Serving God Where Called

Well, friends, I think this will be the final edition of our Suite Post. By next Thursday there really won't be much to add that you don't already know! I don't possess adequate command of vocabulary to sufficiently express my heartfelt gratitude for your friendship and willingness to step up and serve God in such mighty ways at South Side. You are EACH an inspiration to so many and to me! I have learned so much with you and from you. Most of all, my faith in our God has been emboldened and deepened by living alongside you these past six years! As with our little ones, the years God has allowed me to live and serve at South Side with be some of my most special. Thank you for being my family for six amazing years! 

End of Year Chapel
Let's hold our final chapel like we typically do. Come to the gym at 10:45. We'll sing and offer a special blessing to our "graduating" second graders. K and 1 will line the hallway. Parents and family members continue the applause line. Then our second graders will walk through the adoring crowd as we send them off to all that God has in store for them in new places and spaces. 

Friday Afternoon
Lunch will be provided on May 31. Anyone and everyone who would like to brainstorm together, let's talk about how we can develop the idea of buddy classes and joint projects in order to facilitate a deeper/richer "family feel" at South Side! 

Summer Cleaning Schedule
There is a Guidebook on the table in the staff center. If you are in charge of prepping an area for the summer cleaning crew, please take a few minutes to read through the booklet. I'll attach it here as well. Don't hesitate to ask Darlene questions. She's eager to help so that South Side can be spic and span for our new batch of learners next year! 

From Paul:

Good morning, South Side Staff!

We will start cleaning classrooms during the week of June 10^th.  Our goal is to be done with South Side by the end of June.  The summer cleaning crew will attach a cleaning checklist to your classroom door when finished.  Please indicate where you would like the classroom furniture arranged after cleaning just as you have in previous years.  Marking each furniture piece with a letter corresponding to a classroom map is most helpful for our cleaning staff.  Please also note that hallway and classroom floors will be stripped and waxed at a minimum from June 17-28.  Please refrain from being at school during that time. We will keep you updated upon completion of refinishing the floors. We will keep you updated on the completion of this task should there be any delays or unforeseen circumstances affecting the cleaning schedule.

Please do a few things before you leave for the summer:

1. Please take home any valuables or personal items.  We may have contractors who will be in the school this summer, and we don't want anything broken or stolen.

2. Clear off desks and surfaces.  The more clear surfaces we have the faster and more efficiently we can clean your classrooms and stay on schedule.

3. Submit any maintenance requests for your classroom that needs our attention.  Click here if you need something repaired.

4.  Submit any Summer Painting Requests.

5.  Please make a room diagram of your classroom so the summer cleaning crew can set up the room in the layout that you would like for the start of the school year.  Please also attach a letter to each pice of furniture with your room number corresponding to the location where you would like it to be placed.  Please keep your room diagram on the door to your classroom so that we can easily find it and arrange your room as you have requested.

We look forward to you returning to a cleaned and sanitized school in the fall.  I am confident that all of our summer projects will get done with your help by doing the things listed above.  Also enclosed to this email is the Summer Cleaning Schedule and Guidebook.  It will provide information regarding the projected timeline for the cleaning projects that will be administered throughout the summer, and it should provide a reasonable expectation of when we are planning on cleaning your classroom.  

If you have any paint requests for your classroom or other areas around the school, please click here.

Thank you very much!  We look forward to meeting, and hopefully, exceeding your expectations.

Running Records

Please remember to give your running records to Miska. They will be delivered to the next year's teachers ASAP. Thank you!

Report Cards and MAP ScoresReport Cards will be printed and packed next week. Please let Pat or Miska know when your reports are ready for the presses! If we can get those cards completed by Tuesday or Wednesday, it makes the printing process more feasible. But...I know. It's May. Everything is due and everything is happening. We'll all give grace where grace is needed! MAP Scores have been printed and will be in each child's report card with a letter of explanation 

Yearbook DistributionOur yearbooks are coming! THANK YOU for all of your work, Jenna and Karen! Please distribute the yearbooks to students on Wednesday, May 29. Your class set will be near your mailbox in the copy room.

Monday, June 3

• Time: 8:00am - 3:00pm

• Who: Teachers and Administrators

• What: The morning will consist of department and grade level activities, with the afternoon being meetings/activities for our individual campuses.

• Food: Light breakfast and lunches provided

Tuesday, June 4

• Time: 8:00am - 12:00pm

• Who: All HC Employees

• What: Worship, Review of strategic roadmap for our Cultural Intelligence work, Years of Service & Departing staff recognition, Looking Back & Looking Forward

Classroom Purchases
As we go into the summer, please remember not to make any purchases until after July 1. Purchases made anytime before that date might not be reimbursed. Please let me know if this poses a problem for you. We have until June 6 to turn in receipts for this year.

Refrigerator 
Lunch will be provided on the last day of school. Since you won't have to take your lunch bag along that day, would you mind clearing out your goodies in the fridge? We don't want to accidentally dip into anyone's 3-month old salsa next August. 😱

Weekend
Have a wonderful weekend with some time to relax, enjoy the sunshine, catch a little poison ivy, whatever's your pleasure (I may try to avoid the latter this time). May God bless each of you as you celebrate the sacrifices and gift that our country is!

Have a blessed summer friends. 

Blessings To Our Jenna!

Jenna! Many blessings to our sweet friend who has completed all of the end of the year tasks and is now following doctor's orders to go home and rest a while. It makes everyone happy to think of you setting up the last preparations for your little miracle. We smile at the truth that your heart will never again be the same the moment you meet your blessed baby. We will miss you. We will be in prayer for you. I know I speak for everyone when I say Happy Mothers Day!

Remembrance Fund
$25 please by tomorrow to replenish our funds.

End Of Year Soiree

When: Thursday, May 23

            4:00-5:30ish

             *Come and Go as it works in your schedule

Where: Eldeans Pool House
              2223 S Shore Drive
             *Walk through the pool area to the big yellow house

What: Light appetizers, desserts, drinks and time to connect before we all head out  for the summer

PD
More details will be forthcoming but please plan for some collaborative work on Monday, June 3 (preschool teachers and aides CPR training details are being put together for you as well).

We will close our year together on Tuesday morning, June 4. Then check out with me and GO REST and CREATE ADVENTURES!


Ordering
Per our decision at the staff meeting today, please indicate "Ship on July 5" when placing orders for school. Check the box requesting 24 hour notification in your cart. I'll let you know when our supplies have arrived!

Buddy Classes
Thank you for the initial conversations today. Before I start the process of switching to Rose Park projects, let's see if we can get these wheels in motion. We'll talk more about this in the days upcoming. I appreciate your ideas and willingness! Thank you to our preschool teachers who are willing to give up their rooms in order to help facilitate these cross-grade relationships!

Field Day
Could you please copy and paste this blurb for your parents:

Monday, May 20 is Field Day!!! Please dress your child in his/her Preparing A Table t-shirt and shorts that might get wet ;) Thank you! 

Happy Mother's Day

Sometimes a teacher's heart and a mother/father's heart are so similar I think it probably takes some high tech equipment to decipher one from the other. Our children are so loved by every one of you. I appreciated the sensitivity of Sarah's devotional and prayer request on Wednesday. I talked with someone from church for a bit today and just have a few thoughts to share with you along those lines as we go into a beautiful weekend of celebrating mothers! 

I believe we are called to another kind of expression of love on this special day as well. If you take a moment to look closely into the eyes of parents this weekend, you may find other stories held quietly inside hearts. Sometimes you have to pause, talk with another for a moment in order to see more there than what meets the eye if you brisk on by. I believe God has placed us in community so that we can be the arms and hands that uphold each other when we see and feel hurt and brokenness in others. We are encouraged to gently reach out to others on this day and allow hearts that are hurting to receive love and acceptance with which, we pray, will grow into moments and twinkling of healing.

Some mothers are surrounded by little blessings! They have beautiful, healthy children and yet they are bone weary and heart weary. They are seeking hope, strength and rest.

Some mothers are blessed with an exceptional mother’s heart. Yet their arms are painfully hollow and empty. They, too, seek hope, strength and rest.

Some mothers have been blessed with a beautiful, strong mother of her own to journey through this life with. But she grieves every day as this role model in her life has been called home to Glory. Joy on this day seems to escape.

So many mothers don’t want to face the emotional journey this day brings because they have a little one, a life they once carried, already home in Glory. This day brings the onslaught of what-ifs and what-could-have-beens in new and painful ways.

So many mothers are journeying the road alone. Every. Day. Dutifully fulfilling the role of sole provider, the sole parent, the sole role model, the sole guider. At times this calling simply must be all too much.

This list goes on, doesn’t it. There are countless variations of stories we each bear. I believe we are called to be the person who notices. Notice the emotions and stories of others. Gently touch the forearm of another or offer a warm, knowing hug. I believe God can stir in powerful, healing ways when we seek to serve by loving others.

So, I’ll borrow words from our friend Rod Brandsen. May you bless and be blessed this weekend. We truly wish each of you a very happy, cup-runneth-over Mothers Day that is marked in compassion, tenderness, careful empathy, gentle joy and love.

Radios
We'll talk in greater detail about our new radios at the staff meeting on the 16th, but for now, please be sure to SLIDE the walkie talkie into the slotted charger. That's a little different than just setting them in like we used to with the old fashioned models ;)

Convocation
Is planned for Tuesday, May 14 at 9:00.

Staff Luncheon
Tuesday, May 21! Parent team's treat! Mark your calendars and leave your leftover pizza at home!

Summer Slide Materials
Kim Dykstra has put in so many hours copying and collating books for our children. She is already beginning to put together book packages for our readers! We have TONS of them! If you feel the need to make adjustments to the reading levels you find on the google doc, please let me know first. Things could get really tangly for Kim if we all start making edits. ;)

The slide party will take place at Rose Park on July 31 from 1:00-3:00. All are invited. None are required ;) I'm told Maranda from WOOD TV will be present...probably not for the slide. I think she's interested in the progress of our little readers and teachers who care! That's YOU! :)

Final Chapel
As we have in the past, you may invite your parents to our final chapel which will take place on May 31 from 10:45-11:15.

Delta Screener
We can talk about this a bit tomorrow, but we test up a grade in this final testing session. The Delta window and MAP window opens next week.

May's Daze

Tulip Time! 
Hold onto your hats, friends! It's HERE!

Tulip Time

Let's plan on our parade practice right after morning recess on Monday, May 6. By 10:15 we'll line up in parade order, walk to Maranatha parking lot and return. This will help the kids get a little comfortable with walking....that can be a little tricky ;) If you could, please have your students placement mapped out so they know where they stand.

Preschool dismissal can get a little convoluted because of the 11:30 dismissal of the K-2 crowd. Preschool teachers, as we have in the past, please offer to your families to pick up at 11:00 if they choose.

Please invite your parents to come and change their child into their costume if they choose. We will eat lunch, perhaps go outside if it's not too hot, I will take the kids in the gym to rest and stay cool before loading the busses. Please remind the parents that they must pick up their child at Kollen Park after the parade. Again, we'll have more details on division and times soon.

Grade Level Meetings
Let's pencil in the week of the 13th! What days work best for you during encore? 

Testing Reminder

Just a reminder we are doing NWEA MAP and Delta Math testing the weeks of May 13-24.  Teachers should schedule times over those two weeks to accomplish those tests.  Any questions contact me.

Assessment Season

'Tis the season! Here are the non-negotiable reminders for our end of the year running records :) 

Apple Distinguished Photos

Karen S and Jenna have graciously offered to update the photos in our Apple Distinguished iBook. If you have any photos or your learners using technology in a creative way (doesn't have to be National Geographic worthy!) please send the pix to either Karen or Jenna! They will need this by May 10, please. Thank you! 

Brief Post

8th Grade Shadow (New to HC)
Tomorrow our eighth graders will be shadowing a profession of their choice. Emily Scogin is a new student to HC. Her dream is to be a teacher. She will very likely be roaming into your classroom at some point tomorrow. If you see her (she is a tad shy) please help her feel welcome and perhaps even suggest a student for her to sit near and help or observe. I'm grateful she has asked if she can try her teacher legs with us at South Side! :)

Service Learning from PR
On May 1, we will have 22 kids from Pine Ridge visiting with us at South Side as a set of helping hands. If you have a specific job you'd like them to accomplish, we will collect a to-do list for them to accomplish. They will be here at South Side from 1:00-2:00.

Tulip Time

Let's plan on our parade practice right after morning recess on Monday, May 6. By 10:15 we'll line up in parade order, walk to Maranatha parking lot and return. This will help the kids get a little comfortable with walking....that can be a little tricky ;) If you could, please have your students placement mapped out so they know where they stand.

Preschool dismissal can get a little convoluted because of the 11:30 dismissal of the K-2 crowd. Preschool teachers, as we have in the past, please offer to your families to pick up at 11:00 if they choose.

We will get the finer points of Thursday's events soon, but please invite your parents to come and change their child into their costume if they choose. We will eat lunch, perhaps go outside if it's not too hot, I will take the kids in the gym to rest and stay cool before loading the busses. Please remind the parents that they must pick up their child at Kollen Park after the parade. Again, we'll have more details on division and times soon.

Batons
Please let me know if you have a new student or a student who has lost his or her baton, and I'll see to it that you get one.

We’ll be sending these home with students again on the last day, May 31. If you need any of the program information, here is a link again.

Just a quick reminder, if you haven't begun already, anytime now might be a good time to break your students' batons out of the closet, cupboard, or other storage space where you've had them. The last day will be here before you know and chipping off a few a week might be a good pace. Thank you for thoughtfully adding this piece of encouragement and blessing to your students! 

Easter Blessings

Lunch with Jim on April 25
Jim would like to get to know everyone at South Side just a little bit better. He has asked if he can eat lunch with you at our table on Thursday, April 25. There is nothing formal about this. When we sit together and enjoy lunch, it's a good time to connect, share stories and laugh a bit. We will all bring our lunch from home and Marty will pack one for him ;) No need for classroom coverage. Just plan, if you are able, to come to the staff center for lunch on the 25th if you are able!

Class Lists
Oh WOW! We should get a meeting time on the map soon. Will you please start thinking about who to keep together and who might be best kept apart? If you can begin to formulate your rough draft lists for next year, we'll look at talking through these lists the first week or two of May.

Tulip Time
Let's plan on our parade practice right after morning recess on Monday, May 6. By 10:15 we'll line up in parade order, walk to Maranatha parking lot and return. This will help the kids get a little comfortable with walking....that can be a little tricky ;) If you could, please have your students placement mapped out so they know where they stand.

Preschool dismissal can get a little convoluted because of the 11:30 dismissal of the K-2 crowd. Preschool teachers, as we have in the past, please offer to your families to pick up at 11:00 if they choose.

We will get the finer points of Thursday's events soon, but please invite your parents to come and change their child into their costume if they choose. We will eat lunch, perhaps go outside if it's not too hot, I will take the kids in the gym to rest and stay cool before loading the busses. Please remind the parents that they must pick up their child at Kollen Park after the parade. Again, we'll have more details on division and times soon.

Batons

Just a quick reminder, if you haven't begun already, anytime now might be a good time to break your students' batons out of the closet, cupboard, or other storage space where you've had them. The last day will be here before you know and chipping off a few a week might be a good pace. Thank you for thoughtfully adding this piece of encouragement and blessing to your students! 

Please let me know if you have a new student or a student who has lost his or her baton, and I'll see to it that you get one.

We’ll be sending these home with students again on the last day, May 31. If you need any of the program information, here is a link again.

---

Spring Things

"Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." John 13:17

Program Practice April 23
Pick Up at 12:30. We will return to South Side at 2:15. This will impact encore on Tuesday. There will be no encore on Tuesday afternoon until 2:15.

Program on the 23rd. 
Students will arrive at 6:30. Please plan to be in your place in the narthex at 6:25 to meet your first kiddos. It would be wise to make note of this in your classroom blogs.

Baby Shower
Thursday, April 18 over the lunch hour is the BABY SHOWER for Rhea and Jenna! We can't wait to celebrate these new mamas!

Miska's Personal Days
I will be leaving on Wednesday, April 17 for Aunt Amanda's wedding in California. I'm so sorry to miss days at South Side! I feel like the world might fall apart in my absence but, oddly, when I return all will be well. ;) Thank you for carrying on in my absence.

Collaboration Days
Here they come again! Yes, Ron! This means you too! ;)