Monday Morning Memo 3.28.2021

 Happy Monday to you all.  It's a short 4 day week and Thursday will have some fun in it.  

Teddy Bear Picnic

For those of you that are new to Deep Creek, the Teddy Bear Picnic is a tradition that I believe has taken place every year that DCES has been open as a school.  It is a tradition that emphasizes that we are a school family, not just as a school and staff, but extended to our Cub Families and community.  It is usually attended by almost every DCES family. I believe that the traditions that DCES holds dearly are what helps make it special and I want to always try to preserve as many as possible.

Teddy Bear Picnic 2021 - April 1 (During regularly scheduled lunch times

This years Teddy Bear Picnic will be different, because of COVID-19 protocols we will not be able to invite guests into our campus.  Instead we will focus on students eating in a picnic style with their class families and grade level families.  

1.  Classes should take out their blankets and find a spot in their designated courtyard or pavilion before picking up their lunches from the cafeteria.

2. Designated Areas

• Courtyard #1:  Between C Building and D Building
• Courtyard #2: Between C Building and G Building
• PE Pavilion

3.  Picnic times by Grade Level (Normally Scheduled Lunch Times)

• 10:52 - 11: 32 AM 5th Grade in Courtyard #1
• 11:14 - 11:58 AM 2nd Grade in Courtyard #2
• 11:36 - 12:18 PM Kindergarten in Pavilion
• 11:56 - 12:40 PM 1st Grade in Courtyard #1
• 12:20 - 1:50 PM Pre K in Courtyard #2
• 12:24 - 1:10 PM 3rd Grade in Courtyard #2
• 12:58 - 1:38 PM 4th Grade in Courtyard #1

4. Dismissal

• We will have trash cans all around courtyard to dump trash
• One student from your class will bring trays back to the cafeteria
• Just make sure you are clear from your area in time for the next grade level to place their blankets before they pick up their lunches.  

5. Miscellaneous

• Staff will not be able to eat with their "personal" children. (I will talk about this more at Thursday's Faculty Meeting)
• Encourage students to wear their DCES Blue and Gold with uniform bottoms as we will make Thursday our spirit day, since we don't have school Friday.
• Students may bring Teddy Bears to picnic with them. If they do bring other stuffed animals it is ok. The point is the picnic not policing which type of stuffed animal they bring.
• I will have the school PA System between the two courtyards to play music
• Remember we are following the DEAL Day schedule.
• On Tuesday and Wednesday I will have a Gummy Bear guessing game set up in the cafeteria. One wining class per grade level will win Gummy Bear Snacks for Thursday's DEAL Day
• At the beginning of DEAL Day I will have a school wide KAHOOT game made that we will all play for the first 15 - 20 minutes.

Looking Forward to a great week.

Keli and James

Monday Morning Memo 3.22.21

 Welcome back!  We hope that you had an amazing Spring Break.  This year, more than ever before, it was much needed for all of us.  Now, we are rested and ready to tackle the last quarter of the school year. 

Welcome New Staff:

Right before break we were able to hire for our three open positions.  

Please join us in welcoming Bailey Crawford as a Paraprofessional III.  She will be working as a one-on-one with a third grade student.  Although we will miss having her as a sub, we are so excited to have her on campus with us full time!  

We have also filled our open custodial position. Please welcome Nerie Suarez.  Ms. Suarez will be taking Mr. Eric's place.  If you see her, please give her a DCE welcome!  

The final addition to our staff is Lynnae Chaisson-Traylor.  Lynnae will be our new Data-Tech and comes to us from the HR department.  She will be moving in to her new office on Monday and will be off campus a few days this week for training.  We can't wait for you to meet her!

Grades:

We are nearing the end of quarter three. The quarter wraps up on Friday, March 26.  The grade posting window is now open.  Grades need to be finalized no later than Monday, March 29 at 7:20 am in Focus.  Report cards go home on April 5.   If you anticipate that you will need help with Focus or with report cards, please be sure to let her, James, Marie, or me know as soon as you can.  We want to be sure that we are able to help you, or get you the answer/help that you need before the window closes!

Collaborative Planning:

With the end of the year being filled with so many schedule changes, testing, and events we have decided that we need to stop the back-to-back collaborative planning sessions for March, April, and May.  Although we are canceling the back-to-back sessions, we would still like you and your team to come together on those Tuesdays for collaborative planning during your planning periods.  This has been reflected on the DCE calendar.  Additional dates for other events (awards, etc.) have been updated on the DCE calendar as well.

Testing:

FSA Testing will be getting underway this week.  Our students that are on Access Standards will be taking the FSAA.  Let's wish Ms. Blass, Mrs. Nuwer, Ms. Belous, and Ms. Spitalieri (Innovative) good luck!  They will be using the first grade planning room, fourth grade planning room, and fifth grade planning room for testing, so please avoid these areas this week and provide them with as much quiet as possible!  I will send a very brief reminder out each morning letting you know who is testing, what times, and where.

We will also be holding our FSA Manual training for all 3-5 teachers, all K-5 paraprofessionals, and other requested staff members on Thursday.  Instructional staff that need to attend the training will meet in the media center at 7:20 am.  All paraprofessionals (except for one-on-ones) should select either the 10:00 or 11:00 session and meet in room H-117.  We are training additional staff this year due to the unexpected nature of Covid.  We want to be as prepared as possible so that our students can be successful and show off all that they have learned!  

Important FSA testing information is starting to be added to the DCE Staff Shared Drive in google.  You will see that there are documents that show schedule changes when needed and which staff are tentatively being used on which days.  This will be a working document.  Even if you are not a 3-5 teacher or para, you should get in the habit of checking this document regularly during testing season.  We will go over some of this important information at our next staff meeting.

This Week's Schedule:

Have a great week!

-Keli and James

Monday Morning Memo 3.8.2021

We are officially one week away from the most deserved spring break.  It is our hope that there is an understanding of the level of appreciation shared for the roles you serve at DCES.  Schools are great schools, because they have great teachers and great support staff.

This year spring break is not just signifying an important break, but also the finality of formal observations/evaluations process.  This process brings stress and worry to many and honestly, it brings stress and worry to Keli and me as well.  Our stress and worry comes from knowing that if we want DCES to keep improving then there has to be a focus on improving teaching and learning.  Our stress and worry comes from giving the best feedback and assisting this staff towards continuous improvement.  I believe that standards are important.  I believe that using the correct materials are important.  I also believe that proven effective programs are important.  However, nothing and I stress nothing makes as much difference as the quality of our teachers and staff.

Moving forward, we heard the voice of the staff loud and clear in the survey before Christmas.  You want Keli and I more present during classroom instruction.  We agree.  We have shared our application and selection into the Community of Leaders Academy (COLA) with the FL DOE where the focus is on performing classroom walkthroughs.  This has added a lot to our schedule, but we applied because again we know that the only way to keep improving our school is to keep improving teaching and learning.  This week we are going to be reaching out to individual teachers that would be willing to assist us in continual improvement of our observation/walkthrough techniques by filming classrooms lessons.  These videos will allow our cohort leaders to coach us as we practice giving feedback.  We thank these teachers in advance.  Also in the next few months, we will be working with PPC and other school leaders to assist in developing classroom “look-fors”.  Our goal will be creating a general understanding of what quality instructions look like at DCES and the techniques that Keli and I should see as we increase walkthroughs. 

I will close where I started.  We are one week away from the most deserving break for a staff that we cannot thank enough. We thank you all for your support and appreciate your efforts to make DCES the best place possible for our students.  We know we have a great school because of you and we with your commitment we want to keep making it better.

Have a great week and then enjoy your break.

Social Worker Week March 7 - 13

This week is Social Worker Appreciation week. I would like to thank Marie Navarro for all the love and support she provides our DCES students. Definitely a caring lady that goes above and beyond. Thank you, Marie.