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

Admin Observation Focus

 

This week for collaborative admin observations, we will continue to focus on students’ explaining their thinking pertaining to their misconceptions or errors and students’ understanding and articulating the learning objective (I can) during workshop lessons.


Please view a resource that Teri uses in her classroom.


Test Corrections Printable by embryjd on Scribd

Core Values-VOP Survey

One of our Core Values is “Make our School the Best Choice for Parents and Students” and our Voice of the Parent (VOP) survey is a way to determine if we are embracing this Core Value. Due to NHA having some technical issues with the 2020 VOP survey, we didn’t get the results until last Tuesday. I am happy to announce that this is our second survey in a row (Spring 2020 and Fall 2020) that we have increased our ratings in EVERY category! It’s nice to see our parents recognize and appreciate all the hard work that we do every day! I will be sharing more specific information at our February staff meeting. 

 


Shout Out

 


Keystone Staff for having your data ready and contributing to valuable discussions during DDI meetings.

Ashley using her unique skill to put a smile on the Board’s face.

Kim B for always being willing to do “whatever” it takes to help out. You are appreciated more than you know by the whole admin team!

Robyn relentless commitment to ensure all students receive a quality education.

Stacey for always asking the difficult questions that make our school better.

Jamie, Robyn, and Stacey for holding down the fort in my absence.

Kim B, Laura, Tabitha, Jeanne for stepping in and subbing when needed this week.

Jamie and Robyn for subbing in classrooms.

Deb and Stefanie for assisting with identifying room numbers.

Teri for sharing best practice resources.

Jen H for always being our inspector and handling squeamish situations with a positive attitude. I don’t know how you do it!

Tameka for stepping in and volunteering to take on additional tasks to help out as needed.  

This Week

 


Monday, January 25:

·    Sloane’s Birthday

Tuesday, January 26:

·    PLC Meetings 4-5 PM

Friday, January 29:

·    Spirit Day $1.00

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