LS Weekly Memo October 1st - 5th Week 6

Week 6.  Thank you for another inspired week.  I appreciate your support of Spirit Week and helping the students focus on their learning while they explored new fashion expressions.  Friday night Homecoming was a huge success, in part due to the enthusiasm of the LS students.  With the big events behind us, BTSP, BTSN and Homecoming, we have a good stretch of school before us to concentrate on learning in the classroom.

COMMUNITY

Parent Coffees
Our thanks to Lauren and Deborah for sharing their thoughts and wisdom at our coffees last week. We have three coffees next week.  Thanks to Dori, Doug and Tonya for representing their class/grade.  Each coffee includes a section on grade level transitions and grade specific topics.  Let Chris or me know if you have a topic you would like addressed at the coffee.

K	Monday, September 24	2nd	Wednesday, October 3
PreK	Tuesday September 25	4th	Monday, October 8
P	Monday, October 1	3rd	Tuesday, October 9
1st	Tuesday, October 2	5th	Tuesday, October 16

Classroom teachers - please sign up to attend a coffee on the google doc.
Specialist Teacher - look at the grade level coffee list to see when you are wanted.  Let us know if you can attend.  

LS Picture Days Wednesday and Thursday
If you haven’t done so, please sign up on the Google doc Jenny set up.  

LS Faculty Meeting - Notes
Thank you for your feedback at the faculty meeting.  I am inspired by your thoughtful appreciations to one another and feel fortunate to have such a talented and grateful faculty.
We will work on the Student of Interest form in Student Support Team (SST, formerly known as CORE).  Let me know if you have questions or comments.

AS Faculty Meeting - Monday, 10/1 3:15 - 4:45
We meet in the dining hall for an overview of the final phases of the self study, then move into our teams and committees to polish up our work. The main focus of the work will be to review and edit the commendations and recommendations with guidance from the Self Sudy Committee. Specialist teachers will meet in their departments.  Lower School teachers will meet in their self study groups; Math, Social Studies, English.  

LS Faculty Meeting - 10/4
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Thank you to those who are consistently prompt and present at our meetings. Please make your best effort to do the same.

10/3/2012 7:30:00 Appreciations
7:40:00 Self Study
7:50:00 PGD and Goals
8:10:00 SST Form Update
8:20:00 Announcements

Faculty Meeting Schedule for October
As always the faculty meeting calendar is a work in progress.  Changes need to occur as needs arise.  Here is the schedule for October meetings. Updates will be made on the AS Faculty Meeting Schedule and noted in the Weekly Memo.

October Monday--All School and Committee
1 AS Faculty--self study
8 Committee Meetings
15 PGD, Inquiry, Intercultural
22 AS - Self Study, Benefits
29 Divisional: conference prep No Meeting

October Thursday--Div/ Depts.
4 Divisional Self Study/ Goals
11 Divisional Team
18 Divisional All LS
25 Departments: self-study Team
1-Nov (Conferences) No Meeting


PROGRAM

Professional Development  - Look over the list to see who is doing what. We will take some time in the faculty meeting to discuss.
Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities:
       
PNAIS All Schools Conference - October 12, Tacoma, WA
Northwest Conference on Teaching for Social Justice, Oct. 20, Madison High School
National Conference for the Social Studies - November 16-18, Seattle, WA
CSEE - Lower School Character Education Programs - November 2-3, Hollywood, CA
National Service Learning Conference - March 13 - 15, Denver, CO
Teachers College Reading and Writing Institutes – June - August, 2013

Goals
During the faculty meeting on Thursday we will discuss connecting your professional growth with your goals.  By October 19, the Friday after our PGD Day, I would like every teacher to commit to 3 goals for the year that are:

Professionally significant

        Connect to initiatives underway in the classroom, grade, team or LS
        Build off of professional development and or summer stipend work

OPERATIONS

OES Fund - We are soooo close to 100%.

Chris O’Toole at Critical Friends Facilitator’s Training, Oct. 8th through Oct. 10th
Please check out the Chris’ duty coverage sign up sheet in the Lower School office. If you can, sign up to cover a duty.  

Laminator
We are anticipating delivery during the week of October 8.  Look for communication from Lara about training opportunities.

Duties Task Force
Our thanks to Debra Thomas, Shelley Weiller and Kristin Haferbecker for stepping up to work on the duty schedule.  We will meet for the first time the third week of October. Lyn will try to find a time during the day or after school that is mutually agreeable.
The task force will:

Address concerns about equity and preference of duties

Develop and present options for duty schedules

Consider what is equitable
Consider undocumented duties
If you are interested, please contact Chris by October 1st

TGIH - Thank God it is Happening
The group will develop ideas for getting LS faculty and staff together
How do we want to spend time in each other’s company - hoisting a beer, doing some yoga, going for a walk, bowling????
Contact David if interested by October 1st