Summer Update- June 2016

Happy (almost) July!  I hope you have had a relaxing, restful June… you deserve it! 

Ben, Greg, and John have been busy getting the building ready for (potentially) 625 students in September!  There is a lot of movement that will happen over the next month- thank you to all of you who have been extremely flexible with these changes.   Please note: This Thursday, the main hallway (outside the office) will be refinished.  The hallway will be closed Thursday (6/30) at around 2:30 until Saturday morning.  Please avoid using this hallway. 

 

Also, just a reminder- Extended School Year (ESY) and the district Kindergarten Kamp will program out of McKinley from July 11- August 4, 2016.  They are primarily using the Kindergarten wing. 

I also wanted to update you on some summer “news”: 

 

Summer Moves

Below are the moves that will be happening in the building:

• K5 (Hasty’s Old Room) will be Paige Larson’s classroom. 
• K4 (old Learning Center) will be Nicole Joachim’s room.
• EL (old EL/Zeman’s Office) will be Laurie Wolhart’s teaching space. 
• EL (Boetel & Stitzmeyer) will program out of the library (a classroom is being created).  
• 1A (old Lang and EL room) will be Jen Schlauderaff’s classroom.
• Extra section (old Schlauderaff’s room) will be Rachel Peterson’s classroom (grade level TBD).
• Liaisons will share the Instrumental Music room with Revier and Guenther.
• Lang (SPED & PBIS) and Zeman will share across from my office (previously housed by the liaisons)
• Dulas will program out of the small Learning Center (Jayne and Tom’s old office).
• Danielle, Brianna, and Lindsey will share the new Learning Center in the old Discovery Lab. 

At this rate, I think I may give up my office and work from home all year…. J

 

Hiring

We will be welcoming some solid teachers to the McKinley family this August.  Below are those updates:

• Kim Gedde will be the shared Music Teacher (Lincoln-Washington-McKinley).  Kim comes with a solid background in music education- from K-5 to the university level.  Kim will teach some Kindergarten and 1^st grade sections at McKinley.
• Brent Yule will be taking Peggy’s spot as our Physical Education Teacher.   Brent has spent the last three years teaching elementary PE in Medford.  He comes with an extensive background integrating reading, math, and physical education. 
• Lindsey Schultz will be joining our team as a Special Education Teacher.   Lindsey has spent the last few years in Faribault as a SPED teacher at Lincoln Elementary.  Lindsey has a passion for learning and working with students! 

STEM Days – Classroom Teachers Only:

Please remember- your team gets 2 STEM planning days for July-August.  When you know of your dates, times, and location, please email Justin, Tom Meagher, and Heidi Gryniewski.

 

STEM New Teacher Training:

We will be hosting an official training for new McKinley staff on August 1-2^nd.    This training will ground staff in our professional development over the last four years. 

PBIS Team
The PBIS team meets tomorrow to start planning for the 16-17 school year.  If you have feedback on anything related to this (referrals, matrix, etc.), please let one of us know. 

 

We have another Summer Learning this Wednesday- come join us! 

 

Take some time to enjoy yourself and your loved ones - see you soon! 

-Justin

Principal's Last Update for 15-16!

Happy Last Two Days of School!   This is my final blog update for the school year.

Staff Checkout
ALL STAFF- don't forget to turn your checkout list into the office before you leave for the summer! 

Staff Parking Lot
The staff parking lot closes this Monday, June 13th.  The lot will be torn up and replaced over the month of June.  If you come in (which you shouldn't!), park in the road.

Communication Over the Summer
Don't forget to check your school email (once in a while) over the summer.  I will be sending out updates over the summer - you will want to stay on top of this.

Classroom Teachers- Hours for Summer
Classroom Teachers- you have 3 hours of reading and math curriculum updates and 3 hours of data analysis in August.  I will send an email out when this gets closer- please let Libby and I know the dates you are planning to meet. 

Summer Learning Incentive
A link was sent this morning to volunteer at the Summer Learning on Wednesdays.  Please consider signing up (with a friend or two) to help students check out books and have a story read to them.

5th Grade Graduation Pictures
Below are some pictures from our first annual 5th Grade Graduation.  It was a great time to honor our new graduates! 

Enjoy your last day tomorrow- and have a great summer! 
-Justin

Principal's Update- Friday, June 3, 2016

Happy Last Friday of the 2016 school year!  Only 3 days left....

5th Grade Graduation- Today
Today (1:45-2:15) is our 5th Grade Graduation.  It's going to be a special ceremony with diplomas, commencement speakers, and a slideshow.  Our goal is to "stream" the video for grades K-3 to watch in the classroom.  This will be our first attempt at something like this - I hope it works.  A huge thank you to Clayton and Mark for making this happen.  Watch for a link later today to access the ceremony. 

Last Day of School Activities
Please sign up to lead an activity on the last day.  Also, if you need materials, please let Lorri or I know.  Below is our schedule for the day:
               8:15-9:15 Assembly in Big Gym
               9:00-11:00 Morning Activities (sign up for this!)
               11:00-1:00 Picnic lunches (same lunch schedule)
               1:00-2:10 Bongerball
               2:10-2:30 Wrap up in classrooms/5th grade says goodbye to McKinley
               2:30 Meet at 14th & St Paul Road to wave goodbye

Update on EL Programming for 16-17
Next year, we will be looking at students of EL status and grouping them based on their language proficiency level.  We took other things into consideration- behavior, effort, etc.  The model of “all students getting the same” isn't the most effective– we need to try something different.    

 Also, due to having 3.0 FTE in EL, each teacher will have two grade levels to serve. This should hopefully provide the appropriate time for service in each grade level.   EL will no longer be in included in the Power ½ Hour.

 I want to clarify the structure we will be using:  co-teaching and pull-out.  Rather than giving every student the same, we will be using their ACCESS score and student need(s) to determine individual EL programming needs.  Students who are on their way to being language-proficient need more time in a classroom with support on grade level vocabulary/comprehension (push-in), where a student who is just learning English needs intense support in a smaller setting (pull out).  With having more EL support, it is our hope we will have a mixture of language support available during the day- students will not just do pull-out or push-in.    This is supported in research and not “new” to schools. 

 As you know, our EL staff may need to change their schedules from September-November due to our students of Migrant status.

 There will be more discussion about this as the school year begins.  I just wanted to clarify our goal(s) with EL programming next year. 

Master Schedule
With the help of Amy LaDue, I have created the tentative master schedule for next year. This is very tentative.  I will be sending this out in the next couple of days - it's more of an FYI at this point. With the addition of another section at McKinley and the limited space we have, it made the master schedule tricky. 

Checkout for Last Day
Don't forget to complete your "checkout" before you leave next week.  Lorri outlined all the tasks that need to be completed before you are free for the summer! 

Summer Learning Calendars
Summer Learning Calendars go out on Monday, June 6th (along with the other things that Lorri emailed you about).  Don't forget to "sell this" to your students - we want them all to participate.  Remember, this is for any learning experience  (reading a recipe, helping create a grocery list, reading an instruction manual, etc.).  When summer ends, students will turn their calendar in and participate in a PTO breakfast.  We have some great prizes, also!

The library/garden will be open on Wednesdays (highlighted on the student calendar) for student checkout.  Students can bring their calendars to school on Wednesdays for additional prizes. 

Building Weekly Newsletter
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Have a great weekend, everyone!