Week of August 19, 2024

WOW! You did it! You've successfully navigated the first two days of school. We've truly enjoyed visiting your classes. Office visits have begun for some of us, and we are eagerly looking forward to spending more time with you and your classes. The time spent in the café this week has allowed me to get acquainted with some of our new and returning friends, and I want to commend everyone for the excellent practices you are implementing. WELL DONE! We have such INCREDIBLE learners and designers here. Start your weekend as soon as you can on Friday, after dismissal. You’ve earned it! 

DID YOU KNOW:

• our Lee Staff Handbook acknowledgement is due on Friday, August 16 (tomorrow)?  Please screenshot and upload the signature page into the Schoology media album.  
• it would help Sam plan if you had time to fill out her interest survey about the pond?  Please take time to give her feedback here.
• IF a learner must be checked out from school, it should occur before 2:45?  After 2:45, we will request parents wait in the car loop to ensure learners get dismissed safely.  Learners should only leave early if there is a doctor's appointment.  (PLEASE ADD TO YOUR NEWSLETTERS) 
• we do not accept drop offs at school?  Please let parents know that they should not bring leaner's iPad, lunch, jacket, water bottle, or school project to school after they have dropped their child off at school. We also only want people at our door who have an appointment or a need to be on campus. Safety is a PRIORITY here!
• weekly communication should be sent to your parents through Parent Square every Friday?  Parent Square translates what you send home.  Rosters should now be uploaded.  If not... please use eSchool one more week.  Include pictures of the learning/learners each week so parents see what learning looks like at Lee.  Need a S'more license?  See Chantel.
• Social Spurs has stared collecting money for this year?  $30 for professional staff and $20 for paraprofessionals.  Donations can be venmoed to @Linda-Hoffmann-9.  Thank you, Social Spurs, for stocking the fridge with drinks for the first day!

ATTENDANCE

Please make sure you are turning in your attendance between 10:01 and 10:05 AM.  Thank you to those who are getting attendance in and have alarms set so you don't forget.  We got this!

ID BADGES
You are required, by the district, to wear your ID Badge at school. If you see visitors or adults in our building without a badge, you must ask to see their badge.  If they do not have one, then please escort them to the office. 

RESPECT AGREEMENTS

Please create and post respect agreements with your classes for the 1st 9 weeks by the end of next week.  Remember there should be FOUR quadrants: Learner to Learner, Learner to Designer, Designer to Learner, and Learner to School.  All four quadrants should have 3 to 4 bullets with short phrases (ex: be honest, hands to self, feet off furniture, etc.) avoid negative words like don't and never.  Please share a copy with our APs so they can add it to our office binder.  We use these when we handle discipline.

DIGITAL LITERACY
As part of a district initiative regarding digital citizenship and safety, all learners in grades PreK-12 are expected to take part in an overview of digital citizenship.  This is the time of year to cover this topic.  I have asked for information and direction on resources for this initiative.  I believe this is on the agenda for Learning Coaches, tomorrow.  Please stay tuned for info from CISD.  I will share with you when information / resources come in.  SORRY!

FLEX LEARNING

We will host our first Flex Learning on Wednesday and hope you can join us.  “Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” - Fitzhugh Dodson (American Psychologist)

On August 21st, we have time set aside for you to work on your team goals. The tasks are as follows:

• Complete your team goals in this document.
• Create a bulb page in your portfolio that documents your team goal. Here is a template. 
• Enter all the information in PowerSchool Perform in the section titled Goal 2 and this time save and submit. If you need the steps, here is the link to the presentation. Slides 8-13 walk you through the steps.

Please submit for flex credit through Power School with the Title BOY Goal Setting Preparation.

HAPPY PHONE CALL HOME

Please, by Sept 2, pick up the phone and call EVERY family. Tell them/leave a message sharing something special about their child.  It will pay huge dividends to take the time to do this!  Parents are used to only getting phone calls when there is something wrong.  Let's change their perception!  It is also a TTESS Domain 4 descriptor.  Specials Designers and and Specialists, please pick 25 learners to call.

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
We will practice emergency drills soon.  Be READY!  If you do not know where to go ASK Admin, so we can give you directions.  All spaces should have a map posted at your door and a Standard Response Protocol poster posted near the door.  Please make sure you have downloaded the Raptor app to your iPad or mobile device. 

ATTENDANCE REMINDER FOR PARENTS

As you make vacation plans this year, remember that missing school can impact your child's learning and success, and it also affects attendance laws. Please schedule trips following the holidays on the CISD calendar to ensure compliance and support your child's education. https://www.coppellisd.com/o/cisd/page/calendar

FROM OUR PTO

Please consider signing up to be the Room Parent for our class! This role can be tailored to what works for you and our class; I’m hoping to have at least one parent or more to partner with throughout the year. Find out more, and sign up here! bit.ly/RJLRoomParent

The Scholastic Book fair is coming to RJL Library soon, and the volunteer sign up is live. Act fast to get a slot that works best for you! This is one of the first onsite volunteer opportunities of the year and a great way to get involved and foster young readers! bit.ly/RJLBookFair Reminder, if you plan to volunteer for these or any other future events, complete your yearly required CISD Background Check asap here.

Our annual house fund donations are open now through September 10th. House funds are what we as a PTO use to support all the celebrations we host throughout the year. Please see below for additional details. Your support is greatly appreciated!  bit.ly/RJLHouseFund

CISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION 

We are excited to announce that the CISD Education Foundation’s annual Give for Grants initiative is now open for teacher grant applications through September 14th! Now more than ever, with the budget challenges we are facing, CEF aims for our grants process to encourage, facilitate, recognize, and reward effective, innovative, and creative, instructional approaches that directly impact CISD students while transforming classroom learning.  You can get all the info you need simply by visiting the CEF website.  Don't forget to purchase your Ed Foundation shirt if you want to support them and wear with your jeans on Tuesdays!

AFTER SCHOOL OPPORTUNITY

LEARNING COACH:

Our MAP and mClass assessment window opens on August 19th and closes on September 20th. I will meet with each house on Monday, August 26th during your house meeting time to help set up MAP sessions and answer any questions. This meeting will take the place of your regular house meeting on Thursday. I promise not to take your whole time. Please make plans to follow this MAP schedule. Thank you for your flexibility. I want to make sure everyone is set up for success. 

YEARBOOK: 

Please add pictures from the 1st Day of School

ESL STRATEGY OF THE WEEK

Many of our emergent bilingual students come with unique and sometimes difficult to pronounce names.  Here are some great books to celebrate names and identities as we start learning our learners’ names (and learning to say them correctly- check out this helpful tip resource linked to My Name, My Identity.)    

We have the books checked out and would love to share them with you in these next couple of weeks. Send us an email and we can leave it in your mailbox, or we can schedule a time to drop in for a read aloud with your class, as we continue getting to know our Lee designers and learners.

Did you know that half of our LEE Learners are EBs?  Please share these valuable ESL Resources with our parents.

LEE LIFE PRINCIPLE:

Respect- showing consideration for others

LESSON IN LEADERSHIP:

We will often have visitors in our school. When a visitor arrives, look them in the eyes, shake hands, tell them who you are, and welcome the person to our school.

LEE QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Consideration for others is the basis of a good life, a good society” -Confucius

DATES TO REMEMBER:

BOY GOAL SETTING WINDOW

MOY MAP/MCLASS WINDOW

August 18- CISD Compliance Courses Due

August 21-  Amber's Birthday

     Flex Learning (3:15-4:15)

August 23- First Round of Team Time Begins on Day 1

Week of August 12, 2024

Thank you for a wonderful Back to School Week and for working so well together.  It has been such a great time of togetherness, fun, laughter and productivity. I am so super proud of the work you have accomplished this week and hope that time on Tuesday eases some of the worries or stress you have as you prepare for #rjlyear11. I am over the rainbow with excitement for the year and there is NO PLACE LIKE LEE TO BE!

DID YOU KNOW:

• there is a link to responses to our Faculty Favorites in case you want to know your famiLEE members better or surprise them with a treat?  Home addresses are hidden for your privacy.
• while weather is extreme, you can check here to see how it impacts Recess and PE?
• communication from CK was sent out to parents about "all things beginning of the year?"  Here is the link if you want to include in your introduction email to parents.  Content is continually added and updated. You will want to read it, too.
• we had a former nurse whose pet project was those orange Home Depot buckets with supplies in them for emergency purposes?  I still see some of these around the building.  I would like the orange buckets to be collected and given to Music or placed in your house storage rooms, not in your spaces.  Thank you!
• it is expensive to set up a classroom?  If you need help, CISD allows solicitation through Donor’s Choose through your school email.  If you create an Amazon wishlist to help with your classroom, please use your personal email account and and only share with your friends and family, not famiLEEs.
• we will use the hashtags #rjlyear11 and #NoPlaceLikeLee this year? Please make it a priority to tell our story. If you don't tell it, who will? Also, as discussed in ethics training, please ask parents in your BOY Google Forms if you can use learner pictures in your newsletters and on social media.
• badge covers and clips were placed in your mailboxes as well as blank calendars? Kristi and Cathy your badge clips are coming. Lifetouch will send the first round of badges ASAP.
• PTO is working hard to make their support even more tailored to the needs of the staff!  Please let Angel know if you have specific dietary needs or if you have any suggestions about restaurants or businesses that PTO could partner with for campus events. 

CONVOCATION

On Friday, you can get into CHS commons area for breakfast starting at 7:30.  The arena will open at 8:15 and we need to be in our seats by 8:30.  Wear your Lee Convocation t-shirt (There's No Place Like Lee) that we gave you on Monday.  It is advised to carpool because traffic is a BEAST when you depart.  The Coppell Ed Foundation will sell their Tuesday t-shirts for $20 at the event.  

FRIDAY

Here is the agenda for Friday.

CLASS LISTS

Class lists are starting to be populated in eSchool. Remember these are constantly changing, so please do not make class labels or email until we give you the "all clear."  There is time built in from 12:00-1:00, and then again at 3:00, to get your email scheduled to send out.  We need every minute to verify as many learners as we can. 

All grade level designers will email your welcome to learners and parents to be scheduled to send out by 4:00 PM on Friday, August 9.  We will only send emails to learners who have been verified (their ID box will be green on our class list document that will be emailed to you on Friday).  This system of emailing, individually, is to ensure we get residency verification from EVERY child on your list.  If you send a whole class email through Parent Square, this defeats the purpose of verification. 

MONDAY

Please wear your new Spur mascot shirt we gave you on Friday. We will take a staff picture at 8:00 on the front steps, so please be on time. We will follow that with SpEd, ESL, GT, MLI, and 504 meetings by house. Lunch is on your own and we will meet back in the cafe from 2:15-4:00 for required training. We will provide salads, bread, and cookies for all of you so that you don't have to leave and fight for parking for Meet the Designer Night.

MEET THE DESIGNER NIGHT

I KNOW you will make Meet the Designer Night memorable for our FamiLEEs.  You only get one chance to make a first impression, and I am certain you all are planning ways to make this memorable for ALL.  I can't wait for the children and their families to see you!  Remember that your room does not have to be PERFECT for Meet the Designer Night, just tidy.  You can stay in your Lee Spirit t-shirt (the one with the mascot on it) for Meet the Designer Night.  Specialists and Specials, please get with Admin so we know where you will be helping on this night.

CONNECT WITH PTO AT MEET THE DESIGNER NIGHT
We are so excited to welcome everyone back to school for an amazing year at LEE! Please come find us in the cafeteria & gym on Meet The Designer Night from 5:30-7:30. We will have all pre-purchased spirit wear and swag bags available for pick up. We will also be selling additional school supply packs, and spirit wear for those who did not get a chance to purchase ahead of time. Make sure to stop at our back to school photo op and grab an ice cream from the Mr. Softee Food Truck right outside the cafeteria doors! We can't wait to see you soon!

TUESDAY

Tuesday is an optional telecommute day.  That means you can work electronically, from home, if you choose. The building is accessible, too, for those of you that want to work here.  ENJOY flexibility from CISD on this day.  I will only be on campus in the afternoon.

WEDNESDAY- FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The first week is about building SOLID and TRUSTING relationships with the children and their famiLEEs.  My expectation for you, this first week, is to ensure that time spent together is SO FUN and EXCITING, that the learners do not want to leave our school. 

Please be here by 7:00 on the first day and come down to the library steps as soon as you arrive to take your "First Day of School" photo.

All learners will be permitted to be walked to class by their parents on the first day.  We open the school doors at 7:20.

Kindergarten parents are welcome to come to the cafeteria to meet with PTO and Campus Administration before they leave.

STAFF TREAT FROM PTO ON WEDNESDAY

SIGN UP FOR BOY OFFICE VISITS

Please take time to sign up for beginning of the year office visits with each of our Principals and our school counselor.

• Booking Site for "Meet the Counselor Visits
• Chantel's sign up for an office visit  (will last about 20 mins)
• You will get information from Kat and Angel about signing up with them.

SOCIAL SPURS

It's that time of year again to donate to Social Spurs!  The donations are used to spread sunshine and kindness on behalf of the staff, as well as for the staff.   More information will be shared soon, but for those who are familiar with Social Spurs and would like to donate, you can bring to Linda Hoffmann or Venmo @Linda-Hoffmann-9

AFTER SCHOOL OPPORTUNITY

COACHES CORNER

LEARNING COACH:
As your coach, my title may have changed, but my primary goal is to support you to the best of my abilities.

This is a little intro to my new job description: ​​A Learning Coach serves as a catalyst for educational innovation and excellence within Coppell ISD. This role is centered on collaboratively and systematically equipping educators and administrators at various campuses with the tools, knowledge, and confidence needed to enhance instruction and student learning outcomes. By providing comprehensive support through formal coaching cycles, professional learning, focused leadership responsibilities, and personalized educator support, the Learning Coach will foster a robust professional learning community.

My spreadsheet would still be the same. I have added the names of the LCs that are on duty at Lee at the top. My hope would be that we debrief on Wednesdays so there are no lapses when it comes to meeting your needs. I ask for grace as we transition to this new-ish role and campuses.

Please sign up so we can work together on goal setting, SLOs, classroom management, workflows, transitions or systems.

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


YEARBOOK:
Please add pictures from the Bus Tour to this folder.  Thank you Chantel, Ruby, Rikki, Priscilla!

DATES TO REMEMBER

August 12-  Campus Day

     Meet the Designer Night (5:30-6:30)

August 13- Staff Work Day

August 14-16- Kinder Connect Week

August 14- First Day of School

     PTO Yahoo BooHoo Breakfast (7:30-8:15)

     Kona Ice for Staff (3:20)

August 16- Staff Handbook Signature page due 

August 18- CISD Compliance Due

FIRST TEAM TIME STARTS AUGUST 23

Week of August 5, 2024

It has been a wonderful week back for your Admin Team.  We have been working behind the scenes to set up the 2024-2025 school year.  We are super excited for the upcoming school year with all of you being part of our FamiLEE!  We had our Administrator's Academy last week, so I am sharing information as I get it from CISD.  I hope you will drop by the office to say HI when you are here.  It's nice to have a minute with each of you to catch up and hear about your time off.  

Being the Principal of this school is a dream come true.  I have the BEST JOB in the world at the most INCREDIBLE school on the planet.  I have no children of my own, so birthing this school is one of my hugest accomplishments. WHY am I here?  I'm here because of our beautiful children.  I'm here because I want to make a difference.  I'm here because of each and every one of  YOU.  You are FamiLEE to me, and I would have it no other way.  Cheers to #rjlyear11.  There is NO PLACE LIKE LEE TO BE!

DID YOU KNOW:

• we hired a new special education teacher?  Her name is Hany Rosiano and we are excited to have her joining our FamiLEE!
• that instructional coaches are being rebranded by CISD?  Samira is now one of our four learning coaches that we share with CRE and VRE.  Here is the Learning Coach job description for you to review before we share more about our new coaches and their levels of support.  Please welcome Shayla Fortenbery, D'ann Felux, and DianaLyn Perkins to our FamiLEE!     
• our AMAZING PTO will be gifting classroom teachers a $50 Amazon Gift Card as a Back to School Gift to purchase items for your classroom?  Fill up your cart, now!
• communication from CK was sent out to parents about "all things beginning of the year?"  Here is the link if you want to include in your introduction email to parents.  Content is continually added and updated.

NEW HIRE INFORMATION

For those of you new to CISD.  Here is information about New Hire training.  This is for full time teaching staff, not instructional paraprofessionals.  Hany and Jacky, I will see you both at the breakfast and then Friday afternoon back at Lee.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAYS

Here is an overview of information for the first week back.  We will give you more details about Welcome Week in next week's blog.  Please KNOW we value time spent in your classrooms and planning with your houses and grades. 

FLEX LEARNING FOR 2024-2025

Thank you to those of you that have already submitted for flex hour credit this summer.  We have gone in and approved all submissions.  Remember that this year there are more flex hours than last year.  

TO DO FOR NEW HIRES

As a new hire, I am sure you are thinking about what you can do to start getting ready for your new adventure at Lee.  Each blog I pepper out some suggestions so that you are not too overwhelmed during Back to School time.  This blog I would encourage you to:

1. Set up your Twitter account.  Add a profile picture of yourself and follow @NetZeroLee. 
2. We also have a Richard J. Lee Elementary Facebook and Instagram if you want to follow those.

TO DO FOR ALL STAFF:

• Please fill out this form if you want to make any changes from last year.  If nothing has changed, cross this task off of your "to do" list.  
• Finish reviewing the RJL Campus Handbook so you don't have to worry about it when school is in session. This gives you ALL the ins and outs of Lee Elementary.  You will want to be logged into your CISD google account to access linked documents.  We request you read the handbook by August 16.  New/changed items are highlighted in yellow.  Any new district policies that are in the 2024-2025 CISD Employee Handbook supersede our campus handbook.  We do not have access to the new handbook yet, so they are not reflected in our campus one. All staff can submit for flex credit after they complete reading the handbook.    
• Add the Lee Staff Calendar to your Outlook Calendar.  Thanks for new directions, Kat!
• Go to your Calendar in Outlook
• On the left hand side, click Add Calendar
• Select your account with your email.
• Type in "Lee Calendar" and select the email with leecalendar@coppellisd.com
• Click Add

RJL ROADSHOW

We can't wait to see you on our first day back.  We will kick our week off with our annual bus tour through our neighborhoods.  Dress is casual as we will be hopping on and off of the charted bus.  Please bring signs, balloons, and your school spirit- it will be loads of fun!  Please plan to be at our school cafeteria by 8:00 AM so we can load up the bus and depart on time. 

WHAT IS HAPPENING THE WEEK WE COME BACK?

For those of you that like to plan, like me, here is an outline for our back to school days. We are OVER THE RAINBOW for us all to be together next week!  If you are not sure where to be, and when to be places, please ask.  Bring your charged technology each day.  Please know our plan is subject to change as more information comes in from CISD.  We also were SUPER INTENTIONAL to give you as much time as we could in your grades and houses to be able to be ready for the first day.  Special Education, Specials, and paraprofessionals, if you get different information than listed on my outline from your department heads, please follow their directions. 

CONVOCATION

On Friday, you can get into CHS arena starting 7:30.  Wear your Lee Convocation t-shirt that we gave you on Monday.  It is advised to carpool because traffic is a BEAST when you depart. 

KEYS AND BADGES

Each staff member will have keys to your Design Studio and Storage Room for your House. If you are in a classroom, you should also have a key to the classroom door. If you are in need of these keys (or any others), please indicate that on this form or reach out to Angel.

CLASS LISTS

Next week class lists will start to be populated in eSchool Plus. Remember these are constantly changing, so please do not make class labels or schedule emails until we give you the "all clear."  All grade level designers will email a welcome to their learners and parents to be scheduled to send out at 3:00 PM on Friday, August 9.  Time will be provided, on Wednesday, to design your communication so you can have your welcome email started.  

BACK TO SCHOOL SAVE THE DATE

Please share this graphic on your social media.  We will wear our LEE spirit shirts (we will give you this shirt on Friday) on this night.  Remember that your room does not have to be PERFECT for Meet the Designer Night, just tidy.  First impressions are first impressions.  Think about how your famiLEEs can capture a memory in your space/house.

SYNCING YOUR GMAIL TO OUTLOOK 

New hires, you will want to sync your CISD Gmail account with your Outlook account so that you only have one email account to monitor.  Here are the steps to accomplish this task:

1. On your computer, open Gmail using the account you want to forward messages from. You can only forward messages for a single Gmail address, and not an email group or alias.
2. In the top right, click Settings   See all settings. 
3. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAPtab.
4. In the "Forwarding" section, click Add a forwarding address.
5. Enter the email address you want to forward messages to.
6. Click Next  Proceed  OK.
7. A verification message will be sent to that address. Click the verification link in that message.
8. Go back to the settings page for the Gmail account you want to forward messages from, and refresh your browser.
9. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
10. In the "Forwarding" section, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to.
11. Choose what you want to happen with the Gmail copy of your emails. We recommend Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox.
12. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.

DATES TO REMEMBER

August 1- New Hire Training

August 2- New Hire Training

August 4- Josna's Birthday

August 5- Campus Day

August 6- Staff Workday

August 7- Campus Day- PTO Breakfast 7:30-8:00 (Cafe)
     Kara's Birthday

August 8- District Day

August 9- DianaLyn's Birthday

     Convocation

     Campus Day