Elementary Done Different "LEE": Week of July 19, 2021

What a great couple of weeks off. I have been back on contract this week and getting LOTS done. I'm super excited for #rjlyear8 and that YOU are part of our FamiLEE. Our Leadership Team met for three days and so much great work was done to prepare for the upcoming year. These gals are super committed to brining our guiding purpose to life, and we value this group of leaders! I spent a week in Florida with my family. It was so nice to see everyone after a year and nine months of not being home. There was lots of visiting, cooking, and laughter. Our house is moving along...still not done. My #oneword2021 should have been PATIENCE instead of GRACE. I am learning to have lots of patience, but that is a GOOD thing!

DID YOU KNOW:

you can order your 2021-2022 CISD Education Foundation t-shirt now? If you purchase this year's shirt, Dr. Hunt has given permission to wear it with jeans EVERY TUESDAY. Orders received by July 25 will be delivered for the first week of school.

WELCOME TO OUR FAMILEE

We want to make sure your recognize some of our new faces hired this summer before our first day back together. We cannot wait to see the impact they make with our learners and each of you!

My name is Vanessa Tan and I am so excited to be joining Lee Elementary as an Elementary Paraprofessional! I was a Preschool Teacher in Coppell for almost 11 years but started my career as an Analyst in a consulting firm and later moved to Product Management in a Telecommunications company. I am originally from Manila, Philippines. I have been married to my wonderful husband and best friend, Francis for 22 years. We moved to the U.S. in 1999 and Coppell, TX has been our home for the past 18 years. We have two boys, Ethan (19) an incoming sophomore at Texas A&M and James (15) an incoming sophomore at CHS. We also have a crazy yet adorable dog, named Phoebe (3). I enjoy cooking, traveling, watching movies and reading books and I have been on a health journey for about a year now. Getting fit has been my silver lining during the pandemic. I look forward to meeting you all.

Hi! I'm Amy Searight, I will be the Special Education paraprofessional, and I’ve been married for 23 years to my high school sweetheart. We have 2 boys, 10 & 16. They attend Austin Elementary & CHS. I worked at Children’s Medical Center for 13 years as a Child Life Specialists. For the past 10+ years I taught at Butterfly School here in Coppell. Now I feel a calling to work with school age children. I love to swim and spend my vacations on the beach. I also love to shop, go to the movies, and craft. I’m not a good cook and if my career was not working with kids I’d be a Radio City Rockette!

Annah Rose is really excited to join you as your school nurse this year!!! She has been a nurse for ten years, almost nine of those as a Pediatric nurse at Medical City Children’s Hospital. Before that she taught English for four years on the secondary level. Between these two careers she spent a few life changing months in South Africa (living with the orphans and helping the nurse there inspired the change in career). She is married to Chris Rose and has an eight year old daughter Katherine, a five year old daughter Leila, a four legged daughter Scout (Australian shepherd), and a female beta fish Rose. She loves books, crafts, and all things Harry Potter.

Hello everyone! I'm Rachel Tate, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be joining the Lee family this year as a Special Education Designer! I spent last year as a SPED para at CMS North and prior to that I was a permanent substitute at Lakeland Elementary School in LISD. My high school sweetheart and husband of 25 years is a history teacher and coach at West, so we’re both part of the CISD family. We’re also both proud US Army veterans! I have three sons and a daughter who are all out in the world doing amazing things and making their mama proud every single day. I’m looking forward to working with each of you to help our learners reach their maximum potential!

NEW HIRES

As a new hire, I am sure you are thinking about what you can do to start getting ready for your new adventure at Lee. Each blog I pepper out some suggestions so that you are not too overwhelmed during Back to School. This blog I would encourage you to:

Check out our Faculty Website. You will want to bookmark this site as it is a one stop shop that has all you need to know about Lee Elementary and MORE!
Connect with your House and Grade leads. You can find their name on this staffing list and email them. I know they will want to get your phone number to share with teammates.

It is OKAY if you are taking this time for YOU- please do not feel guilt if you wait until you are on contract.

TO DO FOR ALL:

Fill out this form so we can learn all about your favorites. It also helps us with ordering your school shirts for the school year. We still have about 15 of you we need to hear from.
Read the RJL Campus Handbook, NOW, so you don't have to worry about it when school is in session. We request you read this by August 31. New/changed items are highlighted in yellow.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

You will be required to earn 24 hours of Flex Time for the 2021-2022 school year and you can start accumulating your time over the summer. Paraprofessionals, you will need 32 hours. Here are two separate AWESOME and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED opportunities from Apple. If you participate, please document in Bulb and we will grant flex credit.

If you were unable to attend the live webinars on June 15, you can still earn Flex and SBEC credit all summer! Follow the steps outlined below.

To earn credit after June 15th for watching a recorded webinar from 6.15.21:

View a recorded webinar found in this folder, then follow these steps to submit for credit.

To earn credit after June 15th for completing a self-paced course in Schoology:

Complete a self-paced course from this spreadsheet in our CISD PL Schoology course, then follow these steps to submit for credit.

If you’d like to watch me demonstrate the steps to successfully participate in self-paced learning this summer, you may choose to watch this video.

An additional virtual session of Unconscious Bias training is being offered on Tuesday, July 27. If you would like to attend Unconscious Bias training you must sign up now so that we may secure your training materials. Click here to enroll in the course in Eduphoria.

*We usually have information by now, but once Chantel gets information from the district on required compliance training, that information will be shared with you.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

This year, PTO is handling school supplies in a different manner. Parents order the packs to be shipped to their door and the learners will bring the supply packs to school on Meet the Designer Night or the first day of school. We have two more reminders going out through Parent Square to help you get the supplies you WANT for the school year. Link to order: educationalproducts.com/shoppacks Code: LEE008