Steele County Free Fair Update!

Happy Steele County Free Fair, everyone!

Building Progress:
Overall, the building is coming along!  Just a couple updates:

• Classrooms: Kindergarten and 1^st Grade classrooms are carpeted, painted, and have whiteboards in them.  Smartboards will begin to be installed this week.   The existing building was having flooring laid yesterday.  There will be minor work to occur after September 5- but the rooms will be ready! 
• Furniture:  Most of the new furniture has been assemble.  When the building gets completed, the furniture will be brought from the gym into your classrooms & resource areas.
• Work in Progress:  The building will not be 100% complete on day one.  As you know, our goal is to get a certificate of occupancy.  We will have crews in the building (after hours) working in the month of September to finalize the building. 
• Furniture Storage:  I was at the old Walmart last week to meet with our moving coordinator, Nikki.  I was very impressed with how our boxes and furniture are being stored this summer.  Our stuff is being taken care of!
• Temporary Office:  Lorri and I are working at Wilson until we can move to the new building.  If you need us, check Wilson School!

A huge thank you to Bob Olson for all his hard work around construction.  He’s done a great job of keeping me in the loop on things, but also keeping the work moving forward. If you see him, give him a huge thank you for his work around our building progress (and check to see if he’s gotten any gray hair from the summer stress😊!). 

Please remember that the building is a construction site until we get the certificate of occupancy.  As much as you are excited to see it, we can’t have people in until we get the certificate of occupancy.  I will let you know immediately when I hear this date. 

New Teacher STEM Training

We had our new McKinley teachers in this week learning about STEM.  These two days are so empowering - it's great to see our McKinley Staff serve as facilitators of this learning.  A huge thank you to Dr. Meagher, Libby Zeman, Jen Koziolek, Michelle Simon, Amanda Gislason, Lori Huisenga, Kayla Davis, Kate Seifert, Justin Lang, Mark Langlois, and Karla Wilke for leading our learning.  We have such a passionate staff focused on learning and all kids.  Makes me smile!  

Enjoy your time at the SCFF, everyone!  

Justin

Summer Update- Aguust 1, 2017

Happy August, everyone!

Have you had a great summer?  Are you relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to head back?  I hope so!  

A couple updates:

• Our new school is on schedule!  When I know of an occupancy date, I will notify you immediately.  Please remember, the school will not be 100% ready on the first day.  There will be minor changes and finishes that need to occur at that time.  We will be flexible and focused on students, like always! 
• Later this week, you will receive your two welcome back letters - one from Superintendent Elstad and the other from me.  I will be doing this through email - so please check your email later in the week to know details of our first week back. 
• Site Leadership Team meets this Wednesday to start planning for the year.  After this point, I will have more to share on building goals and our direction for the year. 
• New STEM Teacher training is next Monday & Tuesday.  This training is for new McKinley staff and is part of our STEM sustainability plan.  I love these days so much - they are filled with passion.  It's awesome to see our staff serve as facilitators to the work we are doing! 
• I'm sad to report that, as of today, Katie Randall has resigned.  Katie has been a wonderful addition to our team in serving our students' health needs.  Katie is going to spend some time with her children and work more on-call.  She will be greatly missed.  I have requested that the position be posted this week.  

#mckinleystrong Neighborhood Night
We had a great night at our Neighborhood Night on Thursday, July 27.  It was fun to get around to see our students, families, and friends!  Thank you to all the staff who participated! 

Building Project Update:
I toured the new building on Friday with Superintendent Elstad and Bob Olson.  If you have driven by recently, it is still 100% a construction zone!  However, when you get inside, you can it's becoming our school.  It will be ready for us! 

Entrance to new Kindergarten Room

Jen Koziolek's new Kindergarten Room

Jen Koziolek's new Kindergarten Room

The new Learning Center (Nystrom & Denn will program out of this space)

1st Grade sinks/restroom area

New 1st Grade Room

Paige Gilligan's new 5th Grade Classroom

5th Grade Team Area - looking into Eric Oppegard's Room

New entry way into school (still awaiting doors & windows!)

I hope you are enjoying your start to August.  Continue to "sharpen your saw" and enjoy time with those you love!
-Justin

Summer Update - July 7, 2017

Happy July 4th, everyone! 
I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful MN weather!  Summer gives us that time to enjoy those around us and reflect, both professionally and personally.  I hope you are savoring in those moments.

Theme for 2017-2018:
With our upcoming big building "change" and our continued focus on relationships, our school theme for the upcoming year will be "Make Every Second Count".  You will start to hear and see more of this as we enter the school year.  This saying hit me pretty hard - to remember what matters and to make every second count, no matter the situation.  I often lose sight of things when I'm "stuck in the forest".  I'm excited for us to use this saying to stay grounded and focused on what really matters.  

Construction Progress:

Construction is completely underway at our new school.  The whole building is a construction site - the office addition, adding flooring to the new K-1 addition, and remodeling the existing building.  Below are some new pictures from yesterday: 

The new front door to McKinley

The new McKinley Office (just missing Lorri, Selena, and Katie!)

The new serving line for the kitchen.  There will be two garage doors that open to create an entrance and exit to the serving line.

Jen Koziolek's windows to her K2 classroom.  These windows are between her classroom and the resource room. 

Jen Koziolek's K2 Classroom (it's a dark picture - the walls are painted!)

The Kindergarten Resource Room

The main hallway looking south (toward the new front door)

 

The school name will officially change on August 1, 2017.  On this date, Willow Creek will be renamed McKinley Elementary with our school sign being installed around that time. 

 

Our school playground was ordered yesterday.  Below is an artist rendering of the playground, which will sit between the gym and Hemlock Avenue.  As you remember, our students voted on what equipment they liked the best.  Most of that equipment was ordered in this design.  Also, you will notice that the playground is in our school colors - purple and gold!  The playground will be installed on September 8-9.  If you are free to help volunteer, we would GLADLY appreciate the help! 

 



Our PBIS team will be meeting to discuss the expectations of our new site - from arrival, hallway expectations, to dismissal.  This will be a big change for us all.  I'm excited to see how we utilize the new space!  

Twitter:
Don't forget to keep up with Twitter over the summer!  Just a reminder of our school professional learning hashtag-  #mckinleyPD.  If you find something that is of interest to our staff, please tweet it with that hashtag.  There's a lot of learning and networking on Twitter! 

Direct Instruction Time Guidelines:
Speaking of Twitter, I found a great reminder of the appropriate amount of time for direct instruction (in any content area).  Ironically, this comes from Eric Jensen's other book, Teaching with the Brain in Mind.  As you can see, students learn best in shorter segments - with a max of 12 minutes.  This doesn't mean we need to only schedule in 12 minute intervals; however, it does make you think about how to segment your instruction into appropriate intervals.  After a lot of direct instruction, you may consider adding reflection, collaboration, or movement before moving on to more direct instruction.

Just a reminder- our McKinley temporary Office is located at Wilson. 

Have a great July, everyone!  I hope to see you around! 
-Justin

June 2017 Summer Update

Happy June, everyone!  I hope you are having a relaxing and enjoyable start to summer.  Most of my summer updates will involve the construction at our new site. 

STEM Integration Workdays:
Classroom Teachers, don't forget to turn your claims into Amy LaDue by June 30th for your June STEM Integration Workdays.

SAVE THE DATE:
Save the date - Friday, July 21 & Saturday, July 22 for our McKinley Patrol Fundraiser at the Cash Wise Food Stand.  Proceeds go to our school patrol team.  A huge thank you to Sonya for organizing this!

Master Building Schedule:
The master schedule is complete!  I will be emailing this out to classroom teachers, along with your individual reading and math blocks.  I will send this out in the next day or two.    *This master schedule is still subject to slight changes. 

Click here to access the 17-18 master schedule 

Construction Update:
I toured our new school today with Bob.  The work is coming along- I was shocked at how much progress has been made.  Below are some pictures of the progress...

Current entryway looking into library - walls were removed to widen hallway.  To the left of this picture is Karen Thurnau's new 3rd Grade Classroom. 

Current entryway looking to the north (gym/new addition).  This hallway is being widened to create a commons area. 

The new McKinley Office.  Where I am standing is the entryway - straight ahead is Lorri and Selena's desk, with my office behind. 

Hallway into the new addition.   This hallway is where specialists and the Flex Learning Lab is located. 

The current library.  Straight ahead is where a 4th (Johnson) and 5th Grade (Gilligan) Classroom is starting to be erected. 

4th Grade's Conference Room. 

A new 2nd Grade Classroom (Stephani) which is open to the 2nd Grade Resource Room, but also accessible to 1st Grade (straight ahead).

 

The new bathroom (new addition, outside the 1st Grade Area).

1st Grade's Resource Room

New 1st Grade Classroom (Schlauderaff)

New 1st Grade Classroom (Nelson on left, Zupansic on right)

 

Hallway to new Kindergarten wing.

New Kindergarten Room (Larson)

New Kindergarten Room (Larson)

New EL Room being built in hallway that connects new and existing school (located in old art room)

Hallway to 1st Grade Wing (Flex Learning Lab on left)





 

I hope you are finding some time to unwind and enjoy the people you love.  Have a great summer and 4th of July!

-Justin