Markham Faculty and Staff Memo
January 19, 2024
Important Upcoming Dates
- January 22: No School, Classroom Management Option Day; Grades due at 4:00 PM
- Janaury 23: Quarter 2 ends; Grades due at 4:00 PM
- January 25: Fifth Grade Course Selection Presentation, 9:00, MPR; Spelling Bee, Markham MPR, 7:00 PM
- January 29: Report Cards Released
- January 30: 3rd Grade Strings Informance, 3:00 PM
- January 31: Kids Heart Challenge Assembly
- February 1: Kindergarten Registration Opens; Black History Month Begins
- February 8: Science Center Visit
- February 8: Science Fair, 6:00 PM in the Markham Gym
- February 9: Act 80 Day, Noon Dismissal for Grades 1-5, AM and PM Kindergarten is in session
- February 14: Valentine's Day celebrations
- February 16: PMEA Strings Fest
- February 19: No School, President's Day, Markham PTA Ice Skating Party
Snow Day Rotation Information
Ending the First Semester
UPDATE: For elementary, the final day of the semester is today January 19, 2024. The second semester will start on Tuesday, January 23, 2024. Grades will be due by 4 PM on Monday, January 22. Report cards will be processed as typical. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Grade Level PLCs
Please enter the day of the week and time that your Markham grade level team planning and PLCs happen on this document. I will be trying to pop into some over the next month!
NEW PCA
Katherine Murphy will be joining the Markham Circle as our newest PCA! She is eager to learn and wants to jump in and start. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University and has worked in several fields, most recently at REI and Three Rivers Outdoors. When I have more about her start date, I will let you know.
The Great Kindness Challenge
The Great Kindness Challenge is next week! Here is the flyer. Each day has a spirit day theme and a video you can show. Dani will be distributing the GKC checklists for you to share with students (they are also linked in the flyer). You can use these however you like. Please encourage students to check off as many kind acts as possible and consider having a class discussion at the end of the week about how many acts of kindness they were able to complete and how they felt while doing them. Since Tuesday is day 3/SEL day, feel free to use that time to talk about the GKC checklists and themes.
MakerSpace Updates
Join us as we finish up the Makerspace revitalization during your lunch hour for a Team Clean! Sign up here to participate in the Team Clean and have pizza and salad while you work! Please sign up for a job you'd be interested in and the date you'd like to do it. We will have Team Clean on January 24 and 31 from 12-1. Each job can have more than one responsible person.
The Makerspace committee will create an outline for accepting donations, scheduling time, managing the space, etc. Please do not drop off any items in the Makerspace for donation- this will not be the practice moving forward. A committee member and/or the team must physically screen all donations before acceptance. Please let me know if you have any questions about this project!
Jocelyn's Schedule
Over the next few weeks, I will be taking some days off in an attempt to begin finishing my dissertation. I am sharing this so you are all aware of the reason for my upcoming absences, and if I am a little stressed, I hope you can offer me some grace. Thank you in advance!
Updates and Reminders
- Faculty are permitted to work from home on Monday's CMO Day.
- I added some additional spots for my monthly read-aloud here if you need to reschedule from today or Tuesday. If nothing works for your schedule, please let me know.
- Here is the Winter Benchmark Testing Schedule. Please see Gretchen and/or Vicki with questions. They will share their support schedules each week as they become available.
BLACKOUT DAYS
We have met the allotted number of staff members off for personal days on a few days. The dates below so you can plan accordingly when taking personal days:
- Friday, February 16
- Monday, April 1