Friday Focus - October 30 2020

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Students checking their hear rate after physical activity and then after relaxing activities to see how their heart rate changes.
• Student small group discussion of the the class quote of the day.

• A teacher that has previously used the chalktalk strategy modified it to be completely virtual since it wasn't possible to social distance for it. Students went through different pages of a jamboard responding to different thoughts/questions and each other. This also allowed those from home to participate with their classmates who were in person.
• Good bags of appreciation put together by our FFA students. 

You get an extra hour of sleep/relaxation this weekend!

Upcoming Events: Homecoming Week Dress up Days (to go along with a movie theme)

Monday- Breakfast Club -Pajama Day
  7:30AM progress reports will be run

Tuesday- Moana - Hawaiian Day

Wednesday- Dodgeball - Sports jerseys
   MS/HS Faculty Meeting at 3:00 *Topic - assessments/re-assessments 

Thursday- Grease Lightning - Throwback

Friday - Friday Night Lights - Purple Pride

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*A common COVID contact tracing question: How does admin determine which days to contact trace if someone tests positive? Answer: The 2 days before the individual became symptomatic. 

*We will be adding the Work Habits domains to ARP sections and Employability Skills to Study Halls. My apologies that this got missed. Our discussions last year identified this as a way to provide feedback on how students behave/utilize their time during these times. You don't have to worry about this now for this run of progress reports, but we will add this for moving forward.

When you are looking in PowerTeacher Pro Standards, if you click on a student's proficiency level under a domain, you can then click on the professional judgement tool and see the student's evidence in that domain to help you determine if you need to override the domain grade. Here is what that looks like with the yellow arrow pointing to the icon that you can click on for this:

 

Blogs, Quotes and Tweets:
What's Possible with Green Screens in the Classroom

Friday Focus - October 22, 2020

Great Things I Noticed:

• Class gallery walk with students providing others with feedback on post-it notes, while referring back to the proficiency criteria rubric (what a great way for them to really understand the learning target criteria and give/receive feedback for learning!)
• Compassion seems to be infectious...I had several observations of students trying to help support someone else this week: one student emailed words of encouragement to a peer feeling very down (it got flagged by our filter which is why I knew), a student asked a teacher for an opportunity to step in the hallway to talk to a peer that needed encouragement, while subbing in a class a student told me she was emailing those at home to make sure they knew what to do without the teacher in Bluejeans. Our students are amazing and I know this comes from the great models they have in YOU!

Upcoming Events:

Workout Wednesday - deadline to register for XPD's (see Dr. Thompson's email)

Thursday, Oct 29 Picture Retake Day and ONE HOUR DELAY schedule. Students will start in their Advisory for ACP activities at high school, ACP/Second Step activities at Middle School.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

The cell phones are beginning to inch their way back into distracting existence, including at MS where they haven't ever been allowed.  I will pull out our cell phone videos from last year and put into slides for this weeks advisories for you to use that shares the research on cell phones being addicting and to explain why we have our "stupid rules." ;) They're not stupid rules, they're intended to help students be free of distractions for learning.

Staff Tech Tip of the Week:

Staff Resources Site, Updated: The DSD Staff Resources site has been updated with: PowerSchool>PowerTeacher Pro UserGuides and BlueJeans Meeting recording from October 1, 2020. Another addition was made to Whiteboard Apps>Article: Tips and Tricks for Teaching with Jamboard.

Work Life Balance?  I saw this on social media. Do you have work life balance boundaries set up? This is my inspiration to use my Friday 2:30 Self Care agenda time to consider:

Just for a laugh...

Friday Focus - October 9, 2020

 

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Sharing a finished product of a project, while having students refer to the proficiency criteria rubric to share what they saw in the project and where they thought it would be scored on the rubric. What a great way to have students understand the levels of proficiency!
• Teamwork in SO many places...help to cover classes, help to offer bathroom breaks, communicating with a student's next hour teacher to let them know about an issue going on to help support the student, and of course Mrs. Landaal's amazing sub rescue for Wednesday lunch!
• A discussion with students concerned about the possibility of COVID requiring all to switch to virtual...because they know they learn better from their teachers in person and they want to be here with structure and a schedule. Because YOU make the difference for them!
• Despite a teacher absence, teacher recorded lessons were ready in schoology for a student to airplay for the class to continue learning. Kids knew the routine, knew what to do and moved on with class without a hitch!
• More and more students are starting to sound like YOU. When one student was complaining, "I am SO sick of this COVID stuff, I just want it all back to normal," one of his peers replied, "Do you really think anybody likes this? No one does, we just have to move on with what we have and be glad we're here."
• Even though spectators to athletic evens are limited to 2 per athlete, our athletes showed a great deal of sportsmanship and school pride!

Upcoming Events:

Workout Wednesday

Wednesday - 3:05 HS Faculty Meeting in Bluejeans

Picture Retake Day is scheduled for October 21

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*If you have something interesting happening in your classroom and I don't get to see it in action, PLEASE take a picture and send it to me. I have been trying to send out a weekly parent newsletter for each building level on Sundays and love being able to include pictures. 

*SOS...seriously, if you're in need of a bathroom break (or even to pretend you're using the bathroom) send Marcia or I an email with the subject line SOS with some details. We're both nutso busy, but surely one of us will see it to help. Better yet...include Laura/Linda and they can radios us. 

Hope Together with Mrs. Breselow:

 Here is a repeat of the wonderful information Mrs. Breselow shared out this week to support you:

 Healthy Minds at Work : Both Dr.Thompson and I sent out  previous emails inviting staff to complete an assessment.  If you haven’t completed it yet, please remember to set aside 10 minutes to take the Healthy Minds @Work well-being assessment. The assessment report will offer insights into your well-being and help guide you on the path to training your mind.  On Monday, October 12th, you will receive an invitation to join the Healthy Minds @Work 30 Day Challenge with instructions to access your app. Please do not download the app until Monday, 10/12, to ensure you are correctly enrolled in the program. The Challenge will officially launch on Wednesday, 10/14. Click here to take the assessment  As a reminder, there may be some sensitive questions and we want you to know that admin or other staff won’t have access to your personal information. All user data will be confidential.

The second resource is the return of Steeping Wellness.  Built by former teachers, Kalise and Pam.  Steeping Wellness is a company that helps school district employees improve their well-being by providing opportunities to slowly infuse wellness into their lives.  You will be seeing monthly newsletters with encouragement for your personal use and to bring into the classroom, fun wellness challenges, live guided meditations and monthly virtual Self-Care Academies from Steeping Wellness.  Watch for a welcome email from Kalise at Steeping Wellness to highlight what's to come.  Click Here  to watch a brief(3:58) video from Pam and Kalise.

Tech Tip of the Week from Ms. Lee:

Get timely information at a glance with widgets on your iPad. When swiping from the left on your iPad home screen, view quick information such as weather, calendar, reminders, and battery life of Bluetooth connected devices such as Apple Pencil! Here is a video of how to access and personalize your widgets. Find more detailed information here, on the Apple website. 

Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:

For the Teachers Who are Not Ok Right Now

Friday Focus - October 2, 2020

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• A student me she is planning to write her own E+R=O Ted talk. I know the videos I shared weren't that amazing, so there must have been some good advisory discussions!
• 6th graders got to start playing their instruments in band with their new precautions (specialized instrumental masks/bell covers). They were SO great I didn't even realize it was their first day playing!
• 7th graders learning to use the microscopes in science class. 
• Great communication/teamwork on a number of situations to share concerns about students. You all do such a great job of creating a safety net to make sure a student doesn't go unnoticed. I saw you at work for this for a number of reasons this week: mental health concern, cleanliness, notice of lack of engagement, concerns for home, etc.  

Upcoming Events:

Workout Wednesday is also the day of after school staff flu shots

*Ava Strong pizza lunch fundraiser (details below)

If you are trying to find me to meet with me, I know I'm hard to find on the run (sorry, I'm good at getting my fitbit steps!) You are best off going here to schedule a meeting with me or contacting Laura/Linda. 

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*Just a friendly reminder to set your towel buckets, your garbage/recycling can and your rejuvenal bottle (if it needs filling) outside your classroom door at the end of the day.  Custodians start their day at 3pm and this will help them to efficiently complete the many tasks on their plates.  (Please feel free to ask your students to help with this too.)

*In addition, there will be a small dustpan and whisk broom brought to classrooms so that students can use them to clean up spills, crumbs, etc beneath their desk. Insert mom voice--make a mess, clean it up!  (Large brooms are too difficult for lots of students, but this way there is a tool for students to use.) 

*Ava Strong Fundraiser: On Wednesday, October 7, there is a fundraiser at Piggly Wiggly from 10-5pm to benefit Dodgeland student, Ava Finger and the medical costs her family is incurring following her mountain biking accident.  (*If you want to see updates of how resilient she is, check out frequent updates HERE). The fundraiser is a meal of a slice of pizza, bag of chips and a bottle of soda for $5.  (The entire $5 will be going directly to Ava.). Please share with your family and friends and consider participating.  I will email on Monday of how staff can order ahead of time and we will deliver to you for lunch. 

*Health Minds at Work: Just a reminder about Dr. Thompson's email about the  Healthy Minds @ Work program.  In order to begin this process, there is a confidential well-being assessment that takes approximately 10 min.  If you'd like to participate, please do so by Oct 14, which is the first day of our 30 day challenge.  Click here for the well-being assessment.

P/T Conferences: Due to the pandemic, our traditional Parent/Teacher conferences have been canceled for 10/15 & 10/22. Communication with parents is important, so there we are working on how we can still update parents on current academic/progress. Information will come later regarding how you will be able to contribute comments for reports that will inform parents.  Thank you for the many emails/parent phone calls you have already been making to reach out to parents for positives and concerns to support for growth!

PowerTeacher Pro - an email will be out soon with the recording of our meeting, along with additional information to support you. For now, I'll provide you with some humor. I've been frustrated for years with a situation in my house. So I decided to create proficiency targets to communicate my expectations and provide my family members with feedback on their performance:

And some more humor (because we all need to laugh)!

You all know I love Friends and this montage perfectly describes 2020 by Friends! -BTW Ross and Rachel's daughter Emma is now 18 and the time capsule they created on her 1st birthday can be opened!