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
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