August 25, 2017

Field Work at its Finest

Who knew it would be such a community building opportunity!

Calendar:

Week of August 28th - September 1st:
Last week to complete i-Ready assessments (window closes on Friday)

Monday, 28th:
* Kenny's 6th Grade Crew out on Voyage
* Catherine's 5th Grade Crew Out on Voyage

Tuesday, 29th:
* 1st Grade Voyage
* MTSS meeting 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday, 30th:
* Professional Development: 1:30 in Flex room -
Designing Learning Expeditions
Information about Challenge Day

Thursday, 1st:
* First Grade Day of Rest

Friday, 2nd:
* Mr. Kenny's Crew Day of Rest
* Ms. Catherine's Crew Day of Rest

Week of September 4th - 8th:

Monday, 4th:
Labor Day - No School

Tuesday, 5th:
* Ms. Jenny's 4th Grade Voyage
* MTSS 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday, 6th:
* The Beat
* Professional Development: 1:30 Flex Room
Formulating Guiding Questions & Selecting Case Studies

Thursday, 7th:
* Deborah out of the building for admin. meeting

Friday, 8th:
* Ms. Jenny's Crew Day of Rest

The community gets involved on Wednesdays to read to kindergarten students 

And teachers make good mothers!

Celebrating our buddying writers!

I found Billie in the conference room early one morning...
Maybe she was a little excited to go on her voyage?

Our white buses proved to be the challenge for Lisa and Cody on the 6th grade Voyage! A bus broke down on the way to their destination and they had a flat tire on the way back!

Here the kids are safely away from the highway as the State Patrol monitor the situation AND step in to be expert speakers!
They kids learned first hand about what a historic event the eclipse was for the state of Wyoming - the largest crowd Wyoming has ever experienced!  

Welcoming Mr. Ken Kessel to our Crew!

Mr. Ken has accepted the position of building engineer here at Renaissance. Yeah!!! Please be sure to invite him in to formally be introduced to your Crews. We are all so appreciative of his support and expertise! 
If you email Ken: kenneth.kessel@dcsdk12.org

  

Sound System

Are you using yours? 

Please do.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Deborah

August 11, 2017

Great Beginnings

     "The variable that distinguishes truly great schools from merely good schools, is of course, the people working within those schools."

Too funny...

A dapper young man -
quite the picture of sophistication
on the first day of fourth grade!
Is that Tyler's hat?

I worked hard bartering with the building engineers of the Renaissance Secondary School to get this 'mountain' moved onto our playground. It's ours for good!
I knew the kids would love it.
However...I think we have a bit of problem solving to do.

n

Thank you Sara!
It was wonderful to have treats served on the first day!

You got this Janelle!

Lots of 'love notes' tucked in lunch boxes!

Leadership Team

These are the members of our team this year:

Kathy Carter, Jill Fisch, Jenny Henry, Lisa Johnson, Amanda Deegan, Karen McMurray, Deborah Lemmer.

* Please visit with any of these folks about your needs, ideas, vision for our school success and improvement. 

School Accountability Committee

Mr. 'G' has kindly consented to be the teacher representative on our SAC  this year! Thanks Ed!

My plans for the next few weeks....

Look for me to be in and out of classrooms and joining your Morning Meetings. I'm working on learning names of new students and making those important connections. I'm trying to do some of that in the lunch room too, where I can chat with kids without causing a disruption to your classroom!
I'll also be connecting with you to set up a day during your plan time where we can connect on how things are going, your plans for the semester, and what you've been learning about your kids. Maybe we can even talk about your personal goal for this year...

'Tweak' to our Professional Development Plans

Wednesday, August 16th is devoted to norming and scoring our All School Writing assessments. This will be done in grade level teams. We will begin our work together and then split off.

Wednesday, August 23rd was going to be our first professional development session devoted to strengthening our understandings and practices of Learning Expeditions. Lisa is leading the charge on this and she will be in the field that week on her Fall Voyage. So....

you will now have this Wednesday for personal/team planning time.  We will combine two of the upcoming sessions to be able to cover all the facets of a Learning Expedition.

Generosity

Several years ago Jenny Henry was recognized as 'World Class Educator' in our school district. Some funds for innovating her classroom came with that recognition. Late last spring, Jenny worked with district personnel to see about getting her cool stuff relocated to Renaissance from her prior building. 

Rather than installing it in her classroom, she wanted us to use it all over the building. You'll see some of her cool glass and tack boards around the building. You'll see the SMART projector in the library. Amanda, Teresa and Martha are using her 'flip tables'. Amanda's room also has her Panto chairs!  Thank you Jenny - it's like Christmas around here!

Share Table

Leave what you can't eat,

Take if you're still hungry.

Calendar

August 14 - 18th:

3rd Grade Voyage to Camp Elim - Aug. 15-17th, Day of Rest on 18th.

Wednesday, 16th:

The Beat: Our first one!

PD: Norming and Scoring School-wide Writing Assessments

Thursday, 17th:

* Staff lunch provided by REMAX and partnering local businesses

August 21st - 25th:

Lisa's Voyage - leaves Sunday, August 20th - 24th, Day of rest on 25th.

Billie's Voyage - leaves Monday, August 21st - 24th, Day of rest on 25th.

Monday, 21st:

First Day of School for Renaissance Secondary School

Solar Eclipse 10:30 - 1:30

Tuesday:

* 7:30 MTSS meeting

Wednesday:

Professional Development: Personal/ Team planning

* Note: It is appreciated if staff will park along the fence that is furthest from the building in the front parking lot. (The fence on the far west side.)

Have a restful weekend!

Try to remember - it is still summer!

Warmly,

Deborah

Can you believe just a week ago....