Week of April 25th - April 29th

Tuesday and Wednesday are big days for Jerome families with kindergartners!  I wish that each of you could join me to see the pure joy and anxiety that accompanies the process of registering students to begin their public education.  It is a highlight of the year for me.  I count it a privilege and a responsibility to meet our newest students and their parents and reassure them that we will do our very best to keep, teach, and care for the most precious members of their families.

This year, the kindergarten teachers will be joining us (2 a day), to meet and assess their incoming students.  Anne will also be out next week with her family, and Emily will be with me helping process registrations.  Emily Merritt has graciously volunteered volun-told to help us.  She will have a sub in the library.  Shawn will also be helping in the office at the beginning and end of the day, but Maria and Maria will be helping us translate at the District Office.  Please help all of us as much as possible by handling as many recess issues as possible and calling parents when needed.  It takes a community and this will be especially true this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Evaluations

I've heard back from over half of you and have scheduled your evaluations, but I haven't heard back from everyone yet.  Please remember that I need to meet with you next week.  I wanted to have all of the evaluations done by Wednesday, but since I will be out Tuesday and Wednesday, I have extended that to Thursday.  Please let me know when you are available as soon as possible.

Photo Shoot

St. Luke's will be featuring our grant and future walking path in their Annual Report.  They will be here Thursday taking pictures in the morning.  We have asked a dozen kids and families for permission to include their children.  Please just be aware of this happening.  The great thing for us is that we will have access to the photographs afterward too!

All Staff Collaboration

Next Friday is an all school collaboration.  I want your team to plan on sharing what you are planning for the Lucy Calkins writing units.  It is OK if you have questions and struggles as a team.  I won't have all the answers, but I want to get all of your ideas, questions and concerns on paper as we try to plan for training, collaboration and implementation next year.  This is a messy, but worthwhile process.  Hang in there with me.

School Beautification Teams

The next staff meeting is May 12th.  Please plan to share out your ideas from your teams at this meeting.  Please remember to come with a couple of possibilities to share so you can get feedback from the staff.

Email/Calendar/Events/Appointments

It is more important than ever that we have you read and respond to email and accept calendar appointments.  It is a very busy month coming up and will won't be able to meet in person on everything that is needed.  Thank you for using email so that we can be as efficient as possible.  Also, you will begin to see Anne sending out appointments for next year's events.  Please 'accept' those so that they are added to your work calendar as well.

Have a great weekend!

Angie

Week of April 18th - April 22nd

Grateful!

I am incredibly grateful for Anne and Emily.  I'm not sure how many folks realize the incredible number of things they do each day to help keep Jefferson running.  They have to be specialized in a lot of different information about kids to keep them safe (medications, custody, allergies, attendance, food shortages, discipline, etc.)  I count on them for so much, as I know many of you do too.  This week is Secretaries Week.  It is a week to thank them for all that they sacrifice and give (especially lunch breaks) on our behalf.  On Tuesday, the district will be celebrating all of the secretaries with a special breakfast.  Emily Merritt will be helping in the office.  Please be aware so that you can help with some of the discipline during AM recess.  Please also take a minute to recognize them for the many ways they help all of us keep our school an organized, safe, and joyful place for kids.

Exciting News for Kids Last Week
Last week I got a very exciting call from the United Way.  They will be including us in a 3 year grant that will send each student home with 2 brand new books each summer!!  We think there is a strong chance we will get to offer this to our kids this May.  Stay tuned for more details.

IRI This Week
This is a big week for our kids.  Please remind your kids to do their best, but not to stress out.  Please encourage them to get a good nights sleep and eat a healthy breakfast.  Please also help us keep track of kids who may miss and need make-ups.

MCOMP Next Week/Star Testing to Follow
Please plan for the Spring MCOMP next week with your class and score recorded by the following Monday.  You can hold off on Star Testing until we have completed ISATs so that it can be done in the lab.

Evaluations
There are just final touches for evaluations.  I will be bringing you student achievement data to you review and make sure it's correct.  Please let me know a good day and time between Monday the 18th and Wednesday the 27th to meet and go over your evaluation.  Please plan for about 20 min.   FYI - after school is very busy Tuesday, Wednesday, and this Thursday.

New Computer Cart
Please remember to work with your team to flexibly use the new cart during your scheduled computer times.  I know it can take a bit of practise getting the kids to turn the machines off and on and get them back in the cart.  It may be more beneficial to have the cart once a week for an hour instead of 30 mins.  Please just help me ensure they get to the next classroom  however your team has agreed to organize their use.

A Fun Summer Opportunity with the Boise Art Museum
I have heard these are really fun, engaging and educational classes.

What do Do with Old Reading Curriculum
The new reading curriculum will soon be arriving!  In coordination with the DO, we will be marking all of the old books with a discard stamp.  At the end of the year, kids will be allowed to buy the books for a quarter to take home and keep.  We will soon have stamps for the grade levels to share.  If there are leveled readers that your team has found beneficial, we can keep these as an intervention resources.

School Beautification Groups
Please plan to meet as a group as soon as possible.  Please also remember all ideas are good ones when you are brainstorming.  Try to be open to new possibilities.  Eventually we'd like the group to present two different ideas to the whole staff at an upcoming faculty meeting.

Here are the groups.  Please let me know if I've missed someone and please have the group facilitator let me know when you plan to get together.

Entrance Group
Kayleigh -Facilitator
Shawn
Anne
Barbara
Ashlee
Daphne
Emily Merritt
Lisa

Blacktop
Deb-Facilitator
Alan
Mary
Barb
Crystal

Commons/Gathering Place
Aleasa - Facilitator
Mary
Patti
Chris
Rhett
Anne

Hallways A: Grade Level Signage and Paint
???? - Facilitator
Tawna
Peggy
Rhett
Chris
Barbara

Hallways B: Teacher Room Designation and Directionality
Chris - Facilitator
Terra
Crystal
Sindy
GayLyn

ASCD Articles on Classroom Management
I thought this was timely as you begin to think about your professional goals for next year.

Week of April 11th - April 15th

We have a short, but full week this coming week.  Here are a few details.

Parent Teacher Conferences
Please remember a few items:

• Dinners will include soup and break bowl (Tuesday) and Tiger Stop Burritos (Thursday).  Thank you to Anne for helping organize and to the PTO for always generously taking care of us.
• If you need me, I'm glad to attend a conference with you.  Please let me know in advance.  I will be leaving a little early on Thursday for a Friday morning Dual Language Immersion meeting in SLC on Friday morning.
• Please make sure to let me know if you are planning to talk with a parent about possible retention.
• Please don't forget your summer school permission slips to give to parents.  Make sure to fill out one per student who qualified, even if you not plan to recommend them.  We need to keep track of this for state verification.
• Plan to enjoy your Friday off!!

Toilet Paper Unrolled
We have had an issue in the 1st Grade Girls Bathroom recently.  Someone is unwinding the whole roll while using the restroom.  Please help us keep tabs on who may be coming and going and ask your kids to report if they see this as soon as possible so that we can narrow down the time frame.

IRI and District Screeners
The IRI will be the week of April 18th.  We will start with 3rd grade and will do our best to give you advanced notice of testing for your class.  Paras will be testing so they will not be available for intervention, but will be the following week.  The MCOMP should be the following week.  Star testing can wait until the week we finish with ISAT.


Unsolicited Kind Observations and Appreciations from a Colleague to Our SPED Staff
As a special shout out to our resource staff; we would like to thank Nicole for her amazing work with Dakota. Thanks to Nicole’s amazing patience and love, Dakota is now going to her specials all by herself! We all understand how rewarding it is for a student to suddenly be able to do things on his or her own and that it is also a bittersweet feeling as we don’t always feel as needed. Yay, Nicole!

Jenna for her work with McKoy. Jenna has unending patience for this young man and speaks to him with the kindest and calmest voice. She never has a cross word or expression and shows him only her gentle nature. Wahoo, Jenna!

Melody for her work with Benjamin. After Melody’s time and patience with Benjamin he is now able to go down to the library and choose his own library book. Way to go, Mel!

Chelsey and Val for being the most amazing and loving teachers to our students and also for handling difficult situations in meetings with parents and with other staff with nothing but grace and style. We love you ladies and will miss you terribly.

You five ladies do amazing things for and with our most tender of students we are forever grateful for your loving hearts. 

To Do List:

• Get your Book Fair Wish List to Emily

Up Coming Events:

Building Meetings
Building Culture Team - 18th, 25th
Building Leadership Team - 26th
MTSS -  April 13th, April 20th, April 27th
Staff Meeting - April 21st
All School Collaboration - April 29th

School Events
Ready Kindergarten (Hosting) -  April 27th
Book Fair - April 11th - 14th
Parent Teacher Conferences - April 12th & 14th
No School - April 15th
Jefferson Family Stem Night - April 19th
Kindergarten Registration - April 26th (8:30-7:00), April 27th (8:30-3:30)
Spirit Day and Tiger Awards - April 29th