GRE Staff Newsletter
For the Week of November 5, 2018
Hope you enjoy seeing our GRE family photos from Trick or Treat! If I missed anyone, or you would like to share yours in next week's newsletter, feel free to send them my way.
Mary Wolf's Grandaughter
Christy Bryant's little one
Tonya Stevens Trick or Treat crew
Dear Team,
Happy "Fall Back" Sunday! Hope you are enjoying the sunshine after several days of rain. This week we will have a staff meeting on Tuesday morning at 7:30 in the STEM Hub. Click here for a DRAFT agenda. I will have coffee and snacks.
At this point in the school year, the honeymoon and excitement of a new school year have given way to the comfort of being yourself. That means we are having lots of opportunities for students to show frustration, anxiety, joy, and sadness as they tackle obstacles that come with school life. This week, a team from GRE attended Responsive Classroom training and it could not have been better timed! A portion of this training talked about responding to student misbehaviors. Our presenter reminded us that there are three purposes for responding to misbehavior:
1. Maintain a safe and orderly classroom and school
2. Help students recognize and fix their mistakes
3. Help students develop internal control of their mistakes
While I agree with all of these, in the moment it can be quite difficult to stop and think through why it is so important to respond to student misbehavior in a positive way. Our trainer went through three types of logical consequences:
1. Take a break
2. You break it, you fix it
3. Loss of privilege
As a school we will be learning more about these topics and other principles of Responsive Classroom on November 26th and throughout the school year. I want to remind you that I am here to support you! I know, that if you call me in for support, it is because you have tried everything! I've heard many of you say things like "I feel like I should be able to handle it", "You don't have time to sit with that student", or "I can't teach the other students in my classroom". Team, my job is to support YOU, so that YOU can teach your students. If you have a student with tricky behavior, let's meet! Chelsea and I would love to brainstorm ideas with you. At the end of the day though, if a student in your classroom is keeping you from instruction for all the other students, you need to reach out. The quickest way to get support is to call Angie, who will radio call our team and someone will come to help. I'm super excited to share more about this topic and others from Responsive Classroom as we continue to learn together this year.
Here's to another great week at GRE!
Kate
Beth Heizer's Trick or Treat crew!
Cassandra Nigl's Trick or Treaters!
Kelly Dixon's girls ready to Trick or Treat!
News to Share
1.Hopefully you didn't forget that teacher ideas & sign up sheet links were due this past Friday for Eagle Ed! Be sure to get that done today if you forgot!
2. Our Veteran's Day celebration is this Friday, November 9th from 2:30-3:15. Be sure that you are keeping up to date with DeAnne's emails to make sure you are ready for this important assembly. We will be using an assembly schedule that day. You can find the assembly schedule in the GRE building schedule sheet below.
3. Please begin communicating our volunteer policy through your website, weekly emails, or whatever method you use to stay in touch with your families. You can find the information to share here.
4. Big Walnut will be featuring a Staff Spotlight feature on their Social Media. GRE will be featured Nov. 16th, January 18th, March 15th. Please complete this survey if you are willing to be a part of this!
5. This Friday our students will participate in Bus Emergency Evacuation drills and may be a little late to class.
6. Please remember that if your child joins us before or after school, they should be supervised by an adult and should not be in a room unattended. Feel free to see me if you have any questions or concerns.
7. From 10:00-10:30 GRE will be going live for our State of the Schools event. We will be filming in the purple hallway and the hallway space between Art and PE. If you are taking students through these spaces, be sure to move quietly.
Ginna Crawford's best attempt to get a pic of her two!
Dorothy Branham's littles ready to Trick or Treat!
50% of Christine Doran's twins were pumped for Trick or Treat:)
PLC Weekly Challenge
Shout out to...
-Christine Doran for using The Bot that Scott Built to introduce their shape robot project
Before we dive into our topic of study for the month, "Student Conferences", please take time in PLC's this week to talk about how you respond to student misbehavior. Think about whether or not your responses are aligned. Brainstorm logical consequences that are developmentally appropriate for your grade level. Practice using reinforcing, reminding, and redirecting positive language to redirect students. For a review of these three types of responses, click here.
If you complete this week's challenge you can earn a Casual Sticker! Be sure to send your team notes to Kate to help build up our Responding to Student Misbehavior toolbox!
The Grieger's were ready for Trick or Treat fun!
Amy Mix's kiddos ready to rock Halloween!
Trisha Hilton's zombie had a blast trick or treating!
Week at a Glance
Tuesday, Nov. 6- A Day;
Wednesday, Nov. 7- B Day; Yoga at GRE 4:15
Thursday, Nov. 8- C Day; State of the Schools Facebook Live Event; PTO Meeting 6:30pm; Happy Birthday Abbey Okoneski!
Friday, Nov. 9-D Day; Emergency Bus Evacuations; Veteran's Day Assembly 2:30-3:15
Upcoming Important Dates:
November 14-20 Book Fair
November 16 Pioneer Day 2nd Grade; Grandparent BINGO 6pm
November 19 P/T Conferences 4:00-8:00pm
November 20 Eagle Ed
Nov. 21-23 NO SCHOOL