December 13, 2020

 

Happy Sunday! I hope you are getting rest and gearing up for these last 5 days before break! It will be lots of fun and exhausting, at the same time! 

First, IMPORTANT: We cannot have a SING on Friday. As many of you brought up, singing is not allowed in an enclosed area. The district made the official determination that this sort of activity is not allowed. That being said, I am open to other ideas. I thought about teaching the kids a song in sign language or singing songs with hand motions, but after looking into what is available on YouTube, it won't really work. Let me know if you have another idea. I know you will be doing other fun things in your classes on Friday. 

The music teachers are having a Caroling Night! (This is what I shared with parents)

We have also included information and attached a flier that give out information about Caroling with your child's music teacher. 

What: RCSD Music Caroling Night 

When: December 17th, 7pm 

Where: RCSD Music Youtube livestream *The flier itself includes a hyperlink to the event. 

Thank You! Kim Foree Elementary Music Chair https://youtu.be/0FhdPSwTZTU 

This week is a holiday dress up week! 

This is going to be a great week! Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sunday, December 6

 

Happy Sunday! From my perspective, last week was a great week! I am planning for the same these next two weeks! 

Today, I have a few reminders for you.

1) OTUS: There are going to be a lot of absences in these next two weeks. I suggest you use your PLC time tomorrow to share ideas and come up with a plan about what, and how to post things to OTUS. I have heard many great ideas from several of you! As you always do, work together to get new strategies and ideas. I will be popping into PLC's tomorrow. Please send me your Zoom link. 

2) Mask Wearing: Remember that mask wearing is required for all kids K-6. If K-2 cannot wear a mask, they can wear a face shield. The reason I mention this, is because I have had a few kids tell me at the gate in the morning that their teacher does not make them wear a mask, so they do not need the one I am offering them. This is concerning because this needs to be a united effort among all of us. Please enforce the culture of mask wearing in your classrooms daily. Thank you!

Below is the information for the Annual Household Eligibility Form. This information was shared with parents Friday and Sunday. It would be great for you to also share the info. Because so few families have filled out the form, the district is potentially faced with losing a million dollars of supplemental funding. 

Reminder: Whether your child is in person or doing distance learning, WE NEED YOUR HELP! 

Here is a link to the letter with additional information: Annual Household Eligibility Letter

Click on this link to fill out the quick and easy form: Eligibility Form

A Push for Social Media Followers: Please encourage families to follow our PTC pages. PTC is posting everything, but if there are not followers, it doesn't go as far. See below.

Follow our PTC Facebook and Instagram pages! Our PTC is doing a phenomenal job of sharing both school and district info. To stay up to date, please follow both! 

Instagram: @stoneridgeptc

Facebook: Stoneridge PTC

Upcoming Meeting Changes:

This Wednesday, Dec. 9th at 2:30pm will be a PLC Leadership Meeting

Next Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 2:30pm will be a Staff Meeting

Have a great week! 

Sunday, December 29

Love this! Pretty fitting these days! I definitely appreciate how all of you 'roll with it.'

I hope you all had a very restful week! You definitely need to refill your cups before embarking on these few weeks before the Winter Break. These next weeks will be busy but great, no doubt! 

I basically copied the family blog to share with you. I think there is a lot of information that you may want to have to share with parents and answer questions. 

Book Fair: November 30-December 4

The book fair is this week! Check out the site and preview what is available. You can make purchases on line or the students can purchase in person. Check out the videos included in Timberwolf TV!

Stoneridge Book Fair

Music Corner

Video Message from Mrs. Vaaler

SAVE THE DATE! RCSD Caroling Night will be December 17th at 7PM. Get cozy with your family and tune in to our holiday sing-along on the RCSD Music Youtube channel. We'll teach you the songs ahead of time in the Community Song portion of your December lessons.

For Parents~ Online Absence Reporting:

Parents can use this to report an absence. This can also be used if they say someone in their family tested positive and they don't know what to do. Have them fill out this form and one of the district nurses will be in contact to tell them exactly what to do. 

We now have online absence reporting available on the RCSD home page. It is available under Parent Resources. (See image below) This link should take you directly to the form: Online Absence Reporting

Sees Candy Fundraiser:

Many of you have taken advantage of our Sees candy fundraiser. This is just a reminder in case you wanted to buy some candy for family or friends. Sees candy is always a holiday favorite! 

Sees Candy for Stoneridge

Hand Sanitizer Donations: 

Our classrooms would greatly appreciate hand sanitizer donations! We all know it is tough to find right now, but if you happen to come across some, we would be so thankful. In order to use the hand sanitizer in our classrooms, it must follow these guidelines:

• Gel hand sanitizer only, no liquid sanitizer.
• Minimum alcohol content should be 60%, preferred is 70-75%
• Sanitizer should not contain methanol (wood alcohol) - serious health implications, especially for children.  FDA has a "do-not-use" list.
• Larger sizes 16.9 oz, 33 oz, or gallon sized should have pumps for ease of use.  Smaller sizes may not be as easy to use but can still be donated.
• Please avoid too many additives (scents, moisturizers, etc) to avoid allergic reactions.
• Please have a single point of contact for hand sanitizer donations in order to ensure it meets the standards before it is distributed to the classrooms.

Reminder~ Staff Meeting: Wednesday, December 2nd at 2:30pm. 

Have a great week! 

November 15, 2020

 

Happy Sunday! As I shared with you on Friday, I am so thankful for all of you! We have a full week and then a week off. No problem! We got this! 

I have loved hearing what you did for yourself last weekend, or even on Wednesday. I would love to hear more. Don't forget, Self-Care is not Selfish! 

Meal Basket Reminder: If I do say so myself, we have meal drop off down to a science. That being said, if you can get your baskets back to the MP, it is super helpful! Thank you for doing that. 

PTC Meeting on Tuesday: Our new PTC board would like to have a meeting with you so you can meet them and you can hear how they would like to support you. They also want to hear what you want from them. I will get you the Zoom link to you ASAP. The meeting is this Tuesday at 2:30. 

Please see the latest communication from the district below.

I know you also get this information but wanted to point out there is now a COVID 19-Dashboard. Check it out. Also, encourage parents to please fill out the meal application. And finally, this Guidelines document to reopen and remain open. This document is often helpful to answer questions from parents. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sunday, November 8

 Happy Sunday! 

Following the idea that Positive Builds Positive, we cannot be truly positive unless we feel positive, ourselves. This is a reminder to take care of YOU. Be mindful to take the time to do something positive for yourself. Self-Care is NOT selfish! I would love to know what you did for yourself this weekend. If you didn't do anything special for yourself this weekend, be sure to put something on your calendar for next weekend and every weekend after that! The thing I did for myself this weekend was sleep. My kids were in bed before 8pm on Saturday and my husband and I followed soon after. Last week was a lot for all of us!! Rest was needed! 

Be sure to wear your masks! I am not saying you haven't, what I am saying is that we have to be super diligent about it. People from the DO will be walking school sites and checking to see how we are following the protocol. The impact of losing anyone from our site is too great! On the first day of school, a principal, all the MDS, the custodian and the cook were preparing meals together. (Just like I was doing!) Well, one of those members ended up testing positive the next day. The result- all of those people are on quarantine for 14 days. 

My goal is to be the school with the least classes quarantined. We can only control what we can control, but we can always be super careful! 

Meal Update: I would like to start doing a lunch count this week. We are trying to cut down on waste, so we started putting less in the baskets. If you find that you do not have enough, just let us know and we will get more to you. Important Change: Please have a student, or two, bring your empty baskets to the MP after snack, in the morning, and after they grab their lunches, in the afternoon. (Kinder/1, we can come up with a different plan.) Have them drop the baskets outside the door on the upper grade side. I will put a sign on the door, so they know they are in the right place. Thank you!!

Extra Help: Our MDS, Candi Terry, is supporting some of our kinder students as an IA. She is not needed all the time, so she is available to do prep work in the office. You can drop it with Luisa and she will work on it as she has time. 

Reminder: No School Wednesday! I am a fan of 'easing back into things.'

Stoneridge Mantra: To create a consistent environment for our staff, students and each other where we feel safe, united and excited to learn and grow as a team.

Have a wonderful week!!

Sunday, November 1

Happy Sunday!!! 

I put this on the family blog and thought, 'How could I not include it in ours??' Anyone else with their fingers crossed? I distinctly remember that March 13th when many of you were asking what was going to happen and then the email at lunch that said, send all materials home with students. Ugh, how quickly things changed. And how long it has been!!! We will continue to take this journey together, that is about all we can do! 

Keep your focus on the kids in your classrooms. There are people and processes in place to worry about the rest. We will let you know what you need to know. 

I am going to keep this post short because I have a lot of information that will be shared with you tomorrow. I do want to share these two documents with you to preview. They are included in the powerpoint, but I wanted you to have them ahead of time. They are light reads😂

Cleaning Protocol

CARE Room Protocol

Breakfast: Breakfast will be ready by 8:15. We are planning to set it up on the kindergarten playground. The wonderful Jamey Schrey and Jesse Bennett are catering it for us! 

Lunch on Nov. 4: Speaking of generous families, the Hughes family will be providing Mr. Pickles sandwiches at the end of the school day on Nov. 4th. He is excited to show his gratitude for all you have done! 

I will see you tomorrow on Zoom at 9am. 

Have a great afternoon!

Sunday, October 25

Happy Sunday!

Holy Cow! I cannot believe it is the 25th of October already. I also cannot believe our dreams of having students in their seats is coming true so soon! 

This is a picture from Magic School Bus when the bus landed on Mars and is particularly fitting right now. The reason I say that is because we need to think of the school these children are coming back to as if it were a school on Mars. It is a completely different school than any school anyone has been to before. We have to keep this in mind as we welcome the students back. No matter what grade, they will need to be taught rituals and routines as though it is their first year of school ever. 

I must admit, personally I feel better as we learn the processes and procedures that will be put in place. I think it is because it makes me feel like I know where we are headed versus existing in the unknown. As always, there is more information coming this week. I will keep the updates coming your way. 

I will continue to remind you to focus on what you can control versus what you cannot. We have already spent a lot of time stressing about things that changed or never happened. 

I love this quote:

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened,” renowned American author Mark Twain.

That being said, we are experiencing a lot of troubles we could have never imagined!! But within that, there is room to worry about even more. Focus on what we can control. 

Now for the information! Otherwise known as 'Updates and Changes.'

Schedule: I have only received votes for the Schedule B that I proposed. I would like to move forward with that schedule. You can view it here: Recess Schedule

I will be sharing a document next week for you to work out a duty schedule. You will only be covering the AM recesses. I will work to get the afternoon recesses covered.

Information about teacher changes: The district is meeting on Monday to create a timeline for the release of information. I will share that information with you as soon as I get it. I know you want to share the information and parents want to know, but it is what it is. We just have to roll with it! 

November 2nd, Staff Meeting: Speaking of updates and changes... school sites are not allowed to meet in person on November 2nd. We have breakfast for you and then will have our meeting on Zoom.

As we move forward, please be mindful when your PLC's meet. And by mindful, I mean either meet socially distanced with masks, or on Zoom. When students come back into the classroom, each of our exposure increases. If one teacher is unknowingly exposed and then meets in their PLC, all teachers in that PLC will have to quarantine. That puts us in an extremely difficult position of trying to find multiple subs, not to mention many other issues! 

Wednesday, Oct. 28-Meeting: As of right now, I am going to keep in a PLC Leadership meeting. If I decide to change it to a Staff Meeting, I will let you know!

Question Document: I know there are a lot of questions and I will work to get you answers. 

Please put your questions on this document: School Opening Question Document

Data Discussions: I will be sending invites to your PLC's for days that I will be joining your PLC to look at data together. After report cards are done, it is a great time to update your original data sheets and take a look at student progress. 

Have a great week!

And a much needed funny!