August 26, 2011

Building/District Calendar - The district will be using a new public calendar for events taking place at each building and events for MGE can be added through Carrie or Paula. An example would be when a date/time is picked out for Reading Lab Parent Night, Julie and Kristin would let Paula know and she would enter it. Please take a second to visit the new calendar to check it out:  http://www.schedulefm.com/waukee/public 


FERPA Form and Pictures - After our InfoSnap (registration) information was polished, we discovered that we have 34 students who parents have requested we do not share their name/photo on class lists, in yearbooks, in school programs, brochures, newsletters, websites, etc. Paula is sending out a clarifying letter about what that entails so parents have chance to rescind their request as the initial form is a bit confusing.  Until we have a final number/list of names, please refrain from posting or using any student names/pictures in your emails, newsletters and/or website.  We hope to have the information back to you in a couple weeks and that it be a much smaller list.  


Doll/Marron - As mentioned, when Lyndsay goes on maternity leave, Shanlyn will be picking up an additional 1/4-time here at Maple Grove to help cover some of her roles and responsibilities. One piece will be helping find/enter substitutes for MGE staff members. All personal day requests during Lyndsay's maternity leave will need to be sent to Shanlyn as she has Lyndsay's calendar. Day-to-day absences after 7am can go through either Shanlyn or I. Shanlyn will be adding every Monday and will be here every Friday for a 1/2 day (instead of her current every-other Friday 1/2 day). Shanlyn can support you with student challenges that Lyndsay currently supports you with too. We are happy we have the support at MGE!


Sick Leave - If you're trying to enter sick leave and it states you're over, click "Save Anyway." AESOP has not caught up yet. :-) 


Parent Emails - As a part of our district privacy policy all staff must use the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) when sending parent emails to more than one parent.  This may be new information for some so if you have questions or need to know how to do this, please see one of your teammates, Carrie or myself.


Bus Evacuation Video - Per Nicole's email, please have your students view the safety video prior to your student's evacuation drill scheduled time on August 30th. 


Upcoming PD - All staff will be involved in learning centered on our new district website and building individual teacher webpages on August 31st. BRING YOUR COMPUTER to the library by 2:10 pm!!  September 6th's full day professional development will be focused on the district's guiding principles around SBAR (Standards Based Assessment and Reporting) and the direct ties to conferences. We will also present PBIS baseline data to teachers so teams can discuss goals during their September PBIS/PSC PLC meeting.  Finally, Shanlyn and I will present information to staff about our At-Risk manual, process and teams will spend time looking at their own students to identify ones who may be classified as "at-risk." 

Recycled Punches - There is a bucket in the copy room where you can return our recycled "punches" we are using this year. Related arts, associates, office staff, custodians, etc. may take these recycled "punches" to hand out to student as rewards for being responsible, respectful, caring and safe. No names will be added to those sheets when handed out so we can reduce, reuse and recycle!

New recycled "punches"!!

Many thank you's to everyone for the team effort in meeting the needs of all of our students (many, many, many, many kindergarteners) these first few days of school. I am fortunate to work in an environment where kids tell me on a daily basis, "I love coming to school."  It is because of each of you.  Of course we do have some of this...but it will get better. :-)

August 22, 2011

A few items to start the week (Friday seems too far away to wait)...

Oldest & Only - Please email Paula the number of "oldest & only" in your classroom today. How do you find out? Pretty complicated and techie - you just ask "How many of you are the oldest brother/sister here at Maple Grove?" and count the hands. When all the dust clears from summer registration, I'm sure there is a way to get it from our PS system. Until then, Paula needs your help. :-)

Teacher Websites - I have had several questions asked of me on Friday an over the weekend about your teacher/classroom websites and whether you should introduce them to parents or wait until you are given more information about our new website. Carrie and I met on Friday and we will be spending some time going over the new website and everyone will create their own 'home page' on our website.  The general guidelines we received from DO about keeping your current sites is below. We feel sites like Shutterfly and any site that you may have learned about this summer that would encourage student blogging/parent interaction will be okay to maintain and you will be able to link it to your homepage eventually. Sites that use advertising will not be allowed anymore. If you have a question about a site you're currently using, see Carrie or I.

District Curriculum Teams - Lyndsay has entered subs for all teachers involved in our district curriculum teams. An advanced "thank you" for all the work each of you will do this school year to keep us on the cutting edge of curriculum, instruction and assessment!  To view the teams and schedule, go to the curriculum tab on my blog.

From District Office regarding websites:

There was also a question regarding outside websites that have already been created by teachers for various reasons.  The general rules of thumb is: 

• If the site is used for communication with parents and/r students, the district template must be used.  For example, if it is something that students or parents would reference to gather information about a team or class, homework assignments, or upcoming events, it MUST use the Waukee template.  
• If the site is used as a learning tool (i.e. blogging about books, web quests, etc.) or as a work management tool (i.e. Edmodo), then teachers can continue to use that site.  The purpose of using the Waukee templates is so a parent can just go to the Waukee website and have access to all their students' teachers in one place.

August 19, 2011

Meetings - We have staff meeting for classroom teachers and SPED/ESL/RL teachers tomorrow (Friday) at 8:00 am. We will follow up with some additional assessment information for the teams during your first PLC meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.  


Recess Notes - During lunch recess, ALL TEACHERS should come out to pick up your students from recess and be present at least 2 minutes early to help with the learning process. We have recess/lunch associates who need to go straight from recess to lunch duty and cannot wait for teachers. As noted in the staff handbook, during good weather, teachers should pick up students outside. Thanks for starting this today.


Dates to Remember - Click here to access our year-long "Dates to Remember." You have all been given rights to update this document so please add any field trips, events, etc. We will use this document when communicating our upcoming events to our parents through our newsletter.


Curriculum Night is set for Tuesday, August 23.  Each grade level should have a consistent presentation, approximately 20 minutes in length and hosted in each classroom.  Times are as follows:
- 6:00-6:30 (K-1)
- 6:30-7:00 (Related Arts in Library)
- 7:00-7:30 (2-3)
- 7:30-8:00 (4-5)


Student/Parent Handbooks - You should pick up your handbooks Tuesday so you can hand them out during Curriculum Night.  These will be given to the oldest and only children. A list should be able to teachers soon. 


Newsletter - We will have a building newsletter ready to go at the end of the day. Hard copies will go out next week.  TODAY, please email Paula how many families need a hard copy so we can provide those to you each newsletter week.


Twitter - If you were not able to attend out Tweet-Up this summer and want to learn more about how we can/will use Twitter to share resources and learn from our colleagues (both here and outside MGE), let me know. We will set up a Twitter "breakfast" or "lunch" sometime over the next few weeks. For those of you already Twittering, please begin to use the following hashtags to share resources/learning/celebrations with your colleagues. Share these hashtags with teachers in our Waukee buildings who use Twitter or your PLN-friends anywhere!
#mgewaukee - share celebrations, upcoming events or resources with all of us at MGE!
#mgepbl - Project Based Learning ideas, resources, celebrations and learning
#mgerti - Interventions ideas, resources, celebrations and learning
#mgecoteach - Collaborative teaching ideas, resources, celebrations and learning
#mgetech - Technology integration ideas, resources, celebrations and learning
Others of interest...
#daily5
#elemchat


From the Nurse's Office - Just wanted to send out a reminder to all staff about students with life threatening peanut allergies at lunch. We request that they sit at a hot lunch table no matter what so they are not exposed to what other students bring in their lunch. This will help to keep them safe since our nutrition department does not contain peanuts/nuts. It would be best to seat them in the first row of hot lunch tables so they are surrounded by other hot lunch tables and are not right near a cold lunch table. Teachers, we will have to work together with others so we know who our peanut allergy kids are and make sure they are seated at the hot lunch table. Thanks for everyone's cooperation.


Birthday Treats - I cringed when I sent the message about students not being able to delivering treats around the building and to the office, but considering the number of our allergies this year and their severity, this will be our new policy. I'd be more than happy to visit a classroom during a birthday celebration.  Thank you in advance for communicating this message in a positive way with our students.