Week of February 13, 2023

We hope you are super excited to learn that we will not lose our Bad Weather Days.  THREE CHEERS to CISD to working around this.  We will have the lounge set up for Super Bowl treats on Friday.  Feel free to wear your Chiefs or Eagles gear.  We love and appreciate you SO MUCH!  

DID YOU KNOW:

• the Fairy Tale Ball for 1st Grade is Friday (tomorrow)?  They will participate in a school-wide parade at 2:45 (starting in the cafeteria). Please line the halls at 2:35 to cheer them on as they make one lap around the school.  Thank you to Red and Purple Houses for eating lunch in their houses so that the cafeteria can be set up.
• you will be getting an email from Nancy Garvey on Friday afternoon to give you information about the Feb 17 professional development day, where you will go, etc?

BOOK FAIR

We need parent volunteers for our upcoming Book Fair! No experience necessary! Volunteers must have completed a CISD background check. Sign up to volunteer at the Book Fair here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4aafa92da2f9c16-book#/

Help our designers stock their classroom libraries with popular, new titles from our Spring Book Fair! Donate directly to your designer using the links or QR codes in this presentation. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uHG-c3gAvbcpmKibCLxaF3kg942RkrliWZUWPMq9ZsM/edit?usp=sharing

VALENTINES DAY

Tuesday is going to be a fun-filled day with a PTO performance and Valentine Parties at the end of the day.  PTO is sponsoring Be a Friend Not a Bully. Thank you to Mrs. Garvin for getting this scheduled. The day's schedule is below and is also on our Master Schedule document. 

HOUSE FIELD TRIPS

We need to start collecting funds for our upcoming House Field Trips. Here is the link to School Pay for parents.  Please share this link with your parents.  

https://www.schoolpay.com/pay/for/Richard-J-Lee-Kidzania-Field-Trip/SUDEbi

Remember, if a learner pays you cash or check, you need to complete this form and turn funds into the office at the end of each day.

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!

                                

SAVE THE DATE

You can support our school in two weeks when PTO hosts a spirit night on Thursday, February 23.  

DLC UPDATE

Experiencing difficulty using iCloud collaboration in Schoolwork or Freeform because some of your learners updated to iOS 16.3 before the technology department blocked it?

Never fear, your lesson dreams don't have to disappear! Check in with Alli for some collaboration work arounds! We may not have control of fixing the bug, but there ARE ways to keep making magic happen in your classroom until it gets resolved!

YEARBOOK

Order your 2022-23 yearbook from Lifetouch today!

RED AND BLACK SUPERSTARS

The last nomination period for CEF Superstars this school year is currently open! The deadline for spring nominations is Friday, April 7, 2023.  As you know, this program is designed to give parents and CISD staff an opportunity to recognize the dedicated and hardworking students, teachers, administrators, and support staff within the district. Parents, middle school students and CISD staff members can nominate any CISD staff member at their campus that they would like to be considered for the award.  Student nominations will be submitted by CISD staff. Please encourage your staff to nominate their students. 

 

This year, at the elementary level, up to one student per grade and up to two members of CISD staff will be selected.  At the middle schools, up to three students per grade and up to three members of CISD staff will be selected. Awards can be given out at an assembly, during announcements, in the classroom, or any other method of your choosing. All recipients of the award will receive a certificate and a t-shirt. Nominees who are not selected will still receive a certificate. Below are the links to submit nominations.

 

 

Nominate a Student: https://forms.gle/CUx7EfLbPyPZQwSX9

 

Nominate a fellow CISD Staff Member: https://forms.gle/1nX6ghh8bpQ3krV69

COACH'S CORNER

Let’s collaborate! Sign up so we can work together.

 

There is a great website created by San Antonio Independent School District that has templates already made and templates that can be edited in Canva. When you go to the website below, you can click on any of the graphic organizer sections and find different templates that you may want to try.

 

Website: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFMyLVL8e0/VFXNoPFq27ppbHjVlnRYtg/view?website#4:menu

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Stop for Checkpoints with Feedback. Formatively assessing during lessons helps us to form the next steps in instruction. Think of formative assessment (checkpoints) as a thermometer. We take the temperature and then based on the results, we adjust the thermostat (instruction) and provide feedback to students. On the other hand, if we rarely stop to check on students’ understanding, we might go for hours or days not realizing that students have missed key understandings. Large gaps may form and by this time it becomes difficult to re-route the learning that has solidified.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

CAN WEAR WARM UPS THIS WEEK

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

CTE APPRECIATION MONTH

February 12- Officer Sneed's Birthday

February 13- 5th Grade Visit from CMSW (9:00 Cafe)

     TOY Reception at the CISD Admin Building (5:30)

February 14- Day 0

     Lunches in classrooms

     PTO Performance

     Valentine Parties (2:00-3:00)

February 15- Bethany's Birthday

     Leadership Meeting (3:15 Yellow House)

February 16- Author Visit Book Orders due to Holly (Email coming today about this)

February 17-  National Random Act of Kindness Day

     Staff Professional Development Day

     NO SCHOOL for learners

February 21- NO SCHOOL

Week of February 6, 2023

Happy Thursday!  I hope you enjoyed the extra unexpected time at home  We are so grateful for each and every one of you and how you take care of each other.  Have a loveLEE weekend, stay warm, and take care of YOU!  

DID YOU KNOW:

• we will celebrate the 100th day of school on Friday since it will be our new 100th day of school?
• it is already time to review the CIP with your house and send documentation of CIP evidence to LAH?  Please send your contributions by next Friday, February 10.
• that with the release of iOS16.2, Apple introduces 3 important key features including:
• New Air Drop Settings
• Sharrow Setting
• Freeform App    Click here to learn more about the changes, updates and possibilities!
• there are 24 ways  to App Smash with Canva? If you haven't signed up for your free Educator account with Canva, you are missing out on free content!  (Thanks for sharing LAH)
• we have a 2 hour delay schedule created in case we have to use it?  It is tabbed 2 Hour Delay Schedule on our RJL Master Schedule document.  We will need all hands on deck for front of school arrival since Specials has conference during arrival duty time.

FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY

We hope you enjoy the month of special Friday events.  We will have to have "Make Up Monday" for Feb 3.  Thanks for your understanding.

 

We will host a SUPER BOWL  PARTY this Friday.  Join us in the lounge at your lunch time.

PTO MEETING

I will send an email to parents through Parent Square with a Zoom Link on Tuesday morning.  Please advertise in your weekly newsletter.

BOOK FAIR

Did you know that all profits earned through the Book Fair go back to our campus library fund?  

Many designers created their own eWallets during the Fall Book Fair and were able to use funds donated by parents to grow their classroom libraries! I would like to be sure that every designer has an eWallet for this fair, and I will create a booklet of QR codes so that parents at the fair can scan and donate. You can also share the link to your eWallet via your newsletter, etc. 

Step 1: Create your eWallet here. (Or reactivate your previous eWallet.) Save the link. 

Step 2: Fill out this Google Form to share your link with Holly.

Step 3: Share your link with parents so they can help grow your classroom library! 

We need parent volunteers for our upcoming Book Fair! No experience necessary! Volunteers must have completed a CISD background check. Sign up to volunteer at the Book Fair here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4aafa92da2f9c16-book#/

DLC UPDATE 

Now that most of our learners have updated to iOS 16.2, it is time to celebrate one of the best parts! Apple’s new infinite canvas app, Freeform, automatically pushes to our iPads with the update. 

Great for collaboration on projects, visual notetaking, storyboarding and more, Freeform provides even the youngest of learners a way to make thinking visual. 

Click here to learn more!

Thanks to May and learners in P5 for jumping in to try it!  Want to learn more? Reach out to Alli!

COACH'S CORNER

Let’s collaborate! Sign up so we can work together.

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Monitor Progress & Growth. If we want emergent bilinguals to grow in language and content, we need to know where they are and become intentional about the steps to help them get to the goals. Goal setting alongside EBs has become a more common practice too. Many teachers sit alongside students to discuss goals and progress.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

CTE APPRECIATION MONTH

Feb 6-10- National School Counseling Week
Feb 7- Progress Report Grades Due (8:00 AM)

     Virtual PTO Meeting (6:00 PM)

Feb 8 - Staff Meeting (3:15)

Feb 7-  Admin Reading Academy

Feb 10- Progress Reports Go Home

     Fairy Tale Ball (2:00 Gym)

Week of January 30, 2023

Happy Thursday, sweet ladies.  What a GREAT week spreading and celebrating kindness throughout our lives.  I am reminded, daily, what a blessing it is to be at Lee Elementary with each of YOU!  Hearing you champion each other and your learners, as well as support and love one another communicates what a special group we have.  THANK YOU for being YOU! 

Looking forward to taking your banners over to West in the morning.  Please send them with your LEEders at their designated time.

DID YOU KNOW:

• we are going to start collecting the money for our school-wide field trip to Kid Zania in March?  We will be collecting $20 per child to attend the field trip.  Blue House goes on 3/21, Purple and Yellow Houses go on 3/22 and Green and Red Houses go on 3/24.  Please keep track of who turns in money or checks to you and  Abeer will be sending out the link to School Pay. 
• that we will be hosting our CISD Job Fair on April 1?  If you are interested in helping recruit and interview for Lee Elementary, please email CK to share your interest.  There will be brief confidentiality and interview training required.

100th DAY OF SCHOOL

Can you believe we have already been in school 100 days?  We are more than halfway through the year!  Feel free to participate on Tuesday.

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY

WRAD is Wednesday February 1st, and we can’t wait to celebrate at Lee! Librarians have created a district-wide WRAD spreadsheet where volunteers such as admin, board members, CHS Red Jackets, etc. can sign up to volunteer to read. If some of our RJL 5th graders would like to sign up to volunteer to read, a designer can sign the learner up on the left-hand side of this spreadsheet as well. Note that you will highlight the times they are available in yellow. 

Teachers who would like to have a reader in their classroom may sign up on this same spreadsheet.

CISD WRAD Spreadsheet

Holly will also be showing some live WRAD Author Videoconferences in the Flex Space on this day. Sign up here to come listen to a read aloud from an author!

WRAD Author Videoconferences in the RJL Library

FLEX LEARNING

Here is the direct link to the folder!  

FABULOUS FRIDAYS IN FEBRARY

Your Admin Team wants to communicate how loved you are! We are hosting Fabulous Fridays the whole month of February to show you and can't wait for everyone to join in. 

SAVE THE DATE- BOOK FAIR COMING SOON

Many designers created their own eWallets during the Fall Book Fair and were able to use funds donated by parents to grow their classroom libraries! I would like to be sure that every designer has an eWallet for this fair, and I will create a booklet of QR codes so that parents at the fair can scan and donate. You can also share the link to your eWallet via your newsletter, etc. 

Step 1: Create your eWallet here. (Or reactivate your previous eWallet.) Save the link. 

Step 2: Fill out this Google Form to share your link with Holly.

Step 3: Share your link with parents so they can help grow your classroom library! 

We need parent volunteers for our upcoming Book Fair! No experience necessary! Volunteers must have completed a CISD background check. Sign up to volunteer at the Book Fair here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4aafa92da2f9c16-book#/

COACH'S CORNER

Let’s collaborate! Sign up so we can work together.

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Collaborate with Colleagues. Collaborating with our colleagues helps our students. We need each other. Our colleagues know things that we don’t know and we can learn from one another. As an ESL Co-Teacher and later an Language Acquisition Specialist, I had the honor of going into classrooms and working alongside numerous teachers on my campus/district. That was the best professional learning. Our peers are our greatest teachers!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
NATIONAL DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

CTE APPRECIATION MONTH

January 30- Mariam's Birthday

January 31- 100th Day of School

     Lee Design Day (Red House AM / Green House PM)

February 1- iStation ISIP administered- set goals and review data with learners

     Lee Design Day (Blue House AM / Yellow House PM)

     World Read Aloud Day

     Flex Learning (3:15)

February 2- Groundhog Day

     Lee Design Day (Purple House PM)   

February 3- Go Red Day

Week of January 23, 2023

Thank you for an awesome week.  We can't wait to kick off The Great Kindness Challenge on Monday.  It is the perfect time to recognize and celebrate the kindness all around us because at Lee Elementary kindness is PLENTIFUL!  

DID YOU KNOW:

• the PTO grant process is still open?   If you would like to submit a grant, they are due on January 28 and so far only one grant is submitted.  Here is the form.  Grant winners will be announced in early February.
• it is already time to start thinking about school supplies for next year?  Here is last year's list. Please review, as a grade level, and make any adjustments.  Once your adjustments are made, change the date on your tab to "Your Grade 2023-2024" so we know you are done.  The total should be as close to $55 - $57 as you can get it.  The price range is higher due to inflation.  Please have this done by Friday, Feb 24 so I can get it to PTO.  I'm sorry, but this task should be done outside of Team Time since it does not align with our 4 questions.
• Dr. Hunt approved jeans for Feb 13-17?  Lee staff can wear warm ups this week, but I request that you wear jeans to the Professional Learning Day on the 17th.  ENJOY!
• you are invited to participate in an ESL Book Study?  The deadline to sign up is January 20.  Here is the info from Alex:

GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE
It's here!  Join us for the kick off parade Monday morning after morning broadcast.  Can't wait to see your banners and then have them hung around the school.  We will have the CHS drumline here to help us celebrate.  Remember you have a class banner for Monday the 23rd and a house banner for CMSW for Friday the 27th.

PTO SPIRIT NIGHT

Mark your calendars for Wednesday.  Lee PTO will be sponsoring a fundraiser at Torchys.  The fundraiser is ALL day, so if you want to order in lunch- GO FOR IT!

SAVE THE DATE

Get your granny and grandpa gear ready!  The 100th day of school is approaching.  

COACH'S CORNER

Let’s collaborate! Sign up so we can work together.

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Offer Visual Word Walls. Imagine moving to a new country and not speaking the language yet. Look at the word wall. It’s only words on index cards. No visuals to help you understand. You can read them, but you have no clue what they mean. Frustrating right?! Visual word walls are accessible to more learners in our classrooms. We can even add words in our EBs’ primary language(s) or add realia.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE WEEK

HOLOCAUST REMEMBERANCE WEEK

SUPER TEACHER NOMINATIONS OPEN

Jan 23- Angela's Birthday

     Great Kindness Challenge Kick Off Parade (8:00)

     Reading Academy Cohort A

Jan 24- Education Foundation t-shirt 

     Reading Academy Cohort A

Jan 25- Reading Academy Cohort B

     Torchy's PTO Spirit Night

     Staff Meeting (3:15)

Jan 26- Reading Academy Cohort B

Jan 27- PTO Grants Due

Week of January 16, 2022

PLEASE take care of yourself this long weekend.  I hope that you take time, rest, and do something you love.  Live out your ONE WORD!

DID YOU KNOW:

• the PTO grant process is open for two more weeks?  If you would like to submit a grant, they are due on January 28.  Here is the form.  Grant winners will be announced in early February.
• 
  

YEARBOOK:

• Samira will be picking pictures from Twitter to add to the yearbook. It would help tremendously if you avoid pic collages (for the pictures you might want in the yearbook). I am also creating a folder where you can add pictures if you want. Feel free to create a folder to organize or not. Here is the link to the folder: 22-23 | Yearbook
• I am also going to place your portrait pages in your mailboxes. Please check to make sure all kids are there and check their spellings.  This includes your learners in Practical Academics and Active Learning!
• I am planning to add a little message from designers to the yearbook. Anyone is welcome to type a message, including specials and specialists. But classroom designers y’all have a dedicated space under the class portraits.

GREAT KINDNESS CHALLENGE
THANK YOU, Angela and Jessica, for leading the charge with our Great Kindness Challenge planning for 2023!  Here is a sneak peek of what is to come.  Plan to have your class create a class banner to be ready for our kickoff parade on January 23.  PUT YOUR BANNER SOMEWHERE SAFE SO CUSTODIANS DO NOT THINK IT IS TRASH.  Please tweet out kindness activities to @KidsforPeace and #GreatKindnessChallenge to showcase how you incorporate KINDNESS into your lessons.

MOY GOAL SETTING
If you are a paraprofessional, instructional aide, or office support staff,  I would like to set up a middle of the year goal setting appointment with you.  Please have Younis schedule you on my calendar for 15 minutes.  This is time for us to check in and see how I can support you and your professional goals this year.  For all others that are evaluated under TTESS, Leigh Ann, Angel, and I should have scheduled your formal TTESS Observation by now. If any of you under TTESS want a middle of the year check-in, please email your evaluator.  We are happy to have one on one time with you.  

SAVE THE DATE

Mark your calendars for next Wednesday.  Lee PTO will be sponsoring a spirit night at Torchys.  It is ALL day so if you want to order in lunch- GO FOR IT!

DLC UPDATE

💡bulb Update

Over the weekend, bulb got a shiny new facelift! Many of the features are still there, but there are new ways to access them. There are more font colors, fonts, and accessibility features that will hopefully make the app and web version easier to use. More information will be coming but check out this video to learn more! Reach out to Alli with questions!

COACH'S CORNER

Let’s collaborate! Sign up so we can work together.

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Create Warm & Welcoming Spaces. Classroom environments that capture kids' hearts will no doubt build their minds and allow language to flourish. The goal is for English learners and their families to feel safe to take risks and feel that they belong and are valued in our campuses and our classrooms.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

MOY MAP WINDOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 17

MCLASS WINDOW THROUGH FEBRUARY 17

NOMINATIONS FOR SUPER TEACHER OPEN

January 16- NO SCHOOL

January 17- Onboarding (3:15 Yellow House)

January 18- Leadership Meeting (3:15 Yellow House)

January 19- MTSS Meeting Day