Week of September 23, 2019

BOY, I have missed you all this week, but I learned a great deal reading the submissions of Apple Distinguished School books with a group from across the U.S.  While I was inspired by the books, I was reminded of how incredible Lee Elementary is and the wonderful work we are doing here.  THANK YOU for continuing to grow your knowledge in the area of technology and for your creative uses of our devices. You make me so proud!  Once our latest book is published in the iTunes Store, I will share it with you.  This takes about a week.  THANK YOU to those of you that participated in Dot Day activities.  If you missed my retweet about the incredible resource that AppleEDU put out for Dot Day, you might want to check it out.  I could see you all making a copy of this Keynote and making it work in other inventive ways.

DID YOU KNOW:

• Global Action Day is on Wednesday?  Sustainable Development Goals are one way that you can help lead learners toward actions and solutions to CBL problems.  Actions both big and small MATTER and we can't wait to see what you design for your learners.  Here is their latest educational resource.  If you do work with the goals use #act4SDGs 
• the district has a committee for "Strength in Unity?"  If this interests you, we need a representative.  Please email Chantel.
• Patterns of Power resources for 1-5 grade were delivered this week?  Anita DeLaIsla sent these helpful links you could review:
• Video on unboxing the Patterns of Power Plus (Jeff is sorta funny)
• 10-minute Lesson Video
• POP Webinar

FAMILEE MOVIE NIGHT
We look forward to seeing all of our FamiLEEs at PTO's FamiLEE Movie Night.  Rain or shine, we will still host the event.  If, for weather reasons, we move Movie Night indoors, we will be in the gym and cafeteria.  Parents can bring blankets and chairs to set up for the viewing.  Our Fall Book Fair will be open from 6:00 - 7:00 and PTO will be selling concessions during the movie.  We can't wait to see you all there!

FALL BOOK FAIR AND LIBRARY NEWS

The Scholastic Book Fair is here all next week!  There are multiple family engagement events like: being open before Movie Night, Pastries with Parents (only 16 responses so far) before school on Wednesday and Special Friends Day on Thursday.  Please send your learners down, one at a time, throughout the day so that the volunteers are not overwhelmed with shoppers at the beginning and end of day and remember you can bring your whole class during your normal library time.  The Book Fair will be open from 7:15-3:00 M-TH and 7:15-12:00 F.  

SPURS SAVINGS
We have our first Spur Savings bank day open this week. Remind learners and their parents to bring their deposits EVERY Thursday for the rest of the year.  Thank you to our fifth grade designers and learners for their partnership with Las Colinas Federal Credit Union!   

To participate:

• If your Child is NEW to Spur Savings, please complete the New Account Application.

• If your Child is already a member of Las Colinas Federal Credit Union, please complete the Existing Member information to update your child’s House & Grade information.  

• If your child does not have a social security number, please complete a W-8BEN and return it to Las Colinas Federal Credit Union .

SPECIAL FRIENDS DAY
We are super excited that Special Friends day is here!  Send out one last reminder to request that guests sign up that they are attending, so that we can prepare accordingly. We only have 32 responses so far!! 

RED AND BLACK SUPER STARS 
Please turn in your student nominations and share this information with your parents.  Friday is the deadline.

GREAT EDUCATORS MATTER

CISD has an internal Employee Recognition Program (GEMs: Great Educators Matter).  This program recognizes outstanding employees who serve the mission of the district in a manner that exceeds job/salary expectations.  Those who go "above and beyond the call of duty" will be recognized on a semi-annual basis by the CISD Board of Trustees. We have so many incredibly talented folks and people that go above and beyond at our school. Please take time to nominate someone:

How do I submit a GEM nomination? – It’s easy…

• Open “Eduphoria,” select “Formspace”
• Then, at the lower lefthand corner, click on “Submit New Form”
• Click on the “Student & Staff Services” link
• Select “GEM”
• The GEM Nomination Form will “pop-up” and must be filled out completely.  (Please check spelling of nominee’s name, position, and campus.)
• Date your nomination/submission (use calendar icon)
• Once complete, hit the “Submit Form” button in the lower lefthand corner. (Repeat process for additional nominations; teams should be submitted as a group, with each individual name, etc. listed all on the same form

SOCIAL SPURS

The mission of the Social Spurs is to provide celebration and comfort to the wonderful staff of Lee Elementary.  Social Spurs have a staff maintained fund.  This is a voluntary financial commitment by staff members, controlled by staff members.  Dues are $30 for salaried employees and $20 for hourly employees.  You may pay cash to the front office.  THANKS, Social Spurs, for providing our snacks at this Wednesday's Staff Meeting!

COPPELL GIFTED ASSOCIATION

The Coppell Gifted Association is committed to supporting Coppell ISD and its educators in their efforts to meet the needs of gifted students. Please register for your FREE CGA educator membership, here, by Sept 30.

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Thank you for those of you that have started your work on your SLOs.  We will make time starting the next Day 1 rotation to make sure everyone has these created and in Strive.  We can't wait to see how these goals affect learner achievement and also educator growth!  For those of you that like to get ahead, here are the steps to put them in:

• On the form in Strive, make sure you input number of learners for each level of your rubric on the Initial Skills Profile
• Make sure your form is complete, and Submit to Appraiser
• Create your student growth tracker with each learner's name.  This means you will have the first three columns complete. 
• Save the student growth tracker as a PDF and upload it to Strive.  When you are on your evaluations tab, you should see a plus sign in the right hand corner to upload a document. 
  

WALKTHROUGH FOCUS
Our focused walkthroughs for the next 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?

ESL FOR THE WEEK

Here is the monthly CISD ESL Newsletter for your reference. There is a quick link to the EL Digital Toolbox (this is an awesome one stop shop" resource). This month they focus on Buncee, an interactive presentation tool. If you use it, please invite us in or tweet out to #CISDESLBIL


CHARACTER AT LEE

DATES TO REMEMBER:
Sept 22- Shari's Birthday
Sept 23-Sept 27- Fall Book Fair
Sept 23- Layne's Birthday
     RtI Meetings in Design Studios (Conference Time)
     Board Meeting (7:00 Admin)
Sept 25- House Shirt with Jeans
     Global Action Day #act4SDGs
     Pastries with Parents (7:10 Media Center)
     Staff Meeting (3:30 Shari H's space)
Sept 26- Spurs Savings (7:20-7:40 Cafe)
     Lee Learning Walk (8:00-9:00)
     Special Friends Day (10:00-1:00)
Sept 27- Red and Black Nominations DUE.
     LEEdership Council Meeting (8:00 Cafe)
     New Learner Lunches with Counselor (10:30-1:00 Cafe)