Week of May 16

THANK YOU for your perseverance this week with state testing and all that it is.  For some of you that was adding lots of steps on your fit bit, for others it was silencing learners for what seems like an eternity, for some it was nervously watching your learners and maintaining a secure environment, and for all of us, it was trusting we have prepared our learners well.  ALL OF US have done our best to have our learners ready, so THANK YOU for your hard work!!  

You did it again- wowing another group of tours.  We saw hands on learning, multi-aged lessons, learners creating rubrics, and use of technology and spaces.  THANK YOU for constantly living under the microscope- I promise there is relief in sight.  I believe our LAST AND FINAL TOUR is THURSDAY.  It is a large group from Canada.  

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.

How are YOU doing with LIVING out this VISION at Lee?   Remember our challenge to use flexible spaces this last part of the year.  You CAN do it!

DID YOU KNOW?

• there is a formula out there: E + P = O?  This stands for (E)vents in our life + (P)positive responses to these events = (O)outcome.  Thank you Jon Gordon for helping me to reflect on this!
• there is great information in this week's Curriculum Courier?  Take time to read it, especially 3-5 Designers who were required to complete the Math Schoology Course requirements.
• some learners aren't in AWARE?  Check now- you have to enter your EOY data.   As KK reminded you, please make sure your May ISIP is completed.
• CK will be at TPESS Training at the Admin Bldg. on Wednesday and Thursday?  This is required district training, and I will be here for arrival each morning.  
• that Roxann will be transitioning into a new role next year as our campus Instructional Coach?  Ask her about it- it is super cool!  She will be joining PLC meetings to help with data, design, and MORE.  YAY!
• one of our visitors is interested in Mystery Hangouts with our school?  If you are interested, contact David at tv40954@gotvdsb.ca

FIELD DAY

Please find out who will be ordering sack lunch on Field Day- they can choose between PB&J and Turkey.  The link to the form is below, and remember we will need the names of the learners that you are buying each type of sandwich.  Please submit by 5/16/16 http://goo.gl/forms/0vReccHeLQ

THANK YOU for sending in tshirt sizes to Jenny VanLuven.  Friday will be tons of FUN.  As soon as details get to me, I will share them with you.  So far, plan to be in rotations as a house. 

SPRING CONFERENCES

THANK YOU for conducting these and including your learners as much as possible.  Please let me know if there are any parent concerns or comments about wanting their learner in a different house for 2016-2017.

LEADERSHIP RETREAT

THANK YOU to our team for giving up their valuable weekend time to vision and work for next year.  We will be leaving as soon as we are packed up after dismissal.  Please meet in the front office parking lot at 3:15.  Our notes will be shared with all staff, so you can stay informed.

FUN RUN FUNDS

Great news!  You have earned 10% of the money collected from your learners to use in your classroom.  See how much you have to spend below.  The funds must be spent by Friday, May 27, and you must present receipts to approved vendors for your items.  We cannot reimburse for tax, so please use a tax exempt form. 

END OF YEAR TECHNO CHECK-IN

Please check out this document that explains how and when we will check in/out devices and carts for the end of year.  See Meghan if you have any questions.  Dates and info are also on the staff calendar.  

In addition, 4th and 5th grade, please make sure to read and follow Alli's email titled "Please Read 1:1 End of Year Housekeeping.  Get a jump on this now because your office End of Year Checklist is coming next!

MOVIES

A friendly reminder that we do not watch movies on campus unless they are approved by Chantel.  We do not have a site license, so we have to closely monitor when movies are used.  In addition, there can be NO DISNEY movies shown. Why? 

NEED YOUR HELP

Please make sure you are emptying your teacher mailbox DAILY.  Also, please make sure your rooms are picked up by learners at the end of each day.  The custodians have mentioned that it has been getting more difficult to get their work done because there are writing utensils on the floors.  Thank you!

SCHOOL PICTURES

Please turn in all orders by next Tuesday.

TELPAS REMINDER

Don't forget to download your TELPAS calibration for your records before July 1, here. 

"LEE"DERSHIP QUALITY OF THE WEEK
Tolerance- respecting the differences of others.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins." -Native American Proverb

LESSON IN "LEE"DERSHIP

During discussions, respect other students' comments, opinions, and ideas.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
May 17- Baby Showers for Jillian and Taylor (3:30)
May 18- EOY Data Due in AWARE
              Staff Meeting CANCELLED- enjoy the gift of time
May 19- Final Spur Saving (7:30-7:50)
               Canadian Tour (9:00)
May 20- All Books Due to Library
               Field Day

Week of March 7

Thank you for taking the time to tell your learners WHY you come to school each day.  Your videos captured your kindness, compassion, and love for our children.  I appreciate that you found your perfect someone and brightened their day.  I am sure you know that I come to school for our learners, but I also come to school because of each of YOU!  You challenge me to be a better version of myself and push me to learn and grow each day. Your belief in me as your leader and in our school is remarkable and I feel lucky to be part of our famiLEE!

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?

• Chantel will not be at school on Friday or Monday?  She will be in Florida visiting her family.
• that administrators in CISD had Religion in Pubic Education Training this week? Here are my notes if you are interested in what we learned.
• Spring conference time is just around the corner?  Don't stress about them before the break, but start talking with your house and grade about when these will start.
• our Canadian visitors and Apple were impressed ONCE AGAIN with the work you are doing.  They left some key chains and stylus' for you.  They are in the teacher's lounge if you would like one.
• not everyone has taken the Lee Staff Self Analysis and it is due tomorrow.  Please go to our February 22 blog for the link.

TELPAS WRITING SAMPLES

These are due to Claudia on Friday.  Please make sure they are dated and the legal first and last name are on them. THANK YOU for getting these completed.

FUN RUN

Please feel free to wear your warm ups and t-shirts to school if you are going to participate in the Fun Run on Thursday.   It is possible that we will do sack lunches from the cafeteria that day (stay tuned) if weather is inclement and we have to move the run indoors. 

OPEN HOUSE

I have no doubt (from PLC sessions) you are going to pull out all the stops to make sure that our building is alive with work all over the place for Open House.  I cannot wait to walk the building and see how you creatively showcase learning.  Please be dressed to impress that night.  You may also encourage famiLEEs to download QR code readers and bring ear buds to hear the technology projects you are showcasing. Don't forget to have them tweet to #rjlyear2

STAFF MEETING

The entire staff (office, paraprofessionals, specialists) MUST be in attendance at Wednesday's staff meeting.  This is our STAAR Security training and everyone must be trained.  We are doing our best to use staff time for this, so please be on time and prepared to learn.  Angela will be sending more details. 

CISD LEARNING FRAMEWORK REVIEW: LEARNING

This week we will spend our second week reviewing learning design.  Educators utilize standards and future ready outcomes to to design constructivist experiences that facilitate the learners' conceptional development and deepen understanding as they construct meaning of the world.  Let's review scaffolding.  According to our CISD Educator Evaluation System: the educator designs learning experiences to promote deeper understanding allowing them to experience new knowledge, activate prior knowledge, and internalize new concepts.

• makes connections to community stakeholders and real world/global concerns 
• connects and leverages various experiences, interests, and contexts in which learners participate in and out of school
• engages diverse learners by using brain-based strategies to help learners represent their thinking

What are ALL the things you consider when you design learning experiences for your learners? How do you know what you will teach learners? Do you decide what learners will study or do they?  Are YOU directing the learning for individuals or are THE LEARNERS? 

"LEE"DERSHIP QUALITY OF THE WEEK
Courage- strength to act even when afraid or uncertain

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;  Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Winston Churchill

LESSON IN "LEE"DERSHIP

Make eye contact.  When someone is speaking, keep your eyes on him or her at all times.  If someone makes a comment, turn and face that person.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
Week of March 7: National School Breakfast Week
Week of March 7: TX Public Schools Week
Week of March 7: 4th Grade Writing Camp
Mar 8:  PTO Mtg. (6:30 Cafe)

Mar 9:  Convocation T-shirt w/ Jeans
             Walk at School Wednesday
             Staff Mtg. (3:30) ALL Staff must attend!
Mar 10: Fun Run (During Specials Time)
             Campus Tour (9:00)
             Open House (6:00-7:30)
Mar 11: Brenda Visits 4th Grade Team
Week of March 14:  Spring Break

Week of February 1

What OUTSTANDING learning experiences you provided our learners this week!  Twitter alone was overflowing with evidence of your talented design!  THANK YOU!  We are so proud of the work that is happening with each house's CBL and are even more excited to see the actionable solutions the children come up with.  Keep it up!!  This next week will be productive as we host our second CBL Planning days.  We are looking forward to supporting you.

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.

Thank you to the Red House designers for posting this purpose in their spaces!

DID YOU KNOW?

• that you are doing an AWESOME job of taking care of technology issues?  You are so good that some of you are not putting in tickets through Zen Desk.  I met with technology on Friday and they shared that Zen Desk will validate the need for campus help, so it is imperative that you put questions and requests in through the system. They will filter out to our CTA (Layne), Alli, or Jennifer and show that we NEED these personnel units.
• when you signed your CISD Employee handbook that you are agreed to be responsible for the iPad and MacBook if damages occur?  I strongly urge you sign up for insurance to protect you from costly repairs if you drop, spill, or cause other damage to your devices.  Here is the company that provides insurance at a reasonable price to us.
• Friday is the last day to submit Super Teacher Nominations for this semester.  Turn someone in!
• that the 9.2.1 ioS update is ready?  If you haven't already, please have your learners install the update ASAP as well as do this on your teacher devices.
• Lindsay Ayers will be here from 10:00 10:30 each design day to help with community and business outreach and connections?  YAY!

CISD LEARNING FRAMEWORK REVIEW: ENVIRONMENT

This week we will review the academic learning environment.  According to our CISD Educator Evaluation System: the educator creates a nurturing, learner-centered environment in which learners gradually construct their own meaning through rigor, prior knowledge, learner interest, and relevance.  

• an environment that considers learner emotions, interests, previous experiences, and learning styles 
• designs learning experiences that encourage learners to reflect and construct their own meaning
• encourages and respects differences of opinions
• capitalizes on making learning relevant
• collaborates with learners to determine how learning is demonstrated and assessed

Let's think about YOUR academic learning environment this week. Are your learners reflecting THROUGHOUT the day? Do they have voice in HOW they show what they know?  Is EVERY activity that learners participate in relevant to the real world?  Push yourself to reflect about these questions this week as you grow as a Designer.

SPIRIT STICK SALES
Groundhog Spirit Sticks will be on sale on Monday and Tuesday.  Please send learners to recess with their dollar. 1, 3, 5 LEEders will sell on Monday and K, 2, 4 on Tuesday.  Thanks for encouraging the sale of these.  We ordered 400, so we need half of our school to support our sale.  Please remind LEEders to wear their shirts on Thursday. We have a meeting at 1:00.

TELPAS CALIBRATION

There have been several changes to TELPAS Calibration this year. One of the changes that will directly affect all of us is that TEA is now requiring calibration sessions to be monitored. Please save the date for our K-5 Designer Calibration Session on February 16th beginning at 3:30pm.  Please BYOM (Bring Your Own Mac) and HEADPHONES (required) to complete the calibration activities. In addition to the monitored calibration, you will have two chances to pass this year instead of three- Have no fear!! There is good news: In addition to earning 2 professional development hours for the calibration and 5 hours awarded for the K-1 and 2-12 basic training courses (for all of our NEW Designers) you will have SNACKS!


LEE NIGHT AT CHS
Friday is our Lee Spirit Night at the CHS Basketball game.  Designers get in free with a guest with their ID. Learners get in free by wearing a Lee spirit shirt.  We will have 4 of our fifth grade boys serving as "Ball Boys" so, please come out and support the Cowboys! 


SPRING BOOK FAIR
Our Book Fair will be delivered on Thursday and previews will start on Friday.  Please share this website with your parents for online previewing, ordering, and downloading of the Scholastic app. Supporting Book Fair means more books for our school library and YOU!  


CURRICULUM AUDIT REQUIREMENTS
Please get your items turned in to Todd by Tuesday.  The Curriculum Audit team will be here on Wednesday and will walk the building and talk to some of you.  We ask for you to be open and honest with them while they visit Lee.  Thank you for your fast turn around on these requested items!

NOTES FROM THE OFFICE
Please be sure to have learners check the ‘forgotten lunch’ table in the café before purchasing a lunch or going without.  Parents drop off lunches at all times during the day and it is frustrating for them to find out that their child never received it.

When a learner calls home…..please be sure that they leave a message and not just hang up. We get a multitude of calls from parents returning a call from our number and the office has no way to determine who called or why.    

"LEE"DERSHIP QUALITY OF THE WEEK
Loyalty- faithfulness to another

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I will speak ill of no man and speak all the good I know of everybody." Benjamin Franklin

LESSON IN "LEE"DERSHIP

If you hear something negative about one of your friends, don't repeat it. If necessary, let an Designer know what was said.

DATES TO REMEMBER:
Counselor Appreciation Week
Feb 1:  Groundhog Spirit Stick Sale

Feb 2:  Groundhog Spirit Stick Sale
            Red and Black Attack Shirt & Jeans
            Dad's Club Mtg. (7:00)

Feb 3:  College T-shirt w/ Jeans
             Walk at School Wednesday
             Geo Bee in 4th and 5th Grade Classes
             Curriculum Audit at Lee (8:00-10:30)
             Staff Mtg. (3:30)  
Feb 4:  Spur Savings (7:30-7:50 Cafe)
             Green House Music Performance (8:15 and 6:30)

             Geo Bee Semi-Finals

             Campus Tour (9:15)
             LEEdership Council (1:00)
             Campus Tour (4:00)
Feb 5:   Geo Bee Final
             Book Fair Preview
             Lee Night at CHS Basketball (8:00)