The Bear Bulletin
Week of August 21
Peterson's Pearls
Awesome First Week
Dinsmore Family,
I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each of your for an incredible first week of school. Your dedication, hard work, and passion have truly set the tone for an exciting and enriching year ahead. Thank you for creating a warm and welcoming environment with students smiles and hugs being evidence of their happiness. Using this week to get to know your students was well worth the time. In addition, thank you for creating structured and engaging learning environments by establishing, practicing, and enforcing both schoolwide and classroom rituals and routines. Please continue to reinforce these expectations. Rituals and routines will play a vital role in helping our students thrive and succeed throughout the year. Lastly, I would like to say thank you to your commitment to their education and the growth and learning of us all. Here's to a fantastic journey together!
Onward + Upward
Peterson
Shout Outs
There were so many great things happening throughout the school in classrooms, corridors and in conversation. We are shouting WOOOT!!! WOOOT!!! to the following:
🚀Ms. Moore for securing another platinum level business partner with Farmers Federal Credit Union.
🚀Ms. Snyder and Ms. Kelly for initiating parent conferences early to gain additional incite on students and get a working plan going.
🚀Ms. Cummins and Ms. Kelly for being proactive about ELA planning and preparation. Although we did not have common planning, there was impromptu meeting with Ms. Mattscheck to discuss data, small groups, and resources. I heard it was great! Kudos to you!
🚀Prek and Kindergarten team- for taking your students into your classroom every morning as they arrive. Thank you for loving the babies and putting their needs first.
🚀Kindergarten team thank you for taking being warm and welcoming to the first graders that joined your class last week.
🚀Ms. Nixon thank you for offering to take students into your class to ensure they received great instruction while their teacher was absent. You put students first and serve as a reminder that it does not matter which class list they are on. Dinsmore students belong to ALL of us.
If you would like to shout out a staff member for an act of kindness, great instruction, the assistance they provided, or just being great at their job please use the link below.
Instructional Focus
Week of August 20: Learning Environment, Culture, Rituals and Routines
This week the admin team will begin weekly walkthroughs. The focus will be on Environment and Culture. We understand that you are still in the beginning stages of rituals and routines and we are not looking for perfection. We are simply observing to see if the foundation/basics have been established. We are looking to acknowledge some great things and provide you with feedback/next steps to help you successfully move forward. I have included the form we will be using below.
Things to Know
🍎Resource: This will be the first full week of resource.
🍎Common Planning: The admin team will be meeting with grade levels during their common planning time in room 17. This will be more of a check in session than planning. Here is are the items to be discussed:
- Bloomz- getting everyone connected
- Pikmykid- how to help parents/changes in dismissal
- Lesson plan expectations (whole group/small group)
- Gradebooks and grading (grade level/content area consistency)
- Complete/Incomplete items- committees sign up, parent night sign ups
- Class size numbers
- Questions/Concerns
🍎Hard Corners should be in place in every classroom. The red tape used to identify hard corners was placed in the teachers lounge during preplanning. If you have the roll of red tape in your classroom, please turn it in to the main office.
🍎Emergency Drill- We will have our first emergency drill this week. Please begin talking to your students about expectations (where to go and what to do)
🍎District update on UFLI materials- "We received an update today from Hand2Mind that there has been a delay in the delivery of our K-2 manipulatives. We now expect the Kindergarten magnetic letters and trays to arrive next week. The word work magnetic boards ordered for first and second-grade students are likely to arrive the first week of September. We are still waiting on a delivery timeline for the dry-erase whiteboards. If teachers need suggestions on how to start teaching UFLI without these materials, please encourage them to visit the UFLI Team. Ms. Tilbrook and Ms. Parker-Freeman will be posting guidance for teachers on this topic and answering questions."
🍎Bloomz/PikmyKid Support- The Technology Innovations team has added an option in the Service Desk online portal to submit your issues with Pikmykid and Bloomz. If you are having any trouble with your account, access to Bloomz or Pikmykid, access to school, access to classes, parents not receiving invitation, students not being updated, etc. we ask that you now submit a ticket using the Blended Learning button. This will allow us to streamline the issues and more efficiently track the issue until resolved. See below on how to do that.
If you have usage questions on how to do something in particular in Bloomz, please continue to post here. Pikmykid questions can be sent to success@pikmykid.com.
Things to Do
Attendance
- We will continue with paper and online attendance for Monday and Tuesday. Starting Wednesday, you only need to complete attendance in Focus. Attendance is to be taken completed by 9:30am.
- Paper attendance: A= absent or P= present. No checkmarks, X's, or blank spaces should be present on your paper attendance. If a student is not on your roster but present in your class, please write the students information on your attendance sheet.
- Students bookbag tags need to be changed to reflect how they regularly go home. We have some students with incorrect tags on the bookbag.
Dismissal
Walkie Talkie communication should only take place between the staff who are outside dismissing. Teachers in classrooms should refrain from communicating on the walkie during dismissal. If there is an issue, please call the front office.
Car Riders
We are back to our regular dismissal time of 2:45pm. All teachers need to signed into Pikmykid by 2:40. Ms. Harbison and Ms. Bell will both start checking in car riders at 2:35 so you should see students as soon as you log in.
- Check for students who have changes in dismissal.
- Send students immediately who are showing as Active line and Waiting in line. Do not send students showing as "Announced".
- Use your highlighting options in the system to be able to clearly identify who should be in transition.
- K-5 car riders should be sent to the main office area
- VPK car riders and siblings need to go to the cafeteria for dismissal start at 2:40pm.
Buses and Daycare Van
Will also be announced on your screen starting as they arrive.
- When the bus has arrived, the status while change to green 🟢 and show "At School".
- Students should immediately be sent to the bus loading loop for check in/dismissal. When the bus is leaving school grounds the status will change to blue🔵 and say "Departed".
Please Note: Buses will be held for an acceptable amount of time in order to students to load in a timely manner. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure students are being dismissed when buses are announced. The system does not offer a messaging system and there is no way to inform us that a bus should be held. SEND STUDENTS OUT IMMEDIATELY. If a student misses the bus, the teacher will need to call home to inform the parent of the circumstances and then send the student to the office.
Walkers/Club Rec and Extended Day
- At 2:50 all K-5 walkers and club rec students should be sent down the kindergarten hall to check in with Ms. Baker and then be seated on the benches. We are still waiting on students to be released from classes. Do not wait until the 3:00 bell to release students.
- At 3:00 Ms. Maze will pickup all K-2 Extended Day students from classes. Do not send students to the cafeteria on their own. Please have them lined up ready to go. They will be escorted to the cafeteria where they will be checked in
- At 3:00 Ms. Lyons will meet at 3-5 Extended Day Students by the water fountain downstairs in bldg 2. They will be escorted to the cafeteria where they will be checked in.
Curriculum
- If you are short workbooks or have other curriculum needs, please email Ms. Smith at belll@duvalschools.org.
- Until materials are received, please plan to make copies accordingly. All students should either have the actual materials or copies of the materials to be able to participate and complete assignments successfully.
Rituals, Routines, and Expectations
- Continue to teach and reinforce. We are still in the repeat, repeat, repeat stage.
- Lesson plans should be available in your door every Monday by 8:30am. Continue working on rotations and the structure of small group this week. Plans for small group will need to be in place next week.
- Cafeteria- please have use the restroom before lunch, enter and exit through your assigned door, have students enter on level 0, and enforce level 0 as you pick up students.
Resource
- Please be respectful and timely as to picking up and dropping off their students for all resource classes.
Sub Folders/Emergency Lesson Plans
Emergency lesson plans should be turned in to Ms. Peterson this week. There should be 5 days worth of plans and work available.
Testing
Please continue to look for updates on testing. If you have not turned in your Testing Acknowledgement Form, then please do so to Ms. Smith.
Technology
Bloomz Training- Important Permissions to turn off and on
Please review the video for overview of permissions to turn on and off. You DO NOT need to watch the entire video. Start at the 4:00 minute mark and watch until about the minute 27:00 mark.
Calendar of Events
August 22
- Last day for paper attendance
- K-2 Grade Level Check in- Rm 17
- PBIS Meeting @3:15 in room 209
August 23
- New Teacher Meeting @3:30 room 17
August 24
- Charleston Wrap Fundraiser Assembly. Grades K-2 @8:45 and Grades 3-5 @9:30
- 3-5 Grade Level Check in -Rm 17
August 30
- Early Dismissal @1:05
September 7
- Open House (Time TBD)
September 14
- SAC Meeting @3:30