The Knight Times

Thomas Dale Faculty and Staff,

I am on Cloud 9...because of you. Thank you for an amazing week, an awesome school opening, and a fantastic way to welcome our students back! I appreciate every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears you put into this profession. I am honored and humbled to call myself your colleague, and I cannot think of another place on Earth I'd rather call my home-away-from-home than Dale. You worked to build relationships with students, connect with them, and show them who you are as people before teachers. I cannot tell you how much positive feedback I've received from staff, students, parents, and the community about you. YOU ARE AWESOME! And I appreciate you!

I acknowledge your efforts to focus on trust, communication, and relationships, and I want to underscore how building relationships is vital to our success as a school. For our students, these are basic needs. They must feel loved, know they are cared for, treated with respect, and shown what it means to treat each other with kindness, empathy, gratitude, humility, and service. You have worked this week to make a difference. You have put in hard work that is really HEARTWORK. This video is 8 years old and 6 minutes long, and it's totally worth seeing again if you already have: Everyday Leadership by Drew Dudley. YOU are the one who makes a difference, and I need you to BE THE ONE!

In the spirit of relationships (and growth), we need your feedback on our school opening. We need to get better, and the only way we can do that is through your input. Please take 5-10 minutes to fill out THIS BRIEF FEEDBACK SURVEY. It is anonymous, and if you would like any follow-up, you can include your name in the comments prompt at the end of the survey.

I also recognize that having a faculty meeting and back-to-school night on September 17 may create a hardship for our faculty members. I plan to provide food, and I realize this might not fix the problem for some. I wanted to get some input to see how you felt about either keeping our faculty meeting on the 17th or moving it to the 25th. Each day presents its own pros and cons, and I need you to vote for what's best for you this go-round. Please click HERE to help us make a decision about the best time for our first faculty meeting, recognizing that we all need to be there, and we all need to participate and engage synchronously. We will still have our Professional Development Pathways meeting on Monday, September 24. I value you, your input, and your needs.

One down, and 35 to go!!!

#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 Laura Deck:

The fifth recipient of the I Make a Difference award is a teacher in our fine arts department. She has, without fail, said "yes" to me and the senior class each time I've asked her to help in various ways. "Will you bring the drum line to the senior parade?" Yes. "Will you help us with the drum line's performance prior to the senior slide show?" Yes. These are just a few examples of her willingness to help in situations that aren't part of her responsibilities. Along with her colleagues, she spends hours and hours in the heat and sun with our marching band getting them ready for the fall football season and the band's competitive season. Having previously been on staff with our marching band for 5 years, I know how grueling a job this is, and how many hours are spent doing this. So it is Sarah Klinger, a teacher extremely dedicated to our students, who is "making a difference" and is therefore the fifth recipient of the I Make a Difference award. Thank you Sarah! You're awesome!!

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. 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!

• From the Libraries. Please click HERE to access information about our school's libraries.
  
• Golf Team Early Release. The Golf team will need to be dismissed on Monday, September 10 and Wednesday, September 12 at 2:15 for their matches at Fort Lee and Meadowbrook Country Club. (Jack Brockwell, Anna White, Nick Papkostas, Mia McGovren, Aliyah Kellum)
• Swag from Laurie Gholson. Need some TDHS swag? Click HERE.
• Culture by Design Team. Culture by Design meeting will be Tuesday, September 11th at 3:10 in the West Library. Anyone looking to get involved is encouraged to attend.

Please click HERE for the Chromebook Deployment Instructions.

2E teachers with planning are asked to sign up here to volunteer their time to help with distribution from 10:10 - 11:40. We will have help from JROTC during this time, but we need staff around to help move kids along and handle paperwork issues.

Please see the distribution schedules (by building) below to find your assigned time to send your students to get their Chromebooks.

• MAIN
• WEST

We hope everyone has had a great first week of school, and we are sure you are already seeing positive things from our students. Here at Thomas Dale High School, we have a positive referral system. Please "write-up" students who are doing great things. On Monday, several positive referrals will be place in each teacher's mailbox and additional forms will be located in the mailroom at both West and Main. An order for an additional 2000 forms has been placed, and once these forms are in, more copies will be placed into boxes. Positive referrals are a great way to recognize students and to build strong relationships. Find a way to recognize #EveryKnightEveryDay

We have received tremendously positive feedback regarding our video announcements! Staff and students have raved about the new process, playing the video from your classroom at 8:30am each morning has been a great way to start the day!

To quickly and easily access the video, open the Google Doc (found in the TDHS Essentials Folder) marked TDHS Morning Announcements and click the link under that day's date. We have also made this available on our website: HERE. OR - you can join the Morning Announcements Google Classroom - code : sqv6mhe

Each morning, by 8:15, you will find a new video posted and ready to play at 8:30 when the opening bell sounds.

To submit an announcement to be read on the morning announcements, we will use the same process as last year. We will use a shared Google Doc in the Announcements Folder within the TDHS Essentials Folder.

For now, we are only accepting written announcements. Have them in by 8:15 a.m. on WEDNESDAY the WEEK BEFORE you want the announcement read. Because a small group of students are producing the announcements, we need the lead time to tape and edit.

Click HERE for a quick reference.

We will eventually be accepting finished video clips or promotions (keep them short - 30-45 seconds max) or perhaps brief raw footage of events to insert into the announcements. Stay tuned for instructions on how to submit video in next week's edition of The Knight Times.

Freshman class officer elections will be happening quickly. I need help getting the word out. Officer descriptions and application are available on Google Classroom. If you have 9th graders in your classes, would you please share this classroom code and remind code with them? Sponsor: Ms. Gabriella Mirabilio, West 301. Google Classroom Code: oz1o7y. Remind code: @tdhsfrosh. Thank you!

From: Emily Castle-Dunn and Alexis Manuel

emily_castledunn@ccpsnet.net (Planning time:1st Block E/O and 2nd Block E)

alexis_manuel@ccpsnet.net (Planning time: 2nd E and 4th Block O)

We are so excited to welcome our ESOL kids to Thomas Dale! We just wanted to let you know some information about our role and how we are here to help.

Our Caseloads

Alexis will be taking care of 9th and 10th grade ESOL students and Emily will be in charge of 11th and 12th grade students. Students who are ESOL are indicated by a little book in Synergy. If you have a question about a student, please contact us based on our respective caseloads.

Collaboration

We are very excited that we will be pushing in to some classes to collaborate with you. We will reach out to you if we are scheduled to collaborate to give you more information. If you have some ESOL students in your class, please do not hesitate to email us with your questions or concerns on how to best help those students.

Pull-outs

We will also be teaching classes to help scaffold content in pull-out groups, including academic reading, pre-earth science, pre-biology, and language and culture (social studies). In each course, we will be working with students on the four domains of language acquisition: reading, writing, listening, and especially speaking.

Please read through this FAQ sheet about the role of ESOL teachers.

Our ESOL Students

Regarding how to read the linked spreadsheet:

(If you would like a Spreadsheet with just your ESOL students, please let us know.)

We have highlighted WIDA Access scores [color key: Red: (1.0-1.9), Orange: (2.0-2.9), Yellow: (3.0-4.3),Green: (4.4-6)], the yearly assessment that all ESOL students must take, regardless of when they arrive in Virginia. Students that achieve a 4.4 or higher are no longer receiving ESOL services, although they are still monitored. If you have a student whose overall score is highlighted in green and is starting to fail, please reach out to either Alexis (for 9th and 10th grade) or myself (11th and 12th grade) immediately. Although other factors could be at play, we want to be sure the student is getting the language support that they need.

Please see the WIDA Can-Do Descriptors to better understand the levels and capabilities of the ELs in your classroom. This can really help you understand what you can expect your students to do. Please keep in mind that understanding a language takes time and that multiple contexts, pictures, and repetition are usually what are needed when a student is struggling to understand vocabulary or a concept.

It’s really amazing to work at a school with so many teachers who have taken SIOP training! Kudos! As many of you who have taken it likely realize, SIOP is really just good teaching and helps with all kinds of differentiation needs. SIOP training will be offered by the division over three sessions throughout the year: Oct. 16, Nov. 13, and Jan. 9. The classes have not been posted yet, but you will be able to sign up for them on the SDR Web.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

We are looking forward to an amazing year at Thomas Dale!

I will be offering mass field trip medication training in the Main small auditorium on Wednesday, 9/26 at 3pm and Thursday, 9/27 at 7am.

If you plan to take a field trip this year, make every effort to attend one of the trainings. The checklists will be valid through Summer School 2019. You will be signed off on general medication administration, all epinephrine auto-injectors, and inhaler administration.

To allow me to prepare (and save paper)...please sign up for one session on the Google form below. Each session should take approximately 45 minutes. It is an expectation that you complete the online Life Threatening Allergy Awareness & Epinephrine Training SY2019 prior to the trainings.

Access the Sign Up Form by clicking HERE.

For staff awareness- Candy Mason has been reassigned to Elizabeth Davis Middle School as the full time interim RN due to a resignation. We are hoping for an RN to be hired ASAP, and are doing our best in the meantime. Please make sure all students sent to the clinic have a pass and that you are reading your Emergency Action Plans.

Be well! ~Meg & Carla

Welcome back everyone...excitement is in the air!!!

Testing Information:

The "2018-2019 Testing Calendar" will be shared with everyone by October 5th. Hopefully, you will find this calendar useful as you plan for the year, with the understanding that test dates may change, due to unforeseen circumstances. For now, please keep the following dates in mind, with more detailed information to follow.

Summer Non-WRTG Expedited Retakes Deadline: Friday, September 14th. Students that may need to retake a SOL from Summer Sessions and/or any Seniors that may still need a SOL for graduation may be included in this "small" test administration. Test dates will be Thursday, September 13th and/or Friday, September 14th.

PSAT: Wednesday, October 10th. All Sophomores and Juniors will be participating in this administration and the cost of thetests will be paid by CCPS. The test administration takes 3 1/2 hours so an adjusted bell schedule will be followed on this day. More detailed information to come.

Career Center:

College Admissions Representatives from various colleges will schedule visits here at TDHS to meet with interested students to discuss college opportunities, requirements, etc. These sessions are for Juniors and Seniors ONLY and are an excellent opportunity for our students to speak individually with a college representative. Visits will be scheduled during Enrichment on Wednesdays and Thursdays, NON Morning Meetings (Mondays) and during lunches. Click HERE for more information.

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: August 31
  
• ILT: September 7
  
• Instructional Admin: August 20
  

Keeli Comrie - September 10

Alex Jolley and Chris Kelly - September 11

Donna Temple and Robbie Keller - September 15

Enjoy your day!!!

Stay connected to OUR CALENDAR and mark yours!

Click HERE for our 2018-2019 meeting dates.

September 10 - First Morning Meeting

September 10 - Chromebook Distribution

September 11 - PTSA Meeting

September 11 - Community Partners Meeting

September 17 - Faculty Meeting (West Campus Auditorium)

September 17 - Back-to-School Night (6:30-8pm)

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

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

• August 2018
• September 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. 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