Week of 1/6 - 1/10

Hey Panda Family,

Week 18 is done. Check! ✔ 

February 6 PD Update: February 6 after-school we will have a training for our 3rd-5th teachers on I-Ready @ 3:30 in the media center (please make sure your MOY diagnostic is completed by then). We will also have a training for our 1st & 2nd grade teachers on Heggerty. Shannon Thompson will conduct this training and it will also start @ 3:30. Location for the Heggerty training is TBD. 

Change in Specials Schedule (1/14 & 1/15): Due to testing please follow these changes for Specials on January 14 & 15. 

K- 8:30        5^th- 11:15

1^st grade- 10:10       4^th- 12:10

Discretionary Funds: Don't forget about your discretionary funds for instructional materials that was allotted at the beginning of the year. Your discretionary funds need to be spent by the end of February. Send items to me, or Ms. Gardner, for approval and then complete a prior purchase approval form for Pam (yellow sheet). If you need to know how much is left in your grade level/individual account, please email Pam. 

Mobile HR: Human Resources will have a representative onsite at Piney Grove on January 22 from 12:45 - 3:45 to answer any HR related questions (pay, benefits, retirement, etc.). They will be located in room 126 for anyone that would like to speak with them. 

Visit from Cash Elementary: The PBIS team from Cash will be visiting PGE on Wednesday, January 22nd to see how we use music in the cafeteria during lunch.  Make sure you review cafeteria expectations before January 22nd.  

Fire Marshall: Ms. Gardner been working with individuals to correct things reported from the Fire Marshal.  If you are using a power strip that is not labeled WS/FCS, please let her know by Wednesday, January 15 so she can request maintenance to come out and install them. 

Math Night: We are working to schedule a Math Night at the local Food Lion. This will be a hands-on event for our families to attend. More information to come! 

PBIS Event on 1/22: Please submit the names of your students participating in board breaking by Tuesday, 1/15 to your grade level PBIS team member.  

United Way: Our final total for United Way was $1584! We had 70% staff participation. This is an awesome percentage, but we didn't quite meet our goal. We will still have our January staff meeting on 1/21, but we will work to keep it as brief as we can due to the high participation number :) 

Conferences: As discussed at our last staff meeting, please begin scheduling mid-year parent conferences for each of your students. These conferences should be a mid-year check-in to discuss each student's progress (academic, behavior, etc.). I encourage you to schedule them in 15-20 minute increments, unless you feel you need more time with the parents. If a parent can not come in for the conference please attempt to schedule a phone conference with them. Once you have your schedule set please share with Ms. Landreth so she can expect the parent visitors. We will be following up with everyone on how the conferences are going in PLTs. Feel free to use all or some of the teacher workday on January 24 for your conferences. The deadline for K-2 conferences is Friday, January 31. The deadline for 3-5 conferences is Friday, February 14 (we should have all 2nd quarter testing results in at this point for 3-5 to be able to share with parents).   

Staff Spotlight: Thank you so much to Ms. Adams for organizing a successful Science Fair that resulted in PGE having the 2nd place winner in the K-2 division for the district, Larkin Mack! 

Also, thank you to Ms. Sweeney for organizing and hosting another successful Spelling Bee. Good luck to our champion, Madison Russell, as she moves on to the district competition. 

Teacher Tuesday Spotlight: Our school Facebook page is highlighting a teacher each week! Our spotlight this past week was Ms. Tall, our Teacher of the Year. Check it out! 

Lesson Plans: Friendly reminder that Lesson Plans should be posted to the PowerSchool Wiki the first day of each week by 8:00am.

IF Updates

EOQ Testing: EOQ testing will be this week - 1/14 (ELA) & 1/15 (Math). Please help us create an ideal testing environment for all our students by reminding them to be on a voice volume zero in all areas of the building during the testing times. Good luck to all our students testing. 

i-Ready: The Mid-Year is set to begin on January 20th and runs through February 14^th. However, we have scheduled our next training for 2/6/2020, which means that we need to have all assessments completed by 2/5/2020.  We will discuss more details about the assessments in PLT. Also, we will start an incentive program that will track hitting usage goals AND to highlight overall percentages of passing scores for each class.  The bulletin board for this program will revealed very soon!

Upcoming Dates:

January 13 - PTA Meeting @ 6:30
January 14 - ELA Check-In & EOQ Test (3rd - 5th grades)
January 14 - SIT @ 3:30
January 15 - Math Check-In & EOQ Test (3rd - 5th grades)
January 20 - MLK day (no school)

January 21 - Staff Meeting @ 3:30
January 22 - Kindergarten Letterland Parade @ 9:00
January 22 - Master Posey PBIS event (during Specials)
January 22 - Mobile HR @ PGE from 12:45 - 3:45

January 22 - End of 2nd Quarter

January 23 - Workday (reserved for central office)

January 24 - Workday (conference day - reserved for schools)

January 27 - Jerry Yale @ PGE

January 28 - Elkins @ Principal's Meeting 8:00 - 3:00

January 28 - SCC & Media Committees @ 3:30
January 29 - Class Pictures
January 30 - Gardner @ AP Meeting 8:00 - 11:00, Elkins @ Principal's Meeting 12:00 - 3:00

January 31 - Reports cards due to Ms. True

January 31 - K-2 Parent Conferences completed by this date
February 3 - Midyear PDPs due
February 4 - Science EOQ Check-In

February 4 - Jerry Yale @ PGE

February 4 - PBIS & Wellness @ 3:30

February 6 - Iready Training @ 3:30 (3-5 grades only), Heggerty Training @ 3:30 (1st & 2nd only)
February 7 - Testing Team meeting @ 7:30

February 7 - Report cards go home

February 10 - PTA Meeting @ 6:30

February 11 - Boosterthon Assemblies (3-5 @ 1:30, K-2 @ 2:10)

February 11 - Staff Meeting @ 3:30

February 12 - 19 - Boosterthon Pep Rallies during Specials

February 12 - Jerry Yale @ PGE

February 13 - Mary Starling @ 10:00 (5th grade only)

February 13 - FCAE Meeting @ 3:30

February 14 - 3-5 Parent Conferences completed by this date

February 18 - Elkins @ Principal's Meeting 8:00 - 3:00
February 18 - SIT @ 3:30

February 19 - Early Release Day

February 20 - Boosterthon Fun Run (times TBD)
February 20 - Kindergarten Registration Day from 10:00 - 6:30

I need some more good read aloud picture books for my Friday night story time on Facebook. Please share any good titles in the comments below that I could put on my list for the second half of the year. Thanks!