October

This Week
Monday

Tuesday
* Lab visits with Janet Merrill
* 1:00-3:00 Jenny admin meeting

Wednesday
* 7:45 Social committee meeting in the office conference room
* SD: Enter Cite 6 data
* Dr. Tucker visit

Thursday
* 5th grade plan day
* 5:00-6:00 Legend Trunk-or-Treat

Friday
* Fat Friday - Chili

Reminders
* Please be ready to enter CITE 6 data in InspirED on Wednesday.

* Last call for a Spelling Bee facilitator. Please let Libby know if you are interested.

* Lab classroom visits with Janet Merrill are on Tuesday. Click here for the schedule. 

Halloween

Halloween breakfast parties will be held on Wednesday, October 31, from 8:40-9:30 AM. It is recommended that party treats be balanced with both nutritious options and sweets. We know that many parent attend our parties. We are encouraging all families to bring an item for the Parker Task Force when they are in. All donations can be placed in collection bins in the main vestibule.

Our school parade will follow at 9:30-9:45 AM.  The parade route, along with directions will be in your box this week. Students who do not wish to participate in Halloween activities can rejoin the class at 9:45 AM.  We will resume with a normal school day schedule at that time.

We encourage students to be creative with their costumes, but safety remains our number one priority.  We ask students to adhere to the following guidelines when selecting a costume:

* Students should come dressed in their costume and bring a change of clothing.

* Costumes can not be demeaning, offensive or promiscuous.

* Face paint, face masks and weapons are not permitted.

Opportunity

We would love new ideas for some fun and activities for ALL of our staff.  We know time is precious, but we would LOVE to have your voice and input at a meeting next Wednesday morning at 7:45 in the office conference room.  If there are too many of us to fit, we will make a move.  We definitely want both certified and classified folks to be a part of this!!  

Happy Birthday

Heather Terry - October 25th

Go For the Gold

* Thank you Leadership Team for your time and insight!

* Thank you Jamie Marchese for leading our new Interact service club!

Golden Nuggets

Morning Announcements: Leuschner

Lounge Duty: Robart/Roberts

Congratulations Ashley Hagerty!

October 2018

This Week
Monday
* Vision/Hearing Schedule
* 7:45 Social Media committee meeting

Tuesday
* Vision/Hearing Schedule
* 7:30 Leadership team meeting
* Janet Merrill visits GRE classrooms

Wednesday
* SD: Enter CITE 6 data in InspirED
* Assistant Superintendent - Ted Knight - Visits GRE classrooms


Thursday
* Jenny admin meeting
* K plan day

Friday
* 4th grade field trip to the zoo

Reminders
* Legend is hosting a Legend Family Trunk-or-Treat. The event is October 25th from 5:00-6:00. We are looking for teachers / teams to decorate their trunks and pass out candy to kids.  Gold Rush will supply the candy.  We would greatly appreciate anyone willing to participate in this event!  

Click here for the SignUpGenius

Click here for the flyer.

* CITE 6
According to state law, 50% of your teacher evaluation will be based on student data, referred to as CITE 6.  On Wednesday you will enter your CITE 6 data into InspirED with your grade level team.  Please determine with your team which assessment(s) you are planning on using this year and bring your formative data on Wednesday.  Let us know if you have questions or concerns.  

* Our feeder PLS, Janet Merrill, will be at GRE on October 16th.  She will be visiting classrooms to get to know teachers and see the wonderful work happening at GRE! Ted Knight, the Assistant Superintendent, will be visiting Gold Rush on Wednesday.  He will also be visiting classrooms between 9:00-10:30.

* We are looking forward to hosting a new service club for fourth and fifth grade students called Interact.  We are looking for a teacher to co-facilitate this club.  We are also still looking for a teacher  to coordinate the spelling bee.  Both are paid positions.  Please let Jenny know if you are interested in either position.

* Please update monthly blog for October. In your blog, please communicate with parents what's been happening in your classroom and during your co-teaching time and what is coming. You can pull information from your co-teaching sessions directly from this blog.

* Please make sure the double doors by the office are closed at all times. They are often left open before/after recess.

* Please turn in your golden tickets on Thursday before the end of the day. 

Halloween
Halloween parties will be from 8:45-9:30 in classrooms. The parade will follow from 9:30-10:00. More info to come next week. 

Opportunities
* The Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) is an affordable master’s program that combines web instruction from Miami University with experiential learning and field study through Denver Zoological Foundation. The 2019 application is now open. Applications are being accepted until February 28 at https://aip.miamioh.edu. Courses begin in May 2019. If you would like more information, please see Libby.

Drill Reminders

Lockdown

* Keep all doors locked at all times.

* See the office if you need a magnet/stopper for your door.

* Fully remove your magnet/stopper to ensure doors lock.

* Remain on the floor with your students even during drills.

* Always have your classroom key on you.

Fire Drill

* We will let you know if the future if we are practicing a fire drill.  

* Please keep your stopper/magnet on when we practice a fire drill 

Evacuation Drill

* Please read the procedures for our building evacuation below.

Happy Birthday
Katie Timm - October 18th
Mackenzie Villanie - October 21st

Go For the Gold
* Thank you Shannon Wilde for all you have done for our school! We wish you the best of luck in your new job at Cimarron!
* Welcome back Diane Brown!
* Welcome Jacquie Carter, our new SSN EA!
* Thank you Stephanie Brown, Lindsay Reeves, Mary Beth Steinher, Carly Roberts, Jenn Poli, Kelly Broecker, Justin Brakefield, Rochelle Evans, Tammy Simpson, Stephanie Braden, Mackenzie Villanie and Karen Warner for participating in our Digger Dash celebration!
* Thank you Karen Petty and Tobey for helping set up!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Hagerty
Lounge Duty: Hoff/Steinher

2nd Grade Technology Co-Teaching
Second Graders analyzed different school communities and created Adobe Spark Video presentations that communicated the roles, rights, and responsibilities students have in their assigned area. Students planned how they would teach and communicate about their topic through speaking and meaningful pictures. Each student reflected on their work by completing a communication rubric and providing evidence that supported their self evaluation.

Student Samples:
Role, Rights & Responsibilities Video
Self Reflection Samples

October

This Week
Monday

Tuesday
* 7:30 Lockdown training in the Gold Mine room
* 11:00 Lockdown drill

Wednesday
* SD: OYO

Thursday
* Parent/Teacher conferences
* 1st grade plan day
* Jenny admin meeting

Friday
* 2:45 Digger Dash celebration

Reminders
* Kindergarten teachers, please administer the iReady probe to students who fell below the cut score by Friday, October 5th.

* We will have our Digger Dash egging ceremony on Friday, October 5th. Please bring your class to the front playground at 2:45.

* Click here for how to edit READ plans, including where to enter progress monitoring data, parent communication and how to print the report. See Libby if you need help.

* i-Ready data will be available after October 14th.

* Conferences:  The leadership team determined we would all share the following information with parents during conferences:

* Students DRA level 
* The DRA range for the grade level
* The characteristics of the different DRA levels 
* A current writing sample
* A celebration and goal for reading, writing and math

We were not going to share I READY reports for math or reading as this is a new assessment for us.  We decided we would refer to this for certain students and situations.

* Please let Jenny or Libby know if you would like them to attend a conference.

* Walktober is here and it is time to get moving!  If you haven't signed up already, go to dcsd.walktober.com to register for Walktober today!  We begin logging steps or activity minutes on Monday, October 1st (but you can sign up through 10/5). Good luck!

* DCSD employees receive discounts on various services/items. Click here for the employees discount page. 

District Lock Down Training - 
Please inform your students of the following:
*If they were not in their classroom when a lockdown was announced on the overhead that they would run to the closest room or hiding spot.
* If they were in the bathroom students are told to remain in a locked stall with their feet up.
* If they are outside they need to run away from the school and find a safe spot until safe person finds them.

October Count

The process is simplified this year:

• Official Count Day:  Tuesday, September 25
• Eleven Day Window:  Tuesday, September 18 - Tuesday, October 2
• Make sure you are taking attendance in IC in your class during the eleven day window.  If you are having problems with IC during that time, please let Christi Dismang know.
• If you have a substitute during the eleven day window, we will give your sub a Sub Attendance Roster for them to take attendance on.  They need to sign the bottom of the form, and we will keep it for our records.  

Opportunity
We are still in need of a Spelling Bee coordinator. You will receive a stipend for this position! Please let Libby know if you are interested. 

Happy Birthday
Kim Gopsill - October 3rd
Christi Dismang - October 4th
Jen Dale - October 6th
Amanda Widdeson - October 11th
Megan Wallace - October 13

Go For the Gold
* Thank you for a great, first night of conferences. We appreciate all of the time and thought you put into them!
* Thank you Fat Friday team for the delicious soup and potato bar!
* Thank you Elizabeth Meuli for all of the painted hearts!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Broecker
Lounge Duty: Anderson/Graham

3rd Grade Technology CoTeaching
Third grade readers are remarkable! They took an interim assessment from Lucy, revised their thinking, learned various digital editing tools like, scrolling, spelling, capitalization, indenting, punctuation, and growing text boxes while publishing their revised work. After typing their responses students learned how to share a google document with their Literacy Partners. Then these brave collaborators digitally provided feedback on their partner’s reading reflection using a checklist that combined items from Lucy’s Reading Progressions & Lucy’s Editing Checklist. To communicate meaningful feedback, students used the comment feature within Google Documents.
You can imagine minds were blown this week; kids & teachers alike.

Click HERE to listen to a 3rd grade student describing our work together.

September/October

This Week
Monday

Tuesday
* 1:00-3:00 Jenny admin meeting

Wednesday
* SD - On your own
* Kindie field trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Thursday
* Parent/teacher conferences
* 2nd Grade plan day
* Libby admin meeting
* Jenny out

Friday
* 8:00-10:00 Libby SAC meeting
* Progress monitor i- Ready
* Jenny out
* Fat Friday Soup & Potato Bar

Reminders
* We will progress monitor all READ plan students the last Friday of every month. Feel free to progress monitor any students you think would benefit from more practice.

* Click here for how to edit READ plans, including where to enter progress monitoring data, parent communication and how to print the report. See Libby if you need help.

* Conferences:  The leadership team determined we would all share the following information with parents during conferences:

* Students DRA level 
* The DRA range for the grade level
* The characteristics of the different DRA levels
* A current writing sample
* A celebration and goal for reading, writing and math

We were not going to share I READY reports for math or reading as this is a new assessment for us.  We decided we would refer to this for certain students and situations.

Please let Jenny or Libby know if you would like them to attend a conference.

October Count

The process is simplified this year:

• Official Count Day:  Tuesday, September 25
• Eleven Day Window:  Tuesday, September 18 - Tuesday, October 2
• Make sure you are taking attendance in IC in your class during the eleven day window.  If you are having problems with IC during that time, please let Christi Dismang know.
• If you have a substitute during the eleven day window, we will give your sub a Sub Attendance Roster for them to take attendance on.  They need to sign the bottom of the form, and we will keep it for our records.  

Opportunity
If you are interested in being our Spelling Bee coordinator, please let Libby know.

Happy Birthday
Justin Brakefield - September 23rd
Jenny Brown - September 24th
Jillianne Mancini - September 24th

Go For the Gold
* Thank you Justin Brakefield and Karen Warner for helping set up/clean up Digger Dash! It is greatly appreciated!
* Thank you Kelly Broecker for helping with the banners!
* Thank you Bree Roon, Stacie Martino, and Michelle Anderson for allowing others observe your amazing teaching!
* Thank you Stephanie Brown and Bree Roon for allowing us to video tape you!
* Thank you all for an amazing PLC day! It is amazing to be a part of such a talented, reflective staff who are always wanting to learn!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Lautenbach
Lounge Duty: Roon/Wilson

4th Grade Technology CoTeaching 
4th Graders used Seesaw to communicate their understanding of numerical patterns. Students created posters that had factor pairs listed and built as an array for a given number. To communicate their understanding, students reflected on the strategies they used to determine each factor pair and explained how they would know when all factor pairs had been found. After recording their videos, students listened to other videos and created a list of qualities for great videos. They then reflected on their use of Seesaw as a way to communicate the critical thinking they used to find factor pairs. Please see a few samples of student work below.

Way to represent Gold Rush at MuckFest!

September

This Week
Monday
* 11:20-1:30 Flu shots in the Gold Mine room

Tuesdsay
* 7:30 Leadership Team meeting
* Teacher Lab Visits - Primary

Wednesday
* SD: On your own

Thursday
* Digger Dash - see info below
* Jenny admin meeting

Friday
* PLC day - Click here for the agenda

Reminders
* Click here for how to edit READ plans, including where to enter progress monitoring data, parent communication and how to print the report. See Libby if you need help.

* Please make sure your blogs are updated. Our norm is to update these monthly and blogs should include upcoming content and tips for parents at home.

* New teacher lab visits for primary will be on Tuesday. Click here for the schedule. Libby will cover your class when needed.

* If you have any conferences that you would like Jenny or Libby to attend, please let them know.

* Our official student count day is September 25th. Please make sure your attendance is accurate on this day.

Digger Dash
* Instead of spending $1,000 on paper cups, we are asking students to bring their clearly labeled water bottles. Please put the bottles in your buckets and bring them down to stretching. Volunteers will set up the water bottles on tables so students can easily find them. Please communicate this to your families.

* Bring your digger dash banner down to the conference room by Wednesday at noon.
Stickers to track students' laps will be in your box on Wednesday. Please put these on their sleeves Thursday morning before you bring your class down to stretching.

* Schedule
8:45-9:00      Stretching (Preschool & Kindergarten)
9:00-9:15      Race (Preschool & Kindergarten)
9:10-9:25      Stretching (1st & 2nd grades)
9:25-9:55      Race (1st & 2nd grades)
9:50-10:00    Stretching (3rd & 4th grades)
10:00-10:45  Race (3rd & 4th grades)
10:40-10:50  Stretching (5th grade)
10:50-11:35  Race (5th grade)

Happy Birthday
Tobey Vogt - September 20th

Go For the Gold
* Thank you Ashley Peterson and Megan Wallace for administering the i-Ready probe.
* Thank you for coming prepared for your READ plan session. The thought you are putting into meeting your students' needs is appreciated!
* Thank you Kelly Broecker, Jenn Poli, and Ashley Dalcerri for taking a risk and sharing your expertise!
* Thank you Tammy Simpson, Krista Hardin, and Justin Brakefield for helping with Cogat!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Leuschner
Lounge Duty: Miller/Reeves

Congratulations Karen Petty on the arrival of your new grand baby!

Harlow Reign Donovan

Born Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 10:31p.m.

7 lbs 5oz

SEPTEMBER 2018

This Week
Monday
* Read Plans
* 9:00-10:00 3rd grade Cogat
*11:00-12:00 5th grade Cogat

Tuesday
* New Teacher Teacher Lab Visits - Intermediate

Wednesday
* 9:00-10:00 3rd grade Cogat
* 11:00-12:00 5th grade Cogat

Thursday
* 3rd grade plan day

Friday
* 9:00-10:00 3rd grade Cogat
* 11:00-12:00 5th grade Cogat

Reminders:
* Click here for the READ Act schedule for Monday.  Please come with your yellow READ act planning doc and your charged computer.  Click here for the power point presentation and click here for growth and stretch goals. Please come prepared and on time as the schedule is very tight.

* New teacher lab visits will be on Tuesday. Click here for the schedule. Libby will cover your class when needed.

* On a delayed dismissal please do not release students to siblings that are younger than18 years old.

* Click here for the RtI paperwork. Click here for an example.

* Please make sure all reading data has been entered into IC. Please share your reading data sheets with Jenny, Libby and Kristi if you have not done this yet.

* Please remember staff areas, including the lounge and staff bathrooms, are for staff only.

5th Grade Technology CoTeaching

3-2-1 LUCY! Fifth graders blasted off with Lucy this week by creating personal reading goals. To communicate their goals, students created an infographic using Piktochart and explained their infographic by recording their voice in Screencastify.

Each Infographic communicated:
* Specific reading goal
* How the reading goal will help them be a better reader?
* The four action steps they will take to accomplish their goal.
* Evaluating if they completed the goal and what they will do next.

Projects were then published in Google Classroom so students could hear other reading goals and action plans.

Please take a minute to listen to student chosen examples.

Student Sample #1

Student Sample #2

Go For the Gold
* Thank you for your thoughtful participation during our staff meeting.

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Dalcerri
Lounge Duty: Zankey/Martino

September

This Week
Monday
No school!

Tuesday
* 7:30 Leadership team meeting in the Gold Mine room
* 3rd grade to Plains Conservation Center

Wednesday
* 7:30 Staff meeting in the Gold Mine room

Thursday
* 4th grade plan day
* Jenny admin meeting

Friday
* Mandatory trainings due by today!
* 12:00-3:30 Jenny feeder meeting

Reminders
* Please make sure you have signed up for your goal setting meeting. Please come to the meeting with an idea of a personal goal and ways we can support you. Please also bring your students' hard copies of their DRA/F & P assessments. 

* Please make sure you have shared your reading data sheets.

* Please bring your computer to the staff meeting on Wednesday. 

Happy Birthday
Rochelle Evans - September 3rd
Megan Fleet - September 4th
Jamie Marchese - September 7th

Mandatory Trainings

All DCSD staff are required to complete 6 online mandatory trainings. Please register for the trainings using your DCSD district username and password. If you do not know your single sign on, please contact IT Support at 303-387-0001. All 6 mandatory trainings segments are built into 1 online session.

Search InspirED for the Online Mandatory Training specific to your school or district department using the picture link (sample image below) located in the right navigation pane.

Please scroll to find your site location.*If you work at multiple locations, select the location where you will be evaluated. The 2018-2019 Mandatory Trainings will be open for completion starting July 1, 2018 and are to be completed by September 7, 2018.

Go For the Gold
* Thank you everyone for a great assessment day! We appreciate your flexibility with only having one day.
* Thank you Tobey for setting up for all the events this week.
* Thank you Kylee and Ashley for facilitating the student council assembly!

Golden Nuggets
Morning Announcements: Broecker
Lounge Duty: Padrnos/Mancini