Happy New Year!
I hope you had a wonderful Winter Break. Our custodians worked hard over break, and the floors are sparkling. At last month’s PTA meeting, we discussed doing some resets around culture after Winter Break. Carissa, our SEL central office support person, will speak to us as a group about structured recess hopefully at our next faculty meeting. As Ms. Rottman and I discussed the reset earlier this week, we decided to try to have a little fun with it and call it The 15-day Culture Challenge.
We have just fifteen school days until our professional development day on the 27th. The challenge is to do the one designated strategy/method/technique for strengthening our culture daily. We created a calendar and are providing more detail to staff weekly.
This week we simply had a specific share at morning meeting on Thursday: Why are you glad to be back at school? Then, on Friday, we asked students to list their hopes and dreams for the rest of the school year. Typically, Responsive Classroom schools do this activity at the beginning of the school year. Voicing our hopes and dreams will help us with the reset. Responsive Classroom asserts: Inviting students to name learning goals (hopes and dreams) right away shows them that school is a safe place, that they’re important members of the classroom, and that they can look forward to an engaging, challenging, and fun year of learning. Hopes and Dreams looks different at different grade levels. To learn more look here. You may see them displayed in the hallways or classrooms.
It is great to have students back with us. May 2020 be the best year yet for our community!
Phyllis
Staffing Updates
Ms. Smith is in Pre-K 4 for Ms. Lewis for the rest of the school year. She is off to a wonderful start. Today we selected Ms. Stewart, a Trinity graduate, to cover Ms. Haygood’s maternity leave in Kindergarten. We have a long-term substitute in for Mr. Langrock who is on paternity leave, and I am working with potential candidates who are experienced Physical Education teachers. I will continue to provide staffing updates weekly!
Upcoming Shepherd Basketball Games
Jan. 6 Girls BBall vs. Layfayette 4:00
Jan. 7 Boys BBall vs. Janney 4:00
Jan. 13 Girls BBall vs. Janney 5:00
Jan. 14 Boys BBall vs. Hearst 4:00
Jan. 21 Boys BBall vs. Layfayette 4:00
Jan. 22 Girls BBall vs. Eaton 5:00
Jan. 29 Girls BBall vs. Hearst 5:00
Jan. 30 Boys BBall vs. Dorothy Height 4:00
OTHER UPCOMING DATES
Wednesday, Jan 15th – Open House for Prospective Parents
Wednesday, Jan 15th – LSAT and PTA meetings (4:30 and 6:30 pm)
Wednesday, Jan 15th – Camp Expo (5-7 pm)
Friday, Jan 17th – Parent/Teacher Conferences (NO SCHOOL for Students)
Monday, Jan 20th – NO SCHOOL (MLK Holiday)
Fri, Jan 24th – All School Morning Meeting – 8:45
Monday, Jan 27th – NO SCHOOL (Records Day)
Tuesday, Jan 28th – NO SCHOOL (Professional Development)
Wednesday, Feb 12th – LSAT and PTA meetings (4:30 and 6:30 pm)
Friday, Feb 28th – Jazz Night