Amy's Weekly Writeup

This week's shout out was nominated by Ramsay and goes to Sarah Jensen.

Ramsay said, "I have two "my hero" stories about Sarah Jensen today ... and I would love to see her acknowledged for the amazing work she does connecting with students and advancing their math learning.

Lil transferred to Sarah's case load from mine yesterday. When I circled up with Lil, Julia and Caleb at 10:30 this morning and reviewed the new structure/schedule for their mornings, Lil was so exuberant when she learned that Mrs. Jensen was going to be her 1:1 math teacher every day ... not just yesterday for that awesome, fun game they played :)

Sarah and I just worked together this afternoon writing the progress note for John's math IEP goal. I'm so impressed with his growth this year. You will remember that he was receiving core instruction two years below grade level for 1 1/2 years. I pulled him for the second half of last year because he seemed grounded in the basics and ready for accelerated growth. Sarah was the obvious choice to help him make the fastest progress possible, given her inside-out knowledge of the standards. He's working on fourth grade standards without much modification to content (although he needs some modification to instructional approach and assessment criteria). Yay John! Yay Sarah!"

To nominate someone for a shout out, just email me!

Tuesday: 5th grade grade level meeting, 6th grade grade level meeting

Wednesday: 1:50 dismissal, 4th grade SST meeting, staff meeting

Thursday: 3rd grade grade level meeting, 4th grade grade level meeting

Friday: 2pm Mini Concert

Friday Fun for Jan. 31st is another round of "Guess Who"? Check your email each day for clues and submit your guess into the jar in the office before 2:00 on Friday for a chance to win a prize.

• Thanks to everyone for their efforts with our lock down drill. The police felt that everyone did a great job. They asked that I remind everyone to repeat the call, making sure they say "lock down drill" and to only say, "lock down" if it's an actual lock down, not a drill. They also asked folks to be mindful of locking their classroom doors if no one is in the room, especially if you have a room that connects to another room.
• FY 20 (current school year) Budget update: We are still currently in a budget freeze and looking for additional areas to reduce our costs. To that end, I am going to be looking more closely at our substitute lines and seeing if I can save some money in that area. This would mean that there may be days when I make the decision not to sub someone if they are out. Obviously, I will weigh a variety of factors when making that decision and it will be done on a case by case basis. If you are going to be out and know that hiring a sub is not critical, please let me know when submitting your request paperwork.