Lincoln Lion's Local Buzz
August 2, 2019
We are READY!
This has been a very busy week with lots of work put in to be ready for Monday. Thank you for all your teamwork, camaraderie, support, and reflective thinking. Your rooms look ready to accept children and speak volumes for your approach to instruction. We are about the child. It is clear from every room that I entered. Items are organized, at child height, the atmosphere is friendly, but not over whelming with too much in the room and the rooms are personalized with each of your personal touches! Our lions are so lucky to have you as their teachers this year. Let's enjoy this weekend and be ready--our best year together is this year!
Diving into the unknown, student athlete proves the merits of hard work
Video from Convocation
In case you were like me and LOVED the video shown at convocation, I've found it and attached it above so you can watch it again. I think that almost all of our students could relate to this video and make connections to the message about failure and eventual success that this young man demonstrated. As we get ready to assemble our data binders, and plan how we will teach our students goal setting and the possibility of "failure/set backs" this video could be part of your discussion.
Speaking of Data Binders
Binders have been ordered and are in the building. Based on our discussion in the spring and then followed up by the Leadership team, we have ordered the 1/2 in binder for each student. We are also ordering dividers for the binders. We are anticipating 5 dividers for each student. Some grades will use less, K and 1 may have less goals due to student age/developmental understanding of goals, but others may want to use all 5. Leadership anticipated that most would want a reading, math, behavior, attendance, and grade wide goal (reading initiative). Grade levels can choose the approach that they want to take for goal making. We discussed last year that the younger students might want to work off a class goal for most of their goals and may only have one or two goals. Some grades might want to start the year with a class goal, and then transition to individual goals for the second semester. Older grades might feel that their students are ready to make their own goals with specific parameters.
Binders are located in the Ben Carson Reading Room. Please get the number you need as soon as possible.
IA training on Monday
IA's should report to school at 8:30 this Monday if you are a .5 employee. All full time IAs should report at their usual time of 7:30. We will have training in the conference room starting shortly after 8:30. We have computers set up for you to complete your required trainings for the district there for you. We are looking forward to seeing our IAs on Monday!
NEW DISMISSAL PROCEDURES
Before I fill you all in on the new procedures I want to thank Seth and the team of teachers who came together to hash out ideas, worth through some parts of the new plan, and create an option that puts the best interest of our kids first for a better afternoon experience.
What you need to know--the details!
- Buses will now pick up on Magnolia. We are NOT using the auditorium at all after school.
- At 3:15 grade levels will split students so car riders go to the location necessary for their dismissal and students leaving by bus or van not connected with car pick up will go with a teacher to a designated bus room. (This bus room is a grade level decision and will be in one of three hallways) Grades 4 and 5 will be in the 500's hallway. Grade 2 and 3 will be in the middle hallway (Owens or Rivers room) or in Galloway or Brown's room. Grades K & 1 will be in rooms in the 100's hallway.)
- When students are in bus rooms the goal is to provide some quiet time at the beginning to allow for some decompression from the day. Have snack for the kids, offer time for kids to read, draw, do homework, or other activities that bring calm to the room. ** An important note is that we do NOT want to mandate that all kids read for their 20 minutes at this time. We will kill the fun out of reading very quickly and our initiative will be dead in the water before we even start if we aren't careful.**
- Two fifth graders will have the task/leadership opportunity to stand out by the middle hallways doors (not go outside alone--always inside) to look for the typically early organizations that leave, before buses arrive-- Red Dragon and Girls Inc. When they see these rides arrive, they will alert the closest bus room and that teacher will either make the announcement on their phone for the building, or over the walkies for Kathy to do the announcement. These students will exit out their bus rooms and exit out to the car/van/bus by the doors at the end of the hallway to their van/bus.
- The majority of students will remain in bus rooms until the first bus is called. On sunny days, all students will pack up their belongings and line up. Students going to the bus will be at the front of the line. The teacher will walk ALL students out to the bus using the doors at the end of their hallway or for grades 2/3 the middle doors. Those riding will get on the bus and go home. The rest of the students will go out to the playground to play while waiting for their bus to arrive. Teachers are to spread out and monitor students using the IHUM strategy. We will have a first aid kit on the playground, because the nurse will not be in the building. With the amount of staff outside, we should be able to monitor the students without any problem. On rainy or cold winter days, when the first bus is called, all students will again line up and walk to the doors at the end of the hall, except only the bus riders will leave the building. The remaining students will have a bathroom break and return to the classroom. We are hoping to purchase a small basket for each grade level of materials that students can play with during the remainder of bus duty (ex: Uno, card games, Legos, and other games) We will NOT have use of computers, so we are looking at a tech free experience for our kids. When the second bus is called, students are either dismissing from the playground, or from their classroom--it is all weather dependent.
- We are going to change the rotation for bus duty and Jennifer Wyatt is in charge of that. The idea is to include not only RA teachers but also the SPED teachers in the rotation and according to Jennifer (my brain was a bit mushy to get all this without a diagram) your rotation for duty will be less frequent. Jennifer will be getting out a rotation calendar for every grade to fill out. She will attach directions for how to complete it to ensure equity between teachers and get it filled rather quickly.
- We will start this on Monday however, the full rotation for the semester will not be finished/read at that time. Grade levels should choose who is covering this week and we think that Jennifer's chart will be ready next week.
Again thank you to the staff that came ready to find solutions to this monumental problem we all know and "love" as bus duty. Great job and fingers crossed this is a better option.
A few final Reminders
- Make sure that you have found the teacher duty lists in the team drive and mark on your calendar when your duty is during the school year. We depend on teachers to be there and rather than accidentally forgetting, please put your duty days on your calendar and set reminders.
- Teachers will eat lunch with their students for the first week.
- Parents will likely be going to classes on the first day to "drop off". I will make an announcement at the end of Morning Announcements for parents to give a hug, waive a waive, and leave.
- While it may cause panic, take the time this first month to front load directions, procedures, and expectations. Use our common language and stand firm when necessary. Say what you mean and mean what you say. It will pay off in dividends later.
- Make sure you start the day with your students with a smile and ways to build relationships with your students. In can never hurt to be kind! Our students will learn a great deal from watching us.
Thank you
If you haven't seen the front of the building please take a break and walk out front. Our custodians have done a very good job de-weeding, edging, and mulching. Our KCS painters have painted around the front door with a coat of paint that makes the doors look fresh--and CLEAN. Finally a big thank you to MIsty Ezell for her gardening and craft talents. Of her own desire to help our building look beautiful and welcoming, she made two wreaths for the door with interchangeable additions to it to celebrate Lincoln or the season. She also replanted flowers in the two concrete pots with "Thrills, fills, and spills" to make the front look nice. She also added flowers to the bottom of both signs. Over the past few months several of our teachers have come forward to do things to support the charm and beauty of our very old building. Thank you to those teachers who have chosen to support our vision by taking pride in our building and making it look beautiful inside and out.