April 24 Update

Happy Friday!

Another great week at McKinley!  One thing I noticed this week is all the smiles, positivity, and fun energy coming from staff.  Thank you for remembering to focus on relationships, positivity, and finding the fun at work!  

Staffing Update:

SSW - I am excited to share that Megan Schulz (she is getting married and will be Megan Douglas next year) has accepted the School Social Worker position.  Megan is coming from private therapy, but has experience as a School Social Worker and Youth Mental Health Navigator for Mankato Area Public Schools.  Our interview team was impressed with her energy, passion, connectedness, and organization.   We are SO sad to see Annette leave, but excited to have Megan join our team!  

EL - I am excited to share that Kate Seifert has accepted the EL Teacher position at McKinley.  As you know, Kate is a 3rd grade teacher who has an extensive background in co-teaching, language supports, and collaboration.   Additionally, Kate is bilingual in Spanish.  Please join me in welcoming Kate to this new role!  

Summer Maintenance Form:

Today is the last day to complete any summer work you are requesting - please complete the linked form. 

Absences & Leaving Early:

May is a busy month - both professionally and personally.  And, each year, we see absences increase in May.  A few reminders - 

• Please get your absences in as soon as possible.  We need to secure subs and can't just assume we will find internal coverage.  May gets hard.  
• If you are needing to leave early, please have a conversation with me.  In the past few weeks, there has been an increase in people stopping in the office to say they need to leave early,   Please plan ahead and go through me (Justin), not Steph.  

IM Feedback:

Below is the third part in our series where I surveyed our pilot teams on Illustrative Math (IM).  

Question - What do you wish you had known the year before implementing?

Responses - Several common themes have emerged that may be helpful for planning ahead. Many teachers found that time was required up front to explore the print curriculum and become comfortable with online resources. The planning and preparation can feel overwhelming at first, especially with gathering and organizing manipulatives, but it becomes more manageable as routines are established.

A key takeaway is the importance of trusting the process. While the pacing may feel slow initially, giving students time to build problem-solving, discussion, and collaboration skills leads to stronger independence and confidence over time. Along with this, intentionally teaching and revisiting “soft skills” like partner work, sharing ideas, and engaging in math conversations is essential for student success.

Teachers also noted the value of letting learning unfold—resisting the urge to over-explain and instead allowing students to discover strategies and concepts. With time and experience, the flow of lessons becomes more natural, and both teachers and students grow more comfortable with the structure and expectations.

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend!

-Justin

April 17 Update

Happy Friday!

Another great week of learning and relationships at McKinley!  

Toot Your Horn Thursday:

We had three receipents this week - Denise Carlson, Andie Zwart, and Amber Sommers!

Amber Sommers was nominated by Liz Stitzmeyer - Amber consistently faces each day with energy and joy. She is a leader that leads by example and is always sharing strategies and encouragement to those of us on her team. She is ready to volunteer her time to help her teammates. Amber knows her stuff-she's so knowledgeable in strategies for teaching and reinforcing social skills. Her students adore her and so do I! Keep up the good work!

Andie Zwart was nominated by those who do time and effort -  A Time and Talent calendar, that is turned in every quarter, has been added to our work load. This has caused stress and frustration to many of us. Andi helped lots of us, last quarter, to get this together and sent to Shari Mensink on time. Andi was so patient with us. Well, she took it a step farther and sent us step by step instructions that we were able to follow and submit this ourselves. Yeah!!! Thanks for being amazing Andie!

Denise Carlson was nominated by Val Seath - Denise Carlson has always gone above and beyond in her role as an EA and as a SAC supervisor. Here are just a few examples from the last month alone-

Recently, Jaxen (my 4th grade son, who is also in SAC) brought home a small hand-knit dragon. It came with a folded origami box and handwritten note about how to take care of it. I asked him about it and he said that "Mrs. Carlson gave it to me. She gave them to everyone in morning SAC!" I was so touched that someone would spend the time to hand make the fun toy dragons, fold the boxes and write the notes- for each student! What an incredible heart Denise has! I also have a student that is diabetic. She came back from the library the other day with two brand new books that she checked out. She was thrilled that they were both picture books about children who also have diabetes. She was so proud and showing them to everyone with the best smile on her face! Denise orders books that make students feel like they belong and shine a light on different experiences to help grow empathy. My student's books about diabetes and Jaxen's dragon were brought home. Families see those things and they are clear examples to our families that Mrs. Carlson cares about our students at McKinley and cares about their lives beyond these walls. Thank you for being YOU, Mrs. Carlson.

Friday Grill Out:

We're getting closer and closer to May.... which means Friday grill out!  If your team is interested in having Justin grill your lunch, please sign up with your team.  On the day of, bring in your meat and mark with your name in the lounge fridge. I will happily get your food grilled and delivered to you!  Sign up if interested!  It's a great time to enjoy the outdoors and some good food! 

5th Grade Graduation:

FYI - we surveyed students this year about an interest in a formal graduation.  Our students chose against a graduation and instead wanted an afternoon at the park to celebrate their end of 5th grade.  I notified families yesterday, but wanted you to be aware too.  

Fastbridge Schedule:

With the end of the school year in sight, that means FastBridge testing is around the corner.  Our FastBridge Spring Benchmark Assessment window runs May 4th-22nd. Please open and view the relevant parts of this document that has all schedules, resources, and plans for spring benchmark assessments.  

FastBridge Benchmark Assessment Plan - Spring 2026

• ALL staff should look at page 1 (Schedule at a Glance) and note important testing days and times that may impact your schedule.
• Classroom Teachers: Read page 1 & 2 and click on the linked assessment plan for the grade you teach. Add dates and times to your calendars & lesson plans. 
• T2/T3 Intervention Teachers: Read page 1 & 2 and see schedule and plan on linked Intervention Plan Page. Prior to assessment, review testing protocols and gather materials for any assessments you will be giving (linked on your page).
• SpEd/EL: Read pages 1 & 2 and linked SpEd/EL Plan page and familiarize yourself with schedules and plans for any grade-levels you support. Prior to assessment, review testing protocols and gather materials for any assessments you will be giving (linked on your page).

Our benchmark assessment window is an important time to collect information and academic growth on all students. There's a lot of pieces to this puzzle and it's very important you are familiar with your role in helping collect all of this information as efficiently and accurately as possible. If you have questions, please talk with Katie Demmer. 

Illustrative Math (IM) Feedback:

This is the second part in an ongoing series where we hear more about our new math resource for next year.  As you know, our Kindergarten and 5th Grade teams are piloting this year.  Below are some thoughts from those teams around this week's question.  

Question - How does your math block look different this year when thinking of instruction and student learning?

Response from Pilot Teams - Pilot teachers are describing a meaningful shift in how math time is structured and experienced. Many have worked to create dedicated math blocks that allow for flexible small groups and partnerships, co-teaching, and different levels of language support to better meet student needs.

Instruction has become much more student-driven and hands-on, with less “sit and get” and more opportunities for students to explore, use manipulatives, and learn through stations. Teachers are talking less and instead facilitating learning—encouraging students to develop their own strategies, explain their thinking, and collaborate with peers.

There is also a stronger focus on student discourse and reasoning, even though it can require more wait time and patience to support all learners. Overall, classrooms are moving toward more engagement, deeper thinking, and reduced reliance on paper-pencil tasks, with teachers gaining better insight into student understanding through observation and discussion

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend!

-Justin

April 10 Update

Happy Friday!

Today's update is a long one - sorry.  Please read carefully!  

No Toot Your Horn Thursday receipents this week - if you want to nominate someone, please complete the nominaton form. 

Staffing Update:

Another staffing update..  Steph Hager has accepted our Kindergarten position for next year.  Steph is not new to Owatonna or McKinley - she is an Owatonna graduate and is student teaching with Paige Larson.  Please join me in welcoming (as a full-time staff) Steph to her team!

Statewide Tornado Drill - Thursday:

This Thursday, April 16 is the MN Statewide Tornado Drill.  We will be doing our McKinley drill at 10:30am on this day (please note - we will not be doing the statewide drill time at 1:45pm although the sirens will still sound).  Please check the Virtual Office to see where your area/class goes for a tornado drill.  

Class List Process:

We are entering the time of creating class lists for next year.   This is a quite intense process in which teams look to the best placement/environment for our students to grow and thrive.  Click here to see details regarding the class list process.  

Please remember - all families need to complete the Classroom Environment form to request a placement.  If a family reaches out to you, please refer them to this step.   There are no "side deals" where parents are asking teachers to have students placed into seperate rooms.  We put a lot of time, energy, and thought into these placements and need the process followed.  

Breakfast - Pilot Program in May:

Starting May 4, we are piloting breakfast in the lunchroom before school.  This pilot will do two things - move breakfast to before school to create additional learning time AND provide our students warm breakfast choices each day.  This will be something we are piloting in May to see if we continue into the 26-27 school year.  

What is the plan to provide breakfast?   When students arrive, they will have the choice to go into the lunchroom to eat or stay outside.  Breakfast will be served and kids will eat in the lunchroom from 7:45-8:10am each day.  After 8:10, breakfast will become a grab and go (students will get the food and return to their classroom).   We will be mindful of late arrivals and buses and still provide students with breakfast. Additionally, we will be shifting some supervision from outside into the lunchroom with our AM arrival teams (I will share directly with those impacated).

Summer Maintenance List:

Linked is the request for summer maintenance work. This form is for items in your classroom/work area that need attention - fixing things, replacing broken, repainting chips or damage, etc. Please complete this by April 22. After that, we will notify you if your project is being addressed.

Illustrative Math (IM):

Next year, our district will be switching our math resource to Illustrative Math (often called "IM") in grades K-5 (Kindergarten and 5th Grade are currently piloting this).   This change will be a great thing - we have been long overdue for a new math resource.  As we get closer to next year, we are providing teacher teams some opportunties to learn more about IM.  Our Kindergarten and 5th Grade teams graciously completed an interview on their experience with math this year.  I have taken all of their responses and put into Chatgpt to help us understand the new resource a little more (from our internal experts).   For this week's blog, our teams will share their thinking around this week's question - "What are celebrations when you think of math and IM implementation?"

A big celebration is how students are thinking about math. They’re not just giving answers—they’re explaining their reasoning, trying different strategies, and learning from mistakes. Classrooms are becoming more student-centered, with rich conversations and collaboration happening regularly. Best of all, students are starting to see themselves as mathematicians and are building a more positive mindset about math overall. 

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend!

-Justin