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...