Week of February 15

Happy Valentine's Day at Lee.  It is going to be a wonderful day of love, candy, and parties.  Please enjoy your lunch from ChickFila.  Filling your tummies is one way for us to show you how much you mean to us and the children!

OUR GUIDING PURPOSE: We empower learners to positively impact the world by designing learning experiences that promote relationships, risk taking, and collaboration in a flexible environment.

What YOU are doing to do to LIVE out this VISION at Lee?  

DID YOU KNOW?

• we will be participating in the APEX Fun Run in March?  Be looking for info to be coming your way on Monday.
• we will be moving to the state evaluation system next year?  Don't panic, it is very similar to what we have used the last two years in CISD.  Training will occur during Back to School.
• that PTO read every thank you card you submitted to them last month?  THANK YOU for taking the time to show your appreciation for all they do!
• some folks are entering the school from the kitchen over the weekend and in the mornings?  Please do not do this.  If it is dark, or the back doors are locked, please park up front.  THANK YOU!
• we need someone to design next year's staff shirt ALREADY?!  If you have a passion for taking this on, please email Chantel. 

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

We will start Monday at CHS with Michael Wesch.  Todd and I had the privilege of hearing him speak at the Visioning Conference last summer, where he shared about the authentic learning experiences he and his learners experienced.  You are expected to be at the CHS auditorium by 8:00 and his lecture begins at 8:15.  Please wear jeans and your RJL shirt that we gave you at the beginning of this year.  Wesch will conclude at 9:15 and we will continue the rest of our learning day at 10:00 in our cafeteria.  We will have lunch on your own and wrap-up by 4:00.

SHOE DRIVE

Red House learners will be starting their shoe drive on Tuesday.  Please communicate to parents that learners will be asking for new or gently used shoes.  Red House will collect them, graph them, and bring them on their CBL field trip to the Mission Arlington the following Tuesday.  Please help them with this SERVICE to the community.   

ESL COURSE DUE

Don't forget to complete your ESL Schoology Course by Tuesday.  The course access code is: MCCFC-ZSGCC. You will receive 1 hour of flex credit if you post a question or feedback on the course.

DIGITAL LEARNING DAY

Wednesday is Digital Learning Day.  Check out this website for information and ideas.  If you participate, please tweet out with the hashtag #DLDay and #rjlyear2.

SCIENCE IS MESSY

If you choose to attend one of the sessions at Town Center, after school on Thursday, please feel free to wear jeans.  

BWW

Join us at Buffalo Wild Wings Night.  Maybe Todd will buy someone's meal again?! Remember to show your card for your discount and to send money back to our school.

VISITORS THIS WEEK

Apple will be on campus on Thursday.  On Friday, we will have two sets of visitors.  First, we will have a LARGE group of Superintendents on campus all day.  They will be in the Book Fair room and large conference room.  In addition, I will have two of my accountability partners from my Principal's Institute here.  I have no doubt you are putting into practice this month's ENVIRONMENT exemplars so that our campus is represented well.  

SOCIAL SPURS LUNCHEON

CISD LEARNING FRAMEWORK REVIEW: ENVIRONMENT

This week we will review the social/emotional learning environment.  According to our CISD Educator Evaluation System: the educator collaborates with learners to create a safe, non-threatening environment building positive relationships through respect and high expectations. 

• the educator fosters academic and social growth
• collaboration is the norm in various learning environments
• the educator interacts in a positive way with learners and all members of the school community across all environments
• learners reflect on misbehavior and plan for what to do differently in the future
• the educator models how to build appropriate positive relationships

DLC CHALLENGE

Each module will focus on a different chapter of the Learning Framework; Environment, Design, and Assessment.  You can earn up to 3 Schoology badges, each resulting in one hour of flex credit. This is a virtual challenge starting on Feb. 1, 2016 and ending on Mar. 25, 2016.  You are free to join the challenge at any time.  If you have already joined the DLC PL course, simply complete the modules in the DIY Designer’s Challenge folder.  If you have not yet joined the DLC PL course (72Q87-RDGM5), use the course code to join the course and complete the DIY Designer’s Challenge!  If you have any questions, reach out to Alli!

SPECIAL EDUCATION PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
If you are seeking learning opportunities for accommodations.  Check out this website.

"LEE"DERSHIP QUALITY OF THE WEEK
Generosity- freely giving of time or resources

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"We make a living by what we get and a live by what we give!" Winston Churchill

LESSON IN "LEE"DERSHIP

Surprise others by performing random acts of kindness. Go out of your way to do something surprisingly kind and generous for someone at least once a month.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
Feb 15:  NO SCHOOL (for learners)
              Bethany's Birthday
Feb 16:  Red House Shoe Drive Begins 
              ESL Schoology Course Deadline

Feb 17:  Progress Report Grades Due
              FOSS Kits Due on Stage
              Chpt. 7 in Learning By Doing Due  
              Digital Learning Day
              House T-shirt w/ Jeans
              Walk at School Wednesday
              Staff Mtg. (3:30-5:00)  
Feb 18:  Spurs Savings (7:30-7:50 a.m.)
              LEEdership Council (8:00 Media Center)
              Campus Tours (9:00 and 1:00)
              Science is Messy (4:00-5:00 TCE)
              Buffalo Wild Wings Night
Feb 19:  Progress Reports sent home
              NTRC Superintendents at Lee all day
              Kamille's Birthday
              Social Spurs Luncheon
              MOY Assessment Data due in AWARE
              Six Flags Read to Succeed Due

Week of December 7

Hope you have had your ELF a MERRY first week of December.  Be on the lookout for the ELF game rules over the weekend.  

OUR GUIDING PURPOSE: We empower learners to positively impact the world by designing learning experiences that promote relationships, risk taking, and collaboration in a flexible environment.

DID YOU KNOW?

• that there is a deadline to book busses for field trips between December 18 and January 7?  The reservation must be input by December 10 to be approved.
• that our enrollment is up to 665 and our free and reduced lunch is 6%.  Please include information for parents to learn more in this week's email home.

WEEK OF CODE

Please consider signing up and sharing out learner opportunities for #hourofcode next week.  Here is an easy guide to get started and lesson plans, too!  (Thanks Alli and Twitter)

WRITE FROM THE BEGINNING AND BEYOND TRAINING

THANK YOU for your attention and professionalism during training!  Brenda shared the Essential Question activity cards.  Here they are!  She also emailed and commented, "Your teachers oops I mean designers, were wonderful!  It was such a pleasure to be a part of this very talented group." I appreciate the way you represented Coppell ISD and our school.  She will be back on January 11 for Learning Walks in our building.

DATA DASHBOARD

MP2 Energy was here on Monday.  To get to the dashboard, this is the website and the password is: spurs  They cleared out the learner leaderboard since first and last names were on there and updated it to only collect first name last initial now.  Please challenge our learners to go on and take multiple sustainability quizzes.  The questions randomly generate, so no two quizzes are the same and the bank of questions will keep the quizzes fresh and challenging.  Did you know we can add our own questions to the quiz bank?  Did you know we can add videos too?  See Todd or Chantel to learn more.

ESL UPDATE

Please review the S'more sent by Claudia this week.  It has excellent updates for resources and strategies for our ESL learners!

LEEDERSHIP COUNCIL

Thank you for giving your LEEders time to share with your classes after our meetings.  I will email the minutes after each meeting to help learners share what we have done.  We will host holiday Spirit Stick sales the last week before Winter Break.

HANDBOOK UPDATE TO RECESS SECTION HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW
As the allergy season gets going, or cold weather approaches, please let parents know that if they request their child stay in from outside activities, it will require a note from them.  If the request is for longer than 2-3 days, we will need a doctor’s note that gives specific dates that the learner must stay inside.

• On days that the learner remains inside, they will report to the media center with something to read or work to do (after you have notified the media specialist).  If our media specialist has lunch at that time and it would prevent the learner from staying in the media center, the designer will have to work out another placement (i.e. in the café or another house during that time).

SCIENCE IS MESSY

Make sure you let me know if you attended training today.  I will cover a lunch or recess duty for you as a token of thanks for continuing your learning.

SOCIAL SPURS PARTY

We hope you can join Social Spurs on Wednesday for their party at Love and War in Texas.  Bring a wrapped ornament ($10) if you would like to participate in the ornament exchange.

MATH EDUCATOR ACADEMY

If you are interested in attending Math Educator Academy on these days, please let me know.  We have the budget to send four total PreK-2 Designers and four total 3-5 Designers plus one Special Education Designer.  We will secure your subs but you must still request through Eduphoria.

CISD HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

For those of you new to the district, CISD has a great event at the Admin Bldg. all day on Friday. Head over during your conference time and rub elbows with other CISD employees while enjoying snacks and entertainment by the CISD Fine Arts Department.  Our learners will perform around 9:30 so check them out if you are there at that time.

"LEE"DERSHIP QUALITY OF THE WEEK

Justice- being fair, right, and upholding what is right.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“In matters of style, swim with the current.  In matters of principle, stand like a rock.” -Thomas Jefferson

LESSON IN "LEE"DERSHIP

Never cut line. If someone cuts in front of you, do not say or do anything about it. Let it happen, but let a teacher know about it. They will handle the situation.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
December 7-11: Week of Code

Dec 8:  PTO Mtg. (6:30 pm)

Dec 9:  Walk at School Wednesday
             Choir Sings at Northpark Mall
             Staff Holiday Party (3:30 Love and War in Texas)
Dec 10:  April's Birthday
              Learning Walk @ Lee (8:15)
              Choir/Instrumental Dress Rehearsal (8:30 Cafe)

              Campus Tours (9:00 and 1:00)
              Campus Spelling Bee
              Lauren's Farewell (4:30-6:30 Esparzas)
              Choir/Instrumental Performance (6:30 Cafe)
Dec 11:  Todd's Birthday

               Julie B's Birthday
               CISD Holiday Open House (conference time)
               GtI Learner Interviews Due to Ayesha