Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Week of February 17, 2025

Happy Valentine's Day (a little early).  There is NOTHING like Valentine's Day in an elementary school.  All the boxes, valentines, candy, chocolate, and flowers.  SO MUCH FUN and SO MUCH LOVE TO SPREAD AROUND!  Have fun with your kiddos.  Friday is going to be an awesome day of learning, work, and FUN- I can't wait.  ENJOY your three day weekend! I hope you and your loved ones enjoy some special time together.


DID YOU KNOW:
  • some of you are missing out on some extra money on your paycheck?  If you are tutoring, please remember to turn in Extra Duty Pay sheets before the end of each month. You earn $25 for every hour your tutor.
  • the Book Fair will be open during and after the party?  Look out- Chantel is manning a register!!
  • this is the schedule for Thursday?  Thank you, again, for eating lunch in your houses.  Trash cans are delivered, and we will call you down to the cafeteria over the intercom, by grades, for the performance. 

BREAKFAST ON FRIDAY
Please join us in the lounge on Friday morning at 8:00.  We sure love you a waffle lot and can't wait to treat you.



FRIDAY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY
  • Overview: The day will begin with a waffle bar in the lounge starting at 8:00 am. We will end our day at 3:30 pm.
  • Lunch on Your Own: Enjoy the flexibility to choose where and what you'd like to eat. Don't want to spend $, our lounge is always an option.
  • Attire: Dress comfortably for a day of active learning.  Sneakers are a MUST
  • What to Have Ready: Fully charged Mac.  If you have pickleball paddles, please bring them.



NO SCHOOL
Although we have professional learning on Friday, please communicate to learners and parents that they do not have school on Friday and Monday.  Enjoy your Monday off!


LEEDERSHIP COUNCIL SALE ON WEDNESDAY
LEEdership Council will sell bubble wands for one dollar on Wednesday.  Please share with your famiLEEs. 

FLEX LEARNING WEDNESDAY



ONCOR PROGRAM ON THURSDAY
Please follow this schedule for Thursday's presentations.  Thank you, Kristi, for working on the schedule as part of your internship.



VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
2nd Grade is throwing a Star Party for 2nd graders and their families on the evening of Thursday, February 20th.  We are looking for 7-10 volunteers to help us man the stations at the event from 6:00-7:30PM.  We will have an inflatable planetarium, craft stations, space-themed math connections, and an out-of-this-world scientific photography gallery.  All activities will be pre-planned and materials provided, we just need help with facilitating.  2-3 flex hours will be given to those who sign up.  Please reach out to a 2nd grade designer if you are interested in helping out!



RECOGNIZE A PEER

super teacher icon 
Super Teachers

Know a star educator who demonstrates the qualities above? Nominate them for Super Teacher recognition by March 5.

Learn more about what makes a teacher a Super Teacher by browsing the "Looks Fors" at visiting www.coppellisd.com/page/super-teachersNomination form here. 

GEMs icon 
Great Employees Matter (GEMs)

The GEMs program seeks to recognize outstanding employees who serve the mission and core values of the Coppell Independent School District in a manner that exceeds job and salary expectations. Nominate a GEM in your school by March 14.

Learn more about the program at www.coppellisd.com/page/great-employees-matterNomination form here. 

FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY



COACH'S CORNER

🚨Timely Reminders:

  • All K-5 educators: 

    • We are still in the MAP/mClass assessment window until February 28th.  New learners that enroll should be assessed as soon as possible.

    • Later this month the district will let us know when to send home MAP & mClass parent reports.  


💎Classroom Tech Treasures 

Are you having trouble with student BULB submissions?  

Here is an infographic that may help!

If you have questions, I would love to pop by your space and go through it with you.

* If you have already assigned your page to the group and students have worked on their page and submitted, you can skip to step 3 - "Now…Where Is It?"  


LESSSON IN LEEDERSHIP (pick one)


DATES TO REMEMBER:
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH
CTE APPRECIATION MONTH
MAP & MCLASS WINDOW

February 17- National Random Acts of Kindness Day
     Bad Weather Day- NO SCHOOL
February 19- LEEdership Council Sale (before school)
     Flex Learning (3:15)
     TELPAS Calibration (3:15)
February 20- ONCOR Electric Safety Presentation
     2nd Grade Star Party (6:00 PM)
February 21- Cathy's Birthday
     School Supply Lists Due to CK
February 22- Mayra's Birthday
     Kat's Birthday
     Joy's Birthday

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Week of February 10, 2025

How is it that Open House is a little over a month away?  That means- Spring Break, too!  You all have hung in there this week with all of the sickness in North Texas.  Thank you for helping each other out in your houses and grades.  Stay well!  I'm off tomorrow.  If you need anything Kat and Angel have you covered. 

DID YOU KNOW:
  • Dr. Hunt says we can wear jeans from February 10-14?  You know what that means!!!
  • Jacky and Audrey need all the pictures you can share for yearbook?  Please add them to the folders here
  • we were recognized as a 2025 Certified School of Kindness?  Thank you, all of you, for your work to bring the Great Kindness Challenge to life each year.
  • one of our former Lee Spurs, Ishitha Mallidi, is competing in this weekend's wrestling tournament at CHS arena?  Ishitha is a junior who has been wrestling since middle school. She previously qualified for state her sophomore year, on top of maintaining solid grades in advanced classes. She recently became district champion last week and helped her team win the district title. She has even competed nationally, becoming an All-American at last year’s Folkstyle National Championships.  How cool is this?


FOOTBALL FIESTA FRIDAY
Thank you, Social Spurs, for helping to organize our Nacho Bar.  Thank you to all of the houses for all the other "fixin's" to help feed the whole "team."  



BOOK FAIR
Our Spring Book Fair is here.  Please give permission for learners to come down when Holly communicates with you.  The Book Fair will be open on Valentine's Day during the Valentine Party. Create your e-wallet here.




PTO MEETING ON TUESDAY
Save the date! Our next Virtual PTO Meeting is coming up on Tuesday, February 11th, at 6pm. Tune in for key updates from the Lee administration and your PTO team. A link to join will be emailed prior to the meeting. We can’t wait to see you there!



VALENTINES DAY
Thursday is going to be a fun-filled day with a school wide program (Patrol Stories) in the cafe/gym at 2:00 and Valentine Parties at the end of the day.  Do you have any learners who need valentines?  Please get with Angela.  The day's schedule is below and is also on our Master Schedule document.  We KINDLY ask that all houses eat lunch in their houses, on Thursday, so that we can get the cafe prepped and our program can get set up. 




FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY



FRIDAY PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY
  • Overview:  The day will begin with a waffle bar in the lounge starting at 8:00 am. We will end our day at 3:30 pm.
  • Lunch on Your Own: Enjoy the flexibility to choose where and what you'd like to eat.  Don't want to spend $, our lounge is always an option.
  • Attire: Dress comfortably for a day of active learning.
  • What to Have Ready: Fully charged Mac, iPad, and Apple Pencil


NO SCHOOL
Although we have professional learning on Friday, please communicate to learners and parents that they do not have school on Friday and Monday.  Enjoy your Monday off!



VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
2nd Grade is throwing a Star Party for 2nd graders and their families on the evening of Thursday, February 20th.  We are looking for 7-10 volunteers to help us man the stations at the event from 6:00-7:30PM.  We will have an inflatable planetarium, craft stations, space-themed math connections, and an out-of-this-world scientific photography gallery.  All activities will be pre-planned and materials provided, we just need help with facilitating.  2-3 flex hours will be given to those who sign up.  Please reach out to a 2nd grade designer if you are interested in helping out!



COACH'S CORNER

Here is the Explore Learning Google folder for more resources. You can find lesson planning support and more! Laura Maisel (who did our training) really recommends using the Facebook pages for Reflex and Gizmos supplemental information. *K-2 designers: We will reschedule your Science4Us training soon.


‘RAZ News You Can Use’

 eTool Tips

Retell Practice

Use the microphone to practice retelling.  Have students listen or read the story and record themselves giving a retell of the story.  Go to the In Basket to listen to their retell.

 

Finding Textual Evidence

Have students use a highlighter to go back to the story to highlight textual evidence to support a response to a quiz question.

 

___________________________________________________________________________

Grades K-2

Phonics Lessons

Teach effective phonics using explicit, systematic instruction and practice.  Manipulatives in each lesson provide small group and learning center manipulatives for intentional practice.

 

Grades 2-6

Close Read Packs

Help students think critically to uncover layers of meaning within a text and deepen comprehension as students collaborate to answer Key Questions. 

(active engagement, differentiated resources, and intentional practice)



ESL UPDATES



LESSON IN LEADERSHIP



DATES TO REMEMBER:
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH
CTE APPRECIATION MONTH
SPRING BOOK FAIR WEEK

February10-  Upstander Presentations for 3rd and 5th Grades
     Kinder Dentist Visit (Cafe 2:00)
February 11- Amirtha's Birthday
     Progress Report Grades Due (8:00 AM)
     Virtual PTO Mtg. (6:00)
February 12- 5th Grade Visit from CMSW (8:30 Cafe)
     Leadership Mtg. (3:15)
February 13- Day 0- Alternate schedule
     Patrol Stories Program (1:00)
     Valentine Parties (2:00-3:00)
February 14- Valentine's Day
     Campus Professional Development (8:00-3:30)
February 15- Bethany's Birthday
February 17- Bad Weather Day- NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Week of February 3, 2025

Happy Thursday, sweet folks.  What a GREAT week spreading and celebrating kindness.  Your beautiful banners look glorious hanging through our school!  I am reminded, daily, what a blessing it is to be at Lee Elementary with each of YOU!  Stay healthy!!

DID YOU KNOW:
  • houses have professional learning during conference time on Monday?  K-2 will receive training on Science 4 Us in your design studios and 3-5 will receive training on Gizmos in the conference room.  This learning is provided by and recommended by Samira.  Please come with any questions or ideas for implementation or enrichment with these resources.
  • we will not have our staff meeting on Wednesday?  We will move our required school training on on STAAR and TELPAS security to our February 14 campus professional learning day.  Enjoy having that Wednesday afternoon back.
  • we will have a presentation on Thursday, Feb 20, from Oncor?  They are going to all CISD elementary schools and teaching them about the importance of electric safety, how to identify potential danger, and what to do in harmful situations.  This presentation will take place in the cafe from 8:00-9:00 for K-2 and 9:00-10:00 for 3-5.  Letting you know now, so that you can mark your calendars. 
  • we have school Board walks on Thursday?  Please make sure you are showing off excellence at Lee and that spaces are tidy.  Guests will be here between 8:30 and 10:30.  

SCHOOL COUNSELOR APPRECIATION WEEK
We are fortunate to have an incredible school counselor at Lee Elementary.  Please help us in celebrating Mrs. Garvin for ALL that she does not only on the frontline, but behind the scenes to serve our learners, famiLEEs, and staff.  



100th DAY OF SCHOOL
Monday, February 3, is the 100th day of school.  We can't wait to help celebrate everyone being 100 days smarter!



COLLEGE SHIRT DAY
Wednesday is College Shirt Day.  Encourage learners to participate by wearing a college shirt on the first Wednesday of each month.  


RODEO GOAT SPIRIT NIGHT
Join us next Thursday, February 6, at Rodeo Goat in Cypress Waters starting at 4 PM for a fun night of food and fundraising! 🎶 With the Purple House music performance happening the same evening, it’s the perfect chance to grab dinner before or after the show. 20% of sales go to Lee PTO! Don’t miss out!



FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY
We hope you enjoy the month of February filled special Friday events.  Thank you to Social Spurs for sponsoring our first Fabulous Friday with a Nacho Bar.


BOOK FAIR
Our Spring Book Fair is one week away.  We WILL be open during the Valentine Day parties so stop by.  Create your e-wallet here.

VALENTINE PARTIES COMING SOON
Parents, please make sure that if you want to attend and help at the Valentine Party that you have signed up to volunteer and have your background check completed.  


TELPAS TESTING
Don't forget that we have school-wide testing on February 24 and February 25.

COACH'S CORNER

  • We have two more flex learning opportunities.  What would you like to learn about?  Flex learning input
  • 100th day of school activities (scroll down a little bit)
  • 🔦District Resource Spotlight
    • Discovery Education has a section called Spotlight on Strategies.  These SOS Instructional Strategies are research-based strategies for integrating Discovery Education digital curriculum resources in meaningful, effective, and practical ways.
  • Timely Reminders:
    • All K-5 educators:  We are in the middle of our MOY NWEA MAP & mCLASS testing window.  Remember to complete your MAP makeup tests as soon as you can. Learning Coaches will send periodic updates of incomplete assessments.
  • Use this graphic organizer with the learning strategy AEIOU. Interpret information from images or videos and write down thoughts next to five descriptive categories: A-E-I-O-U.



LESSON IN LEADERSHIP



DATES TO REMEMBER:
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH
CTE APPRECIATION MONTH
NATIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING WEEK
MOY MAP and MCLASS WINDOW

Feb 1- Blue House on Lounge Duty this month- thanks with clean up and helping with silverware
Feb 3- Professional Development during conference time
     100th Day of School
Feb 5- College Shirt Day
     Staff Meeting CANCELLED- enjoy the gift of time back
Feb 6- LEEdership Council Mtg. (8:00)
     CISD Board Walk (8:30-10:30)
     Purple House Music Performance (2:00 and 6:30)
     Rodeo Goat Spirit Day
Feb 7-  Chantel Off campus