WATERFORD WEEKLY
May 2, 2016
GOLDEN SHOVELS TO:
Laura Dick
Laura has been collaborating with Joy to select complex texts to use during Close Reading lessons.
June Davidhizer
June has been supporting the Close Reading strategy during Success – and most recently during classroom counselor lessons.
During Success, June supported fifth grade students as they dug into complex texts while focusing on specific skills within Reads 1, 2, and/or 3. The student growth through additional Close Reading experiences is remarkable.
Where will the Golden Shovel show up next?
KUDOS TO............................
Jamie, Mark, Sarah, Kyle, Randy, Julea, Allie, Marisa, and Kari for their help with kindergarten and 4th grade interviews on Wednesday.
The scheduling committee for all of their efforts to put together the schedules for next year. Great job!
Robert Burton and Abby Deaton for their willingness to help cover classes today after their one and only child that came to school today went home sick. Thanks for being team players!
Everyone who helped ISTEP testing run smoothly this week! Randy greatly appreciates all of your efforts!
Lego Robotic Club Open House
"Waterford's Interviewing Process 101"
Step 1 - Candidates interview with interview team
Step 2 - Candidates view short video on the TAP Portal and answer 3 reflection questions.
Step 3 - Grade level teams recommend 2 candidates to Katrina
Step 4 - Candidates are asked to teach a 30 minute lesson and interview team views candidate in action.
Step 5 - Final candidate selected from 2.
Note: Process may be slightly altered depending upon circumstances. (ie...one of the candidates already taking another position.)
TLT UPDATE
Teacher Appreciation Week May 2-4 and May 9 and 10
Since we have the Site Review on May 5th and our 5th graders are going to Camp Amigo on May 5th and 6th, we will have Teacher Appreciation split between two weeks. We will celebrate on May 2-4 and May 9-10:
The following activities will be taking place on the indicated days:
May 2nd: Lunch provided by the PTO
May 3rd: Culver's Teacher Appreciation Day
May 4th: "Special Momento" of the Year!
May 9th: Coffee and Donuts provided by the PTO
May 10th: Larry grilling out for us! Yum Yum!!!!
Good Luck June!
TELL Survey
We almost have 71% of the staff who have already completed the TELL Survey. Please work to complete the survey by Friday May3rd. If we have 100% participation by the 3rd, you may wear jeans the week of May 9th! We are almost there!!!!!
BOOK CLUB
Our next meeting will be May 3rd at Shelley's House from 4:30-6. We will be discussing Chapter 5, Achieving School Goals. We will also be pre-planning some beginning of the year activities for next year.
DATES TO REMEMBER
HAPPY STAFF APPRECATION WEEK
NWEA TESTING IS MAY 2-20
May 2: Cluster 7:05 and 3:10 p.m.; Lunch Provided by PTO.
May 3: Child Study 3-4 p.m.; Book Club at Shelley's House from 4:30-6 p.m.
May 4: Last Day for ISTEP Testing; Culver's Teacher Appreciation Day
May 5: Site Review in the afternoon; 5th Graders to Camp Amigo
May 6: 5th Graders return from Camp Amigo; District Recruitment Fair - Katrina Out all Day; Nurse's Day
May 9: Cluster 7:05 and 3:10 p.m.; Donuts and Coffee provided by the PTO.
May 10: Mr. "O" Grilling out! Yum, Yum!
May 11: Staff Meeting 3:10-4:10 p.m.
May 12: Lisa Derdach here for State Review from 8-12; TLT 3:10-4:20 p.m.
May 13: Elementary Principal's Meeting 8:45 -10:30 - Katrina Out; Spring Into Books Concludes
GCS News & Notes
Today’s Focus: Culture
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
– John Wooden
Reflections to Guide Your Journey
How do you practice positivity in your daily life?
What can you do to support your team in creating a more positive culture?
Some Changes at ECSEC
In February, the Governing Board of Superintendents for the Elkhart County Special Education Cooperative agreed that, effective at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, Life Skills paraprofessionals will be employed by the home school corporations that houses the Life Skills classrooms. In March, all Life Skills paraprofessionals were notified of this decision by Bev Krabill, Director of Special Education. For Goshen Community Schools Life Skills paras, there will be no changes to their assignments or pay or benefits. However, there may be some Life Skills paras who work in other school districts (within ECSEC) that may be seeking employment in a GCS school or assignment. As principals work to fill vacancies for the coming school year, please give these individuals consideration.
TAP Bonus worksheets
Please share with teachers: As administrators are meeting with teachers regarding the second part of the TAP bonus, there may be a question about the calculation. In some situations, when we pulled the data from the financial spreadsheet into the individual teacher worksheets, rounding took place and this makes some of the calculations appear to be off by $1.00. The actual amount for the TAP bonus will be to the penny.
Email Migration to Office 365
We will be transitioning our staff email system to Office 365. Student email accounts will continue to reside in our Google Apps Domain.
The primary advantages for us:
· It's free for education
· Way more space in your mailbox (50 GB)
· Larger attachments (150 MB)
· We don't have to maintain the system, Microsoft does
· Uses your regular username and password
· May continue to use Outlook as usual
With roughly 1000 mailboxes, this will take some time to do. While our initial testing has shown the process to be relatively smooth, that does not mean everything will work perfectly. So, in order for us to keep up with issues, we will be staging the migration. We will be sending an email to all staff once that schedule is complete and all technical staff are up to speed.
CPR/AED Class Offered
Susan Stiffney will be teaching a CPR/AED class on May 12 and May 18 at Goshen High School from 4 to 5 pm. It costs $20. You only need to attend one class.
If you are interested, please email sstiffney@goshenschools.org<mailto:sstiffney@goshenschools.org> and indicate which day works for your schedule. Classes are limited to 20 people.
These are the last classes for this school year.
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End of Year Celebration
This year’s End of Year Celebration will be on Tuesday, May 31. Retirees and their families are invited to an open house in their honor in the high school cafeteria. The open house will be from 12:45 PM to 1:15 PM immediately followed by the staff recognition in the GHS auditorium where employees will be recognized for their years of service at GCS. Please encourage your staff to attend to support their fellow employees.
“Jeans for Troops”
The GI Go Fund is once again honoring Memorial Day with “Jeans for Troops<http://links.linktrac29.com/CBLT/nijtkkkjkmkhkkkokmkkjtkmkqknknkpkhjtkjkokhkpklkokqjtkkkjkmkhkkkokmkkjtkmkpkkknkhkkjtkhjtkpkpkpkikhov>,” America’s most popular school dress down day to support our troops. As always, we are grateful for the support we are receiving from thousands of schools and school districts from across the country who give the opportunity to their employees to donate $5 and dress down in jeans and patriotic attire for the day.
We hope you can join the dress down program to benefit military personnel and veterans, including recently returned Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, as well as veterans of previous generations suffering from homelessness and other challenges. This year's national dress down day is May 26, the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, but you can change the date while registering if another day works better. After registering, you will be mailed all the program information/stickers to host a great Jeans for Troops Day. Please sign up on our Jeans for Troops Registration<http://links.linktrac29.com/CBLT/nijtkkkjkmkhkkkokmkkjtkmkqknknkpkhjtkjkokhkpklkpkhjtkkkjkmkhkkkokmkkjtkmkpkkknkhkkjtkhjtkpkpkpkikhov> page.
We are grateful for your support. If you have any questions please reply to this email or call our main office at 866-389-4446.
Thank you
Alex
Alexander Manis
Deputy Director and Co-Founder
The GI Go Fund
About Us
Email: koverton@goshenschools.org
Website: http://waterford.goshenschools.org/
Location: 65560 S.R. 15 Goshen, IN 46526
Phone: 574-533-6811
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waterford.elementary
Twitter: @WaterfordElem