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! Awesome work in Design Time this week. You are such a brilliant group! Please leave when learners are safely dismissed, tomorrow, and enjoy your weekend.
DID YOU KNOW:- you can go back in and change your attendance if you realize you made a mistake? (Even if it was a day or 2 ago.)
- the district asked that we remind staff to make sure they are turning air purifiers off at night and weekends. Running the units during the nights and weekends only waste the filter life with no benefits for the unoccupied rooms. Since deploying the units, we have had ~ 75 school days. Therefore, at this point, if the units were run for 10 hours per school day, then they should only be around 1/3 of their runtime life. The district is planning to purchase and replace the filters in the fall; however, for now, please remind staff to turn the units off when students leave at the end of the day to conserve the life of the resource.
- there are some suggestions for cleaning and sanitizing your Vivitek Boards?
- in our Principal's Meeting that HR is planning for staffing for next year ALREADY? Kelly Mires shared that there is NO PENALTY for resigning, now, if you know you are planning not to return to CISD next year. (BE CLEAR- WE DO NOT WANT ANY OF YOU GOING ANYWHERE), but if you know you will not return, please turn in your resignation letters now to help us with staffing, planning, and recruiting for next year. CISD online job applications will be posted in February.
- that elementaries will host a "normal" Open House on March 10? This was shared in this week's Principal's Meeting. I will let you know when the time is determined.
- there are updated Reading Academy dates? Feb 22-25 (Cohort 2 make-up), March 22-25, and March 29-April 1. These new dates are on the staff calendar.
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. I HATE that I will miss due to Admin Reading Academy! Please share lots of pictures for me!
2.2.22
What a special day that happens once in a lifetime! We invite you to join in on the fun. Two dress up days in a row! WHOA!
WORLD READ ALOUD DAY
To celebrate at Lee, we have some awesome 5th graders that would love to come visit your classrooms and lead a read aloud for your learners! If this is something you'd be interested in, please sign up for a time that works best HERE. Mrs. Kastrounis is also available to come and read if you invite her.
Additionally - Natalie pulled a selection of books that are wonderful for read alouds, and displayed them above the biography section in the library. Feel free to swing by and check some out for your own celebration. 🙂
There are also some great digital resources you may use for this event HERE.
FLEX LEARNING
Wednesday is a time to earn an hour of flex time. Even if you have your necessary hours, this time is built in for the growth mindsets of all. We have two sessions available to support you on Wednesday. One will be with Samira revisiting Bulb and updating your portfolio and the second will be from our DLCs on Vivitek Boards.
Title: Vivitek - Beyond the Basics
Description: Are you familiar with using the Vivitek board in your learning space, but looking for some additional ways to incorporate it within your lesson delivery. This session will focus on some of the more advanced features of the Vivitek board to use both for educators, and learners.
GAGA PIT UPDATE
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.
This Friday, bring a crock pot of your FAVORITE SOUP for all to share in the lounge.
Recognition will be given to empty crock pots!
STAAR TRAINING
SAVE THE DATE- BOOK FAIR COMING SOON
YEARBOOK
Naomi and Tanishka from B5 will be working with me on the yearbook. They are so passionate about the project. Thank you so much for getting your class pictures to me from the Kindness Parade Day. I have created this folder for our yearbook pictures. Feel free to empty up your phones and transfer some school pictures. We are welcoming every category of pictures: Math, Science, Reading, Recess, Lunch, being goofy, projects, creations and so on… The pet page was very popular so if you have a cute picture of you with your pet, feel free to drop those too. This yearbook is for staff as well. Learners need to see our friendships as well. If you have pictures as house designers, drop those too. Feel free to share your ideas with us as well. We appreciate you!
Yearbook Folder
COACH'S CORNERBuilding in time to reflect is important for learning. To make the most of reflection, use it to help you create and achieve goals and objectives, and through this build a reflective habit. Reflecting on a single experience can produce significant value and increased learning from that experience. However, reflection’s biggest value comes when you build a reflective habit and mindset and align this with your own set of values, goals and objectives. Doing this allows you to own and steer your progress, your learning community and your personal life.
Building a reflective habit and mindset typically combines at least three key elements:
- An ability and willingness to reflect on individual experiences
- Repeating reflection over a series of related experiences
- Regularly reflecting over a longer time frame to see patterns and opportunities for learning that we may have missed.
Please use this link to book a time with me so we can collaborate.
ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK
Foster an inclusive class community
You set the tone in your classroom. Your students will know if you appreciate diversity and welcome students of all kinds. They will follow your lead. Fostering an inclusive classroom is paramount for ELs but really for any child. For ELs this means that we model empathy, ask questions, invite individuality, and embrace one another as we are. Inclusive classrooms allow every child to feel they have a voice. They are rooms where risk taking is appreciated and students feel safe with one another.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Month of February- African American History Month
National Children Dental Health Month
February 1- iStation ISIP administered- set goals and review data with learners
100th Day of School
Ed Foundation shirt day
February 2- Groundhog Day
2.2.22 Day
World Read Aloud Day
Flex Learning (3:15-4:15)
February 4- Go Red Day
SOUPER FRIDAY in the lounge
