The Knight Times

Thomas Dale Faculty and Staff,

This week, I have one sentence for the principal's message: Please feel free to wear jeans with your spirit wear during Homecoming Week!

In this issue, I will include a section that provides by-day information and links to see if this is a better way to try and organize what you need to know and do. Drop me a line to give me feedback on how we are progressing toward a better communication structure!

Up-Front Summary (by day):

Monday

• Jersey Day
• Enrichment: Club and Activity Meetings
• Senior Assembly in the Auditorium during Enrichment
• Pathways Meeting in the Main Campus Commons (Pathways Spreadsheet)
• 1st Period Teachers get pre-order forms for Friday's lunch

Tuesday

• Twin Day
• 1st Period Teachers get pre-order forms for Friday's lunch

Wednesday

• Character Day
• PSAT Test (Bell Schedule, Lunch Rotations, Dashboard)
• Powder Puff Football Game
• 1st Period Teachers get pre-order forms for Friday's lunch

Thursday

• Generations Day

Friday

• TD Colors Day
• 3-Hour Early Release with Pep Rally (Bell Schedule)
• (Tentative) Working Lunch Webinar for Newsela (More info shared early in the week)
• TalentEd Goals due to administrator (Data Sheet)
• Dale-gate
• Homecoming Football Game

Saturday

• Homecoming Dance

Links shared in this issue:

• KUDOS
• Tech Integrator - Janice Skipwith
• 2-Mile Fun Run
• Health Info (Carrie May)
• Knightly News (Advertisements and Fundraiser)
• Staff Book Club Brochure
• Genius Hour Input
• Knight's Cafe Order Form
• (Re-Link) Morning Announcement Faculty Form
• (Re-Link) Homecoming Information - SCA

#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 Deb Short:

The ninth recipient of the I Make A Difference award is.......Clay Bennett. Clay started out his career teaching in Hopewell, then around 2009 he decided to make the change to CCPS, arriving to TDHS by way of Clover Hill High School. After teaching here for a few years, he accepted the position as the Math Department Chair. Clay is one of the most dedicated teachers that I know and always has high expectations for his students, himself and the Math Department. He is always willing to give up his planning periods to remediate students that may need that extra help. He is proactive in working with his department to see which students may need that extra support. And then there is the month of May!!!! The amount of advanced planning that is needed to administer the MATH SOLS is daunting and Clay has it down like a science. His organizational skills are exceptional and he makes sure that his entire department knows the plan well in advance. Unfortunately, he does not sleep during this time and if you need him, you can always find him here by 4:00 a.m. every day, and on many days, even earlier than that. He is a great team player, leads by example and always remains calm when things may not go as planned. He is family oriented and this extends to his Thomas Dale family also. Clay...thank you for always being here to help, to listen.....you are an asset to our school.

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 Jamie Barrack as our Teacher of the Month and Michelle Kimenhour of our Staff Member or the Month!

Submit your nomination for October'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 October's Student of the Month and submit that student's name HERE.

• PSAT Adjusted Schedule and Lunch Rotations (Action Item). On Wednesday (10/10), we are operating on a different schedule for the PSATs. Since students will eat lunch during their 1st period (which runs from 12:05pm-1:30pm) and we are only having three lunches on both campuses, there will be a specific lunch schedule for this day. Please click HERE for the spreadsheet to see when you eat lunch.
• TENTATIVE Working Lunch Webinar (Action). We upgraded our Newsela subscription and are working to arrange our live webinar training session. It is 45 minutes in duration, and we would like this to be a "working lunch" webinar from 12:30-1:15pm. More information will be communicated early in the week.
• Textbooks (Information). This is a reminder that no textbooks or textbook materials can be thrown out in the trash. There is a county policy for how textbooks must be discarded. Please send an email to clinton_patterson@ccpsnet.net if you have any textbooks or related materials you are looking to discard.
• (Re-Print) October 8 - Senior Meeting (Action Item - Senior Homeroom). Jay Roudabusch is coming for his annual cap & gown senior assembly on Oct. 8 during Club/Activities Meetings (9:20-10:00am). Seniors should report to Homeroom for attendance, and we ask that all Senior Homeroom Teachers escort their students to the auditorium and stay with us to assist with supervision.
• Tech Integrator (Information). Janice Skipwith is a wonderful resource for high-quality instruction. Please see her weekly newsletter HERE.
• 2-Mile Fun Run (Information). Click HERE for the First halloween Themed 2-Mile Fun Run, sponsored by the TDXC Team!
• Senior Class Picture on the Field (Information/Action). On October 22nd, Seniors will be take their class photo during first period. Teachers, please dismiss your Senior students at 8:45 to travel to the football field. We will do our best to return them to you by the end of first period. Thank you for your cooperation! - The Reflector Staff
• Health Info from Carrie May (Information). Hey Thomas Dale, I wanted to let you know I have a health website that I wanted to share with you, https://www.myhealthychoices.net/ I would love for it to become more interactive and make it more about keeping the Thomas Dale community healthy. Please feel free to share your ideas, tips and meals that help keep you healthy. If you want to share your struggles, we can help you over come them! We will be working on it to improve it and it will be a work in progress so please check it out!! Let's keep Thomas Dale healthy together.

ATTENTION ALL EMPLOYEES (AND WE MEAN ALL!): Open enrollment for health and dental insurance takes place October 1 – 31, 2018. Be on the lookout for information from the Benefits Department via email on or about Monday, October 1. It is required by federal mandate that ALL employees pick up benefits materials and sign for them (even if you do not want them). This includes all employees: those who currently have benefits, those who do not currently have benefits, employees who do not want benefits and new employees who just received benefits or who just recently declined them. See Lyn Williams in the main office or Kirsten Graham in the west campus office. You can pick up and sign in either office. Our deadline for signing is October 12.

It is time......PSAT testing.....Wednesday, October 10th. "Detailed' information was previously shared in last week's The Knight Times and all information pertaining to October 10th can be found on the TDHS Dashboard, Testing, PSAT Folder. It is extremely important that you understand what the plan is for PSAT testing day and that you review this information with your students. Talk about the bell schedule; it is different from the previous years.

Quick review:

• Adjusted Bell Schedule. (Attendance will be taken in P1 which begins at 12:05.) There will be three lunch blocks which will be assigned by P1 classes.
• PSAT Testing Block: 8:30-12:00. Testing locations were assigned by English 10/11 teachers.
• 10th and 11th Graders will be testing and they will report directly to their testing location at 8:25.
• 12th Graders will have a "Study Hall" in the Small Auditorium.
• 9th Graders will report directly to the West Campus for an "Activity Day".

As you can see, everyone's help is needed and is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you have any questions.

On Monday, October 8, we will have a Pathways meeting. Please click HERE for the Pathways spreadsheet. If you have decided to change your pathway, please notify your administrator, and we will update our information.

We will begin our meeting in the Main Campus Commons at 3:15pm. Please sit with your Pathway team.

The purpose of this meeting will be to continue your work on selecting a goal and identifying what activities you will engage in and what resources you will need to complete your work. I expect that you will generate an overarching goal for your Pathway group, identify how you will engage in your learning, and list resources your group and submit to either me or Beth Clark.

As a gentle reminder, we would like to have goals submitted into TalentEd by Friday, October 12, so that your administrator has time to review and provide feedback for final submission on November 2. There are 3 items for you to complete.

1. SMART Goal for student achievement. This will be the goal you establish based on pre-assessment data that will indicate your intentions to increase student learning over the course of the year (a year's worth of growth for your students). HERE is the datasheet you will need to use for your pre- and post- data. As a gentle reminder, your pre- and post- assessments need to be the same.
2. Professional Goal. This will be the goal you set with your Pathway team that can be altered as appropriate to meet your personal learning goals that you want to get from your Pathways experience this year (a year's worth of growth for you).
3. IMPACT Goal. This is your plan for IMPACT "hours" that you will engage in. To make this easier, please copy/paste the below bulleted statements into this box. Feel free to add bullets if you have/will complete more to reach your required 12 hours. As stated previously, what we do for growth as a school will more than "cover" you.

IMPACT Goal, COPY/PASTE this:

• 4 hours of online modules
• 6 hours of Social-Emotional Development, Relationships, and PBIS (Monthly Faculty Meetings)
• 10 hours of Personalized Professional Development Pathways [Insert the Pathway topic you selected here]

Please direct any questions to your supervising administrator.

Underclassmen: School Picture Days are coming up! On October 15th and 16th, Candid Colors will be photographing underclassmen. Students will travel with their English teachers, who have already signed up for a slot for each of their classes. Main Campus pictures will be in the small auditorium and West Campus pictures will be in the West auditorium. Thank you one and all for your cooperation!

Seniors: Seniors may take makeup senior portraits on October 15th after school (3:00-4:30 in the small auditorium at Main). Please have them sign up on the sheet on Melody Vaughn's room (Main 205) so we can get a headcount.

We are so excited to grow our Knights In Need program this year! We will have a club so as to involve more students, and we are hopeful to reach even more people who need it! For those new to TDHS, our Knights in Need program started about 8 years ago when our families found themselves in great need when the economy fell. We have had an active food pantry and other resources since then for our students and their families. Please keep a look out for a Fill-The-Pantry drive in the very near future.

If you know of a student who is in need, please reach out to their school counselor and Heather Walker (heather_walker@ccpsnet.net) so that we can do what we can to support them!

Thank you for all you do to support the various needs of our kids!!

Want to promote your department or organization to the Thomas Dale community AND support student journalism at the same time? Consider buying an ad in The Knightly News. Click HERE.

OR if you simply want to show your support for Dale student journalism, consider making a donation to The Knightly News Snap Raise campaign: The Knightly News Snap! Raise fundraiser

If you'd like, also share our fundraising link with anyone you think might be interested in helping us build the Thomas Dale student journalism program.

Staff Book Club will have its first meeting on Wednesday, October 10, after school in the main campus library. We will be discussing the book, Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley. If you are planning on joining Staff Book Club, please email shelley_armstrong@ccpsnet.net. We'll be adding you to our Staff Book Club email list. Here is a link to the brochure if you would like to see what we are reading this year.

West Campus Library will be closed on the morning of Tuesday, October 9, and will re-open around 11:30 AM.

Wednesday and Thursday Enrichment - Please only send students to the library that have obtained passes from the library. We do not take passes from homeroom teachers during enrichment.

Remember to use your librarians! We can help you and your students with projects, resources, and research!

Our first Genius Hour will be Monday, October 29th! From learning how to throw a football or teaching someone how to change a tire or even learning how to study better…many great ideas were suggested through homerooms and we are excited to start this activity. In order to organize this day, we need you (teachers and students) to fill in the following form if you would like to host/run a Genius Hour. If you have a talent/skill/hobby, please consider hosting! We have lots of Knights that want to learn new things!!

bit.ly/TDGeniusHour

New Teachers/Mentors:

The next New Teacher/Mentor meeting will be held Thursday, October 4th in the West Campus Auditorium. The beginning of the session will be SOS training from School Counseling. Also, do not forget to submit your monthly collaboration log.

Google Classrooms for Homerooms:

Homeroom teachers - please have all of the students in your homeroom join their respective class’s Google Classroom. The School Counseling Department will be posting important information pertaining to each grade level throughout the year, and this is the best way to get that information to them!

This is also where we will post any links/information that students need to access from SCA, Administration, or other faculty members.

Class of 2019 (Seniors): qdpxews

Class of 2020 (Juniors): aitbjqt

Class of 2021 (Sophomores): 816xqic

Class of 2022 (Freshmen): uxfpb8

Thank you for your time!

The Knight's Cafe is open for business with delicious menu options that are delivered to staff members. A new menu and order form will be included in each issue of The Knight Times. HERE is next week's order. Enjoy!

Dear Thomas Dale Faculty & Staff,

The link below takes you to a google form - what we feel will be a simpler way for you to quickly get us your announcement to run on the daily video announcements.

Morning Announcement Faculty Form

There are two guidelines you need to know:

• Turn in your announcement at least a week before you’d like it to run.

• Please limit the time your announcement will run to three specific days.

If you’d like to share video promotions, raw video footage or still photographs to use during the morning announcements, place the media in the folder provided in this Announcements Folder in TDHS Essentials and fill in the following in the attached form:

• Tell us that you’ve included video or photography for us to find and use.

• Tell us what you’ve named your video or photograph.

• If you’re handing in multiple video clips or still photographs, group them in a folder and tell us what you’ve named the folder.

• Keep all edited video clips brief (think 30-45 seconds).

• You can share unedited raw footage - just know that we’ll edit it for broadcast.

We would love to also use your videos & photographs in The Knightly News publications - there is a place on this form for you to give your permission for that use.

Thank you for your support and patience !!

Lee Bloxom, adviser, The Knightly News & The Knightly News staff

Brenda Contreras lost her step-father. We are so very sorry for your loss, Brenda. Please know you and your family are in our thoughts and prayers.

If anyone is interested, here is information on Visitation and Funeral Service.

Visitation: Thursday, Oct. 4th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Trinity United Methodist Church, 6600 Greenyard Rd. Chester, Va.

Funeral Service: Friday, Oct. 5th at 6:00 pm (also at Trinity)

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: September 27
  
• ILT: October 5
  
• Instructional Admin: September 21
  
• Community Partners Meeting: September 11
• Principal's Advisory Council: September 19
• English: September 19

Sally Southall and Barbara White - October 11

Enjoy your day!!!

Stay connected to OUR CALENDAR and mark yours!

Click HERE for our 2018-2019 meeting dates.

October 8 - Enrichment: Club/Activity Meetings (Senior Meeting in the Auditorium

October 8 - Pathways Meeting

October 8-12 - Homecoming Week

October 8-22 - Signs of Suicide Presentations for 10th Grade Students in H/PE Classes

October 10 - PSAT Testing (Adjusted Schedule is HERE)

October 12 - Early Release Day for Students (Adjusted Schedule is HERE)

October 13 - PTSA Yard Sale (West Campus)

October 15 - Morning Meeting

October 17 - Open House (6-7:30pm)

October 22 - Morning Meeting

October 29 - Genius Hour

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

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

• August 2018
• September 2018
• October 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