May 11, 2012

You knew this already, but we have THE BEST PTO and PARENTS around. I heard one teacher comment in the lounge today, "Are they trying to fatten us up for something?"  Wow...what a great week! Please find time to thank your parents for all they do too.


Our last early out for PD is next Wednesday. I'm chuckling out loud as I type this...I don't think any of you need any more motivation or ideas for your skits. It appears there are plenty out there. In addition to the celebration presentations by each team, we will be reviewing building/district data goals and doing some follow-up from our PD last week. You will find a yellow sheet in your box sometime on Friday. Please find time to review the information within this sheet and bring it with you on Wednesday. It will be used to complete a short survey. The complete agenda will be emailed out by Monday.


New Principal and Assistant Principal! Next Friday, Alisa Pajic will be your principal and Garrett Allen will be your assistant principal. They have declared it beach day and Mr. Allen has sent out a message to staff already. Ms. Pajic will be emailing parents tomorrow! More information about their exciting day is to come. Lyndsay and I will be taking personal days. ;-)


Assessment Binders - If all the required data is recorded on the Google data sheet and within any problem solving packet, the benchmarking and running record sheets do not need to be kept (i.e. assessment binders may be cleaned out). Please recycle the papers. ADDED The data folders will need to include the following: the most recent spring benchmarking (instructional and independent) sheets within the data folders, problem solving packets and the current and previous data sheets. The data sheet will be generated from the excel sheet I sent each team.

Student Portfolios Question - "Are we suppose to send the portfolios home with students or keep them?" The district expectation is that your share progress with parents. This could be a hosting a year end conference/celebration or sending home the portfolios (or contents) and having students share with parents.

AEA Print - When teams fill out the copy/print sheets for the AEA order, leave the account number blank and use "Maple Grove #0445" for the school. Requisitions may be emailed directly to Paula. These are due prior to checkout.

PLC Teams may choose to meet the last (short) week or school or not - that is a team decision.


Welcome our new staff for the 2012-13 school year! We will have multiple changes within our associate staff and we will likely be hiring a few in June or July. Please refer any great candidates to our website to complete an application and/or watch for openings this summer!

• Joanna Schoel will be replacing Lydia in 1st grade. Joanna comes with seven years of teaching experience and high recommendations from her current/previous colleagues and principals. We are excited to add her experience and positive energy to our building and 1st grade team!
• Erica Seeley will be our new part-time music teacher. She wowed us during her interview and teaching component this week! Her references all stated she would bring a positive attitude, tons of smiles and a highly contagious driven work ethic to any building she was a part of next fall. We are glad she chose us. 
• Lisa Lentell will be replacing Ashley as part of our already strong special education team. Lisa is transferring from Waukee Elementary and has experience with special education and meeting the needs of struggling learners!
• Christina Taylor will be replacing Shelley at our nutrition desk next fall. Christina is currently an associate at Waukee Elementary and her supervisors are sad to see her go. We are excited to welcome her to MGE!

Computer Lab - We had some damage to two of our brand-new computer screens this week that may cost us nearly $200 to replace the glass cover. PLEASE, please, please...monitor students in the lab when you are in there. Teaching and reteaching expectations is important also as we have had much more damage this year than previous years. If something is damaged, please notify Carrie immediately. Thank you for helping us with these concerns.

Site for the Week: Making the Most of End-of-School days 

Check the Dates to Note

Final Thoughts for the Week

...where I keep talking/typing and you 

don't necessarily have to continue listening/reading. 

It is about this time of the year where we may see students act out who for reasons we cannot always understand. Sometimes it is a kid just being a knuckle-head or a bit of the case of summer-fever. Other times there is a deeper cause. In my previous district, I had a student break down in my office after a rough few days in the classroom and tell me he was worried about summer because there wasn't going to be anyone home during the day nor breakfast or lunch everyday. His thinking might have been that if he acted out enough he'd "have to" stay longer at school. It was an "ah-ha" for me. The acting out as a reaction to the uncertainty of not having a routine and consistency that school provides was something I had a hard time understanding until the student just stated it. 


We do have students at Maple Grove that will be faced with uncertainty - whether it be not having a consistent meal, no adult attention, or having positive peers around him/her. Please take time these last couple weeks to recognize the cause of some of behaviors and seek supports from Nicole, Shanlyn and our office if needed. Reach out yourself. Plan activities that engage students minds. Be kind.


I appreciate you being consistent but also patient and compassionate at the same time. Just like Calvin, our kids may need to be smothered with affection. :-) 

On the lighter side...

...for those of you who need a pick-me-up

May 4, 2012

Final Weeks - I had someone share a quote with me this week that I put on a sticky-note and tried to place over Paula's count down: "Don't count the days, make the days count." Although me covering the daily countdown was a bit of a joke, I do want to stress the importance of making every day count. We have a many hours left to make an impression on our students, to connect with a parent, to pat a colleague on the back and put the most positive end to a wonderful school year as we can! It has been a great year and I appreciate you showing up, pitching in, pushing hard and, of course, laughing lots - each and every day we have remaining (however many that may be!). :-)  


Assessment Data Entry - All data should be entered on your team's Google.doc by Friday, May 11. This allows me time to convert those documents for your team into Excel sheets in which you can print year end data sheets for student folders. All teams will use this method this year. 


Next Steps After Professional Professional - Thank you for your participation and brainstorming during our time on Wednesday. It is our turn to take a look at what your teams have come up with and identify next steps. Before our summer retreat, Leslie and I will...

1. Look over and continue the conversation as to whether we can feasibly tackle all listed or whether we are better off narrowing it down to a few and supporting those. We may also look at some as "tasks", some as "research, development & implementation" and others as "ongoing learning" or things that can go on without us getting involved.
2. Add a 4th column to the Google.doc "What commitment is needed to get this job/task done?" Meaning - would the team need to set a time to meet monthly, meet via Google.doc, as needed, etc.
3. Identifying facilitators for groups. Having 1-2 go-to people worked well for this year's groups.
4. Review resources list and begin process of purchasing necessary items.

Blogs - Please refer to Nicole Lawrence's email about what to do with your blog. All blog posts will be deleted on July 2nd. An all staff email will be sent out when it's safe to put blog posts back online. Copy and paste any information you want to ensure you keep to your computer. Wouldn’t hurt to save all information (i.e. "plan for the worse").

Boundary Committee - If you're interested in following the conversation around the boundary changes coming with the new school, you can find meeting dates and notes on the School Board website. Anyone is welcome to attend the meetings as observers.

Looking ahead...because I've been asked twice, more are thinking this question: staff may leave after 2pm on the last day (teacher workday). Also, olease check out (and add if something's missing) our "Dates to Remember"

A message from Central Print - As you think about print jobs not going through the AEA, please read part of a message from our Central Print I received: 

Just want to let everyone know that we will be printing during the summer again this year.  We encourage you to let your staff know that any and all printing that can be done over the summer is a good thing!  August is proven to be extremely busy, with no guarantee on turn around time.  We do our best, but if we can print in June and July and take some of the burden off of August it is even better. Also, for those that may not know, Central Print is moving locations!  Plans are to begin moving as soon as school is out.  We will be located on the far east side of the high school fitness center (old YMCA) near the new Activities offices. Peggy Tippin and Lynette Gartma 515-987-2722  (ext. 2686); 515-554-4234 (Peggy cell)

FREE Summer Learning Opportunities

• Registration is under way for Pursuing the Promise, the Iowa Department of Education's special education conference in Des Moines on June 11-12. The conference is ideal for teachers, parents, students, administrators and community members who participate in the special education community. To register for the conference, go to http://iowaspecialed.eventbrite.com. Registration cut-off is May 25. The conference is an opportunity to learn what is going on statewide to eliminate the achievement gap, hear about evidence-based practices in special education and network with the community of special education teachers, parents, students, researchers and policymakers. Speakers include the Iowa Department of Education's Director Jason Glass and state Special Education Director Martin Ikeda.
• The Our Kids Summer Institute conference at WDSM Valley HS will be June 19-20.  Two graduate credit hours will be available onsite through William Penn. The registration fee is $100, but the first 350 to register before May 11 will receive a $125 stipend from the Department of Education. Registration includes lunch and an afternoon snack each day. To register, please visit the Heartland AEA website at www.aea11.k12.ia.us and click on Course Catalog located under Quick Links at the bottom of the page. On the Search page, click Search and find Our Kids Summer Institute 2011 in the alphabetical listing. Click on the Activity ID (ES006769571301) number for activity details and registration or use this URL link

April 27, 2012

Problem Solving Core team will be meeting Monday morning to review final data from the year. Please meet in the office conference room at 8:00 am.

Professional Development next Wednesday will engage staff in applying the Characteristics of Effective Instruction to our current Content PLC work and planning for future differentiated learning for staff. Teachers will also be able to hear about learning and collaboration that took place this year during our initial year of Content PLC implementation. An agenda will be emailed out next week.

BLT will be meeting next Thursday at 8:00am in the office conference room and should plan on attending our 1/2 day CSIP meeting the morning of Monday, May 7.

May 16th Celebration - Looking ahead, our PD on 5/16 will be our 2nd Annual Team Celebration day. Each team should be working on their 5-7 minute 'presentation.' Anything...okay, maybe not "anything"...goes as long as you're sharing your team's successes, goal work, learning and celebrations. We will also be sharing building successes and getting a jump start for summer and the 2012-13 school year. Finally...our 4th grade team will be send us on our way with some music. I've decided to let them choose their song so I look forward to them entertaining us! We hope to make it a fun afternoon of sharing and celebrating!

Scheduling for 2012-13 – A couple additional items worth sharing with everyone about scheduling for next year. First, we will purposely cluster ELP, ESL and SPED students again next year to provide co-teaching opportunities. Those teachers (or I) will be communicating those placements as we begin to build class lists. We believe pushing in to the classrooms during math and reading was a success this year and I have enjoyed seeing the data (observational and numbers) shared with me during annual conference meetings. Secondly, once again, literacy (including writing) and math will be at set times during the day for teachers engaged in co-teaching and those classrooms sending/receiving accelerated math students. It is a challenge to manage/coordinate all the schedules so I appreciate your flexibility! The SPED co-teaching schedule should be completed in early May.  Questions – talk to Lindsey, Kristen R or myself.

Please check out (and add if something's missing) 

our "Dates to Remember"

Thanks to Lyndsay for sending me this. Made me laugh so I thought I'd share...