Last week of 2019

What a year it has Been!

Last week was a very busy one for many of us.  It is Sunday night and I am almost recovered from Thursday and Friday alone :)  

We are almost to Winter Break!  Please remember unwanted behaviors are less likely to happen when expectations and student engagement in rigorous activities are high! 

BREAKING NEWS

FUSD is hosting master planning school community meetings

Marshall's is Wed. 12/18 @3:45pm

FUSD is conducting a master planning process to assist the Governing Board and Superintendent in developing a 5-10 year plan to clarify the District's educational, facilities, and financial resources needed to realize the goals of its strategic plan and prepare students for future success. Representatives from Orcutt Winslow and administrative staff will facilitate discussions about key considerations including high performance design, curriculum, student wellness, learner centric design, student engagement, and professional development. The purpose of these discussions is to gather input from participants in developing master plans and planning future decisions about program and facility needs.  We need YOU there!!! Please join us on Wed. Dec. 18th at 3:45pm in the library.  You will receive TPPP!  This is important. Try to get some parents there too!

Holiday Luncheon

Dec 19th

Don't forget, the second annual Holiday Luncheon has been scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 19th.  Please be attentive to our somewhat modified schedule in order to accommodate our many guests, especially at the primary lunches. A flyer went home.  Feel free to include in your newsletters/blog as well.

• Kinder: Eat: 11:15-11:40; Play: 11:40-12:00
• First: Eat: 11:35-11:55; Play: 11:55-12:15
• Second & Third: Eat: 12:05-12:25; Play: 12:25-12:45
• Fourth & Fifth: Eat: 12:35-12:55; Play: 12:55-1:15

Don't forget about our TAX CREDIT CAMPAIGN
(See post from Dec. 6th for all info) 

Please take a moment to see what students created outside of Ms. Thompson's classroom.

Let the students know about the last 5 days of dress up

Upcoming Evaluations week of Dec. 16:  Bianco & Housholder

COMING UP...
Monday, Dec 16 
Jingle Bells
~11:30am-12:30pm Reasor OTIF mtg
~No Magnet Monday

Tuesday, Dec 17
Candy Cane Day
~Peace on Earth!
~3:35pm Staff Yoga and Mindfulness moment

Wednesday, Dec 18
Lights, glitter or tinsel to sparkle all day long
~Lost & found set up in the Science Lab for students and parents 
    (thank you Mrs. Burgoon)
~1:30-3:00pm Herberger & Beck Holiday pageant in Gym
~3:45pm Master Planning Mtg in the Gym (We need teachers to attend)
~4:30-5:00pm Kindergarten Snowflakes & Winter Snacks
~5:00-6:30pm PTO presents Family Craft Night in the gym

Thursday, Dec 19
Ugly Sweater Day
~Lost & found set up in the Science Lab
~Marshall's 2nd Annual Holiday Luncheon
~4:00pm Staff Holiday Party at Casa de Milios! 

Friday, Dec 20
Silent Night - PJ's
~9:30am Reasor at Sechrist for Marshall Band and Choir performance.
~Let the wild Mustangs run free!!! Plan ahead if you can and enjoy an early out.  Have a wonderful, well-deserved break!  Thank you for making 2019 incredible for me!  I cannot wait to see what 2020 brings!  I would love to showcase one of your New Year's Resolutions (personal or professional) as well as what you are most proud of in 2019.  Please share it here. 

Bus Duty: 5th grade Teachers (TPPP eligible)!

Please acknowledge you have read this post.

    ~Dec 21-Jan 5, Winter Break
  
     2020 is an educator's dream. Halloween on a Sat.!

2nd qtr final push

Hello December! 
We only have two weeks left to push our students to achieve their highest in the 2nd quarter.  Once again this year is FLYING by!  Keep up the ElevatED pace! 

America's Favorite Crossing Guard!  

Vote here and bookmark it until Dec 13th.  I have three emails, I  use them all! ;) Please help spread the word to as many as you can!  You can even share on your Facebook pages or put it in your newsletters!  We know he is the best, we just need the nation to know it too! 

Did you see the article on Friday, Dec 6th in The Daily Sun?  A true feel GREAT story about Mr. Billy and all he means to Marshall. See it HERE.

Grading Information, from Heather O.

Hey everyone! It's your friendly, neighborhood Grade Book Coordinator! 

Here are some important Grade Book dates and deadlines for Quarter 2:

• Thursday, December 12th - Early Release for Standards Report Preparation
• Friday, December 13th - Specials Teachers preparing grades.
• Friday, December 20th - Last Day of Quarter 2
  
  • Attendance rolls over and specials grades due by 12pm
  • Teachers can print Standards Reports prior to leaving for Winter Break (if desired) 
  • Do not send them home yet for school consistency
• Friday, January 10th 
  • Standards Reports go home for all Marshall students
  • It is not recommended to wait until this day to print
    • Quarter 2 Grade Book and Report Card closes at 5:00pm
    • All changes after this day will need to be formally submitted to Lynette Hammitt at the District Office.

Let Heather know how she can help you and if you have any questions!

Canned Food Drive


Our annual canned food drive collection is underway and will culminate this Friday,  December 13th at 9am.  The cans collected at this year's drive will, once again, go to support Marshall families through our in-house Parenting Arizona office as well as St. Mary's Food Bank.  Thanks for encouraging your students to donate.  PTO is sponsoring a Pizza party for the class who collects the most items. 

Tax Credit Campaign 

Why do I care so much about tax credit?  Because of the great, almost immeasurable value we place on every single tax credit dollar we receive.  Because of the amazing opportunities we are able to provide to you and your students with every tax credit dollar we expend.  Because of the huge benefit we are able to return to you and your classroom with every tax credit dollar we encumber for field-trips, materials, special one-of-a-kind extracurricular programs, residencies, curriculum, and even, on occasion, capital items.

I have learned through the years that almost every tax credit dollar that comes into the school comes after a direct personal appeal, a personal reminder, a personal plea that comes from one of us to the parents of our students, community stakeholders, close friends, and family members. Our community needs to be reminded and often retaught about the tax advantages that come from making a donation to our school.  And we've learned that this appeal is best heard and understood when it comes from you, from a member of our faculty and staff who understands the benefits our students derive from every single tax credit donation made to Marshall School.

I hope you'll make the effort to reach out to your students' parents, your friends, and your family members in the next few weeks to remind them about our need of their tax credit donations.

Below are a few items that many of us have found useful when making our annual appeals for tax credit donations.

This letter has been used with great success as a first step in making your direct appeals.  Please feel free to download it and revise it to suit your needs.

This flyer  was sent home earlier this week and will be sent home again and again between now and the mid-April tax filing deadline.  Feel free to download it to include with the letter you sent to your friends and family members.

Remember: tax credit works for anyone and everyone who pays taxes in the state of Arizona.  We must all work to secure these funds.  Thank you for your part in getting this information in the hands of our stakeholders.

Spelling Bee 2019 Success!  


Thank you Ms. Mijares and Mrs. Milios for all of the research and hard work you put into creating a new opportunity for Marshall students.  The competition was fierce as students tried to fight the nerves to compete at Marshall so they can move on to compete with other students in FUSD.  You should have seen how nervous the audience was for those competing.  Great job!  Thank you. 

Can you believe that 2020 is right around the corner? Wow!! I have such a hard time with this since 2020 once seemed so far (a lifetime, really) into the future (when my first son would graduate from high school and my youngest would secure his driver's license). Yet here it is, ready or not. Do you take the time to reflect on all you accomplished in a year and then create your New Year's Resolutions (personal or professional) for the next? If so, I would love to hear about them and share out in our final 2019 Mustang Memo! Please share it here.

Upcoming Evaluations week of Dec. 9:  Arnold, Carrozzino, Burgoon

COMING UP...

Monday, Dec 9
~Construction on bathrooms/teacher lounge begins
~Social health for 5th grade 9-11:30am (Fisher and Sci. Lab)
~11:30am-12:30pm Reasor at OTIF mtg
~12:30pm-4:30pm Reasor at Admin mtg

Tuesday, Dec 10
~Social health for 5th grade 9-11:30am (Fisher and Sci. Lab)
~Fratelli Pizza 10% Fort Valley Rd ALL DAY!
~5:30pm Governing Board mtg

Wednesday, Dec 11
~All students deserve a warm smile!

Thursday, Dec 12
~12:25pm Early Release for Grading

Friday, Dec 13
~9:00am Food Drive and parade
~1:00-2:00pm SpED Strategic Plan Mtg for all teachers who services students with IEPs. 

~Dec 18, PTO Craft Night

~Dec 19, Holiday Luncheon
~Dec 19, Staff Holiday Celebration Casa de Milios 4-7pm
~Dec 21-Jan 5, Winter Break

Bus Duty: 4th grade Teachers (TPPP eligible)!

Please acknowledge you have read this post.

Thankful for healthy teachers and students!

There is so much gratitude surrounding these halls! May this WELL DESERVED Thanksgiving break bring you rest, health, wellness and time with your family and friends! 

Did you see our students stuffing their backpacks on Monday and Tuesday?  We never know what goes on with all of our students when they are away for 5 days but I sure feel better knowing they were able to grab what they want or maybe even need.  Marshall continues to support each student in and out of our building.  Thanks for that!

Spotlight on Erin Macdonald, Administrative Assistant
My name is Erin Macdonald, I was born and raised in Flagstaff AZ and attended Marshall Elementary School from 1988-1994.   I had my first child Anthony in 2006.  Anthony started at Marshall at age 4 in the Co-Op and continued his schooling at Marshall until 2016 and is now an 8th grader at MEMS. I started working for FUSD as a traveling, night custodian when Anthony was 1 year old in 2007. After about a year of that I was placed at Marshall as a full time day custodian. I did this work for about 2 years and was asked to apply for the Attendance position. I have been the Attendance Clerk at Marshall since around 2010 when I also became pregnant with my second child Rio, who is currently a third grader at Marshall. I was recently asked to step in as the Administrative Assistant for the remainder of the school year at Marshall while Malinda takes a leave of absence. I love my Marshall family and continue to work here because I love my job and love coming to work every day. Likewise, I can't imagine my child going any where else other than Marshall. He is confident happy and thriving here. You cant find that everywhere.

A blog worth reading: Let's be thankful
I hope you take time to read it HERE.  If not, here is the part that really resonates with me.

And I am so incredibly thankful to work alongside people like YOU every day.  People who pour their heart, soul, time, blood, sweat, tears into these kids.

People who are more than just educators.  People who are life changers.

Our job isn't easy.  Our job doesn't always feel rewarding every day.  But I am thankful you walk alongside me with these kids.  That you jump off the ledge with me.  That you take risks, love deeply, and keep pushing yourselves.

I am thankful for our parents we have who are doing the best they possibly can to raise their children.  I am thankful for our district administration who makes decisions they feel are for the betterment of kids.  I am thankful for our own personal families who deal with our tears and time away from home because we love what we do.

Thank YOU for what you do.  There is no way I could ever express how needed and appreciated you are.

America's Favorite Crossing Guard!  

Vote here and bookmark it until Dec 13th.  I have three emails, I will use them all! ;) Please help spread the word to as many as you can!  You can even share on your Facebook pages or put it in your newsletters!  We know he is the best, we just need the nation to know it too! 

SPED Corner by Hauer 

Misconception 5: Learning Disabilities fade with time.
“Learning disabilities do not go away — they’re with you for life. That doesn’t mean someone with a learning disability can’t achieve or even be wildly successful. They just need to find ways to circumvent or accommodate for the areas in which they don’t do well. The more individuals know about themselves and how to get the help they need, the more they’ll be able to succeed. A person who is diabetic can still be a world-class athlete, but they need to figure out how to balance the management of their medical condition with their training and completion needs. People who have learning disabilities can be (and are) Pulitzer Prize-winning poets, state governors and members of Congress, actors, economists, engineers, physicians,… anything at all. They just need to understand their specific LD-related challenges, find ways to work around these pockets of weakness, and follow their dreams.
“The sooner people learn to talk about their LD and how to be effective self-advocates, the better. There’s some really interesting longitudinal data that shows success attributes among children with LD. Studies tell us that even more important than early recognition of LD, overall intelligence or how many years of special education help they received, the thing that had the biggest impact over time was how well they could articulate their learning disability to others. Starting in elementary and middle school, students should become really good at explaining their learning disability to teachers. By the time they’re in high school, they should know the rights and protections they have and be able to share the details of their IEPs or 504 plans — documents that specify the services and supports they are entitled to receive.”

United Way is Underway!  Dec. 6th deadline

If you participate online, let us know so we can accurately report our participation %.  Also note the Dec. 6th deadline. Together, we can make a large impact!

Record breaking week!

Two days in a row with over 190 absent students!  Record breaking.  Thank you for all of your efforts in keeping our school germ free(er) where possible.  We can all do our part! Stay healthy as we continue to see many illnesses on the rise this season.  My new "good morning" daily routine is brought to you by safeHands alcohol free hand sanitizer! 

Don't be ground zero!  Take care of you!

Upcoming Evaluations week of Dec. 2:  Ogg, Shaw, Hulls & Ryan

Happy birthday to you... 

Janea Skinner (belated) 11/18
Franny Gustafson (belated) 11/21
Eva Yazzie 11/30
Darlene Fousel 12/1
Rebecca Soto 12/2 
Sarah Flores 12/2
Andrea Shaw 12/4
Sarah Milios 12/8
Bianca Fahy 12/12
Heather Overton 12/15

Did you see the email from Zachary Fountain (sent 11/25 @ 5:03pm) about the new Anonymous Alert system that will "go live" following our Thanksgiving break?  While we do not allow cell phones here at Marshall during the school day, we will put up a few posters to inform our students about this new resource and have a few stickers available for our parents to take home.  Please review the email from Zach. We will all need to talk to our students about this resource.  
Information regarding accessing the system is now available at fusd1.org/anonymousalerts.


COMING UP...

Monday, Dec 2
~11:30am-12:30pm- Reasor in OISF mtg (Operation Improve School Facilities) Portable 1 This will be weekly for several months.
~XCAT Bowling for Special Olympics!  Go Mustangs!!! 

Tuesday, Dec 3
~Fully staffed and smooth sailing

Wednesday, Dec 4
~4:30-5:30pm PTO mtg
~5:30-6:30pm 5th grade parent info night

Thursday, Dec 5
~Keep calm and carry on!  7 full days and 4 half days until winter break.  Let's finish this second quarter strong! 

Friday, Dec 6
~9:00am Spelling Bee (so exciting)!
~1-2pm ILLP preparation & progress reports in Library for all teachers with ELL students.
~2-3pm Marshall Leadership Team Mtg (Rm 19)
~3:30pm United Way donations due!  $5 is all it takes to participate.  Help us reach 80% participation.

~Dec 9, Construction Begins

~Dec 9-10, 5th grade Social Heath
~Dec 10, Fratelli 10%
~Dec 10, Governing Board Mtg

~Dec 12, Early release 12:25pm

~Dec 13, Canned Food Drive ends with parade

~Dec 18, PTO Craft Night

~Dec 19, Holiday Luncheon

~Dec 21-Jan 5, Winter Break

Bus Duty: 3rd grade Teachers (TPPP eligible)!

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