focus divided :) If there is an emergency, parents can contact the front office.
- We need to get all end of the year grade level awards assemblies on the books for May! Let me know what your team wants to do!
- PRIDE committee, please communicate the date, time and plans for our upcoming awards (3rd grading period) so we can plan accordingly :)
- Increased awareness and supervision of students at recess needs to be increased! Remember, students can't just run off and play anywhere. They should be somewhere close so you can hear and see what they are doing. You should be able to provide assistance immediately if anything goes wrong. Please spread out and make sure you are vigilant with your supervision.
- If you are planning on taking a day off for a medical appointment or personal day, you are required to submit the request to me more than a week in advance. I can't approve every request, so please submit them as soon as you can. I appreciate those of you I have had to deny permission to for being so flexible and rescheduling.
- Revisiting brain breaks: brain breaks are not an outside / recess activity. ALL brain breaks will take place within your classroom, lasting 1-3 minutes. Instructional time must be protected.
- SLO's: Make sure you are collecting your data points :) If you have not been trained this year, please let Ms. Brandenburg know so we can arrange it for you!
Who won some extra help this week?
Ms. Carrillo & Ms. Beall
Ms. Riojas has had a change in her availability but wants to keep this going! She can help you grade papers, cut things out, anything from home. I will give her your names so you can arrange the details :)
PTO Fundraiser: $2 chocolate bars YUM!
Chocolates can be requested through Thursday. Students have all Spring Break to sell, with money being due on Monday, March 23. We are almost at our goal to get 5 Chrome Books to give away! If you need more green forms email Ms. Riojas and she will put them in your box. Her email is nayeli.riojas@gmail.com
The PTO fundraiser begins on Monday. Students need to bring the permission slip back to you so we can get it to Ms. Riojas. Once the parent has given permission for the student to take financial responsibility for the box of chocolate ($60), she will bring you a box to send home. Please talk with the students about being safe and not going door to door to sell candy. Please also help them understand that they cannot return the chocolate and are responsible for the $60 regardless if they sell all of the bars. Feel free to support our efforts and take a box to sell or eat! LOL The fundraiser ends the Monday after Spring Break, giving the students 3 weeks to sell their box of chocolate.
DES Teacher Birthdays!!
Ms. Parker - March 14
Ms. Salinas Gonzalez - March 15
Calendar of Events
March 9 - 13:
Jeans week (Please look professional) :)
March 10:
CIP Team Workshop #2 1:00 - 4:00
March 11:
All CILT team members at training (ESF)
March 12:
- All TELPAS ratings turned in
- After school training: 3:15 - 4:45: STAAR training and Oral Admin Training. Make arrangements now because the training is mandatory. EA's make sure you are trimming time off early in the week so there are no conflicts on Friday!
March 13:
No school / Staff PD :) Non-discretionary day
March 16- 20:
Spring Break
March 23:
Jeans day for paid Sunshine members
March 24:
Grades Due (Make sure you have enough grades for each subject and transfer grades are complete)
March 25:
A-Team off campus
March 26:
- PLCs
- Kinder Rodeo field trip
- After school training: On-line STAAR
March 30:
CAAC 3:00 - 5:00
March 31:
Principal's Coffee 7:45 - 8:45 am
April 7:
STAAR Writing & 5th grade Math
April 8:
STAAR: 5th grade Reading
April 9:
- PLC day
- 2:00 Assembly: Jump Rope for Heart Fundraiser
April 10:
No School
April 13:
Jeans and a nice shirt for paid Sunshine members
April 14:
PK Registration 8:30 - 2:00
April 15:
- CIP Workshop
- Kindergarten Registration: 8:30 - 2:00
April 16:
PK & Kinder Registration 10:30 - 6:30
April 23:
- Kinder / 1 Musical
- PLC day
April 30:
GT Showcase 2:00 in the library
May 1:
Field Day
May 4-8:
Teacher Appreciation Week :)
May 4:
Jeans day for paid Sunshine members
May 8:
PLC day
May 12:
STAAR Math: 3, 4, and 5th re-test
May 13:
STAAR Reading: 3, 4, and 5th re-test
May 14:
- STAAR Science: 5th grade
- Service Award Banquet
MAy 18:
CAAC
May 21:
PLC day
May 25:
No School
May 28:
- Early Out
- Party Day
- 5th grade awards assembly and grade level party
May 29:
Teacher work day Yes, you must report to work! :)
ESF (Effective School Framework) Update
Since we have so many new folks, we thought it would be helpful to pause and remind everyone that we are an ESF campus. This is due to our student performance on state assessments not meeting targeted levels. ESF allows us to plan as a team how to move our work forward and create a road map for action items throughout the year. Our DES team is made up of our A-Team and each team leader on campus. This past cycle we were able to celebrate some benchmarks that we either met our target or showed great progress toward completing:
Created and launched our new campus mission and vision statements (new posters on the walls soon!)