“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Maya Angelou
Office Visits – This new office set up is making social distancing virtually impossible so I need to ask everyone to use some different methods of dropping in to talk with me. Instead of coming to the office, please call ext 1902, text or call my cell phone (760-500-4847) and I will come to you. I promise to be as responsive as possible but please know I try really hard not to check messages or take calls while I am talking to somebody in person (I believe this is from some mindfulness training that suggests that the person in front of you is the most important person in that moment and deserves your undivided attention). I will also only try to be in my office when on a webex, phone call or in-person meeting. I may move myself into a more central location for the typical laptop work, however that may simply be the hallway. I will also be better at walking “rounds” and checking in with each of you in your rooms a few times each day.
Check-In/Check-Out QR Codes – I am sorry for the extra task each day – I know it’s an inconvenience. Let’s hope we never have to use these, but know that if we use these with fidelity we can help identify anyone who might have been exposed when we learn of somebody testing positive. There are some easy ways to make this easier and faster, so ask me and I’ll show you.
Pick a Team, any team..
Please respond to the survey below asap. I will focus first on getting the Safety Team meeting up and running. The rest will come later on dates TBD.
- School Safety Team
- Safety meetings will focus on reviewing inspection and accident records, and reviewing, investigating, and providing recommendations to any safety concern reports from school employees.
- CDL/Storyline Team – School Curriculum/Instruction Team
- Planning and development, Sharing
- Equity
- Integration
- Feedback and Design Cycle
- Culture of Care/SEL Team (Think “PBIS”)
- Self Care
- School-Wide Trauma-Informed Practice and Refinement
- Family Connections Team
- Equity and Access
- Attendance/Participation Concerns and Follow Up
- Identifying and addressing potential homelife concerns
SIWs and Meetings: I will not schedule any SIW PD or meetings (with the exception of the Safety Team) until September 30th at the earliest. The downside is you need to keep up to date with these updates. The upside is you have some time to adjust to this interesting start to the year.
Lexia – There has been a little confusion about the placement test, so here is the final word: ALL STUDENTS WILL TAKE THE PLACEMENT TEST. Julie will reset the students as of today and every child will be prompted to take the placement test. You do not need to worry about past data – just let it go. (We will get the data from the company but it will take a few weeks.)
Here is some verbiage you can share with families;
Lexia is new and up-to-date with additional levels for the 20-21 year. You may review some work that you’ve seen before in Core5 – this is to make sure you are strong and confident with these reading skills. The extra practice may help you move faster through the levels as you work through the program!
Learning Kits – Whiteboards are now listed among the many things that are in short supply all across the US. These will likely not show up until the math kids come on the 21st at the earliest. You may want to consider sending home ones we already have here and then replenish when the new supply arrives.
CDL to Hybrid – Our principal meetings will start to shift our conversations toward the Hybrid model and what that will look like. Julie Walker is interviewing teachers across the district to gather information about the shape this model should take. There are a lot of ideas floating around about what that looks like, but please be patient and wait for the final description to come from the district. A couple rumors regarding our transition time that have popped up;
- Rumor – “We are going to skip Hybrid and go all in K-3.”
- Response – This is not true, we will transition to All In with a hybrid model first.
- Rumor – “We are going to move into Hybrid sooner than October 26th” –
- Response – There are meetings and conversations discussing this possibility, weighing the pros and cons, however as of today we are not moving into a Hybrid Model until October 26th at the earliest.
Subs during CDL – there is still no good answer with how to deal with extended absence during this period. There is work being done to prep subs for this kind of work, but it’s challenging.
Attendance – Attendance Info – live document, check for updates.
PE/Music – technically we do not have to take attendance for PE/Music, however I would like our community to take this stance;
Our intention is to maintain connection with everyone in our community. Mr. Pettis and Mr. Clements will be working hard to provide meaningful learning experiences for our students and their priority is maintaining connection with all our students. We expect our students to engage with the PE/Music work daily.
If and when parents ask if these are optional, the answer is “no”. We still want to maintain our relationships with our entire team and students. (In reality they do not have to attend every session at the exact time, but we will be advocating for them to complete the assigned work.)
The end goal of this stance is to maintain the relationships and connections for students to grow in all content areas, including our music and PE teacher. If students learn to be musically inclined and more physically literate along the way then we hit the jackpot.
Bend Parks & Rec Childcare – I will be meeting with our lead person on Monday or Tuesday. There will be a short training provided for Shelly and Danielle prior to starting. The first look at enrollment for this program is pretty low, but I anticipate that changing.
Instructional Tech Support
Apple Pencils – Thanks to our PTO board we are going to get some Apple Pencils to enhance your iPad instructional strategies. I already talked to a few of you about your interest level in these, but if I didn’t get a chance to talk to you and you are interested, please let me know. We’ll start by sharing these at first and if the demand to use these grows we can consider requesting more.
BrainPOP is back, baby! PTO is going to fund this again for us, which is fantastic! We’ll get our subscription up and running soon!
Quick Video Share Tip – Christie asked me to pass this information about making a video in a smaller file size along; Making a Video Easily Viewable by Changing the File Size
This is a link to the district remote learning site: CDL Tools
SOP document and schedules (Updated):