The Knight Times

Thomas Dale Faculty and Staff,

It's already November!! This week, we turn our calendars to a new month. There is Halloween on Wednesday, and Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday. It is the end of the first grading period on Friday, signally the official quarter-mark for the school year. Some days, I feel like I'm holding on for dear life! I am overcome with joy and excitement to host our first Genius Hour on Monday! This is an important step for us and a tremendous opportunity for our students. Giving students even a short period of time to un-earth their genius in school is HUGE, and I am over-the-moon thrilled about Monday's Genius Hour. It will be a 40-minute period of time when I will definitely be holding on for dear life!

Last week, I shared the four emblematic questions rolling around in students' heads when they come into your classroom each day. In a January Blogpost, David Geurin identified 5 questions that students ask themselves everyday about school in general, focusing more on their emotional well-being. The deeper meaning of these questions is what is really driving the work we are doing this year to create a positive learning environment built on strong relationships, in a space where we are all connected to each other and to something greater than ourselves.

Here are the five questions:

• Am I important to someone here?
• Do I belong here?
• Am I good at something here?
• Who will listen to me here?
• Is my presence here making a difference?

Through the three structures of our Monday Enrichment (Morning Meeting, Club/Activity Meetings, and Genius Hour), we create a system that allows us to address our students' basic social and emotional needs.

This week, I invite you to take on David Geurin's challenge:

• Show others they matter to you
• Lift them up and make them feel like they are valued for who they are
• Show them they are heard
• Notice the unique talents and gifts they have to offer the world
• Show them how they are making a difference

These are just as important to do with and for each other as they are for our students. Let me be the first to tell you and show you through my actions, not just my words...I love you, I appreciate you, and I care deeply about you.

Up-Front Summary (by day):

Monday

• GENIUS HOUR!!!

• 10/29 Genius Hour Student Spreadsheet

• Alternate Locations for Genius Hour Hosts

• 10/29 Genius Hour List

Tuesday

• Normal Day!

Wednesday

• Homeroom Teachers: Please administer the Food Services survey in the Google Classrooms.

Thursday

• Homeroom Teachers: Please administer the Food Services survey in the Google Classrooms.

Friday

• Normal Day!

Links shared in this issue:

• KUDOS
• Faculty Meeting Follow-up
• Attendance Matters Program
• Dashboard Re-Link
• Veterans Form
• Tech Integrator - Janice Skipwith
• Exceptional Education Progress Reports
• Fundraiser Policy
• Knight's Cafe Order Form

#EveryKnightEveryDay

The I Make A Difference award is a weekly recognition for a staff member going above and beyond the requirements of the job. Each week, the previous I Make A Difference award winner will select one member of the faculty/staff who displays excellence, goes the extra mile, and makes a difference and "pass" it on.

From Heidi Hicks:

The 12th recipient of the I Make A Difference award goes to Elle Kotowski.

Elle is truly special, and I love working with her. She gives of herself every single day and with every single child. She is never too busy and no problem is ever too big or too small for her to take a crack at it. When we need to get creative with students to make things happen, whether it is academically or socially, at home or at school, Elle is on board. As an administrator I can go to her with anything, as a colleague I can talk with her and know that she will listen, as a parent she was there for both of my children when they needed her.

As many of you know I can get a little overwhelmed at times :), and when I see Elle in action she makes me want to be more like her. She is strong and compassionate while remaining calm and caring. What more can you ask of a person? Thank you, Elle. You make a difference every day for students, their parents, and your colleagues. Thomas Dale is lucky to have you!

The purpose of our weekly KUDOS is to give public affirmation to a faculty/staff member for a job well done. Anytime you witness something that you think deserves KUDOS, you are invited to fill out THIS FORM with the staff member's name and a little about why he/she deserves KUDOS. You will notice a difference in the form. We have added a layer that will send each individual recipient an email with attachment shortly after the KUDOS has been submitted! The list of teacher names and valiant acts will be published in The Knight Times. At each faculty meeting, those nominated for KUDOS will be entered into a drawing for a special prize! Be alert to the wonderful actions of your colleagues and give a shout out when you see something awesome!

Please enjoy this week's KUDOS by clicking HERE!

Each month, we will celebrate and recognize one teacher as the Teacher of the Month and one staff member as the Staff Member of the Month. We were so excited to celebrate our Teacher and Staff Member of the Month recipients so far!

• September: Jamie Barrack and Michelle Kimenhour
• October: Rachel Langston and Steve Davies

Submit your nomination for November's Teacher and Staff Member of the Month by clicking HERE.

Each month, we will celebrate and recognize one student from each grade level as the Student of the Month. This student will be publicly recognized in front of classmates and on social media. Additionally, we will place a yard sign at each student's place of residency indicating that they are a Student of the Month for the appropriate grade level. Each student will be able to keep the yard sign. Each student who is nominated but not selected will also be recognized publicly.

Please think of a student you feel is deserving of November's Student of the Month and submit that student's name HERE.

• Faculty Meeting Follow-up (Information). Please click HERE for a few reminders, resources, and the data with regards to the feedback survey from Monday's Faculty Meeting.
• Attendance Matters (Information). Teachers, if you have students who are struggling with attending school everyday, please take time to review and share this program offered through CCPS with parents.
• Dashboard (Information). As a reminder, a lot of information you are looking for can be found on the Dashboard. Are there additional items you would like added to the dashboard? Please share with Meg Bryant or Karen Lee. Don't forget to bookmark for one stop shopping.
• Newsela Issues (Information). Please reach out to Sally Southall if you have any issues with Newsela; particularly if a student has signed up as a teacher.
• Prob/Stat Class Data Collection (Information). In an effort to engage in an authentic learning experience, Rachael Smith's Prob/Stat students would like to swing by for assistance with surveys in classrooms and homerooms for students/teachers with regards to sustainability goals at TDHS. This should not cause a disruption to instruction.
• Honoring our Vets (Information). Please complete (NLT 2 Nov 18) the following survey to determine your branch of military service so that AJROTC may honor you on Nov 8, 2018 for Veterans Day. Click here to access the survey.
• Knight Mentors (Information). This Monday the Knight Mentors will not be attending Morning meeting with their 9th grade assignments, but will instead attend their own homeroom. The focus this Monday will be on Genius hour and students need to be in their own grade level homeroom. The mentors will return to their 9th grade assignments at the next regularly scheduled Monday meeting, November 12, 2018.
• Tech Integrator (Information). Janice Skipwith is a wonderful resource for high-quality instruction. Please see her weekly newsletter HERE.
  
• Exceptional Education Progress Report Schedule (Information). Please click HERE to access the Progress Report Schedule for Exceptional Education.
• ESOL Accommodations (Information). We’d like to let you know that we are in the midst of finalizing accommodations for our ELs. We will be coming into classrooms during our planning periods to get signatures from students - we apologize in advance for any interruptions. We will also be asking one content teacher from each student to sign the forms. If you teach multiple ELs, we will send you one stack. Please sign and return these within 48 hours of when you receive them next week so that we can get them to admin. Thank you for your cooperation!
• Fundraiser Policy Update (Information). Please see the update to the policy on fundraisers HERE.

• Students will go directly to their Genius Hour locations at the end of 1st period. They do not need to check in with their Homerooms.

• Remind students that they need to go to the Genius Hour they have been assigned (almost all Genius Hours were capped because of space). If they did not sign up for a Genius Hour, they will stay in their Homeroom. If the Homeroom teacher is hosting a Genius Hour, here are the alternate locations for those classes.

• Teachers, please leave a couple minutes at the end of your 1st period on Monday (10/29) to review Genius Hour locations with students if they have questions. Some have been added to the spreadsheet and some did not get passes because of subs. Please reference the spreadsheet on the TD Dashboard or right here. Go to the tab where students are listed by last name. Write them a new pass if they need one.

• A few corrections:

• Genius Hour #1. Learning to type for speed is in Main 210.

• Mrs. Warthen’s HR will go to W7 if they do not have a Genius Hour.

• Mr. Denton’s HR will go to 1000 if they do not have a Genius Hour.

Here are all the links you might need:

• 10/29 Genius Hour Student Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ui6bmTxqNaw6pqJZnAFVwb2efhX1D9LQyDyIClh07EA/edit?usp=sharing
• Alternate Locations for Genius Hour Hosts: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p6yDPoLQy6znoSp6CXqFF7TiihnP_nb9H3MXbJvL3zQ/edit?usp=sharing
• 10/29 Genius Hour List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1___qHq3yvjIld8-JageP5wdyV7V4M30d1zf4q4lv7G0/edit?usp=sharing

Just wanted to share a new report that Attendance will be running starting 10/29/18 in order to help us ensure attendance is being taken in order to better identify skippers. This report will be ran after the first 15 minutes of every class period and will automatically send an email notification via Synergy to each teacher if they have not entered their period attendance during that sweep. Attendance will do our best to keep it from sending emails when a teacher is out, but if you receive one while you are absent, you can disregard. Taking this step will allow Attendance to have the most accurate accounting of a students attendance each day and will allow "skippers" to be more easily identifiable by all faculty. If you have any questions, Attendance is happy to answer them.

1. Starting Monday at Main Campus, please place completed time/attendance forms in the box outside of Michelle's office in the appropriate folder. There will not longer be a "payroll box" in the mail room at Main Campus.

2. In an attempt to streamline the PO process, the following change has been made--

You will still send your PO through the same electronic procedure but NOW when you received your PO back from Nancy, the only "wet" signature that will be needed is yours. In case you're interested in the new routing system of the actual paper PO it is as follows:

Chris prints/signs PO>Departmental Admin. signs>Nancy>requester's mailbox.

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to announce that the Thomas Dale High School (West Campus) has begun the process of renovating the Career Center! This facility (now referred to as the PathWays Centre) will offer our students a venue to acquire valuable information and resources that will assist them in transitioning from high school to their various post- secondary endeavors. The PathWays Centre will host various workshops, college visits as well as provide a centralized location to conduct educational, employment and military interest research. Further, one of the other benefits of the PathWays Centre is that it’s location on the West campus will avail our ninth grade students a jumpstart to essential information and resources needed to become responsible, productive and successful citizens upon departing from Thomas Dale High School.

In our endeavor to support our students, the PathWays Centre wishes to present a welcoming

atmosphere. Please assist us in this effort by donating any of the following items:

Furniture: (1) Sofa (2) Arm chairs (4) Throw pillows (1) Coffee table (medium sized)

(2) End tables (medium sized) (2) baby or twin sized mattress (any#)*Throw pillows

Décor accessories: Large and medium sized wall prints

Latex Interior Paint: Brown, Tan,*Maroon, *Grey (*school colors)

Instruments: Brass, string, percussion instruments. (The older/more “vintage” the better)

Please let me know of items that you have via email or by calling extension 258.

We appreciate your consideration toward supporting the PathWays Centre of Thomas Dale High School as we continue our mission in supporting Every Knight, Every Day!

Sincerely,

A Cullen Lewis

PathWays Centre/Testing Coordinator

Thomas Dale High School (West)

In lieu of a full staff meeting and training, we wanted to create some on-demand opportunities to bring everyone on board with Newsela. We've invested in the Pro version this year, which allows us to maximize the potential of this tool to increase student learning.

If you have not set up your Newsela account and imported your 2018-2019 class rolls, please do so by Friday, November 9th. If you are new to Newsela, please go to www.newsela.com and create an account. Thomas Dale High School is listed as a choice and you will be prompted to select your school while creating your account.

The following training is available on the Newsela website and is required for Thomas Dale High School teachers. On the right hand side find the "Support Center" and click "For Teachers" to find the sessions.

If you are new to Newsela: (Total - 60 minutes)

Newsela 101 (15 minutes)

How to: Create Classes (10 minutes)

How to: Binder (10 minutes)

How to: Annotations (10 minutes)

Teaching Tips: Copying text sets (15 minutes)

If you are not new to Newsela for a refresher/integrating Newsela into instruction: (Total - 45 minutes)

How to: Lesson Sparks (15 minutes)

Launch: Student Choice (10 minutes)

Launch: Direct Instruction (10 minutes)

Launch: Homework (10 minutes)

Your account and the sessions above should both be completed by Friday, November 9th. If you have any questions, please see Sally Southall. Thank you!

Our Knights In Need Pantry is bare! Please help us make sure that no Knights go without their most basic needs being met. We are excited to have a Stock-Our-Pantry competition. The West Campus homerooms will be responsible for toiletries and the Main Campus homerooms will collect food. The first homeroom on each campus to fill a bag with the items listed on the flyer will earn a donut breakfast! There will be a paper grocery bag with the list attached delivered to each homeroom by Wednesday Morning. Please contact heather_walker@ccpsnet.net once your bag is complete or with any questions.

WEST CAMPUS FLYER

MAIN CAMPUS FLYER

Please help us enrich the lives of our students! Every Knight. Every Day.

This is a reminder that Wednesday, during Enrichment, is the Senior Halloween Costume Bash. Those seniors who are dressed in costume and are wearing the breast cancer sticker may be released to the Commons. Senior homeroom teachers, if you are able to send your seniors who are not participating to another classroom or 2 and accompany your participating seniors to the Commons, that would be very much appreciated. Again, only those dressed in costume may participate.

This week the Knights Cafe is offering poppy seed muffins, chocolate chocolate chip muffins, and apple oat bars. HERE is this week's order form.

First, thank you to everyone who participated in Homecoming Week, from Spirit Days and Powder Puff, to the dance. A very special thank you to Laurie Gholson, Laura Deck, Richard Anthony, Maureen Marshall, Adam Diehl, Andrew Boydoh, Jill Seal, Steve Davies and the rest of the Admin Team for your help during the week!

With Homecoming over, SCA is shifting focus to the remainder of the year. One facet is to increase student involvement in activities and happenings of SCA and Thomas Dale. One part of this are four select committees of the SCA General Assembly. Two of these four committees have sponsors, the other two are in need of a teacher. Committee descriptions are below. Because when more teachers are involved, the better the whole school is, I am asking only for teachers who do not currently sponsor a club or class to sponsor a committee.

School Spirit:

Figuring out small ways to improve school spirit, both on a faculty and student side of things. This can be things as small as dropping candy off at classrooms. This would not involve planning pep rallies at this time.

Club Ambassadors:

One important goal of the SCA is to promote every club and increase club presence and membership. Club ambassadors’ role is to meet club needs. If a club is hosting a large event, ambassadors will help get the club whatever they need. Their role is to also promote different clubs in various and creative ways.

If either of these two committees interest you, please email me (Jamesm_Thompson@ccpsnet.net). The idea is to get the committees up and running as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your time, and for all each of you do to make Dale a great place to come to every day. The people here make it home.

As part of our intentionality to strengthen trust, communication, and relationships, we will include agendas and minutes from our meetings in this section of the newsletter.

• Admin Team: October 16
  
• ILT: October 5
  
• Instructional Admin: October 16
  
• Community Partners Meeting: October 9
• Principal's Advisory Council: October 17
• Student Advisory Council: October 19
• ACTS Notes (from Cindy Waters): October 8
• English: October 23
• Math: Minutes Folder

No known birthdays this week. So, everyone...

Enjoy your day!!!

Stay connected to OUR CALENDAR and mark yours!

Click HERE for our 2018-2019 meeting dates.

October 30 - Girls VB Regionals at Franklin

November 1 - Cross Country Regionals at Pocahontas State Park

November 1 - Boys VB Regionals at HOME

November 2 - Dale-Gate and Football Senior Knight

November 3 - Competition Cheer STATES (VCU Siegel Center, 4:04pm)

November 5 - Pancake Breakfast (Sponsored by Key Club and Keyettes)

November 5 - Teacher Workday (Grades)

November 6 - Parent-Teacher Conference Day (10-6)

November 7 - Specialty Center Open House (Main Campus)

Click below to access previous issues of The Knight Times, our weekly staff newsletter:

• Week of August 13
• Week of August 20
• Week of August 27
• Week of September 3
• Week of September 10
• Week of September 17
• Week of September 24
• Week of October 1
• Week October 8
• Week of October 15
• Week of October 22

Click below to access previous issues of From the Castle, our monthly parent and community newsletter:

• August 2018
• September 2018
• October 2018
• November 2018

If you have information you need to share, input you seek, or dates you need to communicate, please send it to me. As we improve our communication structure, The Knight Times will become an increasingly collaborative document.

Please email me what you'd like to share - just ensure you have The Knight Times as part of your subject line. I will just need a title, body of text to include, and a picture attachment (if you have one to add to your piece).

Email: christopherm_jones@ccpsnet.net
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/ccpsnet.net/tdhs/
Location: 3626 W. Hundred Rd. Chester, VA 23831
Phone: (804) 768-6245
Facebook: facebook.com/ThomasDale
Twitter: @GoTDKnights