GRE Staff Newsletter
For the week of November 11, 2019
Dear Team,
November is here and snow is on the way! I love November-truth be told it might be my favorite month. Mostly because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that there really isn't anything tied to it other than taking a pause with your family to think of all we have to be thankful for. It's simplistic in nature, the calm before the Christmas storm:)
To help us pause and remember all the things we are grateful for I'm asking you to take part in a school wide grateful "pause". In your mailbox this week you will find a bag of paper leaves. These leaves are for students and staff to write down what they are grateful for. This can be done anytime between now and when we leave for Thanksgiving Break. Once you have a leaf that is filled out, please hang it up in the hallway-our goal is to fill our hallways with gratitude and the reminder of what is most important to us. Students can even do more than one leaf, just email the office if you need more leaves.
This is a tricky time of year. These weeks leading up to a longer break can be one of the hardest points in the year. The honeymoon period is over, the winter assessment window is opening, and we have three five day weeks in a row-phew! Let's use this project to slow ourselves down and focus on the positives!
Thanks for all you do!
Kate
PS-I added a few pictures I received for our favorite Fall photos. I'd still love to see more!
THANK YOU CHRISTINE and DEANNE!
Winter Benchmarking
News to Share
1. Teaching staff members, the Board voted to ratify the new BWEA contract. With the contract now in effect, your official work hours are 8:15pm-3:45pm. Please let me know if you have any questions.
2. The PBIS committee met a few weeks ago. We had great discussion. You can find our meeting notes here. We will meet a week from Wednesday-anyone is welcome to join us!
3. On November 21st Justin Plummer will be available to meet with your PLC during special to problem solve behaviors you are seeing in your classroom and help you think through how to best support students. This is meant to be a problem solving time based on your classroom needs. While I can not require you to attend, I hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity! Location for these PLC's will be in the newsletter next week.
4. Many staff members have not responded to the discussion thread for Chapter Two of Power of Our Words. Please head to Schoology to reflect on Envisioning Language and how you will use this type of language in your classroom.
5. Here is the sign up information for Eagle Ed. The first one will be Tuesday, November 26. If you have any questions, please let Angie Keller know. The schedule for Eagle Ed has been added to the Building Schedule on its own Eagle Ed. tab.
6. November kicks off our annual food drive for GRE! This year we’re partnering up with all the other elementary buildings to “STUFF THE BUS”. There should be a box put outside your classroom door for students to put their canned goods in. This is being run by PTO-if you have any questions or concerns, please see Casandra or I.
7. All staff need to complete their Professional Growth Plan in etpes by this Friday, November 15th. This should be easy to do because we've already met about your goals and hopefully you are well versed in our building goals. The first goal should be academic and the second can be a personal growth goal. To help you out, here are our goals for this school year straight from our CIP:
1. By the end of the 2019-2020 school year, as a building we will increase the number of students who are successful with only Tier I instruction to 70%.
2. By the end of the 2019-2020 school year, as a building we will increase our use of pre-assessments and use of exit tickets to gauge student understanding as measured by the 2020 Reflection Tool Survey.
8. And now let's talk about the really important stuff...our GRE Holiday Party! This year we will be hosting a team Golf Challenge at Top Golf! You will not want to miss it. Back by popular demand, there will be a draft for team assignments, trophies, and loads of prizes. Click here to RSVP and learn more details!
Upcoming Events
Monday, November 11th- E Day;
Tuesday, November 12th-A Day;
Wednesday, November 13th- B Day;
Thursday, November 14th- C Day; PTO Meeting at 6:30pm
Friday, November 15th- D Day; 2nd Grade Pioneer Day; Star Student
*Happy Birthday to Sam Hunt on Saturday the 16th!
Upcoming Events
November 4-22 Food Drive
November 14 PTO Meeting 6:30pm
November 15 Pioneer Day 2nd Grade
November 25 4th Grade Skate Zone
November 26 Eagle Ed
Nov. 27-29 NO SCHOOL