Staff Fun



Last week, your dean gifted you extra time. This week let the competition begin! I know how competitive the Keystone staff is, so it’s trivia time. You will be answering trivia questions for prizes (extra prep, jean pass, lunch, or gift cards) all week. Once a day, I will go over the “all call” system to ask a trivia question, announce the lucky caller number, and an extension # or cellphone to call. Think of this like a radio contest in the 80s and 90s. For example, I would ask,

When did the website "Facebook" launch? The fourth caller to call extension 104, will win a prize.”

 

I will answer the phone and announce what number caller you are until I get to the fourth caller. If the fourth caller doesn’t have the correct answer, I will move on to the fifth caller and continue until I get the right answer. Only one winner per day. So, if there are multiple people in a room (Academic Specialist, para, classroom teacher, etc.) only the person who makes the phone call will win. If you have students in your classroom, have them join in to help you! Every day the question, caller number, and extension will change so you need to listen carefully.


Staff Meeting Agenda

 


February 9 Staff Meeting Agenda

1.   Icebreaker

2. Good News

3. Best Practice Share Out

4. Quarantining-Students and Staff

5. Reading Month  

6. Screen Beam

7. Housekeeping Items

8. Q & A

9. Launch

 

*You will be attending the meeting from your classroom using the Google Code: KeystoneStaffMeetings in the calendar invite. Starting at 3:45, please go to the staff lounge to sign in, gather the documents that we will be discussing, and grab some snacks.

*Meeting begins promptly at 4:00.

Shout Outs


Ashley A, Mandy, Michelle, Nicole, Teri, Mechelle, Cindy Chuang, Sloane, Tracy, Jen H, Ashley H, Sarah D, and Andria for your time, participation, and valuable feedback to help improve our school.

Tameka for covering me when I was double booked.

Jen D for my early Administrator (Dean & Principal) Appreciation gift. I could tell you put a lot of thought into it!    

Andria and Sloane for helping find things that teachers care about. 😊

Michelle, Christina, Stephanie, Ellen, Andria, Laquanda, and Tracy for being the top High Five recognizer from your team.

Sarah D for being a wonderful graphic designer.

Sarah D for always being willing to test out technology equipment. 

This Week

 


Tuesday, February 9:

·    Staff Meeting 4-5 PM

·    Staff Meeting Snacks-6th Grade

Wednesday, February 10:

·    Count Day

Friday, February 12:

·    3-8 ELA 2 Scan-by Date

·    Show the LOVE dress down day

·    DUE: Morning Assembly Presentation-Hutcherson (Black History Month)

Self-Care

 Do you feel burned out, unbalanced, and/or stressed? I want to encourage you to practice self-care. Last week, I shared that self-care could help you lead a fulfilling, purposeful, and productive life. There are many types of self-care you should embrace to feel your best in all areas of your life, and it doesn’t take a lot of time or money to be beneficial. If you’re new to the concept of self-care, check out the graphic below.


I’ve selected a few pages from here that define self-care and provide you with four easy steps to creating a personalized self-care plan with templates (see below). 


My self-care plan is focusing on physical, what’s yours? 


Self Care Plan by embryjd on Scribd

Hello, Goodbye!

 


I wanted to let you know that Sheila Montri’s last day at Keystone is next Wednesday, February 3.  Sheila has been a part of the Keystone family for a long time, but she wants to spend more of her time caring for her personal family now.  As many of you know, Sheila drives almost an hour each way for her daily commute.  It is for this reason; she has decided to accept a position closer to her home.  In saving an hour a day in driving it will give her more time to care for the medical needs of her family. While we will miss her, we understand her need to prioritize her family’s health. We appreciate Sheila being transparent and working with the admin team during this entire process. We have known about this for a while but refrained from sharing with the staff because we didn’t want the information to leak to the Kindergarten families until we secured her replacement to ensure a smooth transition for those students (you know I love to have a master plan before I reveal things). We would also like to wish Laura Dean well as she has decided to resign with Sheila to spend more time at home. We appreciate everything that she has done for Keystone the last 8 ½ years.

In saying all that, I would like to welcome Jessica Walczak as our new kindergarten teacher. Jessica has many years of experience as a preschool teacher. Her tentative start date is next Tuesday, February 2. Lisa Heringhausen will become Jessica’s para to assist her in this new role. Thank you, Lisa, for offering your support.

Shout Outs

 


Ellen for sharing resources on promoting a positive school culture.

Cindy Chuang for getting our newest NJHS students inducted in a way that still made it special despite all of the restrictions. 

Angel and Jen for organizing February Friends so quickly and making things fun for our school.  

Deb for coming in on a Sunday night to do a deep cleaning.

Robyn for your steadfast leadership while trying to manage two classrooms and your dean role at the same time. There is no one who could do what you are doing and still maintain a smile. Thank you for being a true example of someone who doesn’t let their circumstances control their emotions and behavior.

Tameka and Jamie for volunteering to sub this week. I love that you are willing to do whatever it takes for our school.

Tameka, Jamie, Robyn, and Stacey for consistently being a true example of leadership. It feels that we keep getting hit with one thing after another, but you never let anything keep you down. You show up every day with a positive attitude and a commitment to our staff, students, and families. I am blessed to be on the same team as you!

Tricia for all the random acts of kindness that you have shown me this week!

Christina for volunteering to cover dismissal twice this week.

Keystone Staff for your diligence in getting MAP testing complete. Special shout out to Sarah D for organizing, tracking, proctoring, and leading this endeavor.

Lisa, Tabitha, and Jeanne for being flexible and willing to do “whatever it takes!”

Megan and Laquanda for being understanding of change.

Jen, Stacey, Jamie, Laquanda, Sheila, Laura, Lisa, and Deb for dealing with bathroom issues all week!

Nikki for making a special delivery to one of our families. Thank you for going above and beyond! 

This Week

 


Monday, February 1:

·    ELA Interim 2 (Feb 1-5)

·    Math Numeracy (Feb 1-5)

Wednesday, February 3:

·    PTO Meeting 4-5 PM

Friday, February 5:

·    IAT Meetings

·    Kim B’s Birthday

·    Payday Breakfast-Interventions

·    DUE: Morning Assembly Presentation-McNulty (President’s Day)

Happy Birthday

 


Kim: February 5