Friday Focus - January 29th, 2021

 

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*I overheard some great conversations between advisors/students in both course selection process and creating a 4 year plan for high school (in 8th grade). There were conversations about classes aligning to post high school goals, discussions about GPA, college entrance requirements, etc. I was please with some of the details students were reading into in the course catalog and even had a student find a mistake in our book that many other eyes did not catch!
*Middle school students excited to meet/discuss their book club book. They were sharing post-it notes of thoughts as they were reading, asking each other questions and having great dialogue (and made me want to read their book!)
*When I was complaining about the cold, a teacher reminded me that the daylight is longer. Thank you for reminding me fo a positive reframe and getting me to stop complaining! 

Upcoming Events:
Wednesday - Workout Wednesday
Friday - Middle school is having Pajama Day for the American Heart Association and we encourage staff to wear red! 

Nuts & Bolts Notes:
*To continue with our district COVID plan to limit others into the building, the scheduled Parent/Teacher conferences will not take place as scheduled.  Please make sure that you are reaching out to parents of students that you have concerns about.  

*Plug for summer school...please check out Mrs. Huelsman's email and let her know if you are interested!

*Just a reminder of the expectations that were sent to students/parents about blended learning. Please let me know if you have a student not meeting the expectations and should be receiving a letter from the office. Better yet, email the student/parent and cc me...then both parent and I know at the same time (and we will still send out a letter). Here's an example of an email that Ms. Penterman has been sending and she attaches the blended learning expectations (thank you for sharing Ms. Penterman!):

Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:

*Trauma is a word, Not a Sentence

I often need to remind myself of this one...

Friday Focus - January 22, 2021

 

Great Things I've Noticed this Week:

*Students returning to in person learning after being virtual only 1st semester...with smiles beaming through the masks happy to be back in their Dodgeland home!

*A class discussion digging into what it's like to be in the minority (both in numbers and power) and a student spoke up about their personal experiences.  

*Students writing about their dreams for America.

*Academic Pentathlon placed 5th out of 49 teams!

Upcoming Events:

Workout Wednesday

Thursday - 1 hour delay schedule for Advisory (emails will be sent out with further details this weekend)

Friday - it's 2 weeks into the semester...do you have enough information about your students to enter a proficiency rating for work habits/employability skills?  Whether your class is new or returning for you, you already know how they're coming to class, behaving, etc. Share that feedback with students/parents in powerschool now. :)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*Students with an Incomplete have until January 29th. Please use the grade change form that Laura emailed out. 

*Just a reminder of the expectations that were sent to students/parents about blended learning.  2nd semester means students start over on their absences for truancy and the office is already sending out attendance letters. However, if a student is present online, but not engaging, it is tricker for us to address.  At the end of each week I will be emailing out a reminder to you for you to let me know if you have any students NOT meeting blended learning expectations for your class.  The expectation that is the most concrete for you to let me know about is:

• Determining adequate progress:

• If the student does not submit the expected number of assignments within a five (5) day period, the student and his or her parents will be notified of this unacceptable progress for submitting assignments.

• If the student does not respond to the notification by submitting assignments within five (5) days, the teacher will notify the student again.

If after the second warning, the student does not respond by submitting assignments, the District will assume that the student does not intend to remain in the blended learning environment and will need to return to the in-person learning environment. In other words, failure to submit assignments in a timely manner will result in removal from the blended learning environment.

*For your awareness, this reminder letter was sent out to parents yesterday regarding cold/flu/COVID symptoms: Parent Letter

Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:

*7 Things that Will Help you Level up in 2021!

Friday Focus - January 8, 2021

 

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

*Many students excited to be back at school after the holiday break!

*Great class conversations about the new year, goals, and how students could demonstrate their learning for the end of semester.

*A parent shared how much she appreciated the flexibility for a class's hands-on activity in class to be modified to be able to work at home during quarantine. She expressed amazement of all that teachers have done this year. 

*Teachers working together to support each other in supporting students - academically, behaviorally and to creatively make sure special events can continue to happen for students, despite COVID restrictions. 

*One of our students was so overwhelmed by being so far behind that she planned to give up on this semester. But her teachers didn't...multiple teachers talked with her individually to convince her that she has to stop complaining about it and solve the problem...make a list, make a plan, start tackling each and cross off each as accomplished.  Not only was the student proud of herself for getting back on track, but her parent recognized all that her teachers did to support and encourage her while holding her to the expectations that she was capable of.

*Communication with parents...to inform them of progress/lack of progress and follow-up on what support has already been given at school. In this final stretch of the semester, this communication means these parents won't be surprised at the failing grade on the report card. The printed report card should never have surprises!

Upcoming Events: 

Wednesday - Workout Wednesday and HS Faculty meeting at 3:00
Thursday - Early Release at 12:20 for bus and 12:30 for the rest
Modified schedule for Middle School with NO bells. 
High School has only Juniors present for the PreACT

Friday - Professional Development - Agenda/details will be out soon. Please know you'll have about half the time for target based work to continue. 

Monday, January 18th - grades need to be finalized in PowerSchool

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*GRADES GRADES GRADES: We will have directions out next week about how to finalize grades and also how to add a comment to explain a grade of Incomplete or NONE. If you have a standard that has not been taught yet, please leave it blank (the standard name will not show up in the report card if you leave it blank, so parents won't wonder why it's blank).

Please let me know if you have a student who is being given an incomplete. Here is a review from the student/parent handbook regarding the timeframe for an incomplete:

Any incomplete grades must be made up within 2 weeks (10 scheduled school days)  in traditional classroom courses, with the exception being students who were medically absent for a long period of time.  An incomplete may be extended by teacher-administrator agreement when a student has made significant progress and an extension of time is necessary to complete the course work.  All incomplete grades require prior administrative approval.

*Thursday schedule details: I had hopes to get the final middle school coverage details figured out and final PreACT proctor details by Friday, but curve balls thrown my way prevented me from getting to this. I should have all these details figured out for you by Monday morning. Thank you for your patience! 

*Blended Learning Expectations: This letter was mailed out to all parents this week to reset our expectations for students who are home for blended learning. Please make sure to read the expectations on pages 3/4, because the office will need your help to inform us if a student is not meeting these expectations. I will also have a video/email/announcements to share this information with students for the start of 2nd semester. 

*Spring Into Success Summit: Please register for the virtual summit for our PD day on President's Day (2/15) through the email you received from CESA 6. You can attend this summit from home if you have reliable home internet. This day will be virtual through Zoom and CESA 6 will send you a link to the zoom meetings that you register for. Let me know if you did not receive this email (it should have hit your inbox yesterday).  If you haven't used Zoom before, after clicking on the link, you'll be prompted to open Zoom on your device and then can connect to the summit on that day. 

*Baseball caps for students never got approved...some of our students seemed to have just started bringing them back to see if you'd notice. A simple reminder to take it off or put in their locker is usually all it takes to enforce this (I often just signal taking off a hat on my hand without saying a word). 

Blogs, Tweets & Quotes:
*Moving From Feedback to FeedForward
*Jamboard Templates