DCPS is Seeking Your Feedback on Interim Principal Hedlund As you likely recall, Principal Hedlund was appointed to serve as the interim principal for Shepherd for this school year. Before determining whether to appoint her as Principal at Shepherd on a permanent basis, DCPS wants to ensure the community has an opportunity to share feedback and reflections on your experience working with her during this school year. Please send any feedback regarding your experience working with Principal Hedlund by Friday, February 7th. Letters should be sent via email to lead.dc@k12.dc.gov, with the subject “Community Input on Principal Hedlund.” All principal appointments are decided at the discretion of the Chancellor; however, anything you submit will be included along with other information from this year for the Chancellor and other senior leaders when considering next steps for the 2020-21 school year. DEAL RISE 2020 – For Fifth Graders only Quick Snapshot: During the orientation week, students will learn about our IB Program, Deal Culture, organization, technology, using a combination lock to open their lockers, navigating Deal, using the Deal library, understanding their progress report/report cards, communicating with their teachers, reading their schedules, after school club and activity offerings, how to monitor their grades in Aspen, and much … Read More
Message from Principal Hedlund
It’s the beginning of February and we have a lot of exciting events planned for students and their families.Last week the Black History Month committee, which is comprised of staff and parents, met and decided to make the week of 2/24 Black History Month Week. Each day we celebrate with a different event or activity. The schedule is as follows: Monday, February 24REP HBCU Colleges with shirts/sweatshirts Tuesday, February 25thDress up like an honorable Black History Month figure Wednesday, February 26thBlack History Month Bowl Thursday, February 27Now Let Me Fly @ 6:30-8 pm (families and students invited)3rd grade production of the play, which is based on hundreds of oral histories and personal interviews to tell the story of the unsung heroes and heroines in the battle for civil rights. Friday, February 28thStep Afrika (tentative)Jazz Night @ 6:30 In addition, we will have a door decorating contest, a daily Black History fact during announcements and a Shepherd Black History Month t-shirt. More details to come . . .The week of 2/10 will be Great Kindness Challenge, sponsored by the Kindness Club, and will include dress up days Monday through Friday, a door decorating contest with kindness themes and a launch of … Read More
PTO Bulletin
DCPS is Seeking Your Feedback on Interim Principal Hedlund As you likely recall, Principal Hedlund was appointed to serve as the interim principal for Shepherd for this school year. Before determining whether to appoint her as Principal at Shepherd on a permanent basis, DCPS wants to ensure the community has an opportunity to share feedback and reflections on your experience working with her during this school year. Please send any feedback regarding your experience working with Principal Hedlund by Friday, February 7th. Letters should be sent via email to lead.dc@k12.dc.gov, with the subject “Community Input on Principal Hedlund.” All principal appointments are decided at the discretion of the Chancellor; however, anything you submit will be included along with other information from this year for the Chancellor and other senior leaders when considering next steps for the 2020-21 school year. Looking for Volunteers – Shepherd Jazz Night and Shepherd Gala and Auction SAVE THE DATE…our 31st annual Shepherd Jazz Night will be Fri, Feb 28th in the Shepherd Multipurpose Room and we’re looking for parent and teacher volunteers to help organize the potluck dinner, help with set up and clean up, decorate the room, and help with promotion! For those who haven’t been before, the event includes … Read More
Message from Principal Hedlund
On Monday and Tuesday, we will attend professional development, and teachers will work on second quarter grades. It is hard to believe that we are midway through the school year! On Tuesday, teachers will attend district-wide professional development based on their grade bands or content area. Here at Shepherd on Monday we will work together as a faculty on restructuring recess and achieving equity. Carissa Harrison, our SEL (Social Emotional Learning Coordinator from Central Office) will lead the recess reboot with Mr. Garner who is working as our SEL Liaison this year. Mr. Taylor and Ms. Scott will facilitate Courageous Conversations: Got Passion? Our objective for the session is to understand the framework of Courageous Conversations and to open up as a staff to connect our personal and professional passions to racial equity work. Ms. Morgan Williams started today as our temporary Physical Education teacher and will be with us until Mr. Langrock returns in early May from leave. She is off to a great start. This week, I selected a temporary Librarian for hire, Ms. Blake, who has extensive classroom experience as a Special Education teacher. She currently works with DC Public Libraries, and we hope to have her … Read More
PTO Bulletin
All School Morning Meeting is this Friday (Jan 24th) at 8:45 am in the Multipurpose Room and will be hosted by First Grade. Come join us if you haven’t been to one of the All School Morning Meetings yet! Monthly Breakfast for Faculty and Staff – Hosted by the Fifth Grade Families this Month – Fri, Jan 24th The Parent Engagement Committee has started a monthly breakfast to show gratitude for all the Shepherd ES teachers and staff who support our children every day. Below you will find a sign-up link for the remainder of the year. This month FIFTH GRADE is hosting. There should be NO NUTS or NUT PRODUCTS brought into the school. Items should be dropped off on the assigned date noted in the sign-up form between 7:30 am and 8:00 am to the teachers’ resource room. If you have any questions, please reach out to Lyly Yonkwa Rijmen at lylyyonkwa@gmail.com. Sign up here: Shepherd Teacher/Staff Appreciation Breakfast. STAR ACHIEVERS’ “NO SCHOOL DAY” – OPEN on Mon, Jan 27th and Tues, Jan 28th Star Achievers has partnered with Trak Sports to engage kids in a variety of exciting sports games and fun activities for ALL AGES (PK3-5th grade), including basketball, kickball, soccer, arts and crafts, and much … Read More
Message from Principal Hedlund
We continue to work on The 15-day Culture Challenge. This past week, students reviewed expectations for hallways, recess, cafeteria and restrooms in morning meetings. In addition, teachers were challenged to spend two minutes a day for ten days connecting through conversation with a student in their classes. The technique is known as two-by-ten, and it is intended to build relationships. Please note that we will host an Open House on Wednesday, January 15th at 9:00 am. Encourage any families that have expressed interest in Shepherd to attend. Word of mouth is our most effective marketing strategy! There are a number of updates this week. Please scan the headings and see what is of interest to you and your family: Girls on the Run — I met with the Program Director this week, and if there is interest, I would like to restart the program at Shepherd. The program is for girls in grades 3-5, and the season begins mid-March and ends in early June. Practice would be twice a week from 3:15-4:30, and the program culminates in running a 5K in late May/early June. If your daughter is interested in running or if you are interested in being a coach, … Read More
PTO Bulletin
Shepherd Elementary Summer Camp Expo – TODAY!Join us for the 3rd annual Shepherd Elementary Summer Camp Expo!Meet representatives from a variety of local camps, ask questions, participate in fun activities, and learn about the array of options for the summer!The 2020 expo will be held from 5-7 pm in the Atrium. The January PTA meeting will begin at 6:30 pm, so Shepherd families should feel free to attend the expo and then stay for the meeting (free childcare and pizza for Shepherd students whose parents are attending the PTA meeting will be provided). The Summer Camp Expo is open to everyone (you don’t have to be enrolled at Shepherd ES attend), so bring your friends and neighbors! See the full list of camps that will be present: https://www.shepherd-elementary.org/summer-camp-expo/.TONIGHT’S PTA MEETING – Wed, Jan 15th at 6:30 pmPrincipal Neal from Deal Middle School will join us at our meeting to talk about Deal, the transition to middle school, and answer any questions parents would like to ask! As one of the feeder schools to Deal, we love having Principal Neal come to Shepherd every year to do a “meet and greet” to share all of what Deal has to offer and … Read More
PTO Bulletin
Kindness Club T-Shirt Sale – until Jan 20thThe Shepherd Kindness Club designed shirts that will be available to purchase online through Mon, January 20 and will arrive the last week of January. Shepherd will be participating in The Great Kindness Challenge in February. Students may wear these items throughout that week to celebrate our participation in the Great Kindness Challenge.T-shirts, long sleeve shirts, and hoodies are available for purchase in youth and adult sizes at the following link: https://www.customink.com/fundraising/ses-kindness-clubWith the money earned from t-shirt sales, the Kindness Club, in conjunction with the PTA, will purchase art materials to create a kindness mural on the wall by the playground entrance, design a buddy bench for the new playground where students who are looking for a friend to play with can sit and when others see they need a friend can invite them to play, and to purchase items for the Great Kindness Challenge (pencils, bracelets, stickers, etc.) in February.Shepherd Elementary Summer Camp Expo – Wed, Jan 15thJoin us for the 3rd annual Shepherd Elementary Summer Camp Expo!Meet representatives from a variety of local camps, ask questions, participate in fun activities, and learn about the array of options for the summer!The 2020 … Read More
Message from Principal Hedlund
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 … Read More
PTO Bulletin
Winter Concert – Thurs, Dec 19th and Fri, Dec 20thFor the Winter Concert on Thursday, December 19 at 6:30 pm, students who are in the concert should arrive no later than 6:15 pm. They should wear blue bottoms and a white shirt; school uniform works. Students in grades K-5 should report to the Atrium and look for signage on where to assemble. PK3 and PK4 students should go straight to the Multipurpose Room. The more students we have present the better our concert will be! Please let your homeroom teacher know if your child will not be in attendance.PTA Meeting – TONIGHT (Dec 18th) at 6:30 pmAGENDA• STAR review – Dr. Hedlund• Construction update – groundbreaking, updated timeframe, handling of issues, etc. – Dr. Hedlund• Nov minutes and budget review – Andrea/Karen and Liz• Highlights of PTA purchases this school year – Liz• LSAT meeting updates – Liz• IB evaluation update – Ms. Mack• Recess update – PTA budget for Playworks might be needed; requesting more games, puzzles for the indoor recess cart• PTA Bylaws review/update – need help• Need parent help for upcoming events: Summer Camp Fair (Jan 15), Jazz Night (Feb 28) Health/Wellness Fair (end of March) and … Read More