Dutch Fork Elementary
Faculty/Staff Newsletter Week of October 21st
Superintendent Priorities
- Focus our work decisions on/around our district strategic plan.
- Identify areas of achievement to improve.
- Provide Chick-Fil-A and Moe's like customer service for internal and external community.
- Strengthen the structure and quality of communication both internally and externally.
- Promote a work and learning environment where students and staff feel safe physically, emotionally and socially.
DFES Beliefs
- We believe all people deserve to feel safe, valued, and loved.
- We believe all children are naturally curious about the world around them.
- We believe learning is a social process.
- We believe inquiry fosters an environment of noticing and questioning.
- We believe in learning from multiple perspectives.
- We believe in learning from authentic primary and secondary sources.
- We believe in encouraging learners to be risk takers.
- We believe reflection should lead to change and growth.
- We believe learning should lead to social action.
- We believe our actions should be aligned to our beliefs.
Shout Outs
- 5th grader Anabelle M's .artwork was selected to be a part of the D5 Annual Art Exhibit. Her artwork will be on display at the district office until May 31, 2020. Anabelle was amongst several students to be recognized during the October 14th board meeting.
- Related areas team for the organization of our Fox Fun Day. We had more than 260 students who elected to participate. Based on feedback our students enjoyed themselves.
- We had 20 students nominated and 18 of which were recognized for their display of kind acts and deeds during Friday's UnbeLEAFable student celebration. Pic below.
- Ms. A's small teachers for sharing their learning duing Friday's learning celebration.
- Fox Cubs News Crew under the leadership of K. Kirkindoll and A. Berkeley for delivering school news this week. We look forward to their segment each day informing our student body of school related news.
Satisfaction with work/learning environment
A sincere thanks to each of you for your thoughtful responses to the survey conducted Wednesday. Your participation allows a demonstration of at least three of our school beliefs:
- valueing/honoring the voice of every staff member in our building
- an opportunity for us to learn from multiple perspectives
- an opportunity for us to take action based on what we learn from you
I've had an opportunity to review your responses. The responses are in the process of being compiled so that we can look at categorize and analyze your answers with the goal of looking for growth opportunities.
One immediate action we are taking is providing a space for support staff to meet with administrators. The goal being an opportunity to strengthen internal and external communication. The support staff meeting will give me the chance to share information and an opportunity for support staff to provide input on work matters important to them.
Meetings with support staff are invitational and are not mandatory to attend. We will meet on the remaining early release days of this school year at 1:30 p.m in our professional development room (room 6). The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 14th.
5th Grade Field Study (Drayton, Mingus, Ybarr)
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2019, 08:45 AM
Lexington Landfill
Math PD Tuesday
Our PD Tuesday is connection with Superintendent's Priority 2 (identifying areas of academic ahievement to improve) and will be led by E. Cartledge (Elementary Math Specialist) and J. Sparkman (DFES Math Coach.
This coming Tuesday is a designated data team meet day across our system. Certified staff members who are not required to attend a district data team meeting are expected to join us in the cafeteria at 3:15 p.m.
5th Grade Field Study (Jefferson/Newmyer)
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2019, 08:45 AM
Lexington Landfill
4th Thursday
We have Dr. Heidi Mills with us the fourth Thursday of each month for curricular conversations. She will not meet with grade level teams this week.
Our new teachers and S. Beckman will join me for a visit to the Center for Inquiry (CFI) in Richland District 2. During the beginning stages of becoming a magnet school we visited CFI to see first hand demonstrations of inquiry-based teaching and learning. Our visits in the past provided space to learn from like minded colleagues and I am confident we are poised to do so during this vist.
We will visit for half a day and will return around lunch for debriefing and planning. FYI.
FALL Break 2019...Enough Said!
Friday, Oct 25, 2019, 08:00 AM
dfes
School Clocks
Unitl this has been resolved (although time falls back in the coming weeks) lets collectively go by the times on our school issued laptops which should all be synchonized. We should be able to adjust the cafeteria clocks with our school devices as well to hopefully minmize issues.
Our goal is to think through as much as possible. If this creates an issue that we have somehow overlooked please let me know.
District Magnet Fair
Each year our district hosts a magnet fair for prospective and current D5 families. The night is designted for families to learn in greater detail about magnet programs and what is offered. Each magnet school in our district has a booth during this event and has a team on hand to engage with children and families.
Our team will consist of both administrators, A. Umberger, and S. Clemens. We are in need of a K-2 and 3rd-5th grade teacher rep. If interested let me know by next Friday.
There will be a second district magnet fair scheduled for Thursday, January 9 and DFES will host our own magnet open house for prospective familes Wednesday, January 15th (mark your calendars...details to come).
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019, 05:30 PM
The Center for Advanced Technical Studies, Mount Vernon Church Road, Chapin, SC, USA
We develop students who care about the world we live in and express critical thinking through natural curiosity and wonder.
Email: jscott@lexrich5.org
Website: www.lexrich5.org
Location: 7900 Broad River Road, Irmo, SC, USA
Phone: 803-476-3901
Twitter: @dfes_principal