Principal's Newsletter
February 15th, 2019
WOWs
A huge WOW to Shanna for sharing the learning commons with us. Due to a plumbing repair that required a strong smelly adhesive we were not able to stay in our classroom. Shanna welcomed us in and we were able to stay until we were stink free – which was most of the day. I can’t thank you enough. We were able to carry on with our day without interrupting our learning. We had science, writer’s workshop and reader’s workshop. They loved it so much that want to know when they can do it again. --Melissa Barth
WOW to Kristy, Megan, and Courtney for opening up their classrooms for our DESE visit. Thanks for making us shine! --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Jodi and Christina for the Toolkit Tuesdays. Thanks for all your work to support teachers and for making things as easy as possible for them.--Dr. DeWeese
Wow to everyone who has helped me to reflect on my leadership skills and opportunities for growth since we have come back from Christmas break. Thank you to Ronna, Megan & Carrie, Nikki, Kelly, Mack, Betsy, Janice, all the office squad, Natalie, Kerri, Kristy, Shelly, Gabby, all of second grade, and the custodians. You all have been able to come to me and share ideas, concerns, and provide me feedback that has helped me to slow down and think about what I can do better. Thank you for your help, patience, and encouragement! OH
Thank you to all the sped paras! You all have really come together this year and I have seen a transformation in this department. I am proud of the work you are doing and the progress that we are seeing. You all have been so supportive of each other and student centered- your work is greatly appreciated! OH
Thank you to Shanna and Kelly for supporting 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade with the RI8 and W8 research skills for the MAP test. We know this is a heavily tested area and we appreciate the extra time and work you all are putting in to help our kids be successful. It truly is a TEAM effort--OH
Thank you to the office ladies, Nikki, Kelly, Shelly, Drew, Gabby, Kathy, Joyce, Stephanie, Linda, Gabby, Megan, Susan, Angie, Courtney, and Mack. I know that tutoring was off to a slow start and we have had some hiccups. I appreciate everyone’s help, patience, and feedback as we get it running this quarter. You all are learning a new research based tool, and I am excited to see how students respond and grow with the new intervention system. Thank you all for working together to support our kids in math--OH
Thanks to Deb and Alli- every time I fly through your office, it is so busy with sick kiddos. You all always have a smile, hug, and encouraging words for our kids and it is so nice to see how well you care for each and every one of them. OH
Thanks to our counseling department! You all have done such a great job with support calls, lessons, groups, hawk connections, 1:1 visits, lunch groups, working with families, and getting outside agencies support for our kids. You all work very hard and we appreciate all you do to help our kids grow--OH
Thanks to everyone for doing arrival and dismissal duty in the bitter cold! You all brave the elements each day with a smile to greet our kids and hugs/high fives at dismissal. It is so great to see the love you have for the kids come out in these less structured times. OH
Thanks to 3rd grade PLC for reflecting on their past and current practices in a PLC conversation. You all were very reflective and saw the importance of not just looking at the data but stopping to go back to the instruction to determine specific action steps for each of our kids and classes. It is neat to see you go beyond the easy conversations and really work to get to what will help move our kids to mastery and help us to become better teachers. I am proud of the work you are doing. ---OH
Thanks to 2nd grade PLC for welcoming me to the team for math conversations. I am proud of the way that you were open minded to using a new monitoring tool and data protocol. You were able to dig into the data and see how individual students were progressing on the skill. I am excited by your enthusiasm to try new resources and share ideas of what is working and what hurdles you are facing in your classrooms. You all are doing a great job working together to meet your goals. Thanks for all you do.--OH
Thanks to the custodians. You all are always so busy, yet you take the time to accommodate anything that comes up that needs attention. I appreciate your flexibility, patience, and positive attitude. Your team is such an asset to our building and I’m glad that you are all working together to keep our school beautiful, --OH
Thanks to the care team and teachers who have been coming to care team meetings. Our kids are being successful because of the conversations we’re having to develop plans that meet each of them where they are. You all have been so collaborative, positive, and even vulnerable at times. You are truly putting students first and it is beautiful to sit back and watch you all work together each week. Thanks for your dedication, time, and hard work! OH
Thanks to Christina and Dione for leading out the progress monitoring meetings. Thanks to Christina P and Jodi for the behind the scenes work you all did as well. Also, thanks to Lindsey and Laura- you two are doing great work with these kids and we appreciate you sharing your knowledge of their work with the team. Thanks to Kristy, Floyd, and Jamie for attending and providing input and services for our kiddos. It is great that we have all our kids with needs placed for interventions. Thanks everyone for your work around reading interventions! OH
Thanks to Jaime, Donna, Kerri, Natalie and office squad for making our first spelling bee successful! It was great to see how excited the kids were and how many parents came out to support them. Way to go team. --OH
Thanks to Mr. Mike, Ayesha, and Ms. V for your help while Tony and Michele were out of room 5 and 6. I appreciate the work everyone in those rooms does each and every day. OH
Thanks to Nikki, Michele, and Drew who all got me something on my safety plan when I was dysregulated. Your kindness and support are so appreciated. --OH
Thanks to Mack for working with Harvester Christian to get MAP snacks and water for our kids. THANK YOU. --OH
WOW to Haliegh Carr for all her hard work and all the extra communication you provide a parent. Thanks for taking the time to observe a student at recess to see how things were going and when discovering he wasn't playing with other students for finding him a recess buddy so that he has someone to play with. --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Shelly Gotsch for arranging a very important parent meeting and for all the open communication you have with your parents about their child. --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Christina and Dione for all your work in leading the Progress Monitoring Meetings. You ladies are such experts at what you do and I always learn something from you.- ---Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Jane and Jen! I couldn’t have registered 83 incoming Kindergarteners without you! Love My Squad!--Tessa
WOW to Kristen Schrameyer! Thanks for staying late with me and getting our New Kindergarten families signed up for screenings this spring. Your dedication and leadership is an awesome thing to witness!--Tessa
WOW to our Custodians! Thank you for sitting up and tearing down all 3 nights of Kindergarten Registration. You all Rock!! --Tessa
WOW to the Literacy Data Team! Thanks for a great conversation yesterday on how we can better serve students and teachers.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to our Special Area team. Thanks for all the support you are giving a student and for brainstorming an idea to help him transition to middle school. --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to everyone who has volunteered for Culture Night and special thanks to Gabbi and Kristy for leading the event and getting everything organized.--Dr. DeWeese
Meeting Minutes
Something New--Solution Seeking Sessions
If you haven't yet viewed the link below that was in the email then you can get to the information from here too. Be sure to check out our Solution Seeking Session and how we are going to meet to discuss our Failed to Fill plan.
Reminder for Classroom Teachers
Culture Night
Trivia Night
Report Cards
Great News
The Trauma Informed School Conference is being held in St. Charles this year. It is at the St. Charles Convention Center June 18th- 20th. A few months ago I submitted a proposal to speak at the conference. I found out last Friday that the proposal was accepted. The session title is Schoolwide Support System for Students. I will be sharing our journey over the last three years of our work around trauma and the systems we have put in place to support students.
Below is a link to the conference if anyone is interested in attending. This would be a great use of building PD funds. Please let me know if you are interested in attending. We signed Kerri up this week to attend. Heather Forbes is one of the keynote speakers. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to hear Heather speak she is great at making sense of the trauma-informed approach and why it is so important for ALL students.
I know I am not only excited about the conference and the learning, but I am even more excited to share our story in an effort to help other schools create success for students.
More Parent Emails
WOW! You all have been on fire lately with me receiving positive emails about our staff. Check out the great things parents had to say the last few weeks. So awesome!
Way to go Haleigh and Katelyn.
Hi,
I just wanted to drop a note to let you know how much we love the girls’ teachers this year! We have never had a bad teacher with Adelaide but last year for us was a daily struggle and their were more “bad” days than good. I believe most of that may have been the class make up, as she liked her teacher and did well academically as always. As a parent I have seen this year be so different for her. I am thankful for the daily smiles, excitement, and positive stories about her day at school this year! I feel like from the start of the year these two teachers have done small things that made me feel then that it was going to be a good year. We got mailed letters from both telling us about themselves and how they are excited to start the year and had start of school dates on it. They also both did informational sheets for the parents to fill out about their kid to help them know the child and how they learn and their strengths and weaknesses!
Both Miss Carr and Mrs. Williams have such positive and energetic personalities and always have a smile on their faces. I have enjoyed seeing their influence on my girls! I love hearing about and seeing all the creative things that they do in class! They are amazing teachers, both with us as parents, through their verbal and written communication, and with the girls daily in their class.
Miss Carr has strictness that is quietly hidden in her caring, positive, and soft spoken personality. She has high expectations that helps drive my child to do well. You can see the respect the kids have for in their listening and behavior! She is always reinforcing positive behavior and teaching her kids that by working hard you are rewarded! Emma has been pushed and is doing so well in all her subjects and has grown so much this year! I will definitely request her for our third when he is in kindergarten!
Mrs. Williams always has a smile on her face and hug ready for her kids. Her room has a mood of calmness that she has herself. She has an attitude that is full of energy and positivity. She is creative with her ideas from her adopt a kid with a book at the beginning of the year to her mystery readers, which allows parents to be involved. She has pushed Adelaide in both subjects that felt strong in and ones she felt weaker in which has given Adelaide a greater confidence in her abilities. I can only hope that my other two kids get her for second grade!
Teachers have the ability to make such an impact on kids, Miss Carr and Mrs. Williams have illustrated that through my kids this year and we are thankful for both of these amazing teachers!
Have a great weekend!
Thanks!
Hannah Lottes
Kuddos to Julie Coombs
Dear Dr DeWeese,
I wanted to write and give a shout out to the phenomenal Ms Coombs who teaches my daughter's Kindergarten class. I'm in awe of how she manages to break down increasingly challenging new concepts for her class as the year has progressed and teach them in such an engaging, exciting and fun way. My daughter has nothing but the utmost regard for her and really enjoys going to school. She scowled at the thought of snow days and fully expected Ms Coombs to join us for Christmas lunch, believing her to be a member of our family, such is her adoration for her!
On a personal level, I wanted to tell you how very much we appreciate Ms Coombs' approach to including Aria in as many of the food related activities at school as possible. Having Type 1 Diabetes means that we have to plan such events ahead of time. Whenever I spot such a possible event approaching, I reach out to Ms Coombs who readily responds with as much information as possible to enable us to come up with a plan which means Aria can participate as fully as possible in the event. Ms Coombs' has been nothing but patient, kind, compassionate and understanding of the challenges involved in organising such things to enable Aria to take part during class parties and events and also on a daily basis too. She never makes me feel as though I'm asking too much of her or that my queries are unfounded, she seems to totally understand the predicament we're in and the fine balancing act we try to maintain between keeping Aria healthy and safe and allowing her to participate with her classmates. She helps take on so many back ground tasks to enable Aria to do as the other children in class do, purely to ensure she is as included as possible. I cannot thank her enough. In November, without so much as a second thought, she readily agreed to allow Aria to give her class a little talk about Diabetes awareness and facilitated the entire event in addition to all of her routine classroom prep. We really are so grateful to her for embracing this additional challenge and for helping Aria have as inclusive a time as possible in her first year of Elementary School. She is a wonderful credit to Harvest Ridge and an absolute blessing to have as Aria's teacher.
With many thanks,
Natasha Wadia
Nice Work Sarah
From Tessa:
Wanted to share this. I’m friends with Willow Balleydier’s mom and she posted this on fb yesterday. Thanks Sarah for making her feel special. She has really been having a tough time lately.
Willow made her art teacher a picture today and brought it to school. When she got home she reported exuberantly, "(Mrs. Art Teacher) really liked it and is going to find a place for it in her classroom." "Except she used fancy art words like CONTRAST and COLOR MIXING. I am going to find a place to DISPLAY it. Isn't that such an art teacher thing to say?" I am so thankful for encouraging teachers.
Staffing Timeline
Boosterthon
March 5th
8:15--Teacher Meeting- teachers will receive all their materials for the fundraiser. (Learning Commons)
- 2:00 3rd-5th Pep Rally (Gym)
- 2:45 - K-2 Pep Rally (Gym)
March 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th
- Team Huddles- these will take place the first 10 minutes of specials in the gym just like last year. These are the lessons taught by the Boosterthon staff.
March 14th
Fun Run
- 9:15- 3rd and 5th
- 10:30- Kindergarten and 4th
- 11:45- 1st and 2nd
By following the schedule above all grade levels will have their normal lunch time as well as specials.
Theme: Mindspark Mystery Lab
PTO is raising funds to outfit the track. They plan to purchase bleachers and any other materials to complete the track!
Way to Go Michele Kelly
Something to Think About
The woman thinks: "I am going to fall and I can't climb because the snake is going to bite me! Why can't the man use a little more strength and pull me up?"
The man thinks: " I am in so much pain! Yet I'm still pulling you as much as I can! Why don't you try and climb a little harder?"
The moral is: You can't see the pressure the other party is under, and the other party can't see the pain you're in.
This is life. No matter whether it's work, family, feelings, or friends, try to listen to understand, learn to broaden your perspective, assume positive intentions, and communicate with care. Practicing non judgement is very helpful. We are all doing the best we can with the resources we have.