Week of September 2, 2019

What a beautiful week of learning with the children.  KUDOS to each of you for the incredible job you have done posting to Twitter these first two weeks.  Remember if we don't tell the story, who will?  We have more parents than ever responding and posting to our #rjlyear6 hashtag and both parents that attended our learning walk today gushed about the glimpse into their learner's day.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  We wish you a wonderful Curriculum Night, tonight. Your digital signage looks amazing and we know all spaces will be presentable for guests (even if they are not being used).  THANK YOU, Social Spurs, for stocking the fridge with drinks for us!  That was super sweet!

DID YOU KNOW:

• Raz Kids should be live on August 30?  Other rosters for digital apps are being loaded for you by the district.  I was told they will communicate when they are done.
• we have been approved to have Katerina Zhelnova fill in for Stormy Allen until Brody decides to make a debut and she becomes our designer in Yellow 3.  With the new ESL testing, it takes over 2 hours per child.  Thank you Katerina!  
• Feel free to use the Lucy Calkins anchor chart post-its in your kits.  We suggest laminating them so you can use them over and over again each year.  We will not be able to reorder sets for next year, so please consider laminating them, as you use them (great option for a parent volunteer- you could even send home to one), so our learners see common language and images across grades.

BIRTHDAY TREATS
I strongly suggest that when a birthday treat is sent home with learners that you send a quick email to inform your parents.  Want to make it easy?  Cut and paste this response to cover yourself in case a learner decides to eat their treat before going home.  This email serves as notification that your learner helped celebrate a classmate's birthday at school, today.  Your child placed the snack in their backpack during afternoon dismissal.  ENJOY!

BOY GOAL SETTING MEETINGS
Please sign up here for your BOY meeting- they start on TUESDAY.   We are excited to review your goals for the year and how we can support you.  Normally, we will include Jacque in these meetings so she can support you as our IC, but as you know she is out.  Please make sure your personal and campus goals are uploaded, and that you have multiple action steps along the way, before our meeting.  Bring your laptop to the large conference room for your meeting.  All campus employees must sign up.


PTO MEETING
On Tuesday, we have our first PTO Meeting.  Don't forget to bring a house learner to share out what your house has been working on the start of this school year.  The meeting starts at 6:30 in the cafeteria.


COLLEGE SHIRT DAY
College Shirt Day is the first Wednesday of every month.  Please promote this information to your learners and their famiLEEs through your newsletters.  We want to represent as many different colleges as possible on Wednesday.  Don't forget to tweet out pictures of learners to the colleges they represent.

LEEDERSHIP COUNCIL

Please complete this Google Form to communicate who your members are before you leave on Friday, September 6.


#COPPELLISDEF

The Coppell Education Foundation grant application window is open.  It closes on September 27, at 4:30.  The timeline, application, and guidelines we emailed to you.

Red and Black Superstar nomination are open for the first round this year. We ask that everyone submit at least one nomination.  CISDEF will recognize one learner per grade level and three staff members four times this year.  

If you are a new teacher, please remember to tweet a picture of your learning space or of items purchased and tag the Education Foundation.  They want to see what you purchased.

WALKTHROUGH FOCUS
Our focused walkthroughs for the next four weeks are in Domain 3 Dimension 1: Learning Environment.  We are looking for evidence of effective routines, transitions, and procedures that are implemented effortlessly.  We are looking for learners to be in charge of managing materials and that your room is safe, inviting, and orderly.  Think about your anchor charts?  Is there intention with where they are located? Is learner work displayed in your space?  Are your learning targets, respect agreement, and digital pledge posted?

RTI MEETINGS

RtI meetings will begin on Monday, September 9th.  Please use and update this spreadsheet for 2019-2020.      

DATES TO REMEMBER:
September 2- NO SCHOOL
     Nikki's Birthday
     Charlene's Birthday
September 3- Ed Foundation shirt and jeans
     PTO Meeting (6:30 Cafe)
September 4- College Shirt Day
     Staff Meeting (3:35- 5:00 Yellow House)
September 5- Digital Literacy Pledge and Overview Due

Week of August 26, 2019

WOW!  You made it through the first FULL week of school.  It has brought our Admin Team much happiness to spend time with each of your classes.  We have such INCREDIBLE learners and designers!!  THANK YOU for allowing your learners to visit the office as we all help foster an attitude of gratitude.  Excellent work on class respect agreements and firming up your school-wide and classroom routines.  Also, thank you for "ROLLING" with it for iPad Rollout.  Our first day went incredibly smooth.  We hope you are feeling the gratitude vibe so far this year, and in the spirit of gratefulness, hit the road as soon as you can on Friday.  ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!

DID YOU KNOW:

• there is a great blog post about Teaching Students How to Ask Productive Questions?  There is a graphic with great skill connections and sample sentence stems.
• there is a pdf of the CISD Employee Handbook?  Make sure you review it.  There are a few points we are required to cover in our first staff meeting (Sept 4), and we promise to try and make it fun for you!
• you need to sign the Lee Staff Handbook acknowledgment page and upload it to the Schoology media file by next Friday?   
• we host learning walks the last Thursday of each month for parents?  Please make sure to let them know about these so that they can be escorted by Admin and see what learning looks like in the building.
• you are required to watch the MAP required videos before administering?  Once you have, please submit a request for 2 hours of flex credit through Eduphoria.  MAP will be administered on learner iPads.  The window opens next week and as we get more specifics, they will be shared with you.
• you can join the Coppell Gifted Association for free until September 30?  
• that Angela has the book Lockdown Drill,  by Deputy Becky Coyle if you are interested in borrowing it.  A couple of our schools have invited their SRO's over to read the book.  I also know that Rachel Freeman (our district's Coordinator of Safety and Security) loves to read to classes as well.  Please let Angela know if you'd like to use it!
• we need your help with a few things?
• attendance MUST be turned turned in by 10:00.  THANKS to those who are getting attendance in and have alarms set.
• recycling and composting processes in the cafe need to be in place for all houses.  THANK YOU to those of you that already have older learners stationed at the four areas.  This needs to happen at each lunch time to help our little ones know how to do it properly.  Great job with table washing!
• the peanut table at LUNCH must be monitored for the safety of all.  This table is to be a peanut free table without exception and learners can invite friends to sit with them.  Our learners have to be kept safe.  THANK YOU!

DIGITAL LITERACY
As part of a district initiative regarding digital citizenship, all learners in grades K-12 are expected to take part in an overview of digital literacy by September 6.  All learners must take part in these experiences.  Overview resources can be found HERE.  Please let your grade level or content DLCs know if you have any questions regarding the Digital Literacy content.  On our first walk through we will be documenting if your class Digital Citizenship Pledge is signed and posted in your space.  It is a campus expectation that Digital Literacy/Citizenship be reviewed the beginning of each 9 weeks.


PERSONAL DAYS
Please remember to request your personal days 10 days in advance through SmartFind, now.  There is NO NEED to use Eduphoria Formspace.  This is also how you request a sub when you are sick.  Please make sure you bookmark this site and know how to log in.  


DIGITAL SIGNAGE
I believe this is already done, but if not, please work to get updated images up on your digital signage by Thursday, August 29.  On this day, we have our first learning walk.  These images should showcase learner work, house announcements, CBL Big Ideas, etc.


BEFORE/AFTERSCHOOL CLUBS
Please fill out this form, by Wednesday, if you are/want to host an after school club at Lee.  New club ideas are welcome and encouraged.   Please check out the list so you can update your Curriculum Night presentations before Thursday.  The Culinary Arts Club (open to grades 1-3) sign up closes Monday and there are only 6 spots left.  Please let your parents know!


CURRICULUM NIGHT
Please plan to be here for both hours.  This will help with directing parents to the right rooms in your house when your peers present.  Also, request parents arrive 15 minutes prior to your start time, on Thursday.  You should host your session in a closed classroom and leadership team must share your presentation with Chantel by end of day Monday.  Also, please post a PDF of your presentation on your campus websites. THANK YOU for your cooperation! 

RTI
Leigh Ann took the RtI quick glance from last year and copied it into a new google sheet for this year.  It would be great to take a look at this document together during your House team time, and take some time to update and clean it up.  If there are any learners who have moved, you may delete them from the spreadsheet.  4th and 5th grade designers should also add updated STAAR information.  Thanks! 

LEEDERSHIP COUNCIL

It is time that we determine who your LEEdership Council member will be.  A K-5 learner from each classroom should be nominated and elected into this position.  Candidates will prepare a short speech and may not spend more than $5 on their campaign.  This is an excellent way to practice the democratic process, public speaking, and risk-taking.  Please remember that those who have already served on LEEdership Council before are tasked with seeing the leadership capacity in others and should not rerun for a position.  (They may need reminding.)  Please complete this Google Form to communicate who your members are by next Friday, September 6. 

BADGES
You are required, by the district, to wear your ID Badge at school. If you see visitors or adults in our building without a badge, you must escort them to the office.  Learners should wear their badges at ALL times.  If you have learners who did not get one, please add them to this list, so the office can have one made for you.  As soon as they are made, badges will be placed in your mailboxes.


#COPPELLISDEF
The Coppell Education Foundation grant application window is open.  It closes on September 27, at 4:30.  The timeline, application, and guidelines we emailed to you tonight.

FED EX DAY
Enjoy your one hour on Wednesday where you learn about a topic of YOUR choice related to YOUR goals, and earn Flex credit for it.  This is a time for learning.  We ask that you update your goals in Strive during this first Fed Ex time and use the remainder of the time to dig into your Lucy Calkins Writing Resources.  Before Wednesday, we will send out a separate email with our campus goal, for those of you that want to copy and paste it into Strive.  New hires, please lean on your mentors or house mates to help you with uploading to Strive.


EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
We will practice emergency drills soon.  Be READY!  If you do not know where to go ASK a housemate, or Admin, so we can give you directions.  All spaces should have a map posted at your door and a red/green card clipped inside with your class list.  If you do not have a red/green card, please see the office. You should also have the new Standard Safety Protocol poster posted, on the glass, by your door.


NOTES FOR NEWSLETTERS:

• Room parent letters went home on Friday.  Please return the envelopes to your designers.
• Car Riders should have a tag visible on their front mirror or dashboard.  If you do not have one, you will be asked to park, wait until dismissal is over, and then come inside to get one from the office and sign out your child.  This is the only way we ensure learners go home in an approved vehicle. 
• Label your child's belongings with a permanent marker.  If they get lost, we can return the item to your child.  This includes their water bottles, lunchboxes, and jackets, 
• We must foster resiliency and responsibility in our learners.  They should come to school with their lunch and snack.  It is an interruption to campus business and leaves our office short staffed.  We do not deliver items to learners.
• IF a learner must be checked out from school, it should occur before 2:45.  After 2:45, we will request you wait in the car loop to ensure learners get dismissed safely.  Learners should only leave early if there is a doctor's appointment.
• The Coppell High School volleyball program is hosting a CCVB Elementary School Night on Tuesday, August 27th.  All elementary-age kids wearing your school shirts get in free, there will be a serving competition prior to varsity match to win CCVB shirts, and the varsity will be signing autographs in the foyer. 

Latest picture of our Lee babies!  Their moms miss you all!

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

If you are on Instagram, here are a few teachers to follow for some really great  inspiration:

ESL Resources: hotchocolateprintables

Tech Resources: helloteacherlady

Kindergarten: mrsrainbowbright OR onesharpbunch

1st: fallingintofirst

2nd: 2ndgradesassypants

3rd: ms_wayerski OR schoolandthecity

4th: cootiesandcuties

5th: teach2reach OR lessonwithlaughter

Please let us know if we can do anything for you! Email us at crios@coppellisd.com OR spallen@coppellisd.com. 

Also, we have created a parent SMORE to provide parents with some useful information.  We will be editing it once a month. It would be great if you could add our ESL blog to your weekly parent newsletter: ESL Weekly Newsletter Link!

LEE LIFE PRINCIPLE:

Respect- showing consideration for others

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP:

We will often have visitors in our school. When a visitor arrives, look them in the eyes, shake hands, tell them who you are, and welcome the person to our school.

LEE QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, a good society” -Confucius

DATES TO REMEMBER:
August 26- 1st Grade iPad Rollout
     Curriculum Night Presentations Due to CK
August 27- Kinder iPad Rollout
     Sam's Birthday
     First Day of Cooking Club (Lounge)
August 28- Jeans and House Shirt
     Stephanie's Birthday
     Fed Ex Day (3:35-4:35)
August 29- Curriculum Nights (5:30-7:30)
August 30- Staff Handbook Signature Page Due
September 2- NO SCHOOL!

Week of August 19, 2019

You all have done an INCREDIBLE job these first two days.  THANK YOU for being flexible, patient, and understanding.  We appreciate it more than words can say!  Arrival and dismissal have been INCREDIBLE!  Having everyone on campus help is a blessing, so thank you for giving your time.  We appreciate you making "happy calls" to each of your learners by the end of next week.  I am still working through calling each of you, but look forward to bragging on you before next weekend ends.  Since you have worked SO VERY HARD this week, please leave as soon as all learners are safely dismissed on Friday.  You deserve it!

DID YOU KNOW:

• we will have a Culinary Arts Club after school on Tuesdays for grades 1-3?  Parents can register through the flyer on PeachJar.  The first session starts August 27.
• you can donate up to 2 days for Ayesha through the sick pool?  You got an email from Johnna Durham on 8/9 about it. 
• that teachers can get a free subscription to the CALM app?  It usually costs $60. ENJOY this mindfulness tool!
• the front office would like to have your updated cell number here?  This is so they can text you if there is a message/emergency during the school day.  If your name and number is not on the list, please add it.
• we will start Team Time on Thursday as a Day 1.  Please make sure your learners are at their locations by 2:15 and that your spreadsheets for specials are accurate for how learners get home.  Team Time will take place in the large conference room.
• if you, or your parents, have any questions about school supplies, please reach out to Rinkal Patel: rinkal2u@gmail.com 
• we want YOU to serve on the Superintendent's Advisory Council?  The first meeting is Sept. 19 and we need two representatives.  This council gives you face time to share campus concerns with Mr. Hunt.  Please email Chantel if interested.
• ALL of our learners have disclosure to share their photos on social media?  THANK YOU Shanna and Deepa for helping to get this done!
• Units of Study Writing and Phonics Kits for K and 1 are IN?  We are doing our best to get them to you as quickly as possible.  We have a spot for one K-1 designer to go to "Launching the Writing Workshop using the Units of Study" on Sept. 17.  If you want to go, email CK. 

DIGITAL LITERACY
As part of a district initiative regarding digital citizenship, all learners in grades K-12 are expected to take part in an overview of digital literacy by September 6.  All learners must take part in these experiences.  Overview resources can be found HERE.  Please let your grade level or content DLCs know if you have any questions regarding the Digital Literacy content.  On our first walk through we will be documenting if your class Digital Citizenship Pledge is signed and posted in your space.  It is a campus expectation that Digital Literacy/Citizenship be reviewed the beginning of each 9 weeks.


CAR TAGS

Thank you to those of you that put your learner's Car Tag numbers on this document, already.  This will help our front office know who has what tag.  THANK YOU!  


PARENT CONTACT
Please, by August 23, pick up the phone and call EVERY family. Tell them/leave a message sharing something special about their child.  A great way to end the conversation is by inviting them to Curriculum Night.  It will pay huge dividends to take the time to do this!  It is also a TTESS Domain 4 descriptor.  

REMINDERS IN YOUR  NEWSLETTERS THIS WEEK

• Learners should come to school with their lunch and snack.  It is an interruption to campus business and leaves our office short staffed when these are delivered to learners. 
• Learners must be checked out from school before 2:45.  After 2:45, we will request you wait in the car loop to ensure learners get dismissed safely.
• Learners should not get off the bus if their parent is not waiting for them.  They will be returned to school for their safety. 
• There is a parent newsletter from our ESL team.  Check it out!
• Learners will not go hungry during lunchtime at Lee.  While we always want them to have a positive balance in their lunch account, up to $10 can be charged on a learner's meal account.  If a negative balance goes over $10, then the learner will be offered a courtesy meal which will be charged to the learner's account. Negative balance notices will be sent from the cafeteria once a week. Parents can sign up for low balance alerts through MySchoolBucks.com.  Also, if parents have meal restrictions for their learner, they can call (214-496-7978), write a note, or let Ms. Charlene know in person.  
• All guests must be buzzed in the front office moving forward.  This practice is district-wide to increase security.

COLLABS
Remember that collabs are not storage rooms and should not have boxes piled in them.  Think about how that environment can be a shared extension of your learning spaces. 


BADGES
Student badges will be in your teacher mailboxes by the end of the day, on Friday.  Remember, ALL LEARNERS should wear their badges at ALL times on campus.  They should be clipped on their collar or chest for easy viewing and you should establish a class routine for putting them on upon arrival and taking them off before departing.  Leadership came up with a plan for taking them off at the end of Team Time. We ask for 100% compliance with this request.  THANK YOU!

A "SPECIAL" NOTE
Would you and your learners like to learn a little more about your FamiLEE?  We would love to invite you to schedule a time to come and visit our classes. Sometimes learners have questions about learners with special needs and we have answers! Maybe you have heard, “What’s wrong with him/her?” “Why does he do that?” “That’s the room where they play all day.” We can help! We would love to work with you to create empathy within learners and hopefully build some lifelong friendships. We also love having helpers in our room at scheduled times during the week. The helpers may be learners who are very shy, maybe need a purpose, or may even need a little extra love and attention. We would love to work with you on this as well. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Karen Johnson and Wendy Pray. We welcome your questions and collaboration!

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Happy first week of school! We hope you have the best first week EVER! 

• Be sure you know who your ESL students are and confirm their TELPAS scores. You can find both of theses details in AWARE.
• If you haven't already, sign the ESL confirmation page and return to Claudia or Stormy
• If you have any questions about either of these, please let us know.

LEE LIFE PRINCIPLE:

Excellence- to stand out with valuable quality

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP:

Quickly learn the names of other designers and learners in the school and greet them by name.

LEE QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Excellence is never an accident.  It is always the result of High Intention, Sincere Effort, and Skillful Execution" -Aristotle

DATES TO REMEMBER:
August 18- IBC Schoolworks Back to School Kick Off (meet our school mentors)
August 19- Admin Office Visits
August 20- Education Foundation t-shirt and jeans
     Admin Office Visits
August 21- House shirt and Jeans
     NO AFTER SCHOOL MEETING TODAY- ENJOY!
August 22- 4/5 iPad Rollout
     First Team Time (1st Grade)
     Make sure you have made contact with each FamiLEE from your homeroom
August 23- 2/3 iPad Rollout

Week of August 12, 2019

What a GREAT week of team building, designing and learning it has been!   Thank you for being the learners you are and finding at least one "take away" from each session you attended at district training the last two days.  We are EXCITED to have everyone back on campus on Monday and Tuesday so you can get your first two weeks designed.  It has a blast watching the scavenger hunts, piecing together our song for Don't Give Up on Me, not to mention giggling at your bloopers.  We've also enjoyed watching our vertical and horizontal teams bond.  To say I am "PRINCIPAL PROUD" is an understatement!

(HA!  Sophie was trying to help me, tonight, with this week's blog!)

DID YOU KNOW:

• that each classroom will be getting book sets that go along with the Units of Study for your class libraries?  They are on their way and as soon as they arrive, we will get them to your spaces.  Leave room on your bookshelves!!!
• there is a website for our Lee Social Spurs?  Thank you to Megan, Shari M, and April for your work so far!  We will hear more about this as a staff.

Thank you Social Spurs!

• the office has ordered new backpack tags for our learners this year (instead of having to tape them on!!!)?  We will get these delivered to your house leaders tomorrow.  These will attach with a zip tie and we want them on the backpack strap that goes over their heart.   
• you will want to test out your Vivatek board and make sure it works properly.  CHEERS to sound bars being added to them this summer.  This will make them a great option for your morning house meetings. 
• you have access to our faculty favorites? Feel free to share gratitude throughout the year by knowing the "favorites" of your friends.  
• there are tentative dates set for iPad rollout at the elementary level?  I will keep you posted as we learn more.  THANKS for your patience and flexibility!
• August 22- 4th and 5th graders
• August 23- 2nd and 3rd graders
• August 26- 1st graders
• August 27- Kindergarten

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CREW!
Welcome to Crew Hopper Shannon.  He arrived last week and is already melting hearts!

 

CONVOCATION

Please carpool over and wear the black Convocation shirt that was delivered to your mailbox.  CHALLENGE:  Why not record some carpool Karaoke on the way to or from Convocation?  We have some "give aways" to those who participate and post to Twitter.  Convocation starts, promptly, at 8:30, and you can start going inside the CHS Arena at 8:00.  Our seats are on the FLOOR (thanks, Samira) so head down and grab a seat in our assigned area.  We have a bag full of foam spirit sticks to show our birthday fun.  We will turn these on, wave them in the air, and cheer REALLY LOUD when they call out Lee (usually alpha order so we are either after Lakeside or Pinkerton- depends if they use Lee or Richard J Lee). 

At 1:30, new hires and long term subs have technology training.  Other staff, please come back to campus and work on the following:

1. House digital signage
2. Getting dismissal tags for the entire house from office
3. Getting new SRP posters, cards, and magnets from the office for each house member
4. Check out projector carts for every house member.  Wait until you see how good they look with all of the cords zip-tied together (THANKS RHONDA!) 
5. Work on getting ready for Meet the Designer Night and the first week.

ALL K-5 DESIGNERS SHOULD SEND A WELCOME EMAIL AT 4:00.  Please remember to cc Chantel on your communication. 

NEXT WEEK

Here is the document that give you an outline of each day, what you will do, and what to wear for next week. 

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

PTO and volunteers will be delivering school supplies to your spaces on Tuesday.  If there is a specific place you want these stacked in your space, please put a sign up in an easy to see place.  They will provide a list of who purchased supplies.  Please hang on to this list and use it to verify if more supplies show up in your space.

BEDTIME STORY
What a great way for our learners and their parents to meet Natalie!  She will be reading a fabulous Back to School story that we will post on Facebook at 6:00 pm the night before school starts.   Please share this communication on Twitter and in your welcome emails.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Since parents have permission to walk their learners to your class on the first day of school, we thank you for being prepared to welcome them.  We want to make sure you leave a great first impression of their first day of school with YOU!  The first week is about building SOLID and TRUSTING relationships with the children and their famiLEEs.

Please, by August 23, pick up the phone and call EVERY family. Tell them/leave a message sharing something special about their child.  A great way to end the conversation is by inviting them to Curriculum Night.  It will pay huge dividends to take the time to do this!  It is also a TTESS Domain 4 descriptor.  

My expectation for you, this first three days, is to ensure that school is SO FUN and EXCITING, that the learners do not want to leave at the end of each day.  

ADMIN  VISITS
Leigh Ann, Angela, and I would like to visit with each and every learner/class in the first weeks of school. Please sign up HERE to bring your class to our offices.   We love re-enforcing that the Lee Office is not a negative place to go!


FIND YOUR MARIGOLDS
Our work is HARD work, but we are surrounded by such AWESOME people here at Lee.  Take a minute to read (or reread for some of you) this passage adapted form Cult of Pedagogy.  Find your "marigolds" at Lee, better yet...be someone's "marigold!"

LEE LIFE PRINCIPLE:

Excellence- to stand out with valuable quality

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP:

Quickly learn the names of other designers and learners in the school and greet them by name.

LEE QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Excellence is never an accident.  It is always the result of High Intention, Sincere Effort, and Skillful Execution" -Aristotle

DATES TO REMEMBER:
August 9- Shari H.'s Birthday
August 13- School Supplies Delivered
     Meet the Designer Night (6:00-7:00)
August 14- FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!
     Yahoo Boohoo Breakfast in Cafe (7:40-8:20)

Week of August 5, 2019

It is hard to believe that we are a week and a half away from our learners filling our building.  We hope you are as excited as we are!

This year's theme is: Attitude of Gratitude and we are lucky to have you at Lee Elementary!  Thankfulness starts in our front office with Shanna.  Thank you, Shanna, for working NONSTOP to enroll all of the new learners.  I am THANKFUL for how Shanna welcomes everyone with a smile each time they enter the office. You rock!

Thank you to Leigh Ann and Shanna. for spending multiple days helping to organize all of the Science supplies in our former Science Lab.  You have five new tubs of science supplies in your house storage rooms. 

Thank you to those of you that participated in curriculum writing or professional learning this summer.  Your hard work and dedication helps us improve every year.  Many of you will be sharing documents during Professional Learning Week.  We are grateful to have your knowledge and skills in this area!

We want to acknowledge all of you that have put time in getting systems in place, organizing storage rooms, setting up spaces, and supporting new hires before we come back.  We know even if you weren't at Lee in person, you were working electronically, meeting for dinners, attending ARDS, orienting teammates, tweeting, and MORE.  Please know that your efforts do not go unnoticed and are what help make this the BEST SCHOOL ON THE PLANET!

I want to celebrate the blessing of an INCREDIBLE Admin Team!  Not a minute goes by that I am not reminded about the power of teamwork, collaboration, and servant leadership when I am with Angela and Leigh Ann.  They make me grateful beyond words!  

Lastly, I want to say thank you for all the babies that keep our FamiLEE growing.  This summer we have welcomed Jacque's, Stormy's, Taylor's, and hopefully Stephanie's (any minute).   What a treat it is to watch your personal families grow.  

DID YOU KNOW:

• Claudia, Natalie, Angela, Kathy, and Susie have already been working behind the scenes this week?  We are grateful for their extra contract days!  Have you seen our Media Center? WOW!
• the painters have not finished at Lee?   They are also touching up our building so it looks as good as new.  If you have a wall that was not repainted, hang in there.  They should be done, soon!
• ADD DIRECTIONS FOR LINKING GOOGLE TO EMAIL

LEADERSHIP RETREAT

What an incredible couple of days we had in Rockwall with this year's Leadership Team.  It was a great three days of planning, dreaming, and visioning for the 2019-2020 school year.  THANK YOU to these ladies for giving up their summer time to put in hours of work and to grow both professionally and personally.  It was an honor to spend this quality time with them.  Please know that ANYone is welcome to attend our monthly Leadership meetings.  We also have an agenda that we share campus-wide to honor that we are leading with full transparency.  Your house leaders will review content from our agenda with you during the weeks ahead. 

MENTOR/MENTEE AND ONBOARDING 

We are looking forward to our first Onboarding meeting!  Join us at Life Safety Park on Friday, at 9:00.  Thank you to Layne, Jacque, Samira, Courtney, and Leigh Ann for putting your minds together to design this layer of support.  Onboarding will help make sure that our new folks are supported in intentional ways.  Our goal is to KEEP all of you in Coppell ISD and at Lee Elementary for a long time!  We appreciate the ladies serving as mentors this year and Layne for serving as our Lead Mentor on campus.  We look forward to our monthly meetings and are here for our new FamiLEE members!

KINDERGARTEN ASSESSMENT DAY

THANK YOU to all of the gals planning to help with Saturday's assessments.  We are super excited to get a little bit of information about our learners so we can place them and create balanced houses.  This is a HUGE endeavor and a great opportunity for our new parents to see how lucky they are to be at Lee!

NEW HIRE BREAKFAST

ALL new hires are invited to attend this breakfast at CMSW (next to Lee)  It is professional dress and there will be many school board, community and district members there.  When you arrive, look for the Lee table(s) and grab a "goodie bag."  It helps to get there early.  As parking will be limited, you may want to carpool with other new hires you have met from your house/grade.  I will be there by 7:15.

BACK TO SCHOOL WEEK

The district sent out this information last week.  Here is a document that give you an outline of each day, where to be, what you will do, and what to wear.  I hope this helps with any confusion.

RJL ROADSHOW
We are super excited to take you on a little field trip on Tuesday.  Please tweet and retweet the event out to help spread the word!  A parent link will be going out this weekend, too.  We want you to bring balloons, signs, candy, noisemakers,  and anything you think will make this event special for our learners and their famiLEEs.  We will have two busses this year.

CLASS LISTS

Class lists will start to be populated in eSchool Plus. All grade level designers will email your parents on Friday afternoon.   Please work together, as a house, to comprise a welcoming email to send out on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm.  (Returning Staff, we can work on wording this on Friday, after lunch, while new hires are at technology training, if you like) . We want to be consistent, and send these at the same time, so that the office is not bombarded with phone calls.  In your email, please include a Google form to capture info so that you do not have to have all of your parents complete it at Meet the Designer Night.  Also include the Volunteer Background Check link so that ALL parents can get approved to engage at school.  Lastly, print off, or email a copy of this form to have parents complete if they are interested in being a Room Parent.

MEET THE DESIGNER NIGHT

Please plan to be at this event from 6:00-7:00 on Monday night.  Your space DOES NOT have to be completely ready for this event!  Stage it the best you can and remember that your space will come to life once the learners arrive and create work.  We will give you our 2019-2020 campus shirts to wear on this day and to our event.  We will take a staff picture in the gym at 5:45 and these shirts will help parents to identify staff members in the building.  I am fine with you wearing jeans with your new shirt for MTD.  Designers, if you have a PTO board member's learner, or a staff member's child in your class...they may need to come to your space at earlier, to meet you, so that they can participate in Meet the Designer Night.  Thank you for your flexibility with these parents.

KEEP AFLOAT

In an attempt to lighten your load, we have been strategically sprinkling out "to-do's" though the last couple of blog posts.  I want you to be kind to yourself this school year, so it will help if you get some of these tasks done, now, so you can focus on relationships and lesson design the first couple weeks of school.  Here are some items you can hopefully check off:

• Watch compliance training videos and complete quizzes in Schoology
• Complete Faculty Favorites Form
• Visit and review the RJL Schoology Course and Faculty Website 
• Update your campus website (new hires, ask a teammate for help, please)
• Request keys from Leigh Ann
• Post your final #rjlsummerselfie pics before Tuesday

LEE STAFF CALENDAR
All important events are uploaded to a shared Lee Staff Calendar.  New hires will want to add the staff calendar to your phones and MacBooks.  It will help you if you go to this link to bookmark your email on your device.  (NOT THE OUTLOOK ICON ON YOUR MAC BOOK!)  Go to "Add Calendar" above the date range and insert the link.  Here are links to help you:
HTML Link                                         
ICS Link  

Dates to Remember:

August 3- Kindergarten Assessments (9:30-3:30)

August 5- New Hire Breakfast (CMSW 7:30)

August 9- Shari H's Birthday

     CISD Convocation

     Email to welcome your FamiLEEs (4:00)

August 12- Meet the Designer Night

August 14- First Day of School!