The Knight Times

Thomas Dale Faculty and Staff,

YOU ARE TRULY MISSED!

The castle has been an empty place without you! We still have a few weeks of summer break remaining, and I hope you are finding time to enjoy it, to rest and relax, to spend time with family, and to explore your genius!

The energy and excitement are beginning to swell as we prepare for an AWESOME school year! This is the time of year when we begin to transition from recovery and "summer fog" to creating a vision for our students, dreaming about the possibilities, and setting goals for our work! The anticipation is filling my spirit, and I am overwhelmed with joy to think about your return and the return of our students!!! But not yet...we are not ready and still have preparations to complete. Plus, there are still a few weeks left!

This is merely a warm-up issue. I will not share overwhelming information in this issue, just a few things for you to do to help us prepare for your arrival; and of course, upcoming events, dates, and calendars. We will also need your help with our upcoming fee collection on August 21 (from 4-7pm) and August 22 (from 9am-12pm). If you are available and willing to help for any amount of time, it would be greatly appreciated! If you are game to help, enter your name HERE.

Enjoy!

Links shared in this issue:

• TD Staff Dashboard
• Send someone a Kudos!
• Staff Parking Pass Form
• Staff Contact and Emergency Information Form
• Camp Squire Website

#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.

The first recipient of the I Make A Difference award is Jason Owen. Jason is unconditionally committed to ensuring our building is held to the highest standard. He works tirelessly day-in and day-out repairing deficiencies, coordinating services, and pushing forward the crazy projects we have on the horizon for re-purposing our spaces. Jason, you are a rockstar, and we are fortunate to have you on our team. Thank you for taking care of each and every person and each and every problem as if they were your own! Jason, YOU make a difference!

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. Each individual recipient will receive 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!

• Staff Parking Passes (Action). Please fill out THIS PARKING PASS FORM. All staff will need to have a hang tag to assist us with monitoring parking issues. After completion, Main campus faculty may pick up their pass in the front office. West campus faculty should go to the West campus front office to pick up their passes. Thanks!
• Contact and Emergency Information Form (Action). Please take a few moments to fill out THIS CONTACT AND EMERGENCY INFORMATION FORM. Thank you!

We have been hard at work to plan for an in-service week experience that will be meaningful and relevant to our work and that builds in opportunities for strengthening our relationships.

Below is our schedule for the week of August 26 (please ignore the orange and purple blocks). Only two additions from the schedule we sent at the end of the 2018-2019 school year:

• a popcorn and cotton candy snack break on Wednesday at 1pm!!!
• breakfast on Friday morning, sponsored by the Kiwanis Key Club!!!

I hope you all have had an awesome summer and are looking forward to the start of the year. It is hard to believe but our first home games for Thomas Dale fall sports start at the end of August! The Athletics Department is seeking additional Activity Workers to fill the roles of ticket takers, ticket sellers, event managers, and parking lot assistants for our upcoming fall season. This is a great way to support our student-athletes while making a little extra money! We are especially in need of help for Varsity Football games on Friday nights! If game day isn't your thing, there are additional office tasks where data entry and organizational skills can be used. Reach out to Ricky Talman, richard_talman@ccpsnet.net, for more information on these positions. Pay is $15/hour.

After a full year of development, planning, and coordination, our very first Camp Squire was a success! Over 300 of our newest freshmen, 100+ Knight Mentors, and 20+ Thomas Dale faculty and staff members participated in this AWESOME two-day orientation to connect our newest Knights. There was fun, food, friendship, and the foundation for family! They learned about one another, about Thomas Dale, and they learned our traditions...and even started some new ones!

A huge shout out goes to both Lauren Spain and Jeanine Grabham for planning and organizing this experience! Another shout out goes to faculty who gave up a few days of their summer to support and supervise our students: Alexis Manuel, Andrea Martin-Williams, Deloris Turner, Erin White, Mike Hanley, Ilana Puglia, Dave Duncan, Carrie Weese, Aaron Weese, Susan Carraway, Katie Yeisley, Sean Yeisley, Tracy Longworth, Brittany Gifford, Donna Knott, Meredith Byrd, Alex Jolly, Andrew Boydoh, and Karen Lee!

HERE's a little information if you're interested!

In a blog post two summers ago, I shared my thoughts on building relationships, community, establishing routines and procedures, and gathering baseline data during the first week of school.

If you are interested in my thoughts about the importance of knowing your students and dedicating time at the beginning of the school year to do so, click HERE. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and engage in dialogue regarding trust, communication, and relationships!

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 Retreat: August 5 and 6

Belated Birthdays:

Laura Deck - August 1

Catherine Craft - August 2

Kim Leggette - August 2

Austin McGhee - August 3

Miles Frederick - August 4

Sharon Heins - August 5

Debbie Short - August 5

Sean Yeisley - August 6

We hope you enjoyed your day!!!

Upcoming Birthdays:

Gonjoe Winn - August 8

Amy Rawls - August 10

Elle Kotowski - August 14

Enjoy your day!!!

Stay connected to OUR CALENDAR and mark yours!

Click HERE for our 2019-2020 meeting dates.

Click HERE for the 2019-2020 SCA Calendar.

Upcoming Events:

Click HERE for all things August for School Operations.

Click HERE for all things August for Activities.

• August 12 - Fall Sports Parent Meeting
• August 13 - Leadership Academy (Jones)
• August 13-14 - ILT Retreat
• August 15 - Administrators’ Discipline Retreat
• August 19 - New Teacher Orientation
• August 19 - Parking Passes for Seniors
• August 20 - Parking Passes for Seniors
• August 20 - Cause/See Learning for teachers with Dr. Ray Jones
• August 20 - Spanish-speaking Families Orientation
• August 21 - Instructional Coaching - Year 2 (Coaching Conversations) with Dr. Ray Jones
• August 21 - Fee Collection and New Parent Orientation
• August 22 - Fee Collection and Parking Passes
• August 22 - Tour of Chester for new teachers and mentors
• August 26-30 - Teacher In-Service Week
• August 30 - Dale-gate and Football vs Cosby

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

• Week of June 10
  

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

• August 2019

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