gator news
News for Savannah staff
november 11, 2024

Savannah Teachers : Doing Our Best EVERY DAY!

Thank you to all the Mentors and Mentees that participated in our Meet Up.

White's students are engaged in deep discussion about their guided reading book.

Sistrunk's students working on their research projects.

Thank you to teachers that volunteered to be a model classroom last week...

Devine, Zazula, Hochanadel, Covey, Thompson, Lucas, Hart, Lyras, and Leidecker.

What Is Expected of Me This Week

We will have extended PLCs this week with 5th, 3rd & 1st. We will check in on WIN time and track progress on each team's SMART goals. Please make sure you have your data and agendas are ready to go, and you have added your students of concern to the Kid Talk form. Formal MTSS meetings have started.
As always, update your Reading Tracker before your PLC day. Remember our goal is for students to make at least a years growth in reading. Progress monitoring is a must do. Linked are the running records forms we are using this year: Fiction & Non-Fiction. Hard copies are in the Literacy Library.
Reading WIN starts this week!
4th grade Math: Register and attend the content refresher happening Tuesday afternoon at Savannah. Register Here
DATA SHOWCASE November 14th: Let's work hard and show off our progress on Data Showcase day November 14th. Here is the new presentation link. Great job to the teams who have already entered their reading WIN time reflections.
A note on staff meetings: Staff meetings are mandatory. Please ensure your attendance by making arrangements for childcare and appointments.
Read-A-Thon: Read-A-Thon continues this week! Update your class daily on their progress and remember that your excitement and communication has HUGE impact on this fundraiser's success! Don't forget that classroom teachers will get to spend 10% of the total their class raises on materials for your classroom!
WORKOUT WEAR the week before Thanksgiving Break. ;-)
Dr. O'Bara, our district superintendent, may will likely come this week to visit our school. Please stick to the master schedule, make sure your hallway is still displaying quality work, and give her a warm Gator welcome if you see her!

Upcoming Events:

Nov. 11th -- Veteran's Day (See details below)

Nov. 12th -- 4th Grade Geometry and Angles Refresher at Savannah Register Here

Nov. 13th -- 3rd-5th ELAR Fall Interim

Nov. 14th -- 3rd-5th Math Fall Interim

Nov. 14th -- WIN TIME/CFA SMART GOAL PROGRESS SHOWCASE Here is the new presentation link.

Nov. 19th -- Fall Picture Retakes

Nov. 19th -- High Impact Instructional Practices K-5th *Highly Recommended for Guiding Coalition and Teachers with 3 or more years of experience.*

Nov. 19th -- Menches Spirit Night

Nov. 21st -- Staff Meeting: Committees ***CLT***

Nov. 25-29 -- Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 2nd -- 5th Grade Fraction Operations Refresher at Bell Register Here

Dec. 2nd-6th --Fall Book Fair

Dec. 4th -- K & 1 Winter Program; Family Book Fair Night

Dec. 5th -- Staff Meeting: Book Study

Dec. 3rd -- 4th Grade Fractions Refresher at Savannah Register Here

Dec. 7th --Denton Tree Lighting (Choir Performance)

Dec. 16th -- 3rd Grade Multiplication & Division Refresher at Providence Register Here

Still Important from Last Week...

Vector Training/Safe Schools: You are probably getting many reminders in your inbox to finish your safe schools training. Our school is currently 61% compliant. This task is due by November 11th. These people still have not completed one or more of their training courses: AHLHEIM, BRUCE, ESPINOZA, ESTON, GOMEZ M., GREEN, HAWKINS, HOCHANADEL, HUYNH, JAROSZ, KING, LUCAS, NORRIS, PIPPIN, RICHMOND, SISTRUNK, THOMAS Tr., THOMAS Ty., WHITE, ZAZULA. Thank you to all who have completed this task.
Denton ISDs Communication Tree: Please read the two flyers below regarding how to address issues/concerns. We will be posting these posters in our lobby for families to see as well.

Veteran's Day Parade and Assembly

We are so excited to be doing a Veteran Parade & Program again this year! It will take place on Monday Nov. 11th! Please see below for a timeline/schedule!

8:25 – Assigned Teach Denton students will meet Ms. Thompson & Ms. Tesar in the Gator Gallery

8:30 – Veterans’ will check in at the front office & wait in the Gator Gallery

8:30-8:55 – Assigned Teach Denton students will escort students to Gator Gallery to meet up with their veteran(s).

8:50 – 9:00 – Line students up outside your classrooms in your hallway

9:00 – Parade will start. Please see the map for the route they will be walking. Our lovely Gator Cheerleaders will be leading the Veterans. If you have a cheerleader in your class, please have them meet in the Gator Gallery by 8:55.

AFTER the veterans have left your hallway, teachers please gather your class and make your way down to the cafeteria and sit in your assigned section according to this seating chart.

9:30 – Program will start in the cafeteria

10:00 – Program will conclude, and everyone will return to their classrooms. Specials teachers will take 3rd grade from the cafeteria to have the last 35 minutes of their specials.

10:05 – Refreshments will be served for Veterans immediately following the program on the stage.

Specials A Weeks/B Weeks

Due to the PLC calendar being shifted, there have been some adjustments to A Weeks/B Weeks for the remainder of the semester for the Library schedule. This mainly impacts 4th and 5th grade classes. The bolded dates are the ones that have shifted. Holt sent calendar invites to help you remember your times. I apologize for any inconvenience. These tabs are available on the Specials Rotation document!

***A special thanks to Ms. Holt for making adjustments to the schedule. We are grateful for the time and energy you put into making our school run efficiently.***

Meal Train for our Coach Smith

Ms. Holt wanted to share with you all that our dear Coach Smith will be returning to work on November 18th. As you know, she has been out for quite a while recovering from an extensive medical procedure. We would love to show support to her as a work family! One way we can do this is by taking the very real stress of dinners off the table for her first couple of weeks back to work. We have set up a Meal Train to provide dinners for Holland and her family the week of November 18th and the week following Fall break.

Please join us in welcoming her back to school and helping to make the transition just a little easier. If you feel lead, please see the link below to sign up to provide a meal or to donate a gift card to ease this transition.

https://mealtrain.com/977vyk

At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best, EVERY DAY.

The information in this corner will help us understand ourselves better so that we can make progress on our new culture goal: "at work, i have the opportunity to do what i do best every day. "

This week's focus for "doing what we do best EVERY DAY" focuses on your enneagram number.

Think about your enneagram number. Read the descriptions below for how each enneagram number can stress less. How would this action step help you do your best work?

Note: This will be our PLT task for the next two weeks so that each team has the chance to share out during extended PLTs.