Meadow Hall Staff Newsletter

We have made it to the final week prior to a well deserved winter break! We hope everyone is able to finish off the week and then relax and spend time with family and friends.

To celebrate our final week prior to break, please join us in the following...

Monday - Bake off!

Tuesday - Ugly Sweater Day

Wednesday - Coffee and Donuts

Thursday - Admin Treat Cart

Friday - PJ day and Reading Jam @ 2:30pm

The next staff newsletter will come out in 2024 - Happy New Year!!

A request from the December Triad meeting - please pick up your class from lunch on time if they are not being escorted to specials right after lunch. Paraeducators with lunch duty often miss part of their own personal lunch time or break or are late to small groups when classes aren't picked up when scheduled. Your colleagues thank you!

Lunch Time Ends at....

Kindergarten - 11:45am

Grade 1 - 12:25pm

Grade 2 - 1:00pm

Grade 3 - 12:05pm

Grade 4 - 12:40pm

Grade 5 - 1:35pm

Spring Literacy CPD Courses- NEW

The following 3 credit CPD courses are being offered spring semester:

RD-57- Science of Reading 101

RD-58- Processes and Acquisition of Literacy

RD-59- Materials for Teaching Literacy

RD-60-Instruction of Literacy

RD-61-Assessment of Literacy

Courses will be released on PDO December 18th at 8:30am. All courses begin in February.

DIBELS Training - NEW

Additional DIBELS training sessions will be available the weeks of December 18th, January 2nd and January 8th. Teachers can register using the following information. Participants will receive an email with the training information on Monday, the first day of training. All components must be completed by the end of the week in order to receive the stipend pay. Training must be completed outside of the duty day.

K-5 Teachers, Special Educators

PDO Course #91803 -

• Section 135851
• Section 135852
• Section 135853

Fluency Podcast

If you are looking to build your reading fluency knowledge here is a link to a fluency podcast that was shared with our literacy paras Lorin & Michelle. It addresses the aspects of good fluency instruction, what constitutes fluency, and how reading speed is correlated to word recognition and automaticity.

https://amplify.com/episode/science-of-reading-the-podcast/season-1/episode-4-the-importance-of-fluency-instruction-with-tim-rasinski/

Staff Opportunities

(Rescheduled Date) LGBTQ+ History in Montgomery County for Staff

Date: January 9, 2024

Time: 5 PM – 6 PM

Location: Zoom

PDO: 92052

Compensation: 1 Clock Hour (Clock hours can be used to demonstrate professional learning.)

Save the Date! Understanding and Preventing Islamophobia

Description: Staff will learn what Islamophobia is and how to identify, prevent, and respond to it. This session will be led by Dr. Susan Douglass, Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies K-14 Education Outreach Director.

Date: January 18, 2024

Time: 5 PM – 6 PM

PDO Registration Coming Soon

Compensation: 1 Clock Hour (Clock hours can be used to demonstrate professional learning.)

(Updated) 2023-24 Elementary SS Resources & PD Opportunities

Date: 12/22/23

Time: 2:30 - 3:00

Locations:

K&3 - Music Room

1&5 - Library

2&4 - Cafeteria

At 2:30 all students will go to their designated locations to hear 2 winter themed read aloud stories.

As students leave for winter break classroom teachers will pass out color in bookmarks that students can use over winter break. These will be in your Mailboxes by Thursday 12/21.

Upgrades:

1. We will invite families to the celebrations. Families will have the option to come in person or to join virtually via zoom.
2. There are a few new awards that students can earn and there are some upgrades to awards we have already been giving. Please take some time to review the K-1 criteria or the 2-5 criteria. Also share these criteria with your students, so they know what awards they can work toward earning. (If you have any questions about the awards or criteria, please let me know).
3. We will have teachers fill out the awards for their students. As the time gets closer to the event, I will place the certificates you will need to complete in your mailbox.
4. Also, we will create a display to post all of the students' names that earn an award each marking period.

All MHES staff received communication from MCPS regarding our responsibility for social media posts (both personal and private). I want to encourage staff to visit the Social Media best practices site from MCPS for your reference. If you have questions or concerns please contact administration. Best Practices

In order to support teams when other team members are out I am asking that all teams plan to submit at least one set of sub plans. It is the expectation that when they have been used that the sub plans will be replaced by a team member within the next week. All Emergency sub plan material is required to be copied and placed into a folder, brought down to the main office and stored in the file room. All slides, etc. can be placed in the grade level folder in an Emergency Sub plan folder. Once teams have (1) created the folder in their team planning file online and (2) copied material and placed it in the office bin in the student file room please send an email to administration letting us know it has been done.

We also ask that all team members review the expectations for sub plans (both expected/planned and unplanned leave) linked here.

MCPS has tasked a committee, titled The Future of Work, with the goal of identifying areas that need to be changed or improved in MCPS in order to comply with the Blueprint for Maryland's Future and Federal regulations, so that we continue to attract and keep a highly effective workforce. We need your assistance to understand what is important to our current employees.

This survey is for ALL permanent supporting services employees, 10 and 12 month.

Please complete this anonymous survey by December 21, 2023, by clicking here.

This survey will take less than 3 minutes to complete.

See the attached memo regarding the adopted calendar for next school year.

Next PTA meeting will be Tuesday, January 9th at 7pm.

Complete Team Emergency sub plans and turn in copies to the main office.

AP 2 Staff Survey

MHES Zoom Links 2023-2024 - add link in case of virtual learning

Friday, December 22

• Reading Jam @ 2:30pm

December 23 - January 2

• Winter Break

Thursday, January 4

• Grade k/1 town hall @ 9:05-9:45am
• Grade 2/3 town hall @ 9:50-10:30am
• Grade 4/5 town hall @ 2:30-3:10pm

Tuesday, January 9

• Leadership Team mtg @ 3:45pm
• PTA mtg @ 7pm

Monday, January 15

• No School; holiday

Tuesday, January 16

• Staff mtg @ 3:45pm

Tuesday, January 23

• Equity PLC mtg @ 3:45pm

Friday, January 26

• End of MP2

Monday, January 29

• Professional Day (no school for students)
  
• MP2 grades due

Email: Ilana_N_Simhon@mcpsmd.org
Website: https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/meadowhalles/
Location: 951 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, MD, USA
Phone: 240-740-5260