LS Weekly Memo Weekly Memo Week 43 June 8-12, 2015

Coffees are done.  The 2015-16 All School calendar is set. Summer stipends are decided.  Field days were great.  Learning celebrations and parties are happening or have happened. 5th graders have visited Middle School and begun practicing for promotion. Two and a half days left.

COMMUNITY

Math Celebration

The second graders of Mrs. Griffin’s class would like to invite you to a celebration of math and the Beginning School. We have published a book to commemorate the building and share about all the math we found "hiding" there throughout the year. You and your students are welcome to come to the 1st and 2nd grade commons and room 17 anytime between 8:15 and 9:25. The authors will be available to talk about their work and guide visitors in using iPads and Chrome Books to view our digital book. We hope you can drop by!

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.

Last Day of School Logistics

By now you’ve seen Lyn’s email with details on the logistics of the last day of school.  A few reminders:

•Specialists we need your help at the Promotion Ceremony. Please sign up for a special duty in the Lower School office.

•All Teachers, Assistant Teachers and Specialist please help with dismissal duty on the cover walkway or Loop Road.

Field Days

Our thanks to Stephanie, Tyler and Jessica, who out-did themselves with watery games, laughter and all around good time for children of all ages.  Later in the day I heard the children singing Tyler’s rendition of “It’s a 60s Party from a 60’s Movie”. Hilarious.

Hiring Updates

• Chaplain search – search committee meeting, checking references

 

Moving Into Coffees

Our thanks to all the classroom teachers, specialists and students who participated in our Moving Into Coffees.  Parents love hearing about what lies ahead for their children.

Incident Reports - Incident Reports

Discipline

When students need interventions because of their behavior, we have varying levels of intervention:

●       Teacher on the scene - Incident Reports

●       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.

A Note from Katie Horton

To the Faculty and Staff of the Lower School:

As some of you may already know I will not be in the LS Library on Friday mornings next year and I wanted to take a moment to let you know how much I’ve enjoyed my time in the LS with all of you. I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you for welcoming me so warmly into your community, I have truly enjoyed getting to know you all over the past two years and I will miss my fun and chaotic Friday’s with Heidi and the students. I also want to send a special thank you to Lara, Heidi, and David for making my time in the LS possible in the first place. I will still be working in the US Library so please stop by to visit and of course you can also find me at Arlene’s desk at lunch!

Your friend, Katie Horton

PROGRAM

End-of-year Faculty Meetings

LS Faculty Meeting - Thurs., June 11th, 8:00 -12:00 LSCH

8:00 Breakfast (optional)

8:30-12 Meeting – Reflection and Celebration

12-1 Celebration Lunch

LS Faculty Meeting - Tues., June 16th, 7:30 - 10:30 LSCH

7:30-8  Breakfast (optional)

8-10:30 Meeting – Looking ahead to 2015-16

11-2:00  All School Meeting and All School Luncheon

Report Card Clarification

If you want to be a part of the report Angela runs to check for omitted marks in the checklist, you will need to have your checklists completed in PCR by Monday, June 15 at noon.  This is optional and a service that Angela is offering. The deadline for entering your reports into PCR remains the same, 8:00 am Tuesday, June 16.  After the deadline, Angela will produce PDF’s of your reports so you can see how they turned out in PCR.

Report Card Expectation

All reports written by 9:00 am Monday, 6/15

All reports entered into PCR by 8:00 am Tuesday, 6/16

Remember, you are all expected to have a colleague proof-read your report cards. Classroom teachers can exchange among themselves.  Specialists will proof according to the following:

Art - Laura, Margaret and Chris share

Music - Amy and Kristen swap

PE - share within team

Science - David

Spanish - Kelola, Lisset and Chris share

All School Calendar

The dates for major events next year have been agreed upon. Anne Weston will have them loaded on the All School web calendar this week.

Summer Reading

At our faculty meeting Thursday, you are invited to bring in inspirational summer reading books to display.  We will have a chance for folks to browse for possible summer professional reads.  Alternatively, peruse professional reading list from Expeditionary Learning http://elschools.org/educator-resources/recommended-reading

The Inquiry Design Team pondered which book we should all read this summer. We wondered:

What book could we all read together that would push our collective thinking?

What book could help us shape a common understanding of what exemplary work looks like at OES?

We decided upon Ron Berger’s book  Ethic of Excellence. Many of you read this book last year, and should have a copy to reread.  We will engage in a community conversation related to the book when you all return in September. If you need a copy, sign up on here: Ethics of Excellence: I need a copy for summer reading!  

Summer Stipends

Lyn is sending out the list of approved stipends. We have 100 days budgeted and received 153 requests for days.  All requests were granted.  Some had to be shortened.

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.

Team Leader Agenda

• Hiring
• Faculty Meeting Agenda
• Move
• Uses of Current LS Building
• Other

OPERATIONS

Snack on 6/10

Use what have. No fresh fruit will be delivered.

 

Packing

Remember - it is a great time to downsize and offer things up for reuse or donation

You will be packing and unpacking this year and next so get down to the essentials.

Boxes and Packing Materials

Some of you expressed concerns about having enough boxes. Rod assured me that he checks stacks regularly and will keep supplies replenished.

If you have glass or other fragile items to pack, you will now find bubble wrap stacked with your boxes in your wing.

Moving Clarifications from Rod

Thursday, 6/18 -  The movers move EC, the BS art area, and any large furniture that there is time for – they are only here a few hours.

Friday, 6/19 – The movers start with the 4/5 area commons and then proceed to the 4/5 classrooms.  Once those are moved they will move the 1/2 commons and then the classrooms.  Then on to BS and LS Office

Saturday 6/20 – The movers will finish up classrooms and load their trucks with storage items.

If you need help packing next week, Rod has custodians available.  Further questions or request, please contact Rod.

Thursday, June 18th: Movers begin

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.

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 go out and purchase your own.

LS Library Inventory

• Last full day of regularly scheduled library classes will be Friday, May 29th.
• Let families know that we will be open June 8-10th for summer check-out.  

Room 10

• Please do not use it as storage during or after the move
• 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.