What a fun week it has been! Students rocked participation for Spirit Week. It's always a good time building community in small ways. I even had the joy of a sweet first grader dressing like me on "dress like a teacher day"- glasses, lanyard, and walkie talkie attached in all. It's funny how kids pick up on things you don't even notice!
This week continued to be one filled with absences of both students and teachers. We are fortunate to have so many regular guest teachers (subs) to keep our campus running smoothly. We are also blessed to have flexible teachers to step in to cover last minute absences, too. I even had the joy of teaching throughout parts of several days.
This week, we also completed our monthly fire drill. Students rocked it. We had guest speaker on campus for day who celebrated both student behavior as well as the organization during the evacuation. While I know we have wonderful students and staff, it's alway fun to hear praise from someone outside our school.
On Wednesday, students release early, but staff engaged in new learning (and a good refresher) with our district's autism specialist. Click here if you're interested in learning more/seeing the slide deck. A special highlight for me was leaving the PD and being immediately asked to be a thought partner to put new learning to use! Shout out to Profe. Herbage, Ms. Dahl, Ms. Hjorth, Ms. Vasey (and I'm sure many more) for putting some of these ideas into practice within 24 hours of learning!
This week, we worked alongside of the PTA to support the clothing closet through sock and underwear donations. We set a lofty goal of 2,800 socks, and we surpassed it with a total of 2952 items! Shout out to the PTA for organizing this effort. After the break, the PTA has several new programs and initiatives beginning, so click here to learn more. There are also new winter after school enrichments ensuing, so click here to learn more about those!
Today is the last day several of our wonderful staff members. Ms. Cheri McBee has been a staple at our school for a long time and is retiring today! We wish Cheri so much luck in retirement! Today is also the last day for Mr. Hamler. In his short time here, he has learned the ropes of middle school life and has developed collaborative partnerships with his team. He's moving on to his former position with the adaptive PE team, so we'll see him around! In the next newsletter, we will share the wonderful new additions being added to our school community, so stay tuned!
Finally, a traffic related note about arrival and dismissal. We have put it in the newsletters before, but if you're anything like me, sometimes I'm busy and my skimming and scanning skills aren't at their peak. We are asking that families please do not park in the staff parking lots. We have put in a work order to touch up the labels on spots, but we appreciate your support in the meantime! If you are driving your students to school, please park on the road, not in the bus loading zones anywhere in the parking lots. This creates congestion as well as a safety concern. With that said, we are looking to start up a safety patrol team coordinated by a staff member and led by student leaders! Stay tuned for more to come with this in January!
I hope you all have a restful and rejuvenating holiday break. I always have mixed feelings because while time off can be wonderful, I know the stability of school feels safe for many students and families. For me, disrupting my work routine can feel tricky, but I am looking forward to seeing my sissy and nieces over the break and filling my bucket! Wherever the break takes you, I hope your family has a great one!
