Week at a Glance
Items marked with a ⭐ indicates new information.
Keep Putting in Your Shout Outs!
Classroom Teachers- You made dismissal during the HEAT wave super smooth! Thank you for having your students packed, stacked and ready!
Colette has slid into a teaching role at Meadows, has made herself known to her teams and has incredible patience with me. Thank you Colette for pulling your weight and mine with the primary kids. You will never fully know how much your support means to me while I get adjusted to this role I am in. You are a dynamic teacher and I am so glad you are on the Meadows team. - Kerri Cushing
I wanna thank YOU ALL for helping me get up to speed. With my classroom and knowing what I need to do. I know that I still have a lot more to learn though. I know that I didn't get everyone in here like The Bosses named but thank you all for having faith in me that I can do this. As well as being my cheerleaders I love having my Meadows family so thank you very much. - Ms. Brown
🟧 Click the "Staff Shout Outs" button ABOVE to give a shout out to a colleague.
Important Dates
SEPTEMBER
No School- September 4, Labor Day
PTO Spirit Day~ Princesses and Pirates!
Friday, September 8th Students and Staff alike, let's show our school spirit by suiting up in "ARRR" Pirate garb or Princess attire to make it a magical day!
Monarch Project Tagging/Releasing Training- September 5, schedule below
Monarch Release the week of September 11th
⭐ New News
⭐ MONARCH TAG/RELEASE TRAINING
9:00 AM Pod 3: 3-4
9:45 AM Pod 2: K-2
10:20 AM Pod 1: K-1
11:15 AM Pod 4: 5
⭐ Dismissal Norms
3:30 pm- Buses
3:35 pm- Walkers
3:40 pm- STEAM
- have students packed, stacked, and ready
- quiet/listening for names called near the door
- help keep the Office a quiet space during this time
⭐ SUBSTITUTE FOLDERS
As the year goes on, keep updating this form so it is current.
Please turn these in by Friday, September 1, 2023.
THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE THEM IN THE 23/24 FOLDER IN THE STAFF SUBSTITUTE DRIVE!
**PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL PARTS FILLED OUT AND A HARD COPY TO THE OFFICE BY FRIDAY.
⭐ School Messenger
We have confirmed that School Messenger is updated nightly from Synergy, and may be used for parent emails or text messages, for those parents who have opted-in to receive them. Synergy Mail does NOT notify parents by email of a message in ParentVUE, so School Messenger is preferred for time sensitive information messages and email notifications. We are hopeful that the alert function might be available in the future.
⭐ Teachers who use GOOGLE CLASSROOM
Synergy Gradebook by default imports Google Classroom assignments with a point value of 1. Teachers who are seeing unexpected grade calculations need to set the point value to equal the maximum point value in Google Classroom for the assignment. This can be done by clicking on the lightly shaded settings icon, in the Google Classroom integration menu (Red G) in TeacherVUE.
⭐ Second Grade KAP
The District Leadership Team discussed the KSDE optional 2nd grade KAP. TPS will wait to administer the second grade ELA KAP until it is a required assessment as we work to reduce assessments with all the others that are required. We want to reduce testing fatigue and focus on instructional time.
⭐ Donations Request from the Director of Cultural Innovation
We are in the process of restocking our international teacher storage unit, and we're asking for donations that are lightly used/in good condition from you and our community. This unit has been of tremendous help to our Visiting International Teachers from Spain for many years, and we are opening it up to our Filipino teachers and any others coming from abroad. Thank you in advance!
- Some examples of items that could be donated include towels, sheets, kitchen items (anything!), MATTRESSES (huge need right now, mainly queen size), dining tables, side tables, nightstands, coffee tables, chairs (living room, dining, desk, etc.), desks, outdoor furniture, couches, loveseats, lamps, rugs, dressers, twin beds with mattress, and decorative items. As you can see, the range is pretty broad. This list is not a comprehensive one, and everything will be much appreciated!
- Contact Dr. Mejía at 785-235-7053 or email at pmejia@tps501.org if you have any questions or items you'd like to donate.
⭐ PBIS ROOM
We will be starting the PBIS room TOMORROW FOR PRIMARY!! Tickets are in your boxes primary classroom teachers. Pick 2 students with AWESOME behavior to send down to play games from 3 - 3:20 ish. Support staff, we could use some help with supervising the students. The attached page is the schedule for the first semester. It will be primary students one week and intermediate the next. Questions, please ask!! Again sorry for the late notice.
Marla
⭐ Request from the Director of Cultural Innovation - Hispanic Heritage Month
- Please email Dr. Mejía the plans you have for celebrating Hispanic Heritage month (September).
- We'd love to hear about any special activities that will be taking place in and outside of the classroom, as well as receive pictures you take during the month to highlight this culture!
⭐ Fastbridge and ELs new to the country
Recently arrived and identified EL students are exempt from taking Fastbridge for 1 academic school year as posted on the KSDE website under Dyslexia. I am including the original document for further reference: KSDE revised reading screening protocol
⭐ 2024 Major Saver Campaign
Campaign Kickoff: January 29th & 30th, 2023
Campaign Collections: February 5th – 12th, 2023
Campaign Follow Up: February 13th
⭐ Hearing, Vision, and BMI screenings
Hearing, Vision, and BMI screenings will occur on 10/11 and 10/12 at Meadows. Please get in touch with the health clinic if you wish to opt your student out of screenings. If your student wears glasses, please make sure they have them at screening. Screening results will be available on the parent portal. Referral letters will be sent via the parent portal and/or mail.
PIP/IIC screenings are on 9/6.
⌛ Previous News
TPS Learning Walks
School and District Collaborative Learning Walks will begin in September. We will be using the 3 rubrics used last year: Student Voice, Academic Discussion, and High Order Questioning.
Discipline Reporting in Synergy
If you are having difficulty entering a discipline or incident referral please read the following information. ONLY staff who are assigned to either class sections or student groups will have the menus for Ci3T, discipline, etc in TeacherVUE. All other staff members MUST enter discipline referrals from within SynergySIS. Going forward, both TeacherVUE and SynergySIS incidents will be reviewed in the queue.
Individual Student Photos
Below is a link that will allow parents to sign up to receive updates via email regarding their child's school portraits. These updates include promotions, additional deals, and the ability to order more pictures at a later time. When entering student information, be sure to enter the student's name as it is on file at the school.
**THE ONLY ORDERING IS BEING DONE ONLINE THIS YEAR, NO PAPER OR CASH/CHECKS.
Thank you for your assistance in helping us deliver a smooth school picture experience! We look forward to seeing you soon.
ART CART 🎨
We have the Art Cart ready for you to use! Included is information about what is on the cart, checking it out, and how to use it. Please go over expectations with your students like always. Let the magic begin!
You are not going to be required to implement; however, this is a tool and an AMAZING resource to support MANY Cross-Curricular subjects: Math, Literacy, STEAM, Social/Emotional, Engineering, Social Studies and more!
The Art Cart is stored in the POD 1 Workroom. A sign-out sheet is HERE and on the HUB.
* please do not take supplies from the cart for personal use or use items to restock the classroom
The top opens, a side plate can be propped out, and the drawers are opened by pushing the button over first. The top drawer locks but should remain unlocked. See the office if you happen to need the key.
Lessons and Info online (Instructions attached and in this Canva Slideshow ) This shows you how to log in to Art of Education and access the lessons if you like.
Theme Unit Ideas and Resources:
ENGINEERING COLLECTIONS MATH COLLECTIONS SCIENCE COLLECTIONS
LITERACY COLLECTIONS SOCIAL STUDIES COLLECTION STEAM COLLECTION
TECHNOLOGY COLLECTION ANIMAL COLLECTIONS
Supplies on the Cart:AIR-DRY MODELING CLAY
ART SIDEWALK CHALK
ASSORTED PLASTIC BEADS
BIG KIDS' BRUSH SETS
BLICK TEMPERA CAKES
CHENILLE STEMS
CLASSROOM BEAD KIT
COLORED TISSUE
COMPRESSED CHARCOAL STICKS
CRAFT COLOR FOAM SHEETS
CRAFT STICKS
CREATIVITY STREET CHILDREN'S APRONS
JUMBO INDIVIDUAL WRAPPED CUP STRAWS
LARGE NINE WELL PLASTIC TRAYs (FOR THE TEMPERA CAKES)
LIGHTWEIGHT CONSTRUCTION PAPER
PENCIL SHARPENERS
PERMANENT MARKERS - ASSORTED COLORS
PRANG WASHABLE WATERCOLOR PANS
PRIMARY SHAPES TEMPLATE SETS
SQUARE CHALK PASTELS
SULPHITE 50 LB DRAWING PAPERS
TEMPERA PAINT STICKS
YARN ASSORTMENTS
If you have login problems click HERE.
All of this information is also in the ArtCart folder in the Staff Drive.
If you have any questions, you can always come to me. :)
Kyna
TRAINING UPDATES
De-escalation Training
Stacey Kramer will be coming at 9:00am on 10/26 during parent teacher conferences to discuss de-escalation. It be approximately 5 hours. Anyone outside of SPED is welcome to attend. A schedule invite was sent to all paras/SPED teachers. It is advised that all paras attend.
Additional LETRS Training
As most of you are aware, TPS is hosting 120+ staff for LETRS training. We focused our first cohorts on staff in leadership positions. We are open to hosting additional teacher cohorts. We are considering two models that would not require substitutes, but would require a commitment of time by the participating teachers.
- Teachers would commit to four Saturdays each school year for the next two years. Teachers would be paid $20 an hour for the Saturdays.
- Teachers would commit to eight 3-hour evenings per school year, with the evenings being done in two back to back nights four times a year for two years. Teachers who commit to this would be paid $20 an hour for the evenings of training.
Sick Leave Rebate
Certified staff may sell back sick leave per Article 43 of the Professional Agreement. Rebate forms must be received by HR before October 1, 2023. [SICK LEAVE REBATE FORM]
Flex Day Memo
Please see the attached 2023-2024 FLEX Day Memo.
District Calendars
💻 Technology News
🎥 Story Ideas
If you know of something unique or special going on in our TPS family, we would love to have the media capture it.If you have a story idea or have a neat end event occurring, feel free to submit it here at TPS Great Story Idea.