I hope that all of our Corron families enjoyed their extended weekend. While our staff had three days off, we spent Tuesday focused on professional learning. The first part of our morning was devoted to our social-emotional learning goals. Teachers shared ideas for their Morning Meetings and ways to build positive relationships with all of our students. One of the suggestions from staff members was to share the focus of our work with parents so that they can reinforce these skills at home. I will make a point of sharing our work at least once a month with our families for the rest of the school year.

Each classroom embeds a Morning Meeting into their schedule each day (a few classes do these at the end of the day as well.) Morning Meetings are intentionally designed to support our Speaking and Listening standards as well as Social Emotional skills. Each of the four components of the meeting has a clear purpose:

Greeting: Everyone feels welcomed and valued in the classroom.

Share: Building relationships and understanding others perspectives. Allows for honoring diversity and connecting with others.

Activity: Encourages teamwork while re-emphasizing social or academic skills.

Message: Reinforce a positive mindset and set goals for the day.

Something you can do at home is ask your child what they did for one of the components each day. How did they greet their classmates? What did they share? What did they learn about a classmate as they listened to others share? What was their activity and how did they need to work together? What was the message or goal for the day?

Partnering with our families is important to our staff in order to ensure that all of our students feel safe at school and move forward in their learning. Please reach out with any questions you have related to our SEL work.

Chris Balaskovits

Christine.Balaskovits@d303.org

Thursday, January 20

PTO Zoom meeting at 6:30 pm (see PTO news below for link information)

Wednesday, January 26

Early release day for elementary students at 2:10 pm

(AM kindergarten released at 10:30 am)

January 31 - February 25

Online 2022-2023 Kindergarten Enrollment

See link for information: https://district.d303.org/new-elementary-student-registration

During the month of January, students in Empower are going to be experiencing a new module! Students in Kindergarten through fifth grades are going to be delving into the areas of communication. They will be utilizing various media tools in the Show it Off module!

We are in need of a crossing guard for Thornwood Way and Thornwood Drive. Our previous guard left for another position. Please see the posting on the district website if you are interested in the position.

"Registration for the Preschool Program Lottery will be open from January 12 - January 26. Names will be randomly selected on January 27, and parents will be notified by email if their child is chosen. Those who are not selected will be placed on a waiting list and will be notified when a space becomes available. Click here to register!"

"Lotería del Programa Preescolar del Distrito D303

The School Board has approved an E-Learning plan that gives the district the option to offer remote learning in place of emergency days. Currently, our last day of school is Tuesday, May 24, which is the week before Memorial Day. As we move into the winter months, we want to update you on the plan for how the district will manage emergency days and e-learning days.

• If we experience inclement weather, the first three days will be “snow days” that will be made up at the end of the school year on May 25, 26, and 27 as needed.

• Subsequent emergency days will be remote days so the last attendance day will still be before Memorial Day.

• If there is a long stretch of inclement weather (blizzard, polar vortex, etc.), we may split the days into “snow days” and e-learning days so as to not have too many non-attendance days in a row.

Do you have a friend, neighbor or relative who has a nursing license

and is looking for work?

A D303 substitute nurse has a flexible schedule, an opportunity use their nursing skills

and work in any of our 18 district school buildings.

Many former D303 substitutes have gone on to become district employees.

Please share the following contact information:

Juanita Gryfinski, Dept Chair, D303 Health Services at 331-228-3834 or juanita.gryfinski@d303.org

Kristen Pozna, District Substitute Coordinator at 331-228-4924 or kristen.pozna@d303.org.