Summer Updates...June 2012

I hope you're all enjoying your summer with family and friends! It has been a good one for me so far. Lots of time with kids/Jen and much more golfing lately (still not any good)! Also, I am still attempting to process the wonderful presentations and information we gained from the PLC Institute a couple weeks ago! It was well worth the trip and I hope to get those of you who have not attended one, to an Institute in the near future! As for the purpose of this post, it is my attempt to keep you all in the loop! I will update as the summer progresses so check back in (if you like). :-)

June 21, 2012
Staffing - Many of you already heard we hired Kerry Sprague as our school nurse! We are excited to add her to our office staff this fall. We have hired two associates this summer already. Stacey Squires will be returning as an associate this fall and we are excited to have her back with us! Megan Dalton has transferred from Shuler to MGE this summer and will be in our new 1/2 time associate position in Jen Latcham's room. She is bringing multiple years of successful experience as an associate within the district! Additional associate interviews are taking place next week so stay tuned. We were also approved for a 1/2 time additional reading teacher last week!! After talking to Julie, Kristin and Leslie today, we will begin putting together a job description and post the position. We believe we will be able to serve more kids at more levels this year and are excited for the opportunity provided! More to come on that one.


PLC Meetings - This is a repeat to many but just wanting to make sure the consistent message is out there: through conversation with BLT and PSC teams, we will be moving to a "daily PLC" meeting rotation this coming fall. Teams will meet at days of the cycle with 5th grade working with me on another idea of PLC later in the day. I'm still working on the logistics, but it would basically look like the following. More conversation during our initial building meeting in August and my next post will include some of rationale and conversation about why we are making the move.

• 8:00-8:50a (or 8:55a) with classrooms covered by a mix of teachers/associates.
• Day 1-1st; Day 2-2nd; Day 3-3rd; Day 4-4th; Day 5-BLT/PSC/PBIS/SPED; Day 6-K
• 5th grade tentatively Day 2 during band; 2:45-3:40p

Schedule - The RA schedule for 12-13 sits in "Draft #2" and is being reviewed by RA and BLT members. It is challenging to schedule for 30 (and possibly 31) sections with all the other "tight" variables (lunch, recess, ELP, SPED, reading lab, pre-algebra, etc.). Although the schedule will never be ideal for all, I appreciate your flexibility in making it work for your students and classroom!

Enrollment - We've been sitting pretty steady at 710 students (+/- 5) since summer started. Our kindergarten enrollment sits at 135 so we will see what July/early August brings.

Summer Cleaning - Our summer cleaning crew headed up by Shelley has been plugging along and the building looks and smells better already! :-) Not only do they work hard each day, but I've enjoyed the laughter next door during lunch this summer...I'm sure they are not laughing at me. ;-)

My schedule - I will be here the rest of the month except June 29. If you're trying to track me down in July, here are the days I'll be here and/or available. For the week of:

• July 2 - around but not in the office consistently
• July 9 - here all week except Monday
• July 16 - here on Monday; gone the rest of the week
• July 23 - around but not in the office consistently Mon-Tues; on email but not here Wed-Fri
• July 30 - will begin regular 8a-4p hours!

Back-to-School Schedule for 2012-13 has been initially announced and is tentative. More information will be provided from Dr. Wilkerson later this summer but I wanted to give you a general idea of the days/times as you begin to think about the upcoming school year (I'm not forcing you to think about school though!!):

Monday, Aug 6 - New to Waukee Teaching Staff professional learning (AM) is optional but highly recommended. Mentoring induction will be in the PM for all 1st/2nd year teachers new to the profession and their mentors.

Tuesday, Aug 7 - New-to-Waukee staff report to Prairieview (theater). Work with mentors in PM.

Wednesday, Aug 8 - New-to-Waukee staff work in buildings. Meet with me in the AM.

Thursday, Aug 9 - All Teaching Staff report! Work in classrooms.

Friday, Aug 10 - All Teaching Staff: building level mtgs/professional learning and assorted district meetings; time to work in rooms.

Monday, Aug 13 -  All Teaching Staff @ Lutheran Church of Hope in AM; work in building in the AM/PM. Open House for PK-5 is 5:00-7:00 pm.

Tuesday, Aug 14 - MGE Vision Day (formerly known as Data Day). This professional development day will be a great opportunity to have some fun and to begin the process for us to get insanely focused on what our students need. In turn, we will spend time looking at what we (our staff) need in order to able to provide the needed response. Continued work between now and August by the team of teachers who attended the PLC Institute this summer and our BLT will provide a fun and engaging Vision Day for all!

May 18, 2012

Just to spite someone you all know, :-) the first thing included in this week's FWR is our Content-PLC Focus 2012-2013 Survey (http://bit.ly/JIpx6z). This is the one we ran out of time to take yesterday and is tied to the yellow sheet. Takes 5 minutes. :-) Thank you for your input as it will help drive building and differentiated professional development for 2012-13.

(-:   Take survey now   :-)

Now that you've finished the survey...

End of Year Staff Check List FAQ - First...before you ask questions in the office, please read through the check list and ask a teammate for the answer (sort of the "ask 3 and then ask me" theory many of you use in class). :-) Here are a few FAQs we've heard this week...

• Cum folders and Perm cards stay in the office or office conference room when placing stickers and writing on them!
• Data folder boxes are ready to go in the conference room. PLEASE put them in the NEXT grade level box alphabetically by grade not classroom.
• Grade level leaders (K-2) have your shapes and envelopes are behind Paula's desk. DO NOT seal them.
• Directions to print end of year Final Progress Report for cum file were attached to the FWR email I sent. Please read through them.
• IA Assessment labels were placed in your box (gr 3-5).
• Attendance stickers were placed in your box.
• We will hand out IA Assessment and MAP results on Friday. SEND them home on Monday. 

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. Leaving previous DIBELs packets for kids going in to grades 3-5 is optional. The data sheet will be generated from the excel sheet I sent each team. If you have problems pulling up a student's name and/or data on the Excel sheet, let me know as I've fixed a couple 'bugs' already. 


iPads - Carrie and I met this past week. I've made the decision to not check out iPads this summer. There is a lot of set up that needs to be done to them prior to the fall so they are ready for your classroom. We will use some time prior to school to provide training and get them checked out to you.


Grant to work on in the summer - Greater Iowa Credit Union understands that money is tight for teachers. That’s why they've developed a special grant program to allow K-5 teachers to purchase items they may not otherwise be able to afford. Classroom supplies, technology, equipment, field trips–there are plenty of possibilities!

 REPEAT: 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. 

"Are you serious, Clark?" is a quote my brothers and I use with each other when we are questioning each other's validity to something we've just said (we've also seen Christmas Vacation 100 times). I think one of them may have said that to me after I attempted to wrap up your wonderfully entertaining celebration skits/videos. But truth is...I was being serious. I love getting up and coming here each day. The work our entire team (teachers, office, associates, custodians, nutrition) has done with the kids this year has been amazing and I am proud to be along with for the ride. Of course, because of your hard work, I am the "world's greatest boss" and site manager of the year (see below). ;-) Thanks for the great season of "The Office", gang. Enjoy the last few days with each other and our kids. Your summer break (and The Office Season 3) is just around the corner.

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