Sunday, August 27, 2017

Getting Into the Groove. . .

First week down, so all of you and your kiddos should start to get into the groove of school again!  I appreciate each detail you put into last week with getting our kiddos excited, happy and ready to go!  Also, I appreciate your emphasis on alignment as you created  structures to help you and your learners get organized as well as set expectations to make this a successful year!


Week of:  August 28th-September 1st, 2017

Monday-  Fire Drill - 8:15am (this one will be announced the rest will not be for this year) - if rain, postponed
Site-based will be rescheduled - will let you know shortly the date

Tuesday - Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Wednesday - Extra Jeans Day- any shirt, since we have to stay late on Thursday makes for a happier day!

Thursday -  5th Grade Safety Patrol Meeting - 2:00pm - Cafeteria
Curriculum Night (K-2:  5:30-6:30pm) (3rd-5th:  6:30-7:30pm)

Friday - Jeans Day - any shirt


Important Reminders
Norms
Don't forget that it is very important to establish norms with your learners as a whole class as well as for various instructional times you may have this year. (ex:  norms for writing time, norms for small group, etc.)  This will help to hold learners accountable for this actions and you can revisit them throughout the year as a touch base point for being respectful, having integrity and creating a safe and collaborative learning environment.  If you would like to refresh your memory on norms, click on our TCE Schoology course and look under the Professional Learning Community folder.  Our campus and team norms are all added there.  

Compliance Trainings
Don't forget about finishing up the compliance trainings in Schoology.  Scroll back to last week's blog if you need more info!

Goal Setting
Don't forget we still can't enter in our goals yet into Eduphoria!  I will let you know as soon as we can!

Curriculum Night
Here are the locations for this Thursday evening.  Please remember that you need to email Annelise and I a copy of your presentation.  Also, we will be sending out a flipped video for our parents this week before the event.  This will cover all of the safety, certain policies, etc.  
  1. Please make sure that you check everything with your presentation in the area you will be located to ensure you are ready to go.  If you need items, please check with Tina, Annelise or me in time to make sure everything is ready way before the presentation time.
K,1,2 (K in library, 1 in cafe, 2 in gym)  Gym/Cafe needs microphone

3,4,5 (3 in gym ,4 in library,  5 in cafe)  Gym/Cafe needs microphone

I would like you to make sure you also cover that we are no longer doing bday treats.  (you will be able to follow the info below that I send out in my beginning of school year letter.)

  1. TCE Birthdays:
    This year we are going to be celebrating each of our learner’s birthdays by giving them their usual shout out on our KTEX announcements as well as will have a special treat provided from the office. They will also get a gift certificate for one free treat in our cafeteria.
    We ask that you do not bring in treats/snacks for the class to celebrate your child’s birthday. We are trying to promote more health conscience choices for our kiddos and appreciate your help with this! 


"Who made you happy this week?"
Shout Out Your Happiness!
Kristan Thank you for helping us with our pictures. They turned out so cute! We appreciate all that you do for our kiddos. Love, 5th Grade

Candace,  Thank you for already being on top of everything for our learners for this year. We can't wait to see all of the awesome learning they will experience. Love, 5th Grade

Sherri, You are the laminating queen! Thank you! –Mary

Sue, Thank you for keeping us all safe, healthy, and HAPPY! You have the sweetest spirit! Love, Mary

Mike, Patrick, and Beth: The kids have been RAVING about Specials! We all appreciate your hard work, collaboration, and positive attitudes! It's contagious! –Mary

TCE staff, thank you so much for helping to make this week a great start to a new school year! it is such a blessing to work with people who always put children first. Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication to our students. Sherri

Lauren, Kim, and Lorri- Thank you so much for making this week such a FUN and FABULOUS week! I absolutely love being on a team with you! <3 Courtney

Big thanks to Tina for trying her best to help get my projector squared away with the tech department. Also, to Coach Michael for letting me borrow his in the meantime! It's been a great week so far working alongside all the wonderful educators here at TCE!

HUGE Shout out to Erin, Brooke and Candace for helping me get all of the devices/carts out this week! It takes a village and I appreciate your willingness to lend a helping hand!

Candace--Thank you for your help with the new light table and other makerspace additions to TCE! Can't wait to see our learners explore these new tools.

Shout out to Sherri and Julie for doing afternoon bus duty. It is not an easy task and they have done a great job! As far as we know there was no child left behind!

Julie, Kelly, Lori & Marie, Thank you so much for making Callen's first week in Kindergarten a big success!! He loves school! He loves TCE! I know he will have great learning experiences with all of you!  Thank you for taking such good care of him! Love you all, Lorri B.

Kim, Thank you for our really CUTE hallway "Happy" signs! They look great! Thank you for getting all of our signs and dots.... ready for "Meet the Teacher" . We are so "happy" you are on our team. Love, First Grade

Lauren - Thank you so much for getting our "First Grade Blog" up and running! It looks AMAZING!! Thank you for all your hard work creating our blog. We appreciate YOU! Love, First Grade Team

Lisa Hansen- I can't thank you enough for the video of Callen's First Day! Thank you for taking your time to take pictures throughout the day and putting together the cutest video. You brought such "happiness" to my family!! My daughter really appreciated you face timing with her, and giving her such a beautiful keep sake. You are such a thoughtful person, and it makes me happy to work with you. Thank you, Love you, Lorri B.

Heather and Catherine-It has been a great first week working with you both!! Thanks for the flexibility and sharing of class space so our learners could experience the eclipse together. We are going to have a fabulous 17-18 school year!

Laura-give this lady a halo! She stops in mid sentence to fix anything for you! Since the day I interviewed I have always felt welcomed and a part of TCE. Thanks for all you do each and everyday!!

Sherri - Thank you for coming to my rescue and killing the cockroach that scared the daylights out of me! I am thankful you were so calm and collected when I clearly wasn't :) Love you! Kelly

Annelise - You are so efficient at everything you do! I love all of the ideas you've contributed to our team as well as your humor and wit! So glad to have you! Love, Kelly S.

Kristan - Thank you for taking the time to brainstorm ways we can make stuco better! So glad we get to work as a team! Kelly

Dianne, I am so impressed with you! Already pushing in on week one!! I love that you are at TCE, and I am looking forward to learning so much from you this year! – Jenna

Marly, Heather, and Morgan- Thank you for being patient with me as I am learning how to be a writing teacher! I am excited to get to plan with you all this year!

Dianne, You are BASICALLY Wonder Woman in glasses. You do it ALL with grace and a smile! We love and appreciate you! –Mary

Patti/Lisa Makes me happy to see how you both work so hard to insure the learners are safe, have their needs met and are engaged in learning all day long! Couldn't do this without both of you!  Anne


I want to thank Mary Kennington and Lisa Hansen for helping me out with my technology issues. Thank you for patience and guidance! You both rock!

August Birthdays
Casey Wagner - 6th
Sara Cruz - 17th
Kelly Spears - 23rd

Curriculum Connection
As you start the year, remember a big piece of our alignment as a campus is with Thinking Maps.  Here are the video connections I had posted in the past to jump start your thinking/memory again for how to model for your learners as you use the various thinking organization strategies.  

I am also going to place these videos in our TCE Schoology Course under the Professional Learning Community folder.  These videos would be a great resource to add to your Google Site as well as possibly publish in your team blog. As they are introduced to learners, you can also make sure your parents then can know how they are used in learning!

One thing the video doesn't display is the frame of reference.  This is actually a critical piece of the thinking map that helps one to remember how they have learned or gained the information.  You draw a large square around the border of the thinking map and add this info.


Circle Map



Bubble Map


Double Bubble


Flow Map


Multi-Flow Map


Brace Map


Bridge Map


Tree Map

Final Quotes for the Week
As we go into our week of learning, thought these quotes would be good ones to get us going and ready to make a difference! Don't forget. . .three day weekend coming up!




Sunday, August 20, 2017

First Week of School!

As we start back this first week, I can't thank each of you enough for the positive energy you all have brought each day!  I am so proud to have each of you on board at TCE and this is truly going to be a fabulous school year!  I appreciate the hard work you have put into getting ready for our kiddos and can't wait to see the amazing learning you have planned!  As we get ready for the first day. . .remember that this will be you. . .



Week of:  August 21st-25th, 2017

Monday-  1st day of school!
Boo Hoo Breakfast - 7:30-8:00am (Cafeteria)
Eclipse viewing 4th and 5th 
Special Recess Schedule

Tuesday - Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Wednesday - Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Thursday -  Have a Tremendously Great Thursday!

Friday - Jeans Day with TCE Spirit Shirts (Grade level colors)
Important Reminders
Walkthroughs
Just a reminder that walkthroughs this year will start the first week of school just like last year. (per the district)  We won't be doing any on the first day and we will look at learning environment as our first focus!

Compliance Videos
Don't forget that our compliance videos need to be completed by the following due dates.  Log-in code:  6K7B9-XHJF6
Blood Borne Pathogens - completed by 9/30
Food Allergy - completed by 9/30
Child Find/FERPA - completed by 9/30
Child Abuse/Sex Abuse - completed by 12/1
Suicide Prevention - completed by 12/1
Bystander Emergency Response - completed by 12/1

Goal Setting, SLO's, etc.
We received some info from the district about changes to our current Appraise system for this school year.  ***If you have already entered your TTESS goals, please copy them to save them somewhere else (Word doc or Google doc) in case they get lost in the migration of products. (Region 10 is currently working on this and we are going to be moving from Appraise/Workshop to another system that is called Strive which is supposed to be more user friendly) Human resources will let us know when everything is good to go and we will give an extension of entering goals if needed. Until then, please just make sure you have your goals ready in some format and saved somewhere other than Appraise.  

TCE Expectations 2017-2018
Please review over these expectations that were established last year in order to help with some of the specific areas on campus.  I am going to attach a copy of these in our Schoology Course as well.  Please review each area to see how it might affect you and please let me know if you have questions!

Curriculum Night - Thursday, August 31st
5:30-6:30 (K, 1st and 2nd)
6:30-7:30 (3rd, 4th and 5th)
We will be working on sending out a video connection from the office for reminders about procedural items for school (safety, expectations, etc.) this week.  Team leaders, for curriculum night, please make sure that you have shared your presentations with both me and Annelise.  
Please remember that this is a night for informing parents about the year and that some kind of handout with links to websites, blogs, or the presentation is important.  This gives our parents something to refer to for any questions they may have during the year. 
Specials Team/Specialists - I would like for you to please attend from 5:20-6:30 in order to help meet and greet families before each of the time slots. Then you all can head out for the evening!  
"Who made you happy this week?"
Shout Out Your Happiness!


A HUGE shout out to my amazing 2nd grade team! You girls have been so helpful in every way possible as we prepare for this school year and I try not to loose my mind! :)  Love you Katie, Logan, Beth, and Erin! ~Erica

Annelise, So excited that you have joined our TCE family! It's already clear you are going to be such a great addition to our school!

Tracy! You've done AMAZING this week!! We're so happy you're apart of our team! :)

Laura, Sherri, Sue and Paula,  Thank you so much for all you have done in the front office to get our year going smoothly!  Between registrations, helping new families and helping all of our staff, you all amaze each of us with your patience and servant hearts!  Thank you! - Angie

Megan, I am so excited to share kids again with you!! It's going to be such a great year! Ashlin

Angie and Annelise,  Thank you so much for the much needed time in our rooms and team planning! This is going to be an AMAZING year!  5th Grade Team

Meredith, Kasey, Rachel, and Renee,  I am so happy to be taking this journey in 5th grade with each of you! Love y'all!  Casey

Dianne,  Thank you for getting everything ready for our learners! You are the best!  5th Grade Team

Kristan and Lisa,  Thank you so much for all of your help painting our boards in the hallways and out front as well as getting the borders up!  - Angie

Shout out to the entire TCE staff for the warm welcome and making me feel so at home right away! I am blessed to be a part of this team. Your love for kids and teaching is so evident that I can't wait to see it all in action this year.  Annelise

Mary- Thanks for setting up a way for keeping us all in the know. You are the best!

Marly and Kristan,  Thank you so much for taking on the role of our CHAT team again this year!  Looking forward to many celebrations and fun with our staff!    -Angie

Mary,  Thank you for getting the schedules made for our learners! You are the best'  5th Grade Team

I want to express my gratitude for the entire staff at Town Center! I am so thankful for the support, encouragement and patience you have given me. Town Center is special place to teach and to be a part of! Truly, it's my HAPPY place! Dianne Johnston

Candace, Thank you so much for your flexibility with the move and working around the YMCA and such this summer!  I appreciate your constant dedication to helping all of TCE! - Angie 

Lori, Kelly, and Marie - Thank you for ALL your help! Y'all make me so very happy!!! I'm blessed to be on your team! I love that we laugh our heads off and then we are there for each other on the not so good days, too!!!! Love y'all!💜

Julie, thank you for driving me to school every day last week! You are a life saver!  Lori

Kelly, Julie, and Marie, I can't wait to have another amazing year with you! Thanks for always being so awesome!!! Lori

Courtney, Ashlin, Meredith, and Dianne--- thank you for being mentors to our "newish" teachers! They are blessed to learn from your guidance!!! Lori

Laura Fairchild - she helped me with my time sheet when my badge didn't work even though she had a million other things to do!

Annelise and Kelly,  What can I say. . .this is going to be an amazing year working with you crazies!  I am so glad to have you both by my side for your dedication to working together to do the best job possible as leaders and your love and dedication to do what is right for kiddos! (and because you make me smile and laugh A LOT!) - Angie  

Kristan--Thank you so much for all your help this past week! I appreciate you being willing to jump in anytime help is needed! –Tina

Erin C-I'm so exciting to have you join our TCE Fam this year! Looking forward to having you help in the library this year! ❤ Tina

Catherine Kim - helping me with technology and all the new things that come along with being on a new campus. She has helped settle the nerves my first week at TCE! I have found my happy place thanks to all of you!!

Shout out to the 4th grade team! They are all AMAZING and have all been a huge help to me in answering my 1000+ questions! Thanks a ton! Heather

TCE Family, Thank you so much to everyone that has asked about my stepdad, Bob's, progress, continued to check on me, and offered to pray for our family. I am so thankful for my work family and the way that y'all take care of me! –Marly

Angie, Thank you for being flexible and understanding when I have needed to rush to be by my family's side. It really makes a difference to have a boss that is flexible & sympathetic and reminds me that family comes first. -Marly

Laura,  Thank you so much for being our yellow jacket/wasp defender by coming up this weekend and killing those critters!  Love you!  - Angie


August Birthdays
Casey Wagner - 6th
Sara Cruz - 17th
Kelly Spears - 23rd

Final Quotes for the Week
As we kick off this first week back, I found these quotes fitting!  It is going to be an amazing year, make the most of each day you have with your kiddos!