Principal's Newsletter
September 14th, 2018
WOWs
WOW to Emily Bostic for helping me find the suggested text list for the Lucy Units of Study. Teams are very thankful for this resource! --Jodi
WOW to Donna, Nathan, Cheri, Brandy, Lisa, Katelyn, Sherry and Kim for helping to recruit students for Lindenwood Reading Club. Your efforts are appreciated! --Jodi
WOW to Jane and Tessa for your help in scheduling the Lindenwood Reading Club. You are appreciated! --Jodi
HUGE WOW to Dione, Christina R. and Makenzie for all your hard work with scheduling, finding resources, learning new protocols, printing resources, etc. that you did to make our first FastBridge screening day at HR a success! Your time and hard work are greatly appreciated!! --Jodi
WOW to Angeline and Shanna for helping us get 1st and 2nd graders logged in to FastBridge for the classroom assessment portion. It was so helpful to have your support. Your help was greatly appreciated! --Jodi
WOW to the HR FastBridge Testing Team for a job well done during our first time with the new Universal Screening Tool. I know this role is new to many of you and you all did a fabulous job. You are appreciated! --Jodi
WOW to Lisa and Kim for volunteering to print all the math resources for 2nd grade. The team appreciates you both! --Jodi
WOW to Kristen for taking the time to help me process and brainstorm ways to help support Kindergarten and the new curriculum. You are appreciated!--Jodi
WOW to our Fastbridge testing team on getting everything scheduled and getting the testing completed so smoothly.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to our Dyslexia Training Team for all your hard work and knowledge around dyslexia.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Christina for leading our faculty meeting.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to second grade for taking the time to celebrate student writing.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Melissa Barth for taking one for the team.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Jodi and Christina for all your hard work on the new curriculum and for helping teachers with resources to support the work.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Stefanie McCoy! Stefanie is always willing to jump in and help. Whether it’s one on one, or taking over whole group instruction so I can help a student who needs behavioral support, she is always a team player. I appreciate you!
-Megan S.
WOW to all those who respond so quickly to support calls. Angie R.
WOW to Kelly Edwards, Jodi Fitzgerald, Stefanie McCoy, and Penny Szarwinski for braving the unknown and volunteering to be a part of the computer testing team for FastBridge!
-The Reading Team
WOW to Angeline for all of your work helping us organize the tech portion of FastBridge testing!
-The Reading Team
WOW to Dione for staying late to make sure everything was ready for our testing day!
-Christina and Makenzie
WOW to Christina and Dione for providing excellent FastBridge training!
-Makenzie
WOW to Tony and Michelle for being willing to let students take the FastBridge test in their rooms for a separate setting!
-The Reading Team
WOW to Christina for organizing FastBridge make-up testing!
-Dione and Makenzie
I want to give a huge WOW to Kerri Tharp for helping with a student after an incident on the playground. Thank you for being so supportive. -Cheri
I want to give a really big WOW to Janice for being such a great DC. All of your hard work does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. I know it is extra work with everything else on your plate! –Cheri
WOW to Lindsay Stark for covering my room on short notice AND persevering through the trials and tribulations of Freaky Friday Fun. My projector bulb burnt out 2 minutes before my first class and 90% of my sub plans were dependent on visual projections. – Drew Button
WOW to Erica Coyne for helping me out last minute when my sub plans fell through. Taking my 1st and Kindergarten classes and letting my sub use your room for the rest of the day. Thanks! – Drew Button
WOW to the Office Squad for helping watch my son while I problem solved my room debacle. – Drew Button
WOW to Dr. OH for help me problem solve without hesitation. –Drew Button
WOW to Kelly Edwards saved the day/week/month for me when the tray fell off my Smartboard. Not only did she fix it (and save Ryan a trip), but she also restored the cursor in Chrome for me. I really appreciated her help!--Donna Baeten
WOW to Nurse Deb. She noticed that two girls in my class complaining of headaches were really just hungry because they were not eating lunch. She checked up on them in the cafeteria to be sure they were getting something, even bringing them into her office to eat. That’s really going above and beyond! - Donna Baeten
WOW to Nikki for leading out our Sped PLC. She did a great Job!--Carrie
WOW to Nikki and Tony for all their help and patience with me with my new learning.--Carrie
WOW to Megan for being a great partner and jumping right in.--Carrie
WOW to the Sped Paras for all their hard work and effort in helping our students be successful.--Carrie
WOW to Natalie, Angeline, and Kerri for all their support with problem solving solutions to help students be successful.--Carrie
WOW to Linda C., Linda A., Rita, and Ronna for helping out in another room when we had 3 kiddos out sick!--Megan Brown
WOW to Ronna for getting maintaining one of our kiddo's nails! You do great work with kids!--Megan Brown
WOW to Chris Rector for kicking the ball back and forth with a student when he could not be involved in dodge ball! Esha Follett
WOW to our team for helping us catch every detail on the schedules! It would not be possible without you! Megan & Carrie
Thank you to everyone from room 51 and 53- Carrie, Megan, and all of the paras have done an excellent job adjusting to the new schedule rotation! It has been great to see our kids working well with each of you. Thank you for all your hard work and positive attitude.--Dr. OH
Thank you to the student care team for all the great ideas to support our students!--Dr. OH
Thank you to everyone in the building who has come to care team meetings, helped with student plans, and supported our families and students. You guys are all doing an awesome job and our students are finding success!--Dr. OH
Thank you to Kerri- we are so happy to have you at the Ridge! It has been exciting to see all of the great ways that you are improving our attendance recognition and intervention systems. Thanks for bringing new ideas to us. --Dr. OH
Thank you to Laura and Lindsey- you both are doing a great job supporting students across the building. We appreciate your flexibility, positive attitude, and willingness to do whatever it takes to help all kids succeed.--Dr. OH
Thank you to the PBIS team! You all are doing a great job working on the Friday assemblies and our building PD. We appreciate all that you do to help our students and staff.--Dr. OH
WOW to the 4th grade team and Christina Pliske. I appreciate your support and willingness to help out a teammate who has unexpectedly had to be out. Thanks for taking on extra students, preparing plans, and helping the students.---Dr. DeWeese
Thank you Tessa, SpEd department chairs, Kristy, and Cheryl for helping to get all of our student demographic data correct in Infinite Campus. I appreciate all of your help!--Dr. OH
WOW to Stephanie McCoy. I appreciate all that you are doing to help out in the ELL world while Kelly is out. Thanks for filling in at the very last minute for Mrs. Cole too when a sub didn't show up.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Jodi, Christina Rosenow, Dione, Christina Pliske, Makenzie Oldhom, and Jaime Little. Thank you for sharing all your knowledge with me about Dyslexia and Fastbridge. Thanks for all your behind the scenes work that you do to help train staff, get interventions up and running, and ensuring that not a single student is left behind. I am always learning something new from you ladies and just appreciate all that you do! --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Stacey Schuette. I am so excited to start working on the Harvest Ridge Motor Lab. I can't wait for more of our students to benefit from your expertise. --Dr. DeWeese
Meeting Minutes
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Eme5saO-NPiEw0xKRAP1H_wwRuma6z6iEMmKdu8UdTQ/edit?usp=sharing
Literacy Data Team
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aPSFC1erWh3hKYjFCGwGca56_xMXsWj-hiwqpW-P8qE/edit?usp=sharing
Family Engagement
https://drive.google.com/open?id=127n2pSN1bKcY_SK2nhWtEdxbFTG6pRz01fpNTCB5_Iw
Veteran's Day Task Force
- The Veteran's Day Task Force met this morning to start planning our celebration. We intend to keep the same plan as last year. We have an assembly scheduled for November 9th at 9:30 and we will invite families to attend. There will be a lunch afterwards again with food donated by staff. You can sign up in the lounge when we post the sign up sheet. Each grade level will take a branch of the military and create decorations for the building. These can be done during the school day and if you need help getting things hung up during the school day we can get parents to help. More details on parent help will be coming. It will be a sack lunch for kids that day and those lunches will be delivered to classrooms. Communication about the day should be coming from your grade level representative.
Parent Observations and Parent Contact with the Office
If parents are wanting to speak to an administrator please make sure you let them know they can call or email anytime. They can also call or stop by the main office to request an appointment. If it all possible please avoid telling parents that they can drop in anytime to see an administrator. That is very difficult to accommodate unless they have an emergency.
September 21st- 4E Training
If you are unable to attend due to a special circumstance or if you are not in attendance on the at day you will have to make up this training. All staff are required to receive the training. Please see an administrator if you have any questions about the training.
Staffing Updates
Dyslexia- A Student's Perspective
Thanks for all your hard work and participation in the Dyslexia training this week. Special thanks to our team of trainers for all your knowledge and for leading us in the new learning. During the session someone shared that they wondered what it was like for a student with Dyslexia. Check out the videos below.
Meet Aiden. He is a 5th grader this year at Stone Creek Elementary in the Wentzville School District. His mom, Maggie, is a friend of mine and a HUGE advocate for her son who was diagnosed with Dyslexia a few years ago. It all came about as Aiden was struggling to learn to read in his early years of elementary school. Through lots of conversations with Aiden's teachers she decided to pursue an evaluation. Since his diagnosis she works hard to not only make sure Aiden's teachers know and understand his struggles, but she advocates for more training for teachers and even provides training to future teachers.
Below are two videos staring Aiden himself where he speaks about his struggles. He shares what he needs from his teacher to be successful. His mom was more than willing to let me share these with you because she wants to help every student she can.
The most recent video was created prior to the start of this school year. He worked hard to determine what to share with his teacher about his interests and the accommodations he needs in the classroom. He chose not to use spell check to show how he phonetically spells out words. He is pretty masterful at using his environment and skills. The first 5 slides took over 2 hours, while the other 20+ that he typed was completed in just under 2 hours. The video was shot in one take. He is such an incredibly hard working kid.
The purpose of the videos are to help build compassion and understanding around the struggles students with Dyslexia face.
Aiden in Second Grade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6PsZGkoy24Aiden in Fifth Grade
Goal Setting for One Year's Growth
It important part of the goal setting is sharing with parents. With conferences just around the corner be sure to communicate with parents that we have a school goal, your class goal, and their child's goal. This is also a great time to share with them how they can help at home to support growth in reading.