December 20 Update

Happy Winter Break!

Thank you for all the time, energy, and love you have given since August!  It's been a great year, but we really need some time away.  Enjoy your long break and take some time for YOU!  This is a perfect opportunity to truly check out from school and recharge yourself.  All this work can wait - we will resume in 2025!   

Winter Break - Clean Up Before You Go:

Before you head out today, please take care of the following:

• Students - clean out locker areas, desks, and common spaces.  This is a great time to send a lot home!  
• Clean up classrooms and common spaces.  Things should be put away.  All electronics should be shut off and unplugged, if possible.  This is a great time to get rid of, put stuff away, or throw.  
• Check fridge in Staff Lounge
• Check staff mailbox

Connection Day - January 2

Our first Connection Day of 2025 is January 2.  Click here to access the tic-tac-toe board.  A huge thanks to 4th grade for planning! 

Toot Your Horn Thursday:

Liz Stitzmeyer was nominated by Mallory Baumann for "Liz steps into the classroom each day with a positive mindset ready to take on each lesson. The students love her and she's a phenomenal person to co-teach with! She makes phonics more engaging and is willing to try anything with my group of kids. Thanks for all you do, Liz!"

Eric Oppegard was nominated (2nd week in a row!) by Amy Stalochi for Eric spent his "bonus" time while his student teacher was teaching putting together Phonics materials for our whole grade level. He has spent a majority of this time getting this all organized, put together in slides, and added extra resources! Thanks for being such a team player, Eric! You are the BEST :)

Don't forget, to fill out a referral, please complete the linked form.  Please spread some positivity! 

Save the Date - International Day of Fun at Work!

Friday, January 31 is our 9th annual celebration of this day!  Find a team and get your costumes!  This day is a full day of fun, laughs, and enjoyment!  

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great, relaxing break!  Take some time for you, as well as those you love!

Thank you for being such amazing educators, as well as people.  You are all a gift to me!   

See you January 2, 2025!

-Justin

December 13 Update

Happy Friday!

Toot Your Horn Thursday:

We had two "Toot Your Horn Thursdays" yesterday.  A huge congrats to Eric Oppegard and Xandra Sorenson!

Eric was nominated by Jen Bricko for "being brave to remove the “dead animal” from the boys’ bathroom! It turned out to be some type of dehydrated amphibian! Never a dull moment. :)"

Xandra Sorenson was nominated by Karen Thurnau for "I am thanking her for taking the time to attend conferences for some of my students. Sometimes when you have challenging behaviors from students as the classroom teacher you feel like you are the only one communicating with family at home. When other teachers support you with these behaviors it's helpful to have others communicating with family too! We are all in this together to support ALL of our students!"

Winter Break - Clean Up Before You Go:

Next Friday, December 20, we head off for Winter Break.  We resume back January 2 (Connection Day - more to come).  Before you head out, please take care of the following:

• Students - clean out locker areas, desks, and common spaces.  This is a great time to send a lot home!  
• Clean up classrooms and common spaces.  Things should be put away.  All electronics should be shut off and unplugged, if possible.  This is a great time to get rid of, put stuff away, or throw.  
• Check fridge in Staff Lounge
• Check staff mailbox

Next Week - Behaviors:

Just a reminder - this time of year is exciting for some, but very hard for others.  The time before breaks (and breaks from school) create change - change in schedules, expectations, safety structures, etc.  Please be aware of this as we work with kids next week - it's a tough time.  Many of our learners thrive off structure and consistency.  This will be challenged next week.    Many kids may need more grace and teachable moments in the next 6 days.  Additionally, our staff are humans, too.  We may need grace and check-in's on each other, too.  

"A Family Night at Home - January 9"

We are hosting a "A Family Night at Home" for families on January 9.  Similar to last year, families will sign up to get a bag that contains everything for a family night - activities, videos, and ingredients for a pizza meal.  The RSVP will be shared with families this morning.  This is just an FYI for you.

Foundation Grant:

Applications for the ISD 761 Foundation Grant were released in the Staff Connections.  Below is the process.  This is a great grant opportunity that has benefitted McKinley in the past (MakerSpace cart, Outdoor Learning Cart, Guided Math library, etc).  If you have a need in your grade level, consider filling this out.  If you have an idea for the building, please let me know ASAP.  Thanks!

Deadline: January 15, 2025

Every spring, the 761 Foundation awards approximately $100,000 in mini-grants to Owatonna Public Schools teachers and principals.

Grants are awarded based on the following criteria:

1. Benefits a large number of students.
2. Meets an important need, which is not likely to be funded in other ways.
3. Maximizes good cost-to-benefit ratio.
4. Shows creativity and innovation.
5. Needed funds to continue a past approved project.

761 Foundation Grant application
(it will automatically ask if you want to make a copy which will be in your Google Drive)

Requirements:

• Please itemize and prioritize requests that include multiple items/expenses.

• Applicants must discuss the feasibility and implementation of the proposal with the appropriate building administrator. Comments and a signature from the building administrator must be included in the application.

• Projects that include the purchase of technology also require a technology request form, which can be found at the end of the grant application.

• No incomplete or late applications will be accepted.

• Grants are for the 2025-2026 school year. Awards will be announced in March. Recipients may not make purchases using grant funds until July 1, 2025.
• Note: If this is a technology request, please also remember to complete the technology request form.

Questions? Contact Sarah Hoffman by phone (ext. 8610) or email (shoffman@isd761.org)

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

Have a great weekend! 

-Justin

December 6 Update

Happy Friday!

Another great week at McKinley....

And, another great winter concert!  A huge shout out to Paige Huse, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade! 

Toot Your Horn Thursday:

We have three recipients this week.  Don't forget, to nominate someone, fill out the form linked here! 

Amy Staloch was nominated by Amanda Andrews for "I appreciate how involved and valuable Amy is during my monthly lessons. She adds experiences and real world comparisons to the topics. I leave her classroom knowing that she will continue teaching around the topic and its meaning. This month her class was so engaged and they had some "light bulb" moments around teamwork and their own personal strengths and limitations -- it was a great experience! Amy has built a classroom of trust and achievable, high expectations. Her students look to her for guidance and she allows them to be independent thinkers. McKinley is so fortunate to have Amy teaching here!

Zach Waletich and Kyle Melcher were nominated by Brenda Hager for "I would like to nominate Mr. Melcher and Mr. W they both have an amazing way of dealing with all the different personalities of all the students whether it’s celebrating victories like making it to the top of the rope, running the mile, finding them the right pair of shoes to wear, or making them sit for a while, learning to control their bodies and big emotions. they are both simply amazing!"

Congrats to Amy, Zach, and Kyle! Please take some time today to thank them for being amazing educators and people!

Matrix and Common Expectations:

I need to bring a concern to everyone that we need to address.  This year, we implemented a new matrix with the volume and expectation in each area of the school.  These expectations are not being addressed and supported in a common approach, which defeats the purpose of a matrix.  

In our common spaces and hallways, we absolutely need students at a whisper or no talking.  This includes traveling in the hallways, the library (and MakerSpace time), as well as the lockers.  We absolutely need to enforce this and not treat it as a "well, I tried".  It's impacting learning in the building.

With this issue, I'm also asking you to start having conversations with each other if we aren't following these expectations.  If another class is impacting your class's learning, please talk to that staff.   We have a great team here and should be able to have these honest conversations.   

Please take some time over the next month to revisit the matrix (by yourself and with your classroom) and have some honest conversations with how it's working.    If you need me to follow up or address your class, I'd be happy to.  

Caring School Community - teaching staff:
Just a reminder that our core curriculum for SEL is Caring School Community.  It is expected this is being taught (during morning meetings).   If you are looking for support in implementing this, please connect with Katie Demmer.  

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend!

-Justin