Dutch Fork Elementary
Faculty/Staff Newsletter Week of October 7th
Superintendent's Priorities
- Focus our work decisions on/around our district strategic plan.
- Identify areas of achievement to improve.
- Provide Chick-Fil-A and Moe's like customer service for internal and external community.
- Strengthen the structure and quality of communication both internally and externally.
- Promote a work and learning environment where students and staff feel safe physically, emotionally and socially.
DFES Beliefs
- We believe all people deserve to feel safe, valued, and loved.
- We believe all children are naturally curious about the world around them.
- We believe learning is a social process.
- We believe inquiry fosters an environment of noticing and questioning.
- We believe in learning from multiple perspectives.
- We believe in learning from authentic primary and secondary sources.
- We believe in encouraging learners to be risk takers.
- We believe reflection should lead to change and growth.
- We believe learning should lead to social action.
- We believe our actions should be aligned to our beliefs.
Shout Outs
- H. Reit (resident bee keeper) and K. Kirkindoll for the collaborative planning for bee week 2019. Rich engagements for students this week. Additional thanks to A. Umberger for filling in for Heather on Thursday.
- B. Gantt and Mr. Bud assisted officer hood with a battery issue on the hottest day of this week.
- S. Somerall for leading a session on spelling development for families during Wednesday's 2nd Cup of Coffee. A well designed workshop for families in our quest to work together to strengthen our learners as readers and writers.
- October 2nd was National Custodial Workers Recognition Day. The work of Ms. Tamia, Ms. Wendy, Mr. Bud, Mr. Joe, and Mr. Epting is critical to the day to day operations of our school.
Dr. Somerall establishing learning intentions for families during October 2nd Cup of Coffee
Parents listening in on Dr. Somerall's spelling presentation.
Parents/families attuned to the spelling presentation.
Welcome New Colleague
We are pleased to announce that Mairel Betts has been board approved to become our new speech language pathologist.
Mairel experiences includes working in North Carolina , Georgia, and Virgina. She replaces Michille Jordan and had the opportunity to spend time with Michelle at the end of last week to get acclimated to DFES. Please join us in welcoming our new colleague.
Reminder: No PD Tuesday, October 8. Time given back for student led conferences.
School Improvement Council Meeting
Wednesday, Oct 9, 2019, 06:00 PM
DFES Conference Room
Data Teams Thursday.
Learning Celebrations
Purpose of Learning Celebrations:
- Make our learning public
- Demonstrate our learning matters-students and teachers are interested-we all care
- Position students to be small teachers
- Become comfortable with public speaking
- Build community
Learning celebrations will be held on Friday's beginning October 11th, 2019
- 4K-2nd learning celebrations are held 8:15 - 8:30 a.m.
- 3rd-5th grade learning celebrations are held the following week 1:45 - 2:00 a.m.
Friday's learning celebration will be led by D. Gibson's 2nd grade class. Classes can begin making their way to the mini theater at 8:10ish and will be directed by an administrator on where to sit.
Please see the video for those that are new to provide some context. Could be helpful in sharing with your respective classes so that new students know what to expect and returning students are reminded of what expected.
Friday, Oct 11, 2019, 08:15 AM
DFES Mini Theater
Birthday Wishes!
- 10/08 A. Newman
- 10/08 G. Shealy
- 10/12 S. Stephens
Math Support and Push In
One of Dr. Melton's priorities is identifying academic areas to improve. As previously shared all grade levels across our school or focused on mathematics.
We are fortunate to have human resources to support our teachers and students. Our office instructional assistants will begin pushing in for math support beginning the week of October 14. 1st - 5th grade please reserve the last 5 minutes of this Thursday's data team meeting so that we can share details of what to anticipate. Additionally J. Sparkman will provide push in schedules with home room teachers as well so that you can schedule accordingly.
We anticipate and look forward to answering questions you will have.
Edmentum
We believe this program can serve as a resource and option for homeroom usage and student access to address school wide identified areas of improvement.
We will have a representative from Edmentum that will be with us Monday, October 14 to provide and share the possibilities of this resource. Further details to come this week. FYI.
We develop students who care about the world we live in and express critical thinking through natural curiosity and wonder!
Email: jscott@lexrich5.org
Website: www.lexrich5.org/dutchfork/cfm/
Location: 7900 Broad River Road, Irmo, SC, USA
Phone: 803-476-3901
Twitter: @dfes_principal