TO-KNOW

1. I will be out of the building briefly on two days this week. On Monday, I will be leaving at 2:30pm for a meeting at District Office. In addition, on Thursday morning I will be at District until about 10:30am. I have added these days to the staff calendar. On days that I am out for the entire day this year, I will have building coverage as I did last year. When it is for a shorter period of time and I am nearby, I will be on call as needed.
2. This Friday, August 26 Ms. Jarosz will be hosting a brief donut welcome reception in the cafeteria for students new to Springmyer. Those students will receive invitations on Monday. Students will come in two groups, with Grades 3, 4, and 5 at 8:30 and Grades 1 and 2 at 9:00. I will call the first group down after the announcements. Please go ahead and send first and second grade students at 9:00. Let Andrea know if you have questions!
3. As I shared with teachers in our opening in-service meeting, the district is in the process of engaging our staff and community about the future of our language immersion program. On September 7, the district will engage a group of staff members (including some from Springmyer) on the topic. Future engagements are planned that will include a diverse group of community stakeholders, including one engagement that will be held at Springmyer. This FAQ sheet offers some background on the immersion program and the District’s next steps. This document describes the District’s community engagement plan. The latest information is that the Board will make a decision about how to proceed at their December meeting. Do not hesitate to see me if you have questions!
4. K-5 Math and ELA Teachers: Last week, a group of Springmyer teachers attended a training on GradeCam to make sure we were comfortable with the basics for administering and scoring common assessments. In the next week or so, they will be reaching out to you to find a time to train you and address any questions you might have. In the meantime, you are more than welcome to contact them with questions. They are: Megan Knotts, Sarah Bertke, Sophia Herrmann, and Lindsay Black.
5. A couple of Springmyer’s Got Spark! updates:
   1. I got a late start on adding names to our Sparky board so I will continue this week and next. Next week, I will put out a sign-up sheet for future weeks.
   2. Please keep handing out those tickets!! As a reminder, your goals is to hand out ALL of the tickets that you get at the beginning of the week. We start with a larger number and will decrease the number as weeks proceed. When giving a ticket, please be specific in acknowledging the positive behavior that you see from the student (e.g., “Thank you for being respectful and walking with your class with a voice level 1. That makes it easier for students in other classrooms to learn.”)

TO-DO

1. Please mark your calendars! Due to an unavoidable schedule conflict, I have had to move our September faculty meeting to the following Tuesday, September 13. Green Township Police Chief Bart West will still be joining us to go through a theoretical safety drill, running us through an active shooter scenario. I encourage all staff members (not just teachers) to attend this meeting, if possible, as we will be discussing important steps to take in an emergency. It begins promptly at 3:20pm in the Library.
2. A couple of chromebook-related updates/requests:
   1. We want to be sure that all students start the school year with a device that has no pre-existing issues. Please check your students’ devices (or have them check their devices). If students have missing keys or other problems, please submit a ticket to get the issues resolved now. The District will cover the costs of the initial repairs to be sure that everyone starts with a clean slate.
   2. As we go 1:1 in all grades and shift accountability for the costs of repairing devices to students and families, I wanted to share a few additional resources that Christian Long has recently shared with me:
      1. This is the Chromebook Usage Agreement that all families sign off on as part of the online EMA process. When they sign off on it, they also indicate that they will print off a copy and turn it into school. You keep these for your reference.
      2. This is a student-friendly version of the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). It was created by students (including Springmyer students!) for students. If you haven’t already, please review these expectations with students when they begin to use their Chromebooks, just as you review expectations for all other behaviors in the classroom.
      3. Students sign off on the AUP with their parents as part of the online EMA process. However, you may also choose to have students sign off on it again as individuals by going to the “AUP Sign-Off” link on the student portal (in the last row of links). This is optional; some schools have opted to do this to reinforce expectations and accountability with students (especially older students).
      4. If you would like more information about how the District’s chromebook insurance plan will work, please see this talking points document. It runs through some helpful scenarios to understand what families will (and will not) be responsible for.
3. Thank you for successful first fire drills and safety drills! A couple of follow-up steps:
   1. For fire drills: If you do not have red and green cards (either large ones or small ones for your lanyard) please let Cyndi know. It is important that we have that quick visual check and we want to be sure that all teachers  have cards.
   2. For safety drills: The safety drill revealed some doors that need to be filed down. If your door does not open (or shut!) easily in humid weather, please email Sarah so that she can add it to a list of doors to be filed down. Please email her even if you have verbally informed her already.
4. A couple of reminders from the SPG Back to School Checklist document:
   1. Thank you for all of the thought that you have already put into preparing for Curriculum Night this week and next! Just a reminder to please be sure to discuss Units of Study and what 1:1 will look like in your classrooms. I will give an overview in our general session, but parents may be looking to you for more specific grade-level details.
   2. If you haven’t already, please update your grade level or individual schedule in the tab for your grade level/area in the master schedule document. It’s okay if it changes later! I just need a starting point.
   3. If you are interested in continuing to serve as an eLc or beginning to serve as an eLc this school year, please complete this questionnaire by this Friday, 8/26. The District’s eLearning team has identified 4 focus area for the eLcs during this school year. They include GradeCam, professional learning for using 1:1 devices for instruction, eLearning newsletter, and digital citizenship.  Those teachers who serve as eLcs will be instrumental in helping with the professional learning for these areas.
   4. Please let me know if you are interested in becoming an advisor to our Write On! club. Historically, this has been a creative writing club for 4th and 5th grade students that met once or twice a month. However, if you become the advisor it can become whatever you want it to be! Let me know if you’re interested.

TO-READ

The Power of Positive Regard

As we embark on the critical work of building strong, trusting relationships with students at the beginning of the school year, this article shares an important perspective on the power of offering unconditional positive regard (something that I see you all doing every day!).  This is one article from ASCD’s summer edition of Educational Leadership centered on the theme “How to Be A Change Agent.” The link will take you to an electronic version of the entire journal. You might find a few other articles of interest while there!