Friday, September 15, 2023

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

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