Lincoln Staff Blog

This Week

10/10 Kindergarten to Dinges Farms

10/11 PTO 12:30 - 1:30 (1st-grade Team)

10/12 Late Start

10/12 Lory's Place (11:40)

10/13 Half Day (Conferences)

10/14 Half Day (Conferences)

10/14 Laps for Lincoln (5-7)

Coming Up...

10/17 Fire Drill #3

10/18 Staff Meeting 4 -5

10/18 Lisa & Melaina at training

10/19 Lisa & Melaina at training

10/19 Honor C.U (11:15--5th, 11:45--4th)

10/21 Popcorn Friday

10/21 Picture Retakes

Future dates to know...

10/27 Flu Clinic

10/31 Party Day!

10/31 Professional Growth Goals Due

11/17 Thanksgiving Lunch

I can't thank all of you enough for all the love that was showered upon me on Thursday. I am so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful staff. What a truly special day it was! Azul is in my future! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Starting over the weekend of October 7th-9th, staff will have the choice to set their own Start Page(s) and Home Page(s) when they launch the Google Chrome web browser

The startup page, which is configurable under your Chrome settings -> On Startup. This is what launches the first time you open Chrome. Right now this is set for you to the District Staff Symbaloo, and you can set this to still be the case in this section, or set it as your homepage instead if you wish (see below).

For reference, if you would like to continue setting the District Staff Symbaloo as your startup page or homepage, the URL is http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/sjpsstaff

The home button will always bring you to a new tab by default, or what you have set as your homepage under your Chrome settings -> Appearance. You can set that to whatever you wish. Directions on how to do so are found here.

Set Startup and Home Page

Using Tabs and Pinning a Tab

Nothing will change for students and they will still be set to the District Symbaloo on startup, however they can still set what loads with their "home" button.

Please email support@sjschools.org if you have any questions.

This week we had a huge change on our playground. Our families have rallied to support the new safety initiative, and the end result is a safer playground and the ability to ensure all students have been picked up at the end of the day. Thank you for all you did this week to have courageous conversations with adults picking up their students. When we see adults on the playground, we can ask them if they need help with something and can remind them "to ensure the safety of all students that we are asking them to remain outside the playground space from 8:10 to 4:00." It is perfectly fine for our families to cut through to get their Kindergarten & Y5 students.

If you have an after-school duty, please stay outside until 4:00 and make sure there are no students left on the playground. If they are, please take them to the office where we can supervise and make a phone call home for them. Again, thank you for all you have done with supervision and safety.

October 31st will be here before we know it! Please be sure to connect with your parent volunteers and party planners by October 14th. Planning the same party for everyone in your grade level ensures equity for the grade level and helps saves time for everyone. Be sure to communicate with families and the office regarding the time of your party.

Message that went to families in the family blog:

Costumes: Students can wear costumes to school. If there are masks or things that cover the hands, please plan to keep those in the backpack during class time and only wear them during the party and the parade. Additionally, please save any weapons or gore for the night of Halloween--we don't want to scare our littlest learners! We know this day will be exciting, but any help with eliminating distractions for learning time will be greatly appreciated.

Parade: We will have a school-wide parade on the 31st. If weather permits, families are welcome to come and watch the parade at 3:15.

Parties: Teachers will be in contact with families to let them know the specific time of the class party.

When choosing a professional learning goal for the year, consider a goal that is connected to design questions 1 - 9 on the front of the placemat. Please select 1 - 2 growth goals for the year and connect them to a specific design question. In your paragraph, consider the goal(s), ways you will work to meet the goal, and how you think it will affect instruction, students, families, and/or learning outcomes. If you are new to the building or district, ask your mentor if you have any questions about where to put your growth goal paragraph. If you have questions about selecting a growth goal, please see me, as I am glad to help.

Remember that if you are off-cycle for evaluation this year, you do not have to put a professional growth goal in observation. At the end of the year, however, feel free to list any contributions and accomplishments in order to record and document your year. If you are unsure if you are off-cycle (3 years of highly effective), please see me, and I will let you know!

Thank you for scheduling time for us to work together during your PT conference to complete an IRIP. This is nice for parents when they don't have to return for a second meeting. Please be ready to share NWEA scores and percentiles, independent reading levels (F&P), Lexia level, and any interventions that you are providing at school in order to improve the reading level of the student. All of the information will be entered into the plan during the meeting time.

As you begin conferencing with families, please be prepared to speak to students' strengths and areas you will support and develop for each academic area and their social-emotional learning. If you foresee that a student will be recommended for TIER II SEL with Melaina down the road, now is the time to discuss with families why you see this need for extra support.

A general recipe for informing families is as follows:

Literacy/Math/Social-emotional learning)

+Strengths

+areas for growth

+how are you supporting at school

+how families can support at home

If you have a conference planning form that others could use, please share it with your colleagues!

✔️Plan to complete your professional growth goal by Oct. 31 (Marzano Framework)

✔️ Invite Lisa to your IRIP conferences

✔️Read our Lincoln Family Blog to stay current on what families are seeing from our school

✔️Reach out to party planners by Friday

✔️Schedule a monthly meeting with Lisa

Email: lknuth@sjschools.org
Website: www.sjschools.org
Location: 1102 Orchard Avenue, St. Joseph, MI, USA
Phone: 269.926.3700