Principal Update
Week of September 4, 2017
I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! The beginning of the 2017-2018 school year has been smooth as well as exciting. Thank you for the work that you do each day! I am extremely proud of the work that of each of you did last year. This year will be even better because I truly believe that our best is yet to come.
Duty Free Lunch will begin tomorrow. Please bring your students to the lunch room at your scheduled time and pick your students up on time.
Cash Control
Money collected must be turned in to bookkeeper daily. Money can not be kept in classrooms overnight.
Students should not be sent to the bookkeeper with money. Only adults may handle money.
Safety First
Lesslie was awarded an Exemplary score of 100 points in the School Safety and Security Assessment for 2017. We will receive $250.00 to be spent on items that are safety related. Hats off to you for a job well done!
We will be having a lock down drill during the month of September. Please make sure that students understand the procedures during a preventive and an emergency lockdown. Officer Cole from the York County Sheriff's Department will be here during our lockdown to provide feedback to help us improve.
SafeSchools Training
Communication
Classroom schedules should be specific. The designated times for guided reading, writer's workshop etc. should be delineated and should not say ELA. Schedules should be posted outside of classrooms by Tuesday, September 5th. Please send a copy of your schedule to me and Kim Schneider.
Please send notes that parents send to school requesting a transportation change to the office. Mrs. Schneider has to verify that the request is valid before the request will be honored. This is a safety issue.
Words Their Way
Words Their Way materials & teachers copies will be funded through the District Instruction Budget for all elementary schools! This will include copies of the Methods books and sorts for each stage. In addition, each teacher will receive copies of word sorts. Please thank Dr. Jaworski and the instruction department for this support.
School Improvement Council
Please let me know if you are interested in serving on our SIC or if you would like to nominate a staff member or a parent, guardian or community member. We will have elections on Thursday, September 21st.
Climate and Culture
Students who you make feel important will be far more engaged than those you don't. Let's make it a goal each week to make sure every student has had a chance to feel important in some way, shape, or form. Keep notecards with student names. Whenever something or someone makes a student feel important, place a check by his or her name. You will be surprised how many students are actually left out regularly. Once you are aware of students that need positive reinforcement, you make sure each student has the opportunity to feel important every week. Do this every week and watch engagement levels rise.
Lesslie standards
Please remember to greet students at the door each morning. This will help set a positive tone for the day.
Lesson Plans should be uploaded into Canvas by Monday at 8:15 a.m.
Collaboration minutes should be uploaded into Canvas by Friday of each week.
Essential Learnings
Here is the link to the Essential Learnings Canvas Course
Thank you for your work this summer!
PLC Update
In an effort to ensure that observations and feedback may be provided to all grade levels, collaboration time will need to be on Wednesdays during your planning time. Instructional specialists will be providing support to our collaboration times. This is not feasible if our collaboration day is not consistent.
Half Day Planning
Please let me know if your grade level would like their half day planning on Friday, October 20th in the A.M. Please let me know if your grade level would like a half day planning during the week of Oct. 23rd - Oct. 27th. We will try to coordinate days so we can use the same substitutes for two grade levels.
School Leadership
Please read the minutes from last week's Leadership Team meeting (they were e-mailed to everyone). Remember to bring solutions for concerns or issues. Please send ideas and suggestions for our "Open House" or Drop - In and Curriculum Night to Kimenya. She will compile suggestions and she'll send out a survey for staff members to vote on changes for next year. In the past we have have a Drop-In from 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. to accommodate parents that may work 1st or 2nd shift. When thinking of solutions, please keep this in mind. One suggestion might be to have one session in the morning for 45 minutes and one session in the late afternoon or early evening for 45 minutes where we share our Essential Learnings and Standards etc.
Curriculum Night
Curriculum Night Will be on Thursday, September 7th. The first session will be from 5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and the second session will be from 6:15 p.m. -6:45 p.m. Hopefully, these times will accommodate most of our parents and guardians. Please use this time to talk about our Essential Learnings and how parents may support teaching and learning throughout the school year. This is a great opportunity to connect with our parents and guardians. If your turnout hasn't been what you'd like it to be, please think of ways to help improve attendance. It might mean sending a Remind 101 message to parents, sending a text reminder or making a personal call to invite parents to attend. Remember, having informed and supportive parents will only help our student achievement. You may leave after your second session ends.
Data
We now have SCReady and SCPASS data that we will be disaggregating and discussing. We can be very proud of student achievement in some areas. Our focus this year will continue to be student growth. It is our goal for every student to make a least a year's growth but some students' growth needs to be more than a year.
Please view the following video, The Power of Teamwork , during a grade level collaboration time and post a team reflection in Canvas by Wednesday, September 6th.
Shout Outs
A special thank you to Kaitlyn Marr and Karen Kilburn for volunteering to sponsor our Girls on the Run program! Please encourage your students to participate. GOTR is for girls in 3rd - 5th grades. The season begins on Monday, September 11th from 2:45 p.m. - 4:-00 p.m. Scholarships are available. Girls on the Run supports our Wellness Initiatives and it's going to be fun!
Spirit Days
If you would like to wear a pair of nice jeans and a Lesslie shirt on Fridays, please give your donation of $20.00 for certified staff and $10.00 for non-certified staff to Mrs. Simon. This donation is per semester. Remember, these funds are used to support our students and families and is optional. Funds have been used to purchase shoes and clothing items and to have utilities turned on for our students etc. If you become aware of needs that our students or families may have, please talk to Mrs. Simon. Trekeelia does a great job of connecting parents/guardians with community resources.
Mark Your Calendar
Character Education Assemblies:
September 28th (Kindergarten β 2nd) and 29th (3rd -5th ) Ramet will share details this afternoon.
MAP Testing
September 6th and Sept. 12th - 1st and 2nd grades
Make - ups - September 8th and 14th and 15th
September 19th and 20th - Kindergarten
Make - ups - September 21st and 22nd
MAP Make-ups are administered on Fridays. If a student has two make-ups, they will not be given in the same day. Only one make-up per day.
Character Education Assemblies:
September 28th (Kindergarten β 2nd) and 29th (3rd -5th ) Ramet will share details this afternoon.
The Power of Positivity
Let's continue being positive this year by focusing on what we can do and celebrating our accomplishments! Let's make a commitment to helping colleagues think of the positive or to come up with a solution when he or she begins to complain. Remember to go to someone who can help you resolve the issue.
Quote of the Week
βThe mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.β
William Ward
"Our school values learning, achievement, collaboration, and responsibility as cornerstones of our learning community."