September 11, 2017

Whew! What a busy, but FABULOUS first week of school! Thank you, everyone, for your dedication to teaching our students procedures and routines to set them up for success, while building positive relationships and community.  Your hard work will bring many rewards!

Back to School Night

5:45 - 6:30  Session #1    ECDD, Y5, Kdg & 1st Grade

6:30-7:15    Session #2    2nd & 3rd Grade

7:15-8:00    Session #3    4th & 5th Grade

There is a sign-in sheet in your mailbox, please have parents sign-in and turn your sheets in to Kathy.

Jen and Connie will put a Media Center volunteer sign-up sheet in your mailbox on Monday. Please pass this around during your session as well.   

*There will not be sessions held in the gym before/after classroom sessions this year.  I will send you a link to a quick video for you to share with families in the beginning of your session instead.

Next Week at Brown

NWEA begins this week (9/11-9/22)
Math and Reading only this year
Grades 2-5 on classroom Chromebooks- please see Kristen if you are unsure about how to access the NWEA testing app on the Chromebooks
K, 1 to use lab- please sign up with Jen Berry

9/12 Back to School Night- Walk-a-Thon packets and compacts sent home with parents


Upcoming Dates to Note

9/18 4th grade technology release time (a.m.) @ Upton- Kathy to arrange subs

9/19 5th grade technology release time (a.m.) @ Upton- Kathy to arrange subs

9/19 School Picture Day in the Media Center

9/19 Staff/School Improvement meeting 4pm-5pm- please let Kristen know if you'd like to host in your classroom

9/20 Late Start

9/20 Talk Like a Pirate Day @ Brown (reassigned due to picture day)

10/2 Walk-a-Thon begins!

10/3 Staff/School Improvement meeting 4pm-5pm- looking for a host :) 


Please be sure to send the volunteer consent forms home as soon as possible. Remember all volunteers that will be in contact with students must complete this form and return it to the school office. 

Recess Reminders

For safety and security reasons, please be sure that ALL exterior doors are closed at all times. Doors may not be propped open.  Students will need an adult to let them inside the building.  Please be sure you have your keys if on recess duty or when picking up your class. Thank you for your help with this.

In effort to be proactive in our problem-solving, please spend a few minutes reviewing the rules of gaga ball with your class. This has been a place of a lot of excitement and a bit of contention


The supervision schedule is finished and is Brown School Staff shared folder in the Google. Click here to access it quickly.






Lunchroom Line-Up

Time is a bit tight with only two lunches this year.  We have decided to begin lining up by class in effort to get the tables cleaned in time. The photos are just for your reference, but if your students are in the second lunch I am asking that you please pick them up in the lunchroom at the bell and escort them back to class.  Thank you for your help.

 

A Message from Amy Dirlam

Please continue to use itsLearning for communicating with your students and parents this school year.  The use of tools like REMIND and other third-party apps falls outside of the supported applications in SJPS and we are trying to do our best to effectively use the district provided tools.  We realize parent communication in itsLearning is not as easy as we hoped, and we will continue to work on methods to improve.  In the meantime, if you want to use your sjschools or stjoebears email to alert parents of changes and other important information you have added to itsLearning, please feel free to do so.  We would like for you to direct parents to itsLearning whenever possible, though, to help them get better at using this system.  At Back-to-School night, a short tutorial video will be provided for parents to help them get activated in itsLearning and navigate the tool for all of their children at once.  We will also provide support for them in the media centers if they want help that evening accessing their accounts.  Please spend some time between now and Tuesday updating your class home page and attaching it to your planner so that parents can access the information.  Please contact Amy if you need help or plan to meet with her during one of the times she will be in the building next week.  Thanks for your help as we continue to learn more about itsLearning.

Remember to...

• sign up for a PTO meeting on the paper next to the office copy machine.  We are trying a hybrid of evenings and lunchtime meetings this year.
• Pay Kathy for social dues
• Share your grade level's protected times for math and ELA
• Set up your math and reading testing sessions in NWEA
• Tell Kristen where she can find your daily lesson plans
• Set up your sub folder in case of an unexpected absence- be sure to tell your teammates where to find it

Kudos to...

• Caroline for her patience and flexibility this week! She made lemonade out of lemons, no doubt! She also created line-up signs for day one!
• Connie and classroom teachers for adapting your instruction to allow Media Center visits in your rooms this week.
• Sue Punches for her heroic efforts to find a retainer among the lunch leftovers.
• Kevin and Rick for all of their hard work to ensure our first graders could get back to class their this week.
• Our support staff for covering recesses this week! You rock!
• JoAnn and Natalie for delivering sweet treats to our Lincoln friends who have been in our hearts this week.
• Darla for creating a slideshow to introduce our students to our new staff (please take a couple of minutes to show your students the slideshow found here). 
• To all of you for AN AMAZING FIRST WEEK!

From Tessa Sheldon:

Will you please pass on to your staff a huge Thank You!  What a precious gesture the delicious cupcakes were!  So incredibly thoughtful!  The staff appreciated them very much.  It was a lovely ending to a bittersweet first week back.  We are holding our own and doing the best we can. With Hubble here, a supportive community, darling kiddos, and such great colleagues down the street looking out for us, it’s impossible not to be hopeful and happy in spite of the way of things.

You are a bunch of good eggs there at Brown Elementary!

Thank you for your kindness.  The love displayed on my door this morning took my breathe away.  You are all so amazingly thoughtful! I am so fortunate to work alongside of each and every one of you.