Nuts & Bolts

Week of January 29, 2018

Happy Monday

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I am looking forward to the Chili Cook off this week. Family Ski Night last week on Monday was super fun. We had a great turnout for both the Early Childhood Information Night last week and the Junior High Information Night the previous week. Thank you to those teachers who stayed late to wow potential students and families. Thank you to Kacee for organizing and presiding over these events.

It seems as though a nasty flu is going around. Please stay well and don't forget to email April and myself, in addition to your teacher/assistant in the event that you are absent or late to school.

Have a beautiful week!

Construction Update

As of this moment, we have no construction updates that would affect our daily functioning. Yay! It is pretty awesome seeing walls go up.

Teacher Observations

I was not able to keep the schedule to have all teacher observations completed in January. I am working diligently to get them completed as soon as possible. My revised plan is to conduct the observation with Kacee and then debrief about it that day after school or the next. Feel free to suggest a alternative time you may want to meet as well. Thank you for your patience.

Volunteers Needed for Science Fair

We are in need of food, judges, and scorers for the Science Fair on Wednesday, February 21st. If you (or anyone you know) are interested in the opportunity, please sign up here: https://www.trackitforward.com/site/389525/event/399835.

For more information, contact:

Michelle Olsen (molsen@mariamontessoriacademy.org)

John Edwards (Jedwards@maraimontessoriacademy.org)

Nicoletta Householder(nhouseholder@mariamontessoriacdemy.org)

High Five!

Be sure to congratulate and encourage Shaquel when you see him. He has been working hard on his cooking skills and getting his work completed. Also, give Mr. Alex a high five when you see him. He has been an excellent mentor for Shaquel and is working hard to build a strong relationship.

Thank you to the students who assisted Ms. Kacee in putting chairs away last week.

Open Enrollment - Please Share

Please share information about our school via personal contact outside our community at church, on the sidelines, and at the grocery store as well as through your social media outlets. We are in open enrollment season right now and want to build a big bank of students in our lottery. The easiest way to do that is to share our Facebook posts about this. It would be even better if you shared your personal story about why you love to work here and (if applicable) why your children attend MMA. Thanks!

From Heidi, RE: Track It Forward

To get started with track it forward: (a small handful of you have already done this step)

1. Go to https://www.trackitforward.com/site/mapa

2. Create a username and login (username should be your work email)

3. Your done, all set up

Once you are on, MAPA will make you a coordinator so you can create sign up sheets. SO SIMPLE (BETTER THEN WEJOININ)

Here is a step by step of how to create a sign up sheet:

1. Type trackitforward.com in your search browser.

2. Login by entering your email and password (you should have set this up already)

3. Click on Green Box that says Event Sign Ups.

4. Click on Orange Box that says Create Event.

5. On Event Title type what you want your event called (example, Ms. Amy Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up)

6. On Event Date, Pick the date you want people to sign up for.

7. Event Description, Type up a short description of event.

8. Shift: choose times and how many volunteers you want.

9. Click on Add More Values (orange box) to add other lines.

10.Leave all settings, then hit Orange Save box on bottom and people can start signing up.

11. If you want more then 1 day for the same event, you will have to create a new one for each day, but at the bottom it will say duplicate and its all ready to go and easy to make any changes you need to.

I know new things can seem overwhelming and scary (I didn’t want to do track it forward at first either) but we feel once we get used to it and figure out all the kinks, but I’m sure by next year we will be masters:).

We are talking and voting on at our next MAPA meeting (Feb 2nd) to see if every single sign up for every single class should be on Track it Forward for now, or just school wide functions?

Thanks

Heidi Bradley

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Please begin to prepare for parent-teachers conferences. They are February 14-16th for elementary and February 21-22 for Junior High. MAPA will provide dinner on the 14th, 15th, 21st.

Yearbooks - Last Days for Discount

Post on your blogs that we are in the last weeks that students can purchase yearbooks at a discounted price. Verbiage you could cut/paste:

Take advantage of special pricing and order your student's yearbook now. Prices go up on February 17th. Visit ybpay.lifetouch.com to order. Yearbook ID is 13283718.

Attendance Procedures with Substitutes

If you have a substitute for your class, please include in their notes to take attendance on paper using a hard copy class roster you leave them. Substitutes should then call the office to report attendance in the first hour of the day for elementary and the first ten minutes of the class period for Junior High.

Grace and Courtesy

Please exercise grace and courtesy when working with your colleagues by respecting other people's/classes' materials. There have been incidences recently where equipment and supplies have gone missing from locked spaces. If you have taken/borrowed something temporarily, please return it asap. If you desire to use/borrow something in someone else's space, please ask first.