Sunday, February 25, 2018

Week of 2/25/18

Favorite Tweets of last few days:



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Read Across America!  Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
 
I would love to read in your classroom this week!  Please schedule me a time @ the link below:

Reading in classrooms schedule for MS - LINK

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PTO meeting this Tuesday @ 6:00 pm

Hope you can make it!  We have a super supportive PTO!  Please try to come if you can.

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LCS Read Aloud Book Challenge!

Limestone County has challenged each teacher to read 50 books aloud in the month of March! Write the book titles and date read on the form (link below).
 
If a teacher reads aloud 50 books between March 1st and March 30th, every student in her class gets to throw a water balloon at Mr. Scott! Happy reading!


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Spring pics next Tue, March 6th - Please remind your students and parents!

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Box Tops - please encourage your students and parents to send in their box tops!  This is the easier fundraiser we do all year.  Please put info on your weekly newsletters and emails.

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Spring Arts Night - April 19th @ 5:30-8:00 - more info soon

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It's going to be a busy week!  Have fun!  Love on your kids!  

Thx,
MS

Friday, February 23, 2018

Monday, February 12, 2018

Feb Post

 This has been a crazy semester so far.....

Snow days / delay days...days at school with lots of students out with sickness (and staff).

I really appreciate how our staff stepped it up last week!  I was very proud of everyone.

There were so many of you texting me, calling me, coming to my office - asking "Mr. Scott - what can I do to help?".

We had staff members across campus covering classrooms, helping each other and it was nice to see.

On days when we are scrambling around trying to piece the puzzles together, it sure is nice to know we can count on each other!

WE ARE A TEAM!  GREAT JOB!

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Progress reports delayed

Progress reports will not go home until Feb 20th.  

K, 1, & 2

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Attendance

I know attendance the past couple of weeks has been rough and I know we will climb back up.

Thank you for doing a great job this year reminding your students and parents the importance of high attendance.

Attendance Data:


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Upcoming Dates:

2/12 - Mon- K teachers (group 1) @ Sugar Creek PD day
2/13 - Tue - K teachers (group 2) @ Sugar Creek PD day
2/14 - Wed - Valentines Day!!
2/16 - Fri - data meetings (TBA) - not sure on this...

2/19 - NO SCHOOL
2/20 - Progress reports go home

2/26 - 3/2 - Read Across America Week!

2/27 - PTO meeting @ 6:00 pm in the lunchroom

2/28 - 1/2 day students - 1/2 day PD for teachers

3/17 - 3/25 - SPRING BREAK

4/19 - Thursday - Spring Arts Night - 5:00 - 8:00 pm

5/11 - Field Day

5/18 - Field Day make-up

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Quick quote from #KidsDeserveIt

"Focus on the positive. Find hope. Kids need the best you!  Step out and be your best every single day.  Be awesome!  The kids deserve it!"

Have a great week!

MS








Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Nov / Dec Post

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas @ CPS!



Thanks goes out to our super star custodians who put up our trees recently!  Love seeing the trees go up!



Our SpEd department and our K teachers recently celebrated Epilepsy Awareness month in honor of our sweet K student in Mrs. Durham's class, Charlotte.  It was a great day!  Great job CPS!



Mrs. Trockenbrot and several teachers conducted Dyslexia Awareness Night @ Creekside a couple of weeks ago and it was a huge success!  We had a library full of students, parents and activities!  Great job Mrs. T and staff!


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Instructional Time

Only 16 instructional days are left in this semester!  Wow?!?  Where has this semester gone??

Teachers - Please make wise use of your instructional time.  Remember those students who are on the fence with their DIBELS data and do your best to provide them with powerful and meaningful intervention or enrichment to boost them to their next level! 

You can do it!

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Communication
 
Please keep communication with parents at a high level.  Make phone calls and schedule conferences as needed.  Please keep parents informed of daily, weekly and monthly happenings.  Thx!  


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Please encourage students to have high attendance.  So far our attendance data looks good for the year.  Great job everyone!

Attendance Data

Kindergarten

1st grade

2nd grade

CPS totals

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Instagram

I have started using Instagram to post pictures and information for CPS and from me (Principal Matt Scott - not a personal account).  Twitter has been my main social media output for a while but I have noticed that not a lot of our parents are on Twitter.  At the principals conference I attended a couple of weeks ago, "using social media" was a big topic in a session I attended.  Several of schools are now using Instagram as their main social media forum to get information out and share school happenings with their parents.

Most schools seem to shy away from Facebook for several reasons which I won't go in to on this post.

I have created 2 accounts - Creekside Primary and Principal Matt Scott.

They are both open for anyone to "Follow".  

** Are any of you using Instagram for your class?  
  • example -"Mrs. Adam's class"
I would caution you about using a personal account and encourage you to open a school account. 

Please let me know if you have a "Class account" and I will tag you in photo's of your class or students.

Here are the 2 accounts:

Creekside Primary - LINK

Principal Matt Scott - LINK

Please tag me and CPS when you share something.

Also 2 hashtags we can use "school-wide":

#CreeksideLEADS

#ilovecreekside 

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Data Meetings

Dec 6 will be our next Data Meetings.

We will have 1st and 2nd during plan times.

K - I will catch you during planning on Tue or Thur or after school.

We will be looking at data for the year and discussing targeted students.

DM dates

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CPS Remind

If you have not signed up for the CPS staff remind service please sign up @ LINK


CPS Bus Remind notifications - feel free to share link with parents

LINK

Field Trips

Please send me your Field Trip dates and put your trips in "Trip Direct".


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Upcoming dates:

11/29 - Faculty Meeting after school on Nov 29th.
  • This will be a combined Faculty Meeting with CES & then a short FM with just CPS.
  • Dr. Brad Lewis will be speaking to both groups.
  • We will probably meet in the lunchroom @ 3:15ish.
  • FM dates
12/14 - Supper with Santa - 5:30 pm and 6:45 pm (2 sessions)
  •  tickets go on sale Dec 4th 
TBA - East Band to perform Christmas shows for students (working on this date)
  • 9:00-9:30 - K, 1, 2
  • 10:00-10:30 - 3, 4, 5
  • Each show will be in the new gym 
12/19 - Creekside Drama Club presents.......

  • 9:00-9:30 - K, 1, 2
  • 10:00-10:30 - 3, 4, 5
  • Each show will be in the old gym
12/19 - Creekside Drama @ 6:00 pm

12/20 - Last day of this semester (1/2 day)
  • Christmas parties @ 9:00
  • Dismiss  11:10
  • Staff lunch @ 11:45 in the lunchroom
  • Retired staff will join us on this day for lunch
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Have a great next few weeks as we close down this semester.....

In closing - remember these things if you don't remember anything else...

Have fun

Laugh

Smile 

Love students - (Tell them and show them you love them)

Love your school - (it should be evident you love to come here everyday)

Be a Leader

#CreeksideLEADS

#ilovecreekside

Sunday, October 1, 2017

October Post

Welcome to October!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Fall is here!  Cool, crisp mornings are greeting students as they wait for the bus or arrive in car line each morning.  It's great to feel the seasons change!  Fall always a welcomed feel as we grow weary of the heat August brings us.  Enjoy the change in the season!

***** 

Homecoming Week for East @ Creekside!
  • Mon.- Dress Hawaiian
  • Tues. – Decade Day (different from East)
  • Wed. - Western Wear
  • Thurs. - Safari/Zoo
  • Fri. - School Spirit 
***** 

Data Meetings on Wednesday (10/4/17)

We will have Data Meetings on Wednesday during your PE time.  Time will be spend discussing CIP goals and latest progress monitoring data.

DM schedule for the year

*****

Counting Collections info from Mrs. Emily Paschall - LINK

We are very fortunate to have Mrs. Emily Paschall this year as our district math specialist!

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Expectation Reminders:

3 simple expectations
  • Love your kids
  • Love Creekside
  • Love what you do
Questions:

If you self-reflect on these expectations, what are your answers?

What would your kids say?

What would your student's parents say?  Co-workers?

I ask myself these questions everyday......sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we are blessed to be @ Creekside.

Take this blessing and use it to show everyone your heart each day @ Creekside.

Other expectations:
  • Be prepared - make sure you are planning explicit, challenging and rigorous lessons for your kids.
  • Communicate
    • Call parents - just pick up the phone and call
      • It's October and if you have not talked to your parents on the phone yet - CALL
      • This is a very simple expectation
    •  Email info - don't email sticky situation stuff
      • Call parents if you really need to tell them something
    • Use Remind - if you are not using REMIND you are missing out on an easy reminder system for your parents
  • Be professional
    • remain professional at all times
    • if you are not able to be professional with a parent or student let me or Mrs. Adams know and we will help you through a situation
  • Supervise students
    • Do not leave students unattended
    • It is a very hard conversation to have when a parent asks "where was the teacher?"
  • LOVE - just a reminder again...  :)
    • Love your kids
    • Love Creekside
    • Love what you do
***** 

Upcoming Dates: 
Oct 4 - Data Meetings - During PE time - 1st & 2nd
Oct 4 - Ribbon Cutting for New Building
Oct 7-15 - FALL BREAK!!
Oct 18 - Emily Paschall visit - Math Walkthroughs
Oct 19 - Tim Cobb - PD sessions - same schedule as last time (focus is on engagement)
Oct 23 - District Team Walkthroughs
Nov 17 - Creekside Thanksgiving Meal

Have a great week everyone!

MS

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Sept Post

Staff News

We are having a great September so far!  Boosterthon has come and gone and we met our goal of $25,000!  Now we just need to collect 100%.  Please remind your students and parents to collect pledges.

WTs

We had great WTs w/ Mrs. Paschall and our District WT team over the past 2 weeks.  Everyone was very impressed with our level of student engagement, classroom management and our love for our kids.  Great job everyone!  I was very proud of our school.  Everyone does such a great job.  Focusing more on student conversations will be the next look for in our October WTs (more turn and talks, more partner activity and teamwork).

DMs

DMs went great.  If you missed a DM please see me.  Mrs. Trockenbrot did a great job organizing our Data Notebooks.  Please finish up entering in your data this week.

DM notes

Upcoming PD days

09/21/17 with Emily Paschall - schedule link

09/28/17 with Tim Cobb - schedule link

First 5 people on the scheudule need to put a PD day in AESOP.  We will rotate 5 subs and everyone will have 1 hour of PD with Mrs. Paschall and Mr. Cobb.  Trainings will be in the Primary Tech Lab.

09/26/17 - 1/2 day for students.  "Darkness to Light" training for all staff.

09/26/17 - I hope to have a faculty meeting on 9/26 right after the training

CPS Remind

If you have not signed up for the CPS staff remind service please sign up @ LINK

Field Trips

Please send me your Field Trip dates and put your trips in "Trip Direct".

New Website

Make sure you share our school's new website with parents and update your info on your page:

http://www.creeksideps.org/ 

New Twitter

https://twitter.com/CreeksidePS

Upcoming Dates:
09/20 - Safety Training @ East @ 330.  All certified staff.
09/21 - 1 hr PD trainings with Emily Paschall - LINK to schedule
09/22 - Last day to collect for Boosterthon
09/27 - 1/2 Day - PD @ Creekside
09/28 - 1 hr PD trainings with Tim Cobb - LINK to schedule

CPS Calendar - will be updating daily

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Aug Post

I hope the first few weeks of school are going great for everyone!  We have now settled in and things are really going well at Creekside Primary and across our whole campus.

Thank you for all of your hard work each and every day.  Things would not run so smoothly w/o the team work effort that goes on here @ Creekside.

We will not have a Faculty Meeting until Sept 27, so I decided to send out info for everyone to review.

Mornings

I appreciate all of our morning duty staff members.  We could not operate our mornings if it were not for everyone at their duty stations.

7:05 - Please make sure you are @ your duty station by 7:05.  We have to make sure we are supervising students at all times.

Morning car line is going great on north and south but it is still running late.  We are currently not counting tardies unless a child is coming in after 7:50. Things should be better soon with more students starting to ride the bus and parents starting to carpool.  Please be patient during this time.

Breakfast - breakfast is again sit down in the lunchroom and grab and go.  There is no change from last year.  If students come to your room with their grab and go bag - do not send them back to the lunchroom.  Do not sit them in the hallway.  Please do not make them feel like they are doing something wrong because they are eating free breakfast.  Allow the students to eat their breakfast in the classroom quickly and then start their morning.  Students should not take very long to eat, clean up and then move on.  Our free breakfast service is a great program but we have had several issues that could be just some miscommunication.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Communication

Phone calls - Please call parents on a daily basis.  Making phone calls during August and September can really help you make solid connections with your parents.  Emails are great for relaying simple information to parents but more detailed information should be handled through phone calls.  Also, this will avoid parents taking things the wrong way.  Hearing your voice helps them understand your viewpoint and how much you love their child.

Newsletters - Everyone should be communicating with parents through some sort of newsletter on a weekly basis.  Newsletters should be easily understood by parents and they should communicate your weekly goals, what's going on in your room, expectations, and guidelines for things that parents can do to help their child.

Mr. Scott - 256-777-9710
Mrs. Adams - 256-777-5065

You are welcome to call or text anytime


Office - call the office if you need an admin in your classroom.  Our front desk will radio us to come to your room.

Nurse - if you need immediate help from the nurse in an emergency situation.  Call the office and we will radio a nurse to your room.

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Supervision

Make sure students are being supervised at all times.  There should not be a time where students are alone in a classroom.  If you have to step out in an emergency situation - call the office or a neighbor to help watch your classroom.

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Lunch

Please be sure to clean up your lunch table and around your lunch table.  Talk to your students about cleaning up after themselves and taking pride in our school.

Watch your lunch times and stay on schedule as much as possible.

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Break times

Watch your break times and stay on schedule.  Clean up your areas after having snack.

All classes should stay inside.  We should not have any classes going out at this time.  The south side is very busy with traffic on the CES side.  We are looking at fencing in an area on the north side of the primary building for classes to have a place to go outside.

If there are PE classes on the playground please do not go out to the playground area.  We do not need to mix classes.  This has been an issue in the past. 

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Afternoons

Our afternoons are really going great.  Our new areas seem to be flowing with a good traffic pattern.

If you have a new student, please walk this student to their bus and talk to the driver and hand them a written copy of their address.

If you have a question about a child's afternoon procedures please contact the parent as early in the day as possible.

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Attendance

Attendance is a big goal at our school again this year.  We plan on recognizing our perfect attendance each month again this year and giving them an attendance reward of some sort.

Please make sure we are taking attendance in a timely manner each morning and we are communicating withe parents when a child needs to turn in a note for an excused absence.

We want to avoid any child accumulating unexcused absences.

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Boosterthon 

Boosterthon starts on Sep 5 and goes through Sep 15.  We will have a faculty meeting kick off on September 6th in the primary library right after school.  The fun run will be a "glow run" in the new gym on September 15.

We are using funds collected to help purchase a "MacBook" cart & 20+ MacBooks.  This will be shared by both schools.

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Leader in Me

We have not purchased workbooks through LIM.  This is something we need to discuss as a team.

All materials plus videos are on the LIM website.  


Leader in Me - ONLINE - great resource!

LINK

If you are new, we will need to go in and add you.  We are in the process of doing this ASAP.

Lighthouse Team for CPS - I am looking forward to moving with our LIM process.  If you are interested in serving on the Lighthouse Team please let me know. 

Sept 11 - PD Day

Our Sep 11 PD day will focus on "The Leader in Me".  This training will be at Creekside and we will be combined with the CES faculty.  We are looking to renew our vision of The Leader in Me and help kick start our school year with TLIM trainings.  I am not sure of our meeting location.

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Faculty Meetings - LINK

Data Meetings - LINK 

Please bookmark these pages and / or put them down in your calendars.

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PTO Meetings - LINK

Please make efforts to attend PTO meetings if possible.  We have a strong group of parents heading up our PTO leadership team this year and it would really encourage them to have a strong showing from our faculty at our meetings.


Agenda for tonight:

Mr. Scott/Mrs. Rhinehart- Welcome

Lori Carter-read minutes & approve from last meeting.

Michelle Coker- financial update

Kelly Hartley- box tops update

Jennifer Turner- Boosterthon Glow Run & Upcoming dates

Officer Sarah- internet safety

Turn meeting back over to the principals. :)

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Field Trips

Please email me dates as you schedule them

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Lesson Plans

We are going to start putting lesson plans in a Google folder.  More info to come in an email.

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Important Dates:

LINK
 
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I know this was a lot of info but with not have a FM meeting scheduled for a while and I just wanted to send out several reminders.

Thank you for all you do!

Thx MS