March 30, 2012

Another short survey ... :-) ...we need all staff to complete can be accessed here. Nicole and I are looking for ideas to help us recognize and honor our volunteers here at MGE. Your input is important so please complete today or this weekend. THANK YOU!!


Portfolio and Summative Documents for Career Year 3 and Initial License Year 2/3 teachers are due next Monday, April 2nd. Everyone should refer to the email sent out March 16 regarding year end evaluation procedures. Annual Conference forms (ITPDPs) should be emailed to your evaluator by April 13th.


Evening Classroom Presentations - several of you have talked to me about hosting classroom presentations in the evening between now and the end of the year. That is awesome and I will try to make it when I can (between baseball games!) Please, please, get those times and dates to Paula and I so we can enter them on the calendar. Knowing who is in the building helps our custodial staff!


Classroom/Grade Level Projects and Field Trips - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE....if you have a major project/student presentation or field trip coming up, please take pictures and email a short summary BEFORE or AFTER to Paula so she can get the information in to the Des Moines Register. I love to see the kids in action and its great to promote the hands-on, community or technology projects you're doing with kids!


Spring Assessment Window has been communicated with our BLT and we will finalize discussion next Friday during our BLT meeting before school. I will have Google.doc "spring tabs" updated with names/ID numbers sometime next week.


Spring weather brings bugs and spiders. :-) If you notice a large number of bugs, let me know instead of filling out a maintenance request. An occasional mean spider or one large spider does not necessitate 9-1-1 call but spiders traveling in a pack may prompt me to fill out a request. 


AEA Print - "Really? Again?" you ask. ...as your team begins to think about collecting AEA print request for 2012-13 (due by the last teacher contract day), please consider turning in all grade level sets of assessments, unit projects or any print that will be multiple pages for all students in your grade level. AEA print is just short of 1/3 the cost our district office charges us. Over the past few weeks, several times, I have signed off on central print copies totaling over 500 copies and one near 1000 copies. I've included some examples of cost savings as you think about print down the stretch...and remember the less print costs, the more money we have for items like iPads, books and document cameras! Thank you!

• 250 copies     AEA=$4.00     D.O.=$11.15   Savings=$7.15  
• 500 copies     AEA=$8.00     D.O.=$22.30   Savings=$14.30  
• 1000 copies   AEA=$16.00   D.O.=$44.60    Savings=$28.60  

Fundraiser Opportunity - Not required, but I strongly encourage you to attend a fundraiser for our building that will be this Sunday, April 1st. We will be doing a car wash at the Fareway store located near the bowling alley on Hickman. Sorry for the late notice, but the high school Lego Robotics team backed out and I thought it would be a great team builder and fundraiser for us. If everyone could show up at noon and we will only be there until 5pm. DRESS APPROPRIATELY please. I'm using the following site to advertise our fundraiser. Thank you in advance!!

March/April At-Bat Songs!

 Two more next week and then the contest ends!

Who will be singing to us all in May??

Mark Joye, Lorri Lynde, Toni Rand and Shelley Wagaman - custodians

Tasha Turner, kindergarten; Abby Masters, 2nd grade

Shanlyn Doll, counselor; Thresa Stone, associate

She's Country - Jason Alden

Count on Me - Bruno Mars

At-Bat Contest Update!

Going in to our bonus round, here are the results. Winning team gets a prize.  Losing team gets to sing to all of us at our May 9 PD! :-) Custodian songs are worth double this month. Good luck

March 16, 2012

Home Stretch - Coming back from spring break, we will have 8-1/2 weeks left of school! Wow. Coming in the form of memos soon :-) will be information about annual/summative conferences, class-list meetings  and related arts scheduling for 2012-13. This is an advance, THANK YOU, for putting up with (and completing!!!) many year-end nuts-and-bolts items while maintaining focus on what matters: student learning and achievement! I also appreciate you making a conscious effort to choose joy throughout the next 9 weeks! Those on the outside, don't realize how much more there is to teaching, counseling, being an associate, custodian, secretary or feeding our kids on a daily basis...I do...and I appreciate all you do to make Lyndsay and my job easier.


Early Out Schedules - March 28 is a professional development early out day. An agenda will be sent to all staff prior to March 26. That Friday (March 30), we run an early out schedule in order for our RA team to attend a PLC+ opportunity with Shuler's RA team. We appreciate everyone's flexibility to make this happen.

March 20 - Hopefully you'll be "unplugged" from work next Tuesday, March 20, but in case you are not, please know that the district will be without phone and internet service for a large portion of the day as the high school does some work. This would also affect district email through webmail/smart phones.

March 26 - I will be out of the district still on Monday, March 26. Lyndsay will be to Maple Grove by 9:30 am and be here the remainder of the day.

March 26 - Leslie returns!  ....and PLC+ dates are as follows: 3/29 is 2nd/4th; 4/3 is 3rd/5th; 4/5 is 1st/K. The schedule came out from Lyndsay today! Conflicts, let her know.

Speakers & Assemblies - Recent events at a school district in Iowa have lead to suggestions from SAI (School Administrators of Iowa) for all Iowa districts regarding bringing in guest speakers and/or assembly programs. It was suggested to provide all teachers with the understanding of four important points:

• Any speaker coming in to classrooms should be approved by the principal prior to speaking event. 
• Ask the speaker in advance if they will be showing any videos or clips. Preview those clips.
• If your guest violates expectations or a teacher feels uncomfortable about the presentation, you have the authority to end the presentation immediately.
• If your guest shares, says or does something inappropriate, write down all the facts and notified the building administration immediately.

...and in light of the recent events, I will be contacting our Magic Storyteller prior to our April 20th assembly! :-) 

Looking ahead...
* Mar 28 - Early out PD @ MGE
* Mar 29 - Instructional Rounds @ SMS
* Mar 30 - Early out schedule (RA @ SE)
* Apr 2 - 2nd gr field trip
* Apr 4 - Early out (math curriculum focus; RA district teams)
* Apr 4 - Tornado Drill
* Apr 6 - Barry in Iowa City (recruiting fair)
* Apr 9 - MAP begins!
* Apr 14 - PTO Carnival @ YMCA; 6:30-8:30p
* Apr 18 - Early out (MGE PLCs: math 'digestion'; MGE RA PLC)
* Apr 20 - 4th/5th AM HS music event;
* Apr 20 - PBIS Assemblies: Magic Storyteller in the PM (EO schedule)

March/April At-Bat Songs!

 This wild card bunch is just that - Wild!

Good luck guessing!

This month's contestants include:

Mark Joye, Lorri Lynde, Toni Rand and Shelley Wagaman - custodians

Tasha Turner, kindergarten; Abby Masters, 2nd grade

Shanlyn Doll, counselor; Thresa Stone, associate

Moonlight Sonta - Beethoven

Back in Black - AC/DC

Note: this person's 1st song was too inappropriate to even be on here!!

Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd