Week of February 27th - March 3rd and March 6th - March 10th

One of my favorite quotes.  I've shared it before, but I was reminded again this week as I was looking at our school-wide growth on the IRI.  You work incredibly hard for our kids.  There are lots of road blocks and hurdles, both academic and disciplinary.  But, you were still able to help kids grow 20%!  That's really incredible growth and I hope you will celebrate.  There is work still to be done, but for me, there's nothing more motivating than forward progress!  More importantly, watching our kids become readers.  :D

Spring Break is just around the corner.  This is likely the only post for two weeks, because it will be very busy this week.






Jefferson Carnival
Our carnival is this Friday!!  Thank you for the work on the classroom baskets.  Our PTO has also been working very hard to prepare.  Please plan to join us that evening.  If you are unable to make it, please let me know.  It should be a fun evening to connect with families, and hopefully get a step closer to document cameras in classrooms.

Community Schools
I will be gone Wednesday with a group of folks who will be touring a Community School in South SLC.  We will be partnering with the United Way of the Magic Valley next year to bring much needed resources to our school.  If you are curious about what a Community School is, click here.  This won't mean more for you, this will mean more connections and resources for our families.  I'm very excited to learn more.

Early Release Day
Thanks to all of you for helping with the early release day on Thursday!  You were awesome!  Paras, thanks for your quick help in the halls with the radios.  Dale received a compliment for how quick and easy it was for a parent to pick students up.  As many of you noticed, it was difficult to communicate with a handful of parents without current numbers.  Please note who those families are so that we can ensure that we get new numbers from them at parent-teacher conferences.

Requesting Subs
It appears that AESOP may automatically set your daily start time at 7:45.  Please make sure to adjust this 8:00.  We need to conserve all sub minutes and your contract time begins at 8:00AM.  Thank you for helping with this important detail.

Communication with Families
As we move into the evaluation season, I would appreciate any examples of parent communication that you have.  If you send a weekly newsletter home, I'd love to see a few examples.  If you have other special event letters or a class blog, please share those with me as evidence for your evaluation.  Thanks!

Emergency Sub Folders
Toni will be around to just get an idea of where your Emergency Sub Folder is and that it is ready to go.  Please have yours in a spot we can identify fairly quickly.

Staff Meeting Monday, March 6th
We will try to reschedule Alma and Dale to come to this meeting.

Habits Training Coming Up
Make sure to pick one of the days to attend each habit training.  I have asked the trainers to have a sign in sheet.  This is something we should have been doing to track attendance for federal programming.  We are trying to do a better job of tracking.  Thanks for helping with this.

Habit #6 - Feb. 27th or March 1st
Habit #7 - March 10th or 27th

Also, please remember we are working on the habits with kids as much as possible.  I'd love to hear what you've done!

Tiger Awards
Tiger Awards Luncheon will be this Friday, March 3rd in the Library at 11:45 for Habit #5.  Please see us in the office for blank awards.  Please have them turned into us no later than Wednesday.

Parent Teacher Conferences
Parent Teacher Conference are quickly approaching on Tuesday and Wednesday March 13-14.  Contract hours for all teachers are 4:00-8:00PM.  As a swap for this time, Friday, March 17th is off and will be a great start to your spring break.  Anne is coordinating dinners for us.  We will do soup and soup bowls one night, and pulled pork sandwiches from Scarrows the other night.  If you have an allergy, and would like us to help with a dinner option, please let Anne know ASAP.  We'll do our best to help out.

Signage at Jefferson
Do you have an idea for a sign that might be helpful at Jefferson?  We are currently thinking about signage in the parking and pick up lanes.  I'd like to hear your ideas.  Please let me know, or post them in Google+.

I'm sure there are more details to come.  Please watch your emails in the next couple of weeks!  We will resume the theme songs with the next blog post, but congratulations to those of you who picked Lisa for the last theme song!!

Angie