Wildcat Weekly

Lanier School for Inquiry, Investigation, and Innovation

August 13, 2024

A fresh start isn't a new place, it is a mindset.

- Anonymous

From Principal, Alli

Wow! We are already in to week TWO of school and it feels as if things are up and running like we never left. Thank you for all of your hard work to get routines and procedures going and expectations set! While I know it may seem like you want/need to move faster, don't take for granted these "launch" weeks. They will be vitally important on the back side of this year's journey.

Next week we will begin TKES pre-conferences. HERE you can find your date and time. Please make sure you have completed the Orientation, Familiarization, Self-Assessment and inputted your goals (see guidance Kate gave you at pre-planning) PRIOR to coming to your meeting. Beth and I are looking forward to hearing your plans for the new school year.

I am excited to announce that we WILL be adding an additional 4th grade class. YAY! The timeline is still TBD, but we are working with the district and hoping to make the transition quickly and smoothly. We will give more details as soon as we have them.

I encourage you to remember our goals for this year...GROWTH and ACCOUNTABILITY. Think about how you are growing yourself and your students. Your new MAP data will help you start to formulate a roadmap of where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Holding each other accountable is going to be the key to success this year!

Please let me know how I can help and support you. I am looking forward to a great year!

From Assistant Principal, Beth

Welcome to the 2024-25 school year! We have hit the ground running with a brand new structured literacy curriculum K-5. We are excited to have this structure in place for all of you but we realize it is a BIG learning curve. The Georgia Department of Education set the bar extremely high for all early childhood educators and you all are knocking it out of the park! Please continue to work together and encourage each other through this learning process, we are ALL new to this and growing together. I am so thankful for each one of you. Please reach out if you have a need or question, I am happy to help!

One of the ways we raise money here at Lanier is through the monthly sale of Bruster's Italian Ice. The cost is $2 and is due each Tuesday. Each month Mercedes will share a new link to the order form where you will input the amount your class has purchased. Here is the link for August. Please send the money to Mercedes marked with Bruster's and your name on it to Mercedes. A Remind message will go out each Monday before the money is due to remind your parents.

Bruster's Dates for the year: August 30, September 27, October 25, November 22, December 20, January 31, February 28, March 28, April 25, May 23

🗓️Upcoming Dates 🗓️

August 13- MAP Testing ELA

August 14- MAP Testing Math

August 15- Class Wise training in Learning Commons with Mrs. David at 2:30 for all certified staff (This is a new application and we need everyone to learn to use it quickly!)

August 19- TKES Conferences Begin

August 22- Vertical Committees Meet BLAST, Sunshine, Inquiry 2:30-3:30

August 23- Book Fair Opens

August 27- Data Chats during Grade Level Planning

August 29- Leadership Meeting in PL Room- 2:45

August 30- School-Wide Tailgate Lunch (more details to come)

September 5- Faculty Meeting - Building Staff Capacity Module 1

September 9- Curriculum Night- 6:00-7:00 All Certified Staff

From Instructional Coach, Kate ♥

GA Lit Modules & Title I Staff Capacity
- - GA Lit Modules 4&5 need to be completed by September 12th. This will be our PLC Kickoff and we will all be together in the Learning Commons.
  - Building Staff Capacity Module 1 will be discussed at our September 5th Faculty Meeting. You need to read the learning slides/case studies ahead of time.

Counselor Links:

Please If there is anything you need in your classroom, please let me know! My phone number is 678-617-4869 and you can reach out anytime for anything.

Wildcat Way Day

September 6: Compassion
October 4: Self-Control
November 1: Generosity
December 6: Service
January 10: Resilience
February 7: Uniqueness
March 7: Cooperation
April 18: Hope
May 2: Initiative

From Olivia, School Counselor

Happy August!!! I am so excited for this school year to kick off. As always, thank you for your grace and patience with me and the school counseling procedures. A lot of what I do is trial and error, so thank you.

Classroom Guidance:

Thank you to the classes and teachers who have invited me into your classrooms already! I know with all the new curriculum that your schedule is stacked, so I appreciate anytime you can allow me with your sweet kids. If you haven't signed up for a class, you can do so HERE.

***If there is a time in your schedule that isn't listed, please let me know! I am flexible and want to accommodate.

Small Groups:

This year, I will be doing 4 small groups (1 each 9 weeks). The best way for me to find kids who would benefit from small groups is through teacher recommendations. Small groups are best tailored to kids who exhibit internalizing behaviors (i.e., anxiety, isolation, perfectionism, etc). These are your kids who may cry easily, worry often, struggle to make friends, or that you are worried about falling through the cracks. Please email me if you have some 2nd-5th grade students that you feel like would benefit from this type of group.

Wildcat Way Day:

This year, we are going to have Wildcat Way Day be the first Friday of every month at 8:00-8:45 (3rd grade connections will jump to the end of the day with connections at 1:40).

Our Wildcat Way Day schedule for 24-25 is:

September 6: Compassion

October 4: Self-Control

November 1: Generosity

December 6: Service

January 10: Resilience

February 7: Uniqueness

March 7: Cooperation

April 18: Hope

May 2: Initiative

The Wildcat Way Day partners are linked HERE.

Wildcat Essentials

Each Month we recognize the students from each class who have demonstrated our character trait of the month. The nomination forms will be in the Wildcat Weekly the month before. Please fill these out in a timely manner so we have plenty of time to get certificates printed and ready for Wildcat Way Day. Wildcat Way Day is the first Friday of each month.

August Wildcat Essential Nominations

Please Submit your August Wildcat Essential Nomination for demonstrating Wisdom.

September Wildcat Essential Nominations

Please submit your September Wildcat Essential Nomination for demonstrating Compassion.

From Media Specialist, Allyson

Fall Book Fair: August 23-29

It's Book Fair time!

Teacher preview is August 22 after busses
Class preview days are August 23 & August 26
1st-5th please click here to sign-up for your class' preview and shopping days
To help reduce congestion and provide a less chaotic shopping experience for everyone, please only send your students to shop during your shopping day & time.
Students can come other times during the day with a parent.
Book fair hours are 7:30-3:00 each day August 23, 26-29. We will close at 2 on Thursday, August 29.
We will not have library visits during Book Fair August 22-August 29.

Destiny & Destiny Discover

Need a certain book and not sure if we have it in our collection? Click one of these two LaunchPoint tiles and you'll be able to search Destiny (our card Catalog) by subject, title, author, genre, etc.

The Destiny tile accesses the "backoffice" view of Destiny. This is a stripped down view with all of the information in a database format. In this view you can click the "Resource Lists" and see a collection of books for a variety of standards and units.

Destiny Discover is what we use with the kids. It's colorful and has the front cover of the books. To get more information on the books you have to click the cover art. Because this view is graphic rich, it may take more time to load results. In this view, you click the "Collections" tab at the top of the page to see the "Resource Lists" in a much more colorful and appealing format, but again, this view takes longer to load because of all of the pictures.

To reserve a space:

Click on the name of the space you want to reserve (a box will pop-up)
Fill in the start time and the end time
Fill in Last Name/Purpose (ie: David/Research Lesson)
Enter your email address

uBurst Reservations

Bookmark this link for quick access: https://www.uburst.com/cgi-bin/ureserve/hosted/lanier.pl
- You can also find the link in the sidebar of the Wildcat Weekly and on LaunchPoint.
The spaces in the Learning Commons (The Studio, Main Space, Small Group Room & Reading Room) are available for your class to use if they aren't already reserved.
20 Minute Storytime/Checkout visits
To ensure flexible scheduling reservations can be made two weeks at a time
If I'm needed for these reservations please let me know so I can make arrangements. Julie will be in charge of the previously scheduled storytime and checkouts, if I'm needed elsewhere.
If you are reserving these spaces, please check with me beforehand so we are aware and can accommodate your needs. Sometimes there is already a plan to use the space, but it hasn't been formally reserved.

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