LS Weekly Memo October 15 - 19 Week 8

Welcome to Week 8, the week that Pacific Northwest fall rains returned. We hope you all enjoyed your day of professional development, whether you were on campus or a more distant locale. The Beginning School teachers, Chris, and April, our trusted assistant, spent the morning with Judy Graves in Colesie and Peter’s cozy apartment. Listening to the rain on her rooftop was soothing and centering.

Community

PGD Day
We hope you all had a productive and renewing day of professional development. We will look forward to hearing about your experiences at an upcoming faculty meeting.

Unassembled Assembly - 10/19
Kristen Haferbecker will be talking with us at the faculty meeting about new assembly ideas.  The first of which will occur this Friday at our non-assembling assembly focused and reading as we all have DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time.  Look for details in the near future.  The basics – everyone will be reading somewhere and with someone across the Lower School and beyond from 8:10 – 8:40, our usual assembly time.

Spooktacular
Spooktacular is coming on Saturday, October 27.  Once again there will be a faculty and staff costume contest.  You can help prepare fro the excitement by reminding students about costume guidelines – No weapons or gory mask, costumes should be appropriate for a PreK – 5th grade event.

Invite Me In
Invite Chris or David in if you have a special event, project, or discussion that you would like us to experience or participate in.

Program

LS Faculty Meeting, Thursday, October 18; 7:30 – 8:30 am
We have a really full agenda so please arrive on time.
Transitions – discussion on how to ensure supervised transitions between classroom and specialist teachers
Assembly – Kristen H will share new ideas
Open House – Sarah is coming to answer questions about LS Open House, Wednesday, November 7
Service Learning – Jenny Cleveland and Laurie Price will be coming to discuss service earning in LS

AS Faculty Meeting, 10/22
We will hear from the Chair of the Accreditation Visiting Team and learn about the benefits offered in the coming year.  Assistant Teachers should plan to attend this meeting and record it on your time sheets.

Operations

Faculty Meeting, 10-11-12
I hope the faculty meeting last Thursday was helpful in preparing you for your professional development day.  The Specialists met , shared appreciations and successes, then discussed communications about Students of Interest.  We reached the conclusion that two efforts would help tremendously. First, the specials agreed it was incredibly helpful to have a teacher to teacher hand-off of students between specialists and classroom teachers to provide the opportunity for the quick exchange about how things went/are going with the class. Secondly, the specialist agreed the new SOI Google form could be a very useful tool.

LSLT -
Monday, 10/15 at 3:15 Chris will meet with teachers. David begins his Inquiry into Inquiry with Department Chairs, and will be unable to attend.  Would one of the team members offer to host the meeting in his/her class?
Here’s our agenda:
- Appreciative Inquiry into this year’s Homecoming Celebration
- 5th Grade Leadership Opportunities on Friday Afternoons
- Heifer Project- Read to Feed Kick Off Friday at the Unassembled DEAR Event
- Review lunch dismissal procedures, are they working?
- Check in About Next Month’s Meeting
- Calendar check- please be sure to update calendars before hand if you can and bring your laptops

Recess and Imaginative Play with Natural Spaces and Materials
Three issues have arisen on the playground that are wonderful examples of creative play, but unfortunately include some unsafe practices and will need to stop.
1. The great excavation by the LS Loading Dock that has been a dinosaur bone dig, mining operation, and general excavation site is getting unsafe.  Chris will work with the prime diggers and Mark Henningsen to set a time for closing the pit and get the boys involved in restoring the area.  The digging will be redirected to one of our sandboxes.
2. The wood shaving mounds will need to be redistributed so the safety surface is where it needs to be. The second hut by mini-Aardvark will be the bark chip construction zone.  Chris will work with Mark to see about getting additional chips for that area.
3. Rock Mosaics and paths by the yew trees will have to be dismantled.  Rocks must be left at Waterworks.  We’ll need to designate an area for mosaic work next week.  Look for an email on new designated area. Chris will buy some rocks and possibly other materials for their projects.

Lunch Dismissal
Please review safe and respectable practices with your students about entering and exiting the dining hall. We will need to post an additional faculty member in the lobby if students can’t self monitor better.       
       
Open House - 6:00 - 8:00pm, November 7
As you may recall, Open House is happening this fall, due to the late Winter Break.  All faculty should plan on being present for the entire Open House, 6:00 – 8:00 pm.  Sarah Ross Bailey will be sending out details in the near future.  Dinner will be provided before the event.