Week of October 20, 2025

Thank you for all of your thoughtful design work last Friday. I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and found some time to relax and recharge. We truly appreciate your efforts in completing report cards and the meaningful feedback you provided for families. As we begin the new nine weeks, thank you for taking time to revisit your respect agreements, reinforce digital citizenship, and review our school-wide expectations with learners. Your consistency and care make such a difference in setting the tone for a positive start to the quarter.

DID YOU KNOW:

• there is now a link in the CISD SSO page for SLO? Use or lose!

• that I WANT our learners to experience and learn about the many traditions and cultures represented within our Lee community? Thank you to the classrooms, houses, and grade levels that are celebrating the various fall holidays. Your efforts help our learners appreciate diversity in meaningful ways. As you plan these experiences, please ensure that discussions remain focused on cultural traditions rather than religious practices or beliefs. (I know you know this!) Additionally, consider offering an alternative activity for any learners who may prefer to opt out of a particular celebration.

• 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 October 31.  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
• Dr. DeLaIsla and her team will be coming to campuses to do learning walks?  They hosted one, yesterday.  If you are curious, below is what they will be looking at when they visit campuses:

WRITE A CHECK IS LIVE

The success of our Write-A-Check campaign depends on the energy and enthusiasm we build together! Please help us spread the word, encourage participation, and motivate learners by celebrating progress toward your class goals.

Our RJL PTO annual Write-A-Check fundraising campaign is officially underway! This is our main source of funding for the FamiLEE PTO, and this year’s goal is $31,000. Every dollar raised goes right back into our school—supporting programs like Red Ribbon Week, Author Visits, enrichment programs, field trip transportation, and much more.Please consider making your donation today at rjlpto.org/wac

STAFF MEETING

Classroom teachers and specialists, please plan to attend staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon.  We will have campus training, in the cafeteria, from CISD (and Dr. DeLaIsla) on teaching our EB's. 

50TH DAY OF SCHOOL APPROACHING

We will celebrate the 50th day of school on Friday, October 24.  We are excited to see learners and staff dress up and for the fun experiences that our learners will participate in.

LIBRARY HELPERS NEEDED

Mrs. Stout would love library helpers to help shelve books and with other small projects. Please sign up and consider becoming a regular volunteer for the library! rjlpto.org/library

New this year, for anyone shelving books, we’ve worked with Mrs. Stout to create a quick training video you can watch before your volunteer slot!

SWEETEN UP RJL TRUNK OR TREAT

The Annual Richard J. Lee Trunk or Treat on October 28th at 5:30pm is one of our favorite community events of the year, but we can't do it without our FamiLEE! To help support the work our designer teams put into their fabulous trunks, we will be gathering candy donations for them to hand out on the big night! Please sign up to send in a bag of 150+ pieces of candy/prizes with your learner by Wednesday, October 22nd. rjlpto.org/candy

RED RIBBON WEEK APPROACHING IN ONE WEEK

Red Ribbon week is IN TWO WEEKS!  Thank you to Angela for planning out this week.  

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!

DOCUMENTING YOUR DATAT POINT ON TSP RUBRIC
At my principal meeting this week, CISD shared a helpful suggestion for your student growth tracker. They recommended linking the tool you used directly to the data point column header for easier reference and consistency.

COACHES CORNER

Next in Thinking Maps: Tree Map

The Tree Map helps learners organize information into categories. It is my personal favorite and has so many great uses!

• Encourages classification and logical grouping
• Supports writing organization and note-taking
• Ideal for sorting ideas, main ideas/details, or scientific categories 
• Use through induction or deduction (whole to parts or parts to whole)

📂 Learn About Tree Maps: Presentation | Educator Guide 

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.

LEEDERSHIP FOR THE WEEK

DATES TO REMEMBER:

• RJL WRITE A CHECK CAMPAIGN (REMAINDER OF THE MONTH)
• NATIONAL DYSLEXIA AWARENESS MONTH
• STOMP OUT BULLYING MONTH
• BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
• HINDU HERITAGE MONTH
• DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP WEEK
• TEXAS SAFE SCHOOLS WEEK

Oct 20- 3 & 5 GT Testing

Oct 21- 3 & 5 GT Testing

Oct 22- Staff Meeting (3:15-4:45)

     3 & 5 GT Testing

Oct 23- Jacky's Birthday

     TEPSA Leadership Training for 5th Graders @ Wilson

Oct 24- Math and ELAR Curriculum Review-1st Grade Team Time

     GEMS due