Friday's Rock-In-Prevention assembly schedule is below. Please be in the gym a few minutes prior to the assembly. We will not call classrooms down. Prep students by reteaching appropriate assembly behavior.
- 2nd/3rd: 9:15-10:30am
- 4th/5th: 11:00am-12:15pm
- K/1st: 1:00-2:00pm
PBIS Lesson Needed - Please help our nutrition staff by talking to students about being responsible and caring in the lunchroom. Specifically, we need students to keep food on their plates. It has been getting very messy in recent days and we would love for teachers to talk to students Friday before lunch to reinforce in is ALL of jobs to keep the building neat and clean - including the lunchroom floor.
Picture schedules were placed in your box. Please stick to the schedule unless a change is emailed or announced. The hallway by the custodians' and Rigler's office will be blocked off so pictures can be taken in this location. Please plan accordingly and tell your students if needed!
Sub Reminders - It is extremely important for you to leave a reminder for your subs to...
- record AM and PM attendance (this has not been happening regularly so far); and
- make sure they do not ask students, "Is everyone here?" or "If you're not here, raise your hand." Although I joke with the latter, the first one has been asked by subs already this year. Those questions and attendance recording are not safe and would likely not stand up in the court of law. :-) They need to check the students themselves and ensure all students marked are accordingly.
Dates to note next week include
- Monday - No school! Labor day
- Tuesday - Tornado drill. Please review procedures (everyone MUST have their map up by the door)
- Thursday - busy day!!
- Barry @ Mandt training;
- Williamson @ district mtg in AM;
- 4th/2nd grade PLC+
- At-risk initial identification information due (on Google grade level docs)
- Friday -
- College Spirit Day! More info coming...
- BLT (8:00-8:35am);
- Bus evacuation drill
Final Thoughts for the Week
Where I keep typing/talking and you
don't necessarily have to keep reading/listening.
The power of a positive phone call can be unmeasurable and a great way to make an early 'deposit' in case you need to make a withdrawal later in the year. A few of you have already shared some neat stories with me about first week phone calls you made and I'm sure those few minutes will continue to pay off for you. Guess what though? It is never too late! I ran across a worth-reading blog post from Elena Aguilar and she highlights her experience with positive phone calls and their impact:When I first started teaching and was overwhelmed by the demands and complexity of the job, my survival strategy was simply to take all the advice that came my way and implement it. So when my wise mentor suggested that after the first day of school I call all of my second grader's parents, I did so.
In spite of my exhaustion, I called each family and introduced myself. I asked a few questions about their child. I said that their kid had had a good first day. I said I looked forward to working together.
Your initial response may be, "Doug! I don't have the time! You have all these other 'to-do' items for us!" Well, Elena sums it up for me when she states:
I know how many hours teachers work. And I also know that a phone call can take three minutes. If every teacher allocated 15 minutes a day to calling parents with good news, the impact could be tremendous. In the long list of priorities for teachers, communicating good news is usually not at the top. But try it -- just for a week -- try calling a few kid's parents (and maybe not just the challenging ones -- they all need and deserve these calls) and see what happens. The ripple effects for the kid, the class, and the teacher might be transformational.I'm giving you permission to move those other priorities down the list so you can share a little bit of your story with the families you will be spending the next 9 months with AND hear a bit about their story. It will make a difference.
