September 29 Update

Happy Homecoming, McKinley!

Today is a great day to celebrate Owatonna!  We have a lot going on - Teddy Bear Parade, family picnic, and early dismissal.   It will be an all-hands on deck kind of day! 

Week in Review:

These smiles sum up another great week of learning and relationships.  Don't forget to be utilizing social media and SeeSaw to tell our story!

Indigenous People's Day - October 9: 

Monday, October 9 is Indigenous People's Day.  This past year, a new law has gone into effect that our learners need one hour of instruction/learning on this day.  

Our Teaching and Learning Team has helped create a slideshow, as well as some activities for you to do on this day.  THANK YOU to this team!  You can access the resources in the shared folder of Google.  Go to "Curriculum (K-5) and then "Indigenous (Native) People's Day".  In that folder, you will find a slideshow to do with students, as well as some resources to follow up.  Please work with your team to look through the resources and create a plan for October 9 (1 hr of learning).  

Please let Katie or I know if you have questions.  

Counselor Monthly Lessons:

Amanda will be starting her classroom lessons next week (see schedule below).  The goal of these lessons is to provide SEL support to our learners (as a class) aligned to our monthly theme (October is self-control).   Click here to access Amanda's October Classroom Schedule

Staffing Update:

Rick Kelley, our evening custodian, has moved to Lincoln.  Marcus Blume is back at McKinley.  Welcome back, Marcus!

Ruby Vargas is our new Multilingual EA, who will be working part-time to support our scholars with language needs.  Ruby started Wednesday.  Welcome to McKinley, Ruby!

Today is Stacy Champeau's last day.  Please join me in thanking Stacy for all her energy, love, and commitment she has given to our students over the years.  We wish Stacy the best of luck!  We are still working to fill her position.  

Outdoor Learning:

Thank you to Katie, Michelle, and Tom for organizing an Outdoor Learning Refresher!  And, thank you to everyone who attended!  As you know, our building made an effort a few years ago to increase outdoor learning.  Katie, Michelle, and Tom have created a document with some tips, reminders, and strategies for outdoor learning.  Please take some time to review this.  If you need any help with planning an outdoor learning activity, please reach out to Katie, Michelle, or Tom.  

Pizza and a Book Night - October 26:

We are trying a new form of family night on October 26 - Pizza and a Book.  Basically, families will complete an RSVP to attend.  On October 26, they will come through the drop off lane and receive a bag - full of ingredients to make a pizza at home and a book with some activities.  We will not "gather together' that night, but instead create an opportunity for a family night at home.  

The RSVP opens on Monday and will be shared via SeeSaw and social media.   Just sharing with you! 

MN Pheasant's Opener - Friday, October 13:

Just a reminder -  the MN DNR will be here to lead our 5th graders through a day to kick off the opener (hosted here in Owatonna October 14-15).  Please get this date on your calendar as the building will be a busy place.  We will be doing activities outside (weather permitting) - please only have students on the playground on this day (the rest of the school grounds will be used).   Also, all visitors will check in the office.  Most visitors will not be in the building - however, the presenters will eat lunch inside.  As always, if you see someone without a printed visitor badge, please walk them to the office.  

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great Homecoming Day and weekend! 

September 22 Update

Happy Friday to the best team!

Thank you for working hard to make this start to the year great.  The start to the year has felt great - largely due to all the energy, time, and love you are giving to your job.  Thanks for making McKinley great! 

Homecoming Lunch - 

Next Friday, we are hosting a Homecoming Picnic Lunch.  See the attached link for more details.  We will need as many hands on deck for this lunch to be successful.   Please remember - 

• School dismisses at 12:40pm on this day.  If families take students early, they need to check them out in the office.  
• From 12:40-2:40pm, you are either supervising at the parade or working here at school.  

MN Pheasant Opener:

The Governor's Pheasant Opener is here in Owatonna on October 13-14.  Our school has been picked to host an event with our 5th graders on Friday, October 13 here at McKinley.  We are excited to host this and what a great opportunity for our 5th graders!  More to come! 

A Snapshot of Learning:

Don't forget, fill social media with the positives!  Below are some snapshots of what was shared this week - lots of learning and relationships in action! 

SEL Supports - Guest Blogger Annette Warner:

Trauma has a significant impact on a child’s developing brain; areas that govern the retention of memory, areas that govern emotional regulation and the development of language skills are a few areas impacted.  This results in a brain that has structurally adapted for survival under the most stressful circumstance but not success in school. Not only do children who have a trauma history benefit from these strategies; ALL students do.  

The work of trauma informed educators isn’t about using a special trauma curriculum, it’s about giving students the support they need to access the regular curriculum.  With a mixture of empathy, flexibility, and brain based strategies we have worked hard to be sensitive to the needs of ALL students. 

Our building has researched and planned to create a program that can meet the needs of ALL students and specifically those who have a trauma history. Through specific trauma training, book studies and research, our building has created this program to support not only children who have a history of trauma but ALL children.  

Safe Base: Relationship is the single best indicator of overcoming trauma and the Safe Base intervention facilitates building these relationships.   If you have students who appear to need someone to connect with during their school day this is an intervention to consider.  Jessica meets with them for 5-10 minutes on a daily basis to build a safe and trusting relationship.

Movement Break - Students who have high energy, have difficulty staying in the classroom, or need some space to move around may benefit from this intervention.  Jessica has several different techniques and routines she intentionally creates on an individual basis taking into account what the student needs.  The time of the intervention should be intentional as well, choose a time of the day when the student has shown a pattern of struggle.  

Relaxation Room: This space is available for students who have a high stress level and need some time to calm their mind and body before being ready for learning.  The room is dimly lit with soft music playing and gives students an opportunity to reflect on their feelings, practice deep breathing and use a variety of different calming tools to prepare them for the learning environment.  

The timing of using this room is key for this intervention - it should be in place prior to a time the student has difficulty.  For example, if the student has shown a pattern of struggle as soon as it is math time, this intervention should be put in place prior to math as its purpose is for students to access their prefrontal cortex and be prepared for learning and working.

Small Groups: Students who need support in social skills can be referred to this intervention and will meet on a weekly basis to learn, practice and build on any lagging social skills they have.  These groups meet once per week for 6-8 weeks: 

• Mindful Art: meet once per week for 8 weeks.  The focus is to learn how to use art mindfully and intentionally to reduce stress/anxiety and prepare the brain to learn.

• Mindful Music: Students will learn self-regulation and reduce stress/anxiety through intentional activities using music as the modality.  Jason Miller-Dunbar  has agreed to help support this group with his musical background and expertise.  

• Changing Families:  This group starts mid to end of October and goes through winter break.  Students of families who have separated or divorced learn what is within their control vs what is outside their control, the situation is not their fault - they didn’t cause it, and navigating different expectations at each of their parents' houses.

• Social Skills: students learn and practice social skills (identified by the teacher)  in a small group setting. 

If you have students whom you feel would benefit from any of these interventions, please complete the: SEL Referral Form.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Halloween:

If you have looked ahead, Halloween is on a Tuesday this year. This could/could not make for a long week :)

Just a friendly reminder - we have moved away from doing Halloween activities, including having students dress up on this day. Not only is the dress up a distraction, but it becomes an equity issue with some not celebrating, having the funds to get a costume, etc. We are not doing any dress up.

Also, we have moved away from celebrating Halloween. This includes any jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, death, etc. Many teams have still found fun ways to turn this into a fall event - STEM activities around designing and building with a pumpkin, for example.

If your team is planning anything and want to run it by me, I'd be happy to offer any help.

Special Education Paraprofessional Position:

As you know, Stacy (Champeau) Connor will be leaving us next Friday, September 29 for a career at Federated. Stacy has been a valuable member of our team for many years. As much as I am excited for her, she will also be greatly missed in our building. Join me in wishing Stacy the best!

With Stacy's resignation, we have an opening for a paraprofessional. Please help me in getting the word out ASAP on this critical position.

Staff Power Hour Follow Up:

Thank you for a great Staff Power Hour on Monday. Linked is the slideshow. This is a friendly reminder to check in on your CTA - what are you working on/thinking about and have you checked in on your partner?

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have the best weekend ever!

-Justin

September 15 Update

Happy Friday!

Another great week at McKinley! Don't forget to wear your new "Belonging Shirt" on Mondays, starting next week!  

Birthdays and Cell Numbers:

Please check both to make sure we have your staff cell phone list & staff birthday.  Please let Steph know if you are not on both lists.

Homecoming Lunch:

On Friday, September 29, we will be inviting families in for lunch.  We will be sharing the RSVP form (below) today.  A few reminders -

• Families need to bring a license and check in office. 
• If you can eat lunch with your class, please do it.  Families love to see you and we need the supervision.  If you are planning to not eat with your class, please let me know.  
• If families take their child/children, they need to check them out in the office.
• Families may have children in different grade levels, resulting in two lunches.  We would like them to stay this way if possible.  If you run into a family who can only attend one lunch, please work with the other teacher to determine a plan (a family is insistent they can only come for 30 mins and have a Kdg and 5th grade - those teachers work together). 

RSVP form (take a minute to read please)

I will also post a message in SeeSaw after it's sent out.  

Mood Meter - Guest Blogger Danielle Nystrom:

As you walk from the main office to the library you may have noticed this giant rainbow colored square! This is the Mood Meter!! The Mood Meter is another lens that we can view emotions through. It breaks them down into four quadrants. It is also set up on a continuum of how pleasant an emotion is and how much energy the emotion requires. This allows students (and adults) to really hone in on the experience they are having. The feelings on the left are less pleasant than those on the right. The feelings at the top require more energy than those at the bottom. 

The Mood Meter is a great tool for assisting studenting (and adults) in identifying how they are feeling based on the experience they are having. Labeling emotions can be a challenge, especially if there are a mixture of things happening. The Mood meter provides a way to explore these emotions in a different way. It also provides more language around the emotions we experience. Move aside “happy”, “mad”, and “sad”! We can talk about how pleasant the emotion is (is it a good feeling or an uncomfortable feeling?) and/or how much energy they feel like they have (do you feel like your body has a lot of energy? Or just a little bit of energy?). The child may not know the word… but they can share their experience and how it feels within themselves. We can use their experience to help them recognize they are experiencing an emotion, understand how it’s affecting them, label it with a word, have a way to express it when it happens again and learn to regulate it when needed.

While the Mood Meter is a great tool for exploring emotions in the moment, it is also a great tool for identifying the experiences that characters in our books are experiencing. As students learn more about labeling emotions and the impacts they have, they begin to recognize them in book characters, as well as friends, and family members. Not only is it an easy way to build awareness around the emotions we have, but it also helps to normalize thinking around how we feel and the impacts that those feelings can have!

For each teaching area, we are laminating a Mood Meter for you to display and use. They will be in your mailbox soon - please put up.

Infinitec Training:

Just a friendly reminder about completing the required training modules by 10/31/23!

Welcome to the start of the 23-24 school year! I'm providing you with the annual Infinitec notice to complete the required employee training modules. This year, you will need to complete 5 training modules. If you need some assistance to start, please click on this link Infinitec Instruction 2023 and follow the instructions. You will need to use your isd761.org Google account to access the modules. The training modules you need to complete are the following:   

a.       Harassment Prevention

b.       Bullying

c.       Mandated Reporting

d.       FERPA- Understanding Student Confidentiality

e.       Seizure SMART Training for MN

 

Once you have viewed each video, you must take the quiz and receive a score of 80% or higher, otherwise you will need to re-watch the video until you achieve 80%.  DO NOT print out the certificate.  We will pull reports from the system and provide the results to the appropriate administrators and committees.  The training needs to be completed by October 31, 2023.

If you have any issues, please contact your building Technology Integration Specialist, thank you!

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a GREAT weekend!

-Justin

September 8 Update

The first week is done!  

Thank you for all the time and energy put into making our "welcome back" a special one for students.  It was great to see students and families into the building - all smiling and feeling welcomed.  Thank you for that! 

As we talked about at our welcome back meeting, please make you are taking some to read the blog to keep up to date with building things!  

Welcoming Students - with a Smile!

One of my favorite times at McKinley is arrival in the morning.  Each day creates a clean slate and new opportunity - and all are our scholars are met by staff with a smile, hug, and a good morning!  It's a special thing.  

Just a reminder - all in the hall by 8:00am.  This is our time to greet and welcome students to the new day!  The picture below speaks a thousand words about how important this is.

Also, a great article on the importance of welcoming students - https://www.edutopia.org/article/welcoming-students-smile/

Student Support & Communication:

Just a couple reminders about support systems in the building:

If you need assistance in your classroom or space, please call the Main Office (8200 or just push 0).  Steph or Selena will radio and someone will be down to support the student, as well as you.  

If you have a student who is showing needs, please get the CCT team involved or complete an SEL referral.  Just a reminder - Child Collaboration Team (CCT) is here to support you with brainstorming ideas, supports, or instructional approaches.  This team meets weekly and is a support to you.  Please complete the referral form if you have a student to schedule.  

If you have a student who could use some SEL support (Student Support Specialist, School Social Worker, or Counselor), please connect with them and fill out the form.  This team is a great resource and are here to support!  

A couple Updates from Steph: 

A couple updates - 

For mail - 

-No longer need a code on outgoing mail

-If you are sending more than 10 envelopes, you need to seal them yourself

Fax Number Updates:

Steph/Main Office: 507-686-6104

Jolene: 507-686-6105

Birthday Books - don't forget, remind any student with a birthday to stop into the office for a birthday book!

Walkie Talkies - Please remember to return walkies right after you use them.  Also, please make sure that they are being charged.  They are used so often and we know that you have students pick them up - please make sure they are returned and charged so others can use them.  

Hispanic Heritage Month Starts Next Friday

Hispanic Heritage Month starts next Friday, September 15.  Take a minute and 30 seconds to watch to understand the month, it's history, and how the month is celebrated.

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a GREAT weekend!

-Justin