TO-KNOW

1. Some calendar reminders for this week!
   1. Monday is National Custodial Workers’ Appreciation Day, and we have a lot to appreciate! If you see Sarah, Justin, or Jeff, please give them an extra thanks for all that they do to keep our building safe, clean, and humming.
   2. Our October Faculty Meeting is this Tuesday, beginning promptly at 3:15 in the Library. Please bring your laptop.
   3. Tuesday is also Grandparents’ Night! We will have dinner available in the faculty lounge beginning at 4:30pm . Ann is providing a baked potato bar and cookies. Please bring your own drink if you would like something other than water! The brief introductory program will begin in the Gym at 6:00 (and again at 7:15) and grandparents will then be able to visit classrooms, Book Fair, do an art activity in the art room, have photos taken in the cafeteria, and have refreshments and look at slide show in the Gym.
   4. Wednesday evening our Encore students will be performing in the District’s Choir Fest at the high school. Wish them luck! It begins at 7:00pm in the Gym if you would like to attend.
   5. This Friday evening is the PTA’s Halloween Bash, with the K-2 event from 6:00 – 7:00 and 3-5 from 7:30 – 8:30. You are welcome to bring your own children at any point in the evening!
2. I will be at a training at Hamilton County ESC on Thursday morning, planning to be back in the building by 12:30pm. There will be someone from District Office coming to check in and will either stay or be “on call” if needed.
3. The PTA is still finalizing details for the walk-a-thon next Friday, October 14. I will share the schedule with you as soon as I have it. I expect that, as in past years, each grade level will have an hour-long plan bell while your students walk. We will again end the day with an assembly, beginning around 2:20.
4. Did you know that WesBanco is offering a deal in which Springmyer gets a $50 donation and you can earn up to $150 for signing up for a new account? You also earn money when you refer a friend. Raymond Ulrich recently signed up for an account and said that if teachers open an account and list him on the referral sheet, he will give you the $50 to use in your classroom. There is more information in the Sparks, or see Cyndi!
5. An enormous THANK YOU to Cyndi for providing iced lemon water for the first seven weeks of school. Now that the weather has cooled down considerably, she will be turning her attention to other matters in the morning.

TO-DO

1. Ready, Set, Read! Updates:
   1. On Friday afternoon, I put envelopes with brag tags and reports with the names highlighted of all students who met both the 80% accuracy threshold and their points. An initial look by one teacher showed a few errors, however, with the report showing that students had met their goals when in fact they had not. I will be doing some investigating to figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you would double check your reports and use your judgment when handing out brag tags. If you see a student who in fact should or should not receive a September brag tag, please feel empowered to make that call on your own.
   2. Everyone gets a fresh start on Monday! At Tuesday’s faculty meeting, Lindsay will walk everyone through resetting goals in case you need a refresher! (Thanks, Lindsay!)
2. Shhhh! It’s a secret until the Walk-a-Thon on October 14 but students will have surpassed the $20,000 fundraising goal which means…game on for the lip sync contest! Unless I hear suggestions otherwise, let’s plan to do a K-2 v. 3-5 v. “Important Others” with IVSs, aides, and others feeling free to join whichever group feels right. Please keep performances to about 1.5 – 2 minutes and share your song with me (or the whole staff) so we don’t have duplicates.

TO-READ

Educational Leadership: Powerful Lesson Planning

The latest issue of Educational Leadership is chock-full of interesting, inspiring, useful articles related to lesson planning and instruction from math menus, to effective “sponge” activities, to the positives and drawbacks of the online marketplace for lesson planning ideas. This link will take you to all of the articles. If there is a lock next to an article that you’d like to read (signifying that you need an account) just let me know and I’ll get you a copy.