Staff Weekly Update
For the Week of September 28th, 2015
Good-bye, September . . . Hello, October!
In Honor of This Month's Parent-Teacher Conferences . . . Example of how to put a positive spin on EVERY comment! :)
ZCS Tutoring Guidelines - Friendly Reminder!
However . . . a staff member CAN tutor another student outside of his/her classroom) and can still do the tutoring within the building, but it must be done after contract hours.
Energy Conservation - An Important Message from Bob Bostwick
Bob Bostwick will return back to ZCS on a part-time basis to assist the district with improving energy conservation. While this has been reminded to us before by Jim Uland, let's please continue to make conscious efforts of saving energy!
ZCS School Board Policy Expectations:
- Turn off classroom lights when leaving for the day and whenever the room is unoccupied.
- All unnecessary lighting in unoccupied areas will be turned off.
- Refrain from turning on lights unless definitely needed.
- Open classroom blinds when the classroom is occupied and close them at the end of the day.
- Classroom doors shall remain closed when occupied or unoccupied unless otherwise directed. (This is because the hallway set points are warmer in the summer and colder in the winter than are the set points for the classroom)
Note: The above prescriptive steps for General Fund savings are absolutely habit forming!
Main Office Area
- Please do not discuss students and families in this area - especially by name.
- Please avoid talking or laughing loudly - sound carries easily to all part of the office, even with doors closed.
- Please remember this is Alison and Jen's workspace/classroom. They are constantly on the phone talking with parents, other staff within SGE/ZCS, or new families inquiring about our school.
- Please avoid "hanging out" in the office area during your prep time and after school. The 3:20 - 4:00 time is quite hectic and it's even more hectic when trying to locate a student. Please help them by taking your conversations to the lounge or classroom.
***SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS & REMINDERS***
JAT Lunch/Recess/Specials Schedule - Connie/Martha will be working on getting this scheduled finalized and sent out to you all by end-of-day on Monday 9/28! Be sure to check your email inbox, please!
October 1st - Due date for SLO's to be uploaded into SFS. ***Look for an SLO video soon to be uploaded on to our Canvas home page! It will a tutorial of how to calculate your SLO's in two different ways and how you figure out those "tricky" percentage situations!***
Eagle Rec After School Classes & Dismissal:
- If a student is signed up for an Eagle Rec class but tells you “my mom says I’m supposed to go home today” please do not allow them to go home unless you have a note or the parent has made the change through the front office.
- Those changes are just like any other transportation change.
- The expectation is that they will be in the class unless otherwise changed BY THE PARENT!
A few changes to our fire drill:
- All the classes that go out the front - instead of going straight out and across the drive, we would like you to go to the left and move to the grassy lawn where the bike rack is. Stay in lines by class.
- Classes who come out the 2nd grade door and to the baseball field - please go to the right and go to the same lawn by the bike racks. Stay in lines by class.
- WHY THE CHANGES? 1st - emergency equipment and vehicles will come into our front drive quickly if there were an emergency. We want that area clear. Students crossing right there may not be very safe. 2nd - if the other group meets in the same lawn then we have 2 rendezvous points (front and back) not three.
Alison Maxey is SGE's new webmaster & Social Media liaison! - So what exactly does this mean??!! First, she will be in charge of our web page now that Breanne Tisch is at UE. However, she will ALSO be in charge of our Facebook & Twitter account. Don't be surprised if she attends special school events in order to get pictures or even a brief statement from you. Also, if you have a special event coming up that you'd like to showcase - let Alison know! She will be happy to come by and take a quick picture to tweet out & post on FB. Thank you, Alison!
Calendar Items
Mon. Sept. 28th
- PT-Conferences - 9/28 - 10/30
- Kyle Beimfohr - SGE in the PM
- 8:10 - Fure/Cox in Move-in Conf. - conf. room
- 8:15 - Farley in PT-Conf.
- 9:00 - ACR for 4th grader - Watson, Knueven, Cox, Largent - conf. room
- 9:00 - Cox/McKinney in Bully Lesson
- 9:30 - Farley in BOY
Tues. Sept. 29th
- PT-Conferences - 9/28 - 10/30
- RtI Meeting - Academics/Behavior - Connie's office?
- 8:15 - 8:45 - Fure/Cox in Speech CC - conf. room
- 9:15 - Cox/Fitzpatrick in Bully Lesson
- 9:30 - 11:30 - Largent/Farley in Elem. Principal's Meeting - BME
- 11:00 - 1:30 - KidzArt speaking during lunchtimes
- 2:30 - 3:00 - Connie/Kris B. in meeting - Connie's office
Wed. Sept. 30th
- PT-Conferences - 9/28 - 10/30
- ***JOG-A-THON***
- Peer Tutors visit SGE - First Visit!
- 9:15 - Cox/Luchenbill in Bully Lesson
Thurs. Oct. 1st
- 8:00 - Staff Meeting
- 8:00 - ACR for 1st grader - Bowlin, Strawmyer, Cox
Fri. Oct. 2nd
- PT-Conferences - 9/28 - 10/30
- 8:15 - ACR for 4th grader - Watson, Knueven, Largent - conf. room
- 9:00 - 12:00 - KDG Field Trip to Stuckey Farm
- 9:10 - Cox in Make-up Bully Lessons
- 9:30 - Largent in BOY
- 12:30 - 2:30 - Largent/Spillman out for Literacy Coach's mtg - UE
Here are our beautiful birthday friends for the remainder of September and all of October!
*If you are NEW and we do not have your birthdate, please email Alison so we can recognize you on your special day! Thank you!*
September
28 - Deidra Smith
30 - Martha Farley
October
5 - Randee Kleeman
29 - Amy Brizzolara
31 - Jen Evans
2015-2016 Lifelines
August - Cooperation
September - Respect
October - Flexibility
November - Gratitude
December - Generosity
January - Responsibility
February - Friendship
March - Perseverance
April - Self-Control
May - IntegrityReadWorks.Org
Great resource shared by Allison Spillman! ReadWorks.org is a website that provides free resources for reading comprehension. This includes passages at a wide variety of reading levels. Some passages focus on particular skills, and this is where it comes in handy for use with NWEA data.
- Go to Readworks.org.
- Click on Reading Passages at the top.
- You will then see a bar with drop down menus in the middle of the page.
- Select the reading level you want the material to use.
- Then, at the end of the row, you will see a tab for skill/strategy.
- Click on the arrow and choose your target skill. (You can also choose things like a topic or text type.)
- When you hit enter, you will see a list of passages that target the skill you chose.
These passages are a good length to use in a RtI group or guided reading lessons. They have fiction and nonfiction passages available!
The Power of Post-It Notes!
YouTube Channel: BRAINRULEBOOK
In this video below - find out what happens when Brain Rule #5 (repeat to remember) is tested in classrooms of third graders.