Awesome!

We have kids who are crushing goals! Awesome!

Mindfulness Temperature Check

As the responsibilities of November round the corner, we'd like to check in with the staff. How are you? We invite you to take this brief (optional) "Mindfulness Temperature Check" before Halloween. This will help guide next steps in the area of self-care. Thank you!


https://goo.gl/forms/DI6QswuwyNUIBaTW2

Oh November, we are ready...

Every season in education is a busy season, but doing things well and being great--which is what we strive for-- often comes at a cost, and in some cases that cost is the resource of time. Three-way conferences are an example of this. Let's be honest, they are powerful. Kids as agents of their learning, parents as partners...

Some of us have these down to a science, others of us are learning about them and doing them for the first time, and a few of us are reinventing how we do them altogether. Regardless, let's be honest: this incredible work that we do during November can make life at school feel busy. With being busy comes stress. 

Team, this year I want to push you to be incredibly disciplined about taking good care of you during November. I've added a third week of no meetings out of respect and honor for the work you do, but I would ask that you also acknowledge the chaos of the season. With that, I would respectfully request that you then meet that chaos with a mindful approach. 

Maybe: 

• Keep a gratitude journal again. 
• Find time, during the day, to go sit in silence in the auditorium.
• Make time to laugh with your colleagues and students.
• Exercise.
• Schedule a date night with your spouse.
• Turn your work email off and be home when you are home.
• Choose to see the good in the busy.

Not every principal gets to lead a staff of people who ALL dump their entire heart into their work, but with that comes my job responsibility of reminding you to take time for yourself. I value the work you are doing this month with parents and kids, and I appreciate all the efforts that go into it. 

WE are QUEST. Let's make November a great month for kids. 

Enjoy no meeting weeks.

Need-to-Knows

• Halloween reminder: the 31st is a half day. We have a school-meeting at 9:30 am. We will walk to this meeting in our costumes, hear some jokes, have student council speeches, then walk back to rooms to parents in the hall. If it is nice out, I will invite parents to go outside and we will parade by them. Trying to keep it simple! 
• Next Friday, instead of SWEET, we will have a 2:45 assembly--location TBD. Teachers are going to be getting slimed for how great we did with the fundraisers, and the PTSO has a few students to celebrate for being the big sellers. We will also just celebrate how well we did as a school. Nothing too crazy. Wait, who am I kidding, we are going to get them fired up, slime teachers, and then send them home to their parents! 
• BEDS is due by November 7th. Please be sure this gets done so that we can get that out of the way.

Looking Ahead

TIME TO DO BEDS!!!!

BEDS season is upon us. We GET to do BEDS.  :)

What? 

QUEST Staff BEDS Deadline: Wednesday, November 7th

Who? 

Teachers AND some non-teaching (counselors, nurse, pysch...) 

How? 

1. Log-in to the ePMF site with your TEACH id.
2.  Validate the information that was uploaded into your school snapshot. Most data should be accurate, but there could be a few discrepancies. If you think some of the data is not accurate, please let Derek know what is wrong and what you believe it should be. 
3. For those who are instructional, you will also need to enter the course you teach, assignment code (see link), assignment name, grade level and the amount of students in your courses. 

Where do I log-in to start?

Log-in HERE

What resources might I need?

The BEDS ePMF User Guide, FAQ's, and Assignment Codes are now listed on the SharePoint called QUEST Shares (schedules) at the top of our blog. Inside that sharepoint there is a folder. Or, click Here

Need to Knows for week of 10/22/18

• I have given Nate a budget to use for equipment for SWEET, that way we are not always pulling from the gym. Please see Nate if there is a specific item you feel like we need. 

Dance Planner FYI

November 13th-December 14th the dance master schedule will be in effect.

From the Office of Instruction

-12, we have commons assessments for numerous purposes. Some of them go into eDoctrina, and some do not- but we do them all.  In essence, "District Assessments" reflect those common assessments that need to be entered into eDoctrina.   We still have other common assessments that are administered..  An example is ELA module assessments.  We understand this title/way of thinking for ELA is a change for folks.    

We would liken it to how we handle the math assessments.  There are common assessments for almost every unit at every grade 1-4.  Teachers are responsible to administer all of them; however, only a couple are entered into eDoctrina.   Students still do them all. 

We also have SS unit common summative assessments for K-4. None of them are entered into eDoctrina, but they are not optional- students do them all. 

So in summary, the list on SharePoint titled "District Assessments" reflect only those common assessments that are entered into  eDoctrina.  We also have other math, ELA, and social studies common assessments embedded in the curriculum units that are required. The science common assessments are in the BOCES 4 kits.

Make A Difference Day is coming!

Hilton Cares will be working with Model UN to collect coat/hats/mittens again this year for Make a Difference Day.  Pull up in the upper high school loop between 10-12 to donate!

Friday

Enjoy a restful weekend!

Keep It Ringing

We've had a couple students ring the bell in the past couple of weeks for some of the good! Moving students to the next goal, and then the next, and then the next...isn't this why we are here?

Keep it up, QUEST! Thanks for taking the time to celebrate kids!

PTSO Heads Up

Team,

I received this email from Jincy and wanted to give you a heads up about it. This pertains to FEAST (not sure if FEAST is all caps, but that's how I am doing it because I plan on bringing my elastic-waist pants that day so that I can eat up!).

The topic of the feast came up and we had a great discussion.

We voted and agreed that we would like to pay for the food expenses for the feast. This would be potentially added to the budget based on what the number would be.

The conversation had started with some of the teachers ask families to donate $1-3 to buy supplies to make sides dishes in their classrooms.

So we agreed that teachers could do their shopping and submit receipts for reimbursement. We were thinking that it would be around $20 a class.

We know that there are some classes that ask families to send in apples or other supplies. So we asked that those teachers would please send an email to their families saying thank you for all their support with the fundraiser and if they would like to donate apples or whatever it may be they would appreciate it.

We also discussed maybe setting up a signup genius to see if there would be any parent volunteers that would maybe do the grocery shopping for the classes.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this meeting, so I may not have answers to specific questions, however, please reach out to Jincy or your PTSO rep. for further details.

ALSO

The deadline to submit proposals that will be voted on (ones that benefit the entire school) are due at the end of this month. PTSO asks that you attend the meeting in November to share the proposal. Keep in mind I need to sign off on it ahead of time, however, so make sure you get it to me before Nov. 1.

Looking Ahead

Live it up this weekend

Cool Idea

Three-way conference time opens up next week. Fun idea to push student ownership. 

Need-to-Know

• When your class is planning morning meetings, be sure to time it so it is completed by 9:15 (really 9:13 so there's time to transition :) ). Specials begin at that time, and with limited instructional time from specials, it is important that we conclude the school wide meeting right on time. 
• No meeting weeks is coming up. During no meeting weeks, there is still a possibility that a walk-through could still happen. If you rather me not come during no meetings week, I will respect that and just need you to reach out and let me know. This week I have also added an extra week of no meetings week, and removed RtI meetings during that period. Thank you for your work during this time. You are appreciated.
• We crushed the fundraiser this year...really, we did great. I understand it can be stressful to be hounded with emails while being asked to send stuff home. With that being said, I also appreciate the fact that all this money goes back to the school--I value the fact they also give each teacher a budget. Thank you for being patient, for taking a deep breath when it feels stressful, and for supporting the fundraiser. We earned a lot because of YOU! Thank you!
• Next week is the lockdown. We will send out a reminder, but be sure you are ready to sign-in to Navigate either on a school laptop or personal device. Thanks for making safety your top priority! 
• Keep plugging. We are off to a great start for October! Proud of you all. 

Looking Ahead

Mindfulness Check In...

Now that we are into the swing of the busy life that we call school, how is everyone doing? Are you finding times to take a breath? Have you caught yourself taking a brief pause before responding? Or maybe you are treating yourself to a minute-or five-to just sit and be. Are you sampling any of the activities with your kiddos from the Mindful/Reflective calendar? Whatever you may have tried-or may try someday-give your soul a little hug for that self-love! 

As we move through the next weeks leading up to conferences and more, check in with your body. Use this graphic as a little calming reminder. Once you recognize what you feel, and where you feel it, you can give it the attention that it needs and then move on from it. This is what is referred to as embodiment. 

October Calendars: We will do more exploration with this for the next Mindful Monday on 10/15 at 8:20am. Dates to follow are: Monday 10/22 at 3:50pm and Monday 10/30 at 8:20am. A survey will be coming out soon to reevaluate the days/times/needs. 

Cheers to you,

Christy 

Digital Citizens Week

Digital Citizenship week is coming up the week of October 15-19.  

Please consider reading this blog post titled “John Dewey Would Hate Your Digital Citizenship Curriculum” about why teaching digital citizenship is so important

(https://drkmattson.com/2016/08/03/john-dewey-would-hate-your-digital-citizenship-curriculum/) and consider teaching a lesson or having Jason Cring come into your class to co-teach a lesson about digital citizenship.  

Some wonderful grade appropriate lessons with all the materials can be found on
CommonSense.org’s website (https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship#digcit-program).  



Jason Cring
Instructional Technology Teacher

Long Weekend Ahead

Tomorrow is a day full of learning. Enjoy it, and also enjoy the long weekend! Thanks for all you do. Hope to see some of you at the homecoming parade/game! Go Cadets!

Need-to-Knows

• In the staff lounge you will see a bunch of calendars with each month. If your level has something coming up this year, or you organize a school tradition, please add to those calendars. The goal with them is so that we can be mindful and visually see "when" the busy times are and respond accordingly...not plan too much at one time, etc.
• IST (RTI) Referrals for the Oct. 15th RTI meeting date need to be in no later than Tuesday Oct. 9th: 2 spots left!  To sign up just go on the blog page and click RTI Referrals! 
• On October 31st we will have a morning meeting where we will share student council speeches. On the way there or on the way back, we will parade around the bus look or through the halls so parents can see us and so that we might see one another. More to come. 
• On October 10th we have walk to school day, and on the 12th is the fun run. Thanks so much for your support of our PTSO. It gets a little hectic during fundraising season, but the PTSO is working hard to continue to support all we do here at QUEST. Thanks for your support!
• Please be sure you follow the assessment calendar timeline--including putting things in e-doctrina by the due dates. If this presents a problem for you for any reason, come chat! Thank you!
• Be sure to stop and smell the roses this month...there is a lot of good happening all around us. 

90's Trivia

The 11th caller gets the prize this week. Come on all, this is an easy one!

Looking Ahead

October Principal's Challenge

Be mindful this month (along with all the IB Profiles that follow) by taking the Principal's Challenge for October. This challenge asks you to have a hard shut down time in the evening, and on the weekends, for email. Challenge by choice, as always.

An Update From The Stanford Family