LS Weekly Memo
Weekly Memo Week 42: June 1 - 5, 2015
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I continue to be amazed at what we can pack into one week, and even one day; parent coffees, learning celebrations (we have to figure out how more of us can experience the great work of our colleagues and students), groundbreaking and retirements. 7.5 days and counting. Best of luck with the remaining days.
COMMUNITY
Goodbye to Beginning School Building - Begins Wednesday, June 3 with BS Chapel
Margaret and Laura have a wonderful and simple way for our students to be able to say goodbye to the Beginning School building
- Create a large, outdoor, colorful installation - a heart of brilliant ribbons, looped through the fence, each with a memory written on it. A heart full of thoughts and ideas, gathered and grown from all the hands of our community.
- Laura will use yarn to draw a large shape on the fence…likely a heart
- Teachers will be invited to bring their classes down beginning on Wednesday, June 3. There will be materials with in the BS studio or out by the site - baskets of cut ribbons, slews of sharpies.
- Children and adults can write their memories on the ribbons and loop them through within the confines of the yarn shape.
CHAPEL and Field Trips
Please do not schedule field trips on Chapel days.
Uniform Parade - 2:15 on Tuesday, Jane 2
Cheer on the 5th graders as they parade through LS on hte way to donating their uniforms to the Used Uniform Closet
Field Days
6/4 Beginning School Field Day
6/5 Lower School Field Day
Google Transitions
Let Brad know if you are encountering any challenges with the email and calendar transitions.
Chapel
Behavior has improved. Let’s keep it up as we welcome 5th grade back.
Substitutes
Know that we do not have substitutes for counselor, chaplain or academic specialist. We will work on providing as much advanced notice as we can for these absences.
Hiring Updates
● Chaplain search – Two candidates come this week
- D. Rebecca Dinovo, Mon., 6/1
- Jennie Kiffmeyer, Fri., 6/5
● Technology – Jeffrey Sprague will be the interim educational technology assistant
Class Placement – 2nd round with Specialist input continue
Moving Into Coffees
Two more coffees to go. Thanks to all who helped out with this year’s MICs!
Tuesday, June 1
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Moving into 4th
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8:00 – 9:30
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LS CH
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Wednesday, June 2
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Moving into 3rd
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8:00 – 9:30
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LS CH
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Incident Reports - Incident Reports
Discipline
When students need interventions because of their behavior, we have varying levels of intervention:
● Classroom Teacher
● Chris O’Toole
● LS Office
Remember that Melanie’s role as counselor does not include discipline interventions, unless of course she is the teacher on the scene. She can play a valuable role in problem solving and proactive skill building.
Students Who Need Extra Support
● Simon W. and Gabriel H. need swift intervention if they are revving up. No second chances. Provide place to cool down and reset. See Chris or Erin for details.
● Deborah’s K Boys- The boys in Deborah’s class are working on being less physical with each other. Deborah or Chris will provide details.
•Ben K. in Jackie’s room has an agreement that if he gets overwhelmed with big feelings out at recess he will give duty teachers a silent signal of “thumb down,” and go to the office. Once there, Lyn will find him a safe place (Chris’, Melanie’s or Ari’s) to go cool down and problem solve.
End-of-year Faculty Meetings and Deadlines
LS Faculty Meeting - Thurs., June 11th, 8:00 -12:00 LSCH
8:00 Breakfast (optional)
8:30-12 Meeting
12-1 Celebration Lunch
LS Faculty Meeting - Tues., June 16th, 7:30 - 10:30 LSCH
7:30-8 Breakfast (optional)
8-10:30 Meeting
11-2:00 All School Meeting and All School Luncheon
Thursday, June 18th: Movers start with furniture
Friday, June 19: Movers remove all boxes and remaining items
8:00 - 4th & 5th move
10:00 - 1st & 2nd move
1:00 - BS move
3:00 - LS Office move
Help with Moving: Assistant Teachers and Substitutes
We are asking all assistants to work an additional day to help with moving. Assistants, please let me know if you can help out. Some assistants have offered to help, others cannot. Typically, Assistant Teachers work a full day on Wednesday, and one more full day, Thursday, Friday or the following Monday. Chris has started to put together a plan. Please click on this link Assistants and Substitutes Help with the Move to find out who has offered to help out thus far.
PROGRAM
Report Cards
The Teacher Portal is open for you to start reports
All reports should be uploaded to PCR by 8am on Tues., June 16th.
Summer Stipends
Department Chairs and Team Leaders will be prioritizing summer stipend requests.
Meetings
- No Faculty Meeting on 6/4
- Inquiry Design Team on 6/3
The final meeting of the year, finalizing plans for the closing faculty meeting and look ahead to 2015-16.
Old LS Building - repurposed
With the ground broken for the new building, attention turns to repurposing of the current LS Building. Team Leaders and Department Chairs have been asked to work with their faculty to make suggestions. We will discuss at closing meetings.
UBD Reminder
Each grade level should have three units of understanding designed by the start of faculty meetings 2015.
Lego Show
As usual, the Lego Show was a huge success. Jane and her crew of students and parents wowed visitors with their amazing Lego creations.
Global Studies
Here is a link to a fascinating program, Global Competency Certificate, offered by Columbia Teachers College : http://globalcompetencecertificate.org/
LSCTF
We had an interesting exchange of structures, strategies, language and rituals around reading instruction. More on this at our closing faculty meeting in June. Our thanks to those who served on the Task Force this year.
LSLT
Conversation about the final month of school, ways to say good-bye to the Beginning School, and creative conversations about natural materials and the playground for next year. Our thanks to those who served on LSLT.
Packing, Moving and Unpacking
The good news – none of the rooms that BS, 1-2nd or 4-5th are using will be used this summer so you have great flexibility to do room set-up.
More good news- Bill and his crew will clean rooms that are needed for camp first, then clean all other rooms. He knows that you want to unpack over the summer in clean rooms!
Team Leader Agenda
● To be rescheduled
OPERATIONS
Moving Maintenance
If you have maintenance related to your move to your new classroom be sure to send the request to maintrequest@oes.edu.
Moving Supplies
Jon and Rod are taking care of moving supplies. If you need something, please let Rod and Jon know. They want all of those supplies to flow through them. Please do not going out and purchase your own.
LS Library Inventory
- June 1-5 full and thorough inventory and weeding project in preparation for next year
- All materials be returned to the library as soon as possible.
- Student materials are due Friday, May 22nd
- Last full day of regularly scheduled library classes will be Friday, May 29th.
- Let your families know that we will be open June 8-10th for summer check-out.
Recycling Information from Kelly
CHANGES to Room 10:
● To maintain the current organization in Room 10, the lock will be changed this week. The new key to gain access in Room 10 will be in the office
● Approval is needed from the office if you wish to store materials in Room 10
● Unaccounted items are discarded every Friday
Your Announcements
Send any announcements you have for faculty to Chris or me by Thursday each week and we will include them in the Weekly Memo. This should help reduce the number of emails we are receiving, and to maximize our time to collaborate during meetings.