February 27 Update

Happy Friday!  Can you believe next week is March? 

Toot Your Horn Thursday:

This week, we have 3 recepients!

Hunter Evenson was nominated by 3rd Grade for Hunter asked to teach music in 3rd grade this week because his room was being used for testing. It was so fun to hear him teach - he played a Jeopardy Game. The kids were engaged, learning and very resepctful as he reminded them that teachers were working during this time! Being a traveling teacher can be challenging - now he's traveling from room to room! Thanks for all of your effort Hunter!!

Sylvia Zavala and Nura Elmi were nominated by our EL Team for Sylvia and Nura have gone above and beyond this year in supporting our students, families and staff. Their work is absolutely critical for our day to day opperations. Their work doesn't stop at school and extends into the community all day long. They are heros for our students and families.

Congrats to these three amazing educators!

Impact:

Every year, I get to mid-February and think "I can't do this."  It's like clockwork.  I'm not sure if it's the "long haul" of the year, the cold weather, limited sunlight, etc.  Bottom line - February is hard.

As we move into March, I want to remind you of your impact.  And, in education, impact isn't always observable right away.  We may not see the true impact we have until years later - or we may never really see the impact.  And, just because we don't see the immediate results, the impact is there. 

In thinking about impact, take a minute to think about the best teacher you've had.  Now, think about the worst.  Even though your experience was different, they both made impact.  

You WILL make an impact every day.  You don't get a choice in that.  You DO get to choose what kind of impact you will have.  

Keep this in mind as we enter March - you ARE making a difference.  You are appreciated.  And, you ARE making impact.  

Checks for Understanding:

First, it's been so great to see high quality learning experiences happening throughout the building.  Kudos to each of you! 

There's good teaching and then there's good learning.  Both are very different.  We can teach a great lesson - if kids are not learning it, there's an issue.  Linked are 28 ways to check for understanding.  I share this because these are easy, no prep ways to check the "pulse" on learning.  

Subscriptions: 

As part of the budget reduction process, we walked through online subscriptions in the district and identified resources that won't be renewed. These are applications that may have universal use across the district that will no longer be renewed for next year:

ESGI (Elementary only)

Screencastify

GradeCam (OHS only)

PebbbleGo

WeVideo

As a reminder, any purchase of an online subscription needs to run through you as the building administrator. If you approve, it needs to go to Mike Halverson. We want to ensure anything that comes to Mike has been approved by the building administration first. 

Happy Social Workers' Week!

Next week is School Social Workers' Week - a week to honor Mrs. Warner! We are lucky to have such a wealth of knowledge in Annette.  This is a week to honor and celebrate all the gifts she brings to McKinley.  Please take some time to acknowledge her for her work.

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend!

-Justin