“I’m jealous of my childhood self now when I remember that every fall we got to start over, as if our lives were getting a routine software upgrade. I cleaned out my bookbag, tossed old notebooks, lined up fresh pencils, got my feet measured for new shoes, and showed up to school ready to learn. I bemoaned the end of summer, but I also loved the sense of the possibility of a new grade held.”
Mary Laura Philpott in “I’m So Excited for 40th Grade” in The New York Times,
September 7, 2019, https://nyti.ms/2krwacb
Collaborative Problem Solving; Please click the link below for a great opportunity to support Collaborative Problem-Solving in the classroom. This will be most useful for those of you who have completed the Tier 1 training. CPS
Fall Culminations
We started adding these to the calendar today and we are working on the few conflicts today and Monday, so you will hear from Shawna soon to help resolve these. Thank you very much for putting all this info into the survey – I am sure there will still be hiccups here and there, but we are much better prepared to facilitate things from the office with this system. For the next round of culminations, I will impose a slightly stricter deadline to help with planning.
I would still like to encourage a common start time of 5:30 for all evening culminations unless there are strong arguments or objections otherwise. If you think this is a problem, please email me, otherwise, we will start making the changes to the times for you.
Communication
- Please remember to keep yourself informed and also encourage parents to take advantage of the information sources;
- School Info – Weekly Newsletter
- PTO – Website, Facebook and Newsletter
- Remember communication is a two-way street. We [office & PTO board members] are working really hard on the sending part and it’s on you to help work on the receiving part.
SIW start time – Please take moment to reply to the following survey regarding our start times on Wednesdays. Survey
Meeting Schedule
Please also take some time to examine the Meeting Schedule on the Master Schedule document. Please take note of the “Individual” SIW dates. These dates are truly meant for your individual prep and planning time. If you will permit me to provide a little unsolicited advice I would highly suggest you schedule or structure those 2 and half hour blocks for yourself. If you don’t provide your own structure you might find that you don’t get as much done even though you have these large blocks of time. I experienced this problem when I switched from singletons to block periods while teaching high school. I am not doubting any of your time management skills, but if my mistakes can help you in any way, I’d love for you to benefit.
Staff Meeting Notes 2019-2020 – A big thank you to Shawna for taking notes during our staff meetings. Click link to refresh your memory or read what was missed.
PTO
- The first general meeting was well-attended. Colleen and Caitlin Vallegra provided a nice history of storyline for our parents.
- Our budget is approved and the giving campaign goal is now over 60% met. (classroom supplies goal is about 68%). So we are well on our way to meeting that goal.
- The next meeting is an afterschool meeting on Tuesday, 10/8 at 2:30.
- Grant Request Form Linked here; https://www.highlandpto.org/teacher-grant-request-form
Dreambox – Marina and I will be attending the training for this program next week and I hope to start sharing this more widely with everyone. If you are already “playing around” with it – no problem. More to come…
100-Year Celebration- Saturday, September 21st
Last planning meeting Wednesday 9/18 – 3:00 in Library
Just to revisit my two requests (from our staff meeting) of you for this day;
- Please make a “memory” poster for each room. Ideally, the “frame” of each will be decorated with messages, images, notes, etc. from your class.
- If you could please sign up for a time to be at the celebration to help be eyes & ears on our property and classrooms I would greatly appreciate it. Sign up
- I also will need some greeters to help encourage people to make a name tag – maybe even sign a visitor book/log.
Dyslexia- October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. This is a good time for a quick review of SB 1003 and the requirements around it. Heidi Evans is our trained staff on site. Please familiarize yourself with this process and be able to answer questions (see talking points) about our process to address this law, and more importantly, help students struggling to learn to read.
Radios
We started rolling out the radios this week. I am just sharing the following tips for your information.
Radio Tips –
- Turn your radios off when charging them overnight. Once the radios are fully charged they should last at least one day with heavy use.
- Ensure your charging cable is fully plugged in and the radios are charged overnight.
- Ensure that radios are fully seated and aligned with the base charger and the light is on if your radio has a base charger and not a cord charger.
- When you power the radio off, it should stay on the current channel. You should not have to cycle through to your schools channel each time you power the radio on and off.
- When pushing the push-to-talk button to transmit on the radio, wait just a second until you hear the radio beep, then start your conversation.
- Two-way radios are designed for short, concise conversations. The longer you hold down the push-to-talk button and have a conversation, the more static you will receive over the radio.
Safe Schools Training – Just a friendly reminder to complete your online Safe Schools Training.