Week of November 4, 2025

Well done with this year's Write a Check.  We KNOW you have been working so hard to ramp up participation and to reward your learners.  We aren't telling the kids until tomorrow, but PTO is going to extend WAC one more week in hopes we can meet our goal.  Great idea shared from Zara's parents... a paper wrist band with a reminder for kids to share about WAC with parents.  

We hope you enjoy all of the snacks and food this week!  Some of you have asked for the corn dip recipe.  Email me if that was you, and I will share it.  We are 50/50 on liking/not liking candy corn- HA!  The Spud Bar should "butter" you up for Diwali yummies on Friday.  PTO will be treating you to breakfast, next Thursday, to thank you for all that you do.

DID YOU KNOW:

• today is the LAST DAY to turn in your self care bingo cards?  I will announce the winner at the end of the day.
• November 1 is the last day to Early Vote?  A long lunch time has been provided if you need time to vote on Tuesday.  Don't forget to make your voice heard!
• CISD is looking for staff and parents interested in serving on the Implementation Team of the Strategic Plan?  Anyone (staff or parents) can apply at www.coppellisd.com/committee if they are interested.  
• we should be getting woodchips for the playground in another week?  The maintenance department also is working to fill in some holes on the field and along the cement walkways.
• thanks to Cassie securing the PO, we have gotten Mystery Science for Lee Staff?  As stated in her email: to reconnect- click this link, log in with your school email, make sure you are linked to RJL Elementary.  WAHOO!!!
• we will have some underground spirit days next week if you want to participate?  On Monday, wear socks with sandals.  On Wednesday, wear a holiday shirt (any holiday- 4th of July, Christmas, etc.), and on Thursday,  wear patterns on patterns. 

THANK YOU FOR AN AMAZING TRUNK OR TREAT
Our Admin team and PTO would like to extend a great BIG THANK YOU to ALL who participated in our annual Trunk or Treat and made it an event to remember. We couldn’t have done it without everyone who donated candy, volunteered their time, and for all of the FamiLEE community who attended the event! An extra special THANK YOU to Green House for winning the trunk or treat contest.

SOCIAL SPURS SPUD LUNCHEON

Don't forget to stop by the lounge for lunch on Thursday.  Thank you to everyone for their donations and effort behind the scenes to organize this fun lunch.

DIWALI

Thank you to our Diwali Divas for treating everyone during Diwali.  Happy Diwali to those of you that celebrate.  Please remind learners that they can wear their traditional Indian clothes, on Friday, to celebrate.

WRITE-A-CHECK DEADLINE EXTENDED: 3 DAYS LEFT TO DONATE!

We have extended our annual fundraising campaign through November 4th in an effort to reach our goal. This will be the LAST opportunity to donate. As you know, this is the main source of funding for our FamiLEE PTO, and is in lieu of sending learners door to door selling fundraising items each year. The recommended donation is $100 per student, however every dollar counts, so please donate how you feel comfortable.

As of Wednesday we were at 64% of our goal with 38% participation! THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who have contributed - your generosity and support is incredible, and we truly could not provide support to our school without you.  If you have yet to contribute, please consider donating today - every dollar counts! bit.ly/RJLWAC

DISTRICT PL ON TUESDAY

Please make sure that you have signed up for our five sessions for Tuesday.  All staff has to attend professional learning this day, including paraprofessionals.  Thank you to all of you Spurs who are presenting and hosting sessions.  You make your Admin Team SO PROUD!

Conference Bulb
Learning Journal Links:

Keynote

Notability

NO SCHOOL FOR LEARNERS ON TUESDAY

COLLEGE SHIRT DAY

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

LEEDERSHIP COUNCIL MEETING

We will have a LEEdership Council meeting on Wednesday morning at 9:00.  Please send them down with their iPad when the announcement is made. 

VETERANS DAY

Teachers, we would like to honor Veterans, on November 11, on social media. We are looking for relatives of anyone at Lee or any of our designers as well. Could you please reach out to your parents and ask them to send you information on anyone in their families they would like honored through Lee social media for Veteran's Day? We would like a photo, as well as their branch, rank and years served. We will create a social media post celebrating them.  Please know this is also open to you and your family members as well.  Please forward all information to Chantel before end of the day next Friday, November 8. 

CIP
The 2024-2025 Campus Improvement Plan can be found here. Each quarter this document should be reviewed and updated.  Leadership, please download the PDF into Noteability or print it off.  Review it  and annotate it with your house in your Thursday Meeting.  Please get your annotated copy to Angel and Kat by Friday, November 8.

TOY

FINAL REMINDER!!!  NOMINATIONS DUE NOVEMBER 8!!!  Please take time to nominate someone in our building for this incredible honor.   If you need admin to cover your class so you can observe your nominee, to help you better answer the questions, or to give you time to complete the nomination, please arrange that with us.  We are happy to help.  Here is the TOY Website and Nomination Criteria and Form.

SAVE THE DATE FOR FAMILEE FEAST

Please let your famiLEEs know if they want to attend our annual Thanksgiving Lunch that they need to sign up ahead of time.  This lunch will be in place of FamiLEE Friday lunch on November 21. Parents can Sign up here.  THIS YEAR: Child Nutrition has requested guests PREPAY ($8) for their meal to expedite the lunch line.  Please send payment to your child's lunch account before the event.  

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

Did you know? If every student missed just two fewer days of school, CISD could receive an additional $1.3 million! This funding supports teacher salaries, classroom materials, support staff, enrichment activities, and more. Your child's attendance makes a difference! Let's prioritize attendance to benefit our entire school community.

WINTER WEAR & HOUSE COLORS ON SALE THROUGH NOVEMBER 10th
We are excited to offer winter spirit wear this year with a fun new design that is sure to be a keeper for years to come!  This sale will be the FINAL CHANCE to purchase House color shirts and ONLY CHANCE for winter wear this year.  All items will be on sale through November 10th with delivery of items by the week ending December 6th. Place your orders today: bit.ly/rjlstore

COPPELL EDUCATION FOUNDATION GRANTS 

The Coppell Education Foundation is accepting donations for our Lee STEAM grant and CISD STEAM grant.  Thank you for considering.

PANIC BUTTONS

Panic buttons have been installed around the building.  They are the white and black buttons in your rooms (by your phones).  These buttons are required by the state and they will soon be connected to the new cameras installed around campus.  Currently, these buttons are functioning.  If held down for 3 seconds or longer, they alert Admin and our monitoring company.  In the future, these will also be connected to the nearest camera to your button.  Please review with your learners that they have permission to push these "only in case of emergency."  We will also discuss on morning broadcast next week. 

COACHES CORNER

District Resource Spotlight

November 3, Father of Texas Day, is this Sunday! It is a day in memory of Stephen F. Austin, the great pioneer patriot and Father of Texas.  Checkout PebbleGo for some resources for our learners! 

PebbleGo Next (4th and 5th Grade)

PebbleGo (3rd grade and under)

Instructional Idea to Try!

LAS UPDATE

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

DATES TO REMEMBER:

• NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
• NATIONAL SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY WEEK
• YELLOW HOUSE LOUNGE DUTY

Nov 3- Daylight Savings Time

Nov 4- Julie's Birthday

Nov 5- District Professional Learning Day

     NO SCHOOL FOR LEARNERS

     ELECTION DAY

Nov 6- College Shirt Day

     LEEdership Council Meeting (9:00)

     Leadership Mtg. (3:15 Yellow House)

Nov 7- PTO Thankful Thursday Breakfast    

Nov 8- Annah's Birthday

     TOY Nominations Due

     Veteran information due to CK

     CIP Notes due to Kat & Angel

Week of October 28, 2024

Cheers to wrapping up the week.  Thank you for all of your participation in Red Ribbon Week and for learning with Dr. De La Isla and her team after school.  I appreciate how hard you work to meet the needs of ALL of our children!  The weekend is almost here!

DID YOU KNOW:

• we will start having TWO lines on pizza Wednesdays?  Thank you to our cafe staff for making this happen.
• there is a link on Lee Links for you to get to the folder to add pictures for yearbook?  There are folders created for Red Ribbon Week, Nanna Puddin', Trunk or Treat and Specials so far.  Let's make sure as many kids are represented as possible!
• we have several situations where parents are not communicating with the front office when their learner is withdrawing?  Please send this form to parents when they mention the will be withdrawing.  The link is on our LEE LINKS document, as well. 
• you can Early Vote?  Don't forget to make your voice heard!  If you need coverage to go vote, please reach out to Admin. 
• Hour of Code is coming up next month?  Please sign up if you plan to participate and start reaching out to our LCs for coding assistance for the week of December 9-15.   
• our leaders accepted a trophy for Samira and our LEEdership Council for their service to the community?  Thank you, Samira, for guiding this group of role models.  Our new fifth grade leaders are pictured below and represented us well at their training at Wilson Elementary.

ONE WEEK LEFT TO DONATE

There is only one week left to donate to our annual PTO fundraising campaign, Write-a-Check.  This is the main source of funding for our FamiLEE PTO, and is in lieu of sending learners door to door selling fundrasising items each year.  The recommended donation is $100 per student, however every dollar counts!  Let's work together to get our participation rate to 100%. Please consider donating TODAY!  bit.ly/RJLWAC

THANK YOU FOR TRUNK OR TREAT EFFORTS
Thank you to all of the houses and departments for their hard work to get ready for Trunk or Treat.  Gina has candy sorted for your trunks.  We can't wait to see you there tonight!  May the BEST trunk win!

WEDNESDAY TREATS FROM ADMIN

Wednesday is National Candy Corn Day.  In celebration, we will have candy corn, popcorn, and corn dip for you in the teacher's lounge.  ENJOY!

MTSS UPDATE

SOCIAL SPURS SPUD LUNCHEON

NEW WINTER SPIRIT WEAR AND HOUSE COLOR SECOND CHANCE

We are excited to offer winter spirit wear this year with a fun new design that is sure to be a keeper for  years to come!  We also worked with our vendor to provide you with a final opportunity to purchase a House Color shirt should you have missed the previous sale.  All items will be on sale through November 10th with delivery of items by the week ending December 6th.  Place your orders today: bit.ly/rjlstore

TOY

REMINDER!!!  NOMINATIONS DUE NOVEMBER 8!!!  Please take time to nominate someone in our building for this incredible honor.   If you need admin to cover your class so you can observe your nominee, to help you better answer the questions, please arrange that with us.  We are happy to help.  Here is the TOY Website and Nomination Criteria and Form.

FROM THE MATH DIRECTOR

REFLEX MATH CHALLENGE

I know that so many of your utilize Reflex Math to encourage your learners to be fluent in their math facts.  Here is a challenge open to our learners.

SAVE THE DATE FOR FAMILEE FEAST

Please let your famiLEEs know if they want to attend our annual Thanksgiving Lunch that they need to sign up ahead of time.  This lunch will be in place of FamiLEE Friday lunch this week. Parents can Sign up here.  THIS YEAR: Child Nutrition has requested guests PREPAY ($8) for their meal to expedite their lunch line.  Please send payment to your child's lunch account before the event.  

CIP
The 2024-2025 Campus Improvement Plan can be found here. Each quarter this document should be reviewed and updated.  Leadership, please download the PDF into Noteability or print it off, review it, and annotate it with your house in a Thursday Meeting.  Please forward your annotated copy to Angel and Kat by Friday, November 8.

GT UPDATE

3 and 5 Testing- Abilities testing will be ongoing for 3rd grade and 5th grade next week.  Testing will take place between Monday-Wednesday.  Please maintain a testing environment in your houses so our learners can do their best.

Math Olympiad Testing- Math O tryouts will take place in the cafeteria on Thursday and Friday of next week.  Fourth grade will test on Thursday and Friday and will be 5th grade.  More information will be given to specific grade levels next week. 

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

📊💡 Did you know? If every student missed just two fewer days of school, CISD could receive an additional $1.3 million! This funding supports teacher salaries, classroom materials, support staff, enrichment activities, and more. Your child's attendance makes a difference! Let's prioritize attendance to benefit our entire school community.

COPPELL EDUCATION FOUNDATION GRANTS FOR LEE

WALKTHROUGHS IN OCTOBER

For this month, we will be giving you feedback on Domain 2.5:  Monitor and Adjust.  We will be looking for:

• How you adjusts instruction and activities to maintain student engagement (movement, music, manipulatives, small groups and individual work, conferences with learners).

• How you address learner engagement/disengagement.

• Questioning and feedback used to check for understanding.

• How you use of a variety of assessment/input from learners to gather data.

• Checks for understanding through purposeful questioning and feedback.

• The pacing of the lesson.

OCTOBER IS DYSLEXIA AWARENESS MONTH

LAS UPDATE

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

DATES TO REMEMBER:

• WRITE A CHECK WINDOW
• NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
• NATIONAL SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY WEEK

Oct 28- 3rd and 5th GT Testing

Oct 29- 3rd and 5th GT Testing

Oct 30- 3rd and 5th GT Testing

Oct 31- MTSS Meetings

Nov 1- 3rd and 5th GT Make Up Testing

     Diwali

Week of October 21, 2024

What a week, friends!  Congratulations to our Super Teachers: Rikki and Amber.  They will be treated to lunch with Dr. Hunt at San Danielle on Wednesday.  If I haven't said it lately, WE HAVE THE BEST TEACHERS AT LEE!!!  Thank you for all of the kindness and acknowledgement for Principal Month.  I am the luckiest principal to be here with all of you!

DID YOU KNOW?

• you should forward your Gmail Inbox to Outlook? Our wonderful SPED team utilizes Google Drive to share documents, comments, and updates to paperwork with teachers. If your forwarding isn’t set up, you might be missing important information.  Directions on how to do this can be found here. If you have followed the steps and still need support, please reach out to Griffin.

• that we have a continued partnership with St. Augustine University and their occupational therapy department?  They have OT students who are designing costumes for some of our learners in Rikkis and Reagan's classes for Trunk or Treat. These visitors are approved by the district.  We also have guests from their university coming on Wednesdays to "check out" our building.  Thank you Ayesha for touring them through when I was in an ARD on Wednesday.
• that some staff members and learners have sensitivities to plug in air fresheners and essential oil diffusers?  Please be mindful of this.
• the window is open to nominate this year's Teacher of the Year?  We have such talent here at Lee, so please take time to acknowledge someone.  Nominations are due November 8.  Please turn them in to CK so we have time to score them with the rubric.
• TOY Website: https://coppellisdtx.sites.thrillshare.com/o/cisd/page/teacher-of-the-year
• Nomination Criteria Website: https://coppellisdtx.sites.thrillshare.com/o/cisd/page/nomination-criteria-and-form

RED RIBBON WEEK

Red Ribbon week is HERE!  Please join in on the fun and share pictures of learner participation.  Thank you to Angela for planning out this week.  We can't wait for the school-wide program, Nana Puddin' that PTO has sponsored.

FEED ME!!!

WE NEED MORE CANDY!!!!  Please consider donating candy for our PTO Trunk or Treat event on Thursday.  All candy can be fed to the "monster" next to the elevator and will be passed out at Trunk or Treat.

GT UNIVERSAL SCREENING TESTING

Please be mindful of our learners who will be testing over the next 2 weeks. Please ensure a secure testing environment so our learners can do their best!

 

10/21-10/23 – First Grade (8:15-10:30)

10/28-10/30 – Third and Fifth Grade (8:15-10:30)

STAFF MEETING

Classroom teachers and  specialists, please plan to attend staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon.  We will have campus training from CISD on Teaching Science to EB's in the cafeteria. 

PANERA SPIRIT NIGHT OCTOBER 24TH

Enjoy a quick easy meal before or after Trunk or Treat at Panera while supporting our PTO! In person orders are valid from 4-8pm, but online orders with the code FUND4U are open all day! Whether you dine in, pick up, drive-thru, or have it delivered, just use promo code FUND4U when ordering online or in person to make sure your purchase counts!

SWEETEN UP RJL TRUNK OR TREAT

We can’t wait to see you on Thursday at our Annual RJL Trunk or Treat on October 24th at 5:30pm!  Before the fun can start, we need your help to FEED our candy MONSPUR! Please sign up or send in a bag of 150+ pieces of candy with your learner by Wednesday, October 23rd. bit.ly/rjlcandy

ANNUAL WRITE A CHECK FUNDRAISER

Our RJL PTO annual fundraising campaign, Write-A-Check, is the main source of funding for our FamiLEE PTO each year. Our goal this year is $30,000 and we need your help! 100% of the funds raised go back into our school through enrichment programs like Red Ribbon Week, Author visits, bus transportation for field trips, and so much more! Please consider donating TODAY! bit.ly/RJLWAC

COACHES CORNER

As you continue to leverage digital portfolios this year, please know that bulb is set up and ready for use to meet educator and learner needs related to SLO, goal setting, and more.

Due to some changes in how classes are created in bulb, you may have noticed that you have more groups than usual. If you are experiencing any issues with your bulb groups and would like to begin using groups to assign templates, my suggestion is to create manual groups. bulb is working to develop a better solution for automatically creating groups based on classes as we move forward.

Below are tutorials that will support you in the creation and use of bulb groups. You will have to use bulb on a web browser to complete these steps.

Creating bulb Groups

Joining bulb Groups

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Your learning coaches are here and available to support you with groups in bulb or any other digital portfolio needs.

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I don’t know if you have attended any of Greg Tang’s webinars on teaching math, but they were so well received that he is now doing one each month. Check Out the link below:
💻 SATURDAY MORNING MATH MEETUPS with Greg Tang tangmath.com/freepd

Oct 19 - Place Value & Number Sense

Here is a resource to support using vocabulary throughout all you do. 📚4 Steps to Teach Vocabulary Throughout the Day

FROM THE LIBRARY

Here is the presentation on how to use Teaching Books:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGFJm-Ry1k/-b4Z_FXkx62XLkgReu5C0Q/view?utm_content=DAGFJm-Ry1k&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor

When you have your list ready, you can send Holly your link here:

https://forms.gle/W6h2dSdbvEqtb8sC6

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

🌟 Thank you, CISD families, for your commitment to student attendance! 🏫💙. Regular attendance is key to student success—it keeps them engaged in lessons, fosters peer relationships, and maximizes their educational opportunities. Plus, it helps teachers assess each student's progress and plan effectively.  Your dedication to attendance makes a significant difference. Attendance Matters...You Matter!

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

NATIONAL DYSLEXIA AWARENESS MONTH
Apple has several helpful assistive technology tools for your learners with dyslexia to use on their iPad. Click here for Apple's guide to Accessibility.  Below is a list of options in accessibility that could be helpful:

• Speech- speak selections and Speak Screens
• Highlight content
• Dictation (Click microphone and enable)
• Reader view on Safari
• Color Filter / Invert colors
• Predictive Text Keyboard

 

If you need help updating or navigating a learner’s accessibility features, please let us know! 

 

*Don’t forget learners with dyslexia have access to Learning Ally. This is a great way to build vocabulary and spark an interest in reading!

WALKTHROUGHS IN OCTOBER

For this month, we will be giving you feedback on Domain 2.5:  Monitor and Adjust.  We will be looking for:

• How you adjusts instruction and activities to maintain student engagement (movement, music, manipulatives, small groups and individual work, conferences with learners).

• How you address learner engagement/disengagement.

• Questioning and feedback used to check for understanding.

• How you use of a variety of assessment/input from learners to gather data.

• Checks for understanding through purposeful questioning and feedback.

• The pacing of the lesson.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

• RJL WRITE A CHECK CAMPAIGN (REMAINDER OF THE MONTH)
• NATIONAL DYSLEXIA AWARENESS MONTH
• STOMP OUT BULLYING MONTH
• BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
• NATIONAL PRINCIPAL MONTH
• HINDU HERITAGE MONTH
• RED RIBBON WEEK

Oct 21- 1st GT Testing

Oct 22-23- 1st GT Testing

     Reading Academy

     Nana Puddin' Presentation (2:00)

     Sky Ranch Parent Meeting (5:00)

Oct 23- Zara's Birthday

     Jacky's Birthday

     1st GT Testing

     Staff Meeting (3:15-4:45)

Oct 24- TX Wildlife here for 5th Grade

     Trunk or Treat (5:30-7:00)

Oct 25- 1st Grade Field Trip to Arboretum 

     1st GT Testing Make Ups

     GEMS due