Appreciation and Gratitude:  I just want to share that I received an overwhelming amount of messages via in-person, email and by text expressing appreciation, gratitude and support from our parents this week.  Many of them wanted me to relay to you that they know this is not easy and you have their unwavering support and heartfelt love.  The emotion of some of the conversations this morning brought a few tears to my eyes (which then froze), but I really want you to know the joy expressed is meant for all of you.

Shout Out Ticket  

Friendly Reminder:  This is as much for me as for everyone else.  Please remember that the library is now a kindergarten classroom.  If (like me) you tend to use this as a quick passage to the other side of the school, you (I) do so at the risk of distracting Marci’s class.  Please consider using an alternate route around and please be mindful of your voice volume even if you are on the other side of those barriers.

Next week:

• Wednesday 1/27 will be an individual teacher prep day – you are going to need this time.  Our first EBISS meetings centered around core instruction will be postponed to Wednesday 2/10.
• We will keep our staff meeting scheduled for Thursday 1/28 at 2:45 via WebEx.

Parks and Rec Childcare

• Team Up will continue for approximately 15 4th/5th graders during the school day.  They will continue to use the cafeteria.
• Kids, Inc. will start up for after school childcare and we will have two cohorts; one in the cafeteria and one in the gym.

Return to School Information  Nothing changed on this doc, but it’s good to review it.  If you have not already noticed both rooms 6 and 13 are set up and ready to use as a break space for staff.  These rooms will occasionally be used for student evaluation but we’ll do our best to work around times needed for staff breaks.  These spaces offer an indoor space for staff to eat, however it’s worth noting in most all work places that eating in staff break rooms is considered a higher risk.  Many work places (not just schools) are advising their employees to eat outdoors or in their own cars whenever possible to reduce risk.

Safety Team; Next meet is Friday 2/5 at 2:45;  Safety Team Notes

COVID Valentines Day Guidiance – The information below was ciruclulated by some other principals after conversations with Paul;

•Valentine cards will need to follow the same safe handling rules as all materials. We plan to have students bring their Valentines to school and distribute them in individual boxes by Tuesday, 2/9.  The boxes will then sit until Friday, February 12th, when students will open them at Valentine parties.

•Any candies brought need to be sealed airtight – i.e., foil-wrapped Hershey Kisses are not airtight.

•If students bring their Valentine cards with less than 72 hours to sit, their cards can be laid out on a table and misted with the electrostatic machines.

SEL Menus There are now nine weeks worth of SEL menus! Number nine has some great Brain Gym Videos. Easy (for some people, not me!) brain warm-up ideas that students can do at their desks. 

TLC Update  Please take note of the statement on Lexia and Dreambox.

News from Nurse Tami – 

• Quarantine Time Change – Quarantine time has changed from 14-days to 10-days when an individual has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case. 
• COVID-19 Notification Process in Schools – Notification of a positive COVID-19 case (in a school building) will be sent out to parents and school staff within 24 hours of case confirmation. A separate communication will be sent to parents in cohorts affected by the case. Information in this communication will include quarantine instructions (if warranted).
• Attendance Voice Message – our attendance line will be asking parents to provide symptoms for children called in sick to help our nursing staff with tracking illness.

District Level Subs update – 

• 16 subs are currently in the process of being hired
• Target start date for them is Feb 8th
• The system for requesting and deploying the district subs is still TBD

Transition to District CDL Timeline

Grades K-3 District CDL Students

• Week of January 18 – continue with CDL activities from current teacher
• Week of January 25 – learning packets and online activities (these will be created by Teaching and Learning and distributed to school sites (by 1/22) for distribution.  Schools will need to notify parents that the learning activities are available for pick-up 
• Week of February 1 – learning packets and online activities for CDL students;  District CDL teachers will reach out to families for initial connection
• Week of February 8 – District CDL begins

 Learning Packets: The “learning packets, ” which will provide families with resources for January 25th-February 5th for our K-3 district CDL students will be delivered to your building by the end of the day on Friday, 1-22.  Please contact the families in your CDL tab for pick-up.  Packets for Spanish speaking families and 4-5 grade students will be delivered early next week.  If there are questions regarding packets, please refer these to Julie Walker.

Grades 4 and 5 District CDL Students

• Week of January 18 – continue with CDL activities from current teacher
• Week of January 25 – continue with CDL activities from current teacher
• Week of February 1 – learning packets and online activities for CDL students; District CDL teachers will reach out to families
  • District CDL Parent Info Night (Virtual) with Q and A
• Week of February 8 – District CDL begins 

(*)All elementary students will receive a school-issued iPad to assist with learning opportunities. Families needing internet connectivity should reach out to their school for assistance.

Table below shows the district enrollment for our 3 options.

What Will It Take to Get All Students Reading Well?

            In this article in American Educator, Sharon Vaughn (University of Texas/Austin) and Jack Fletcher (University of Houston) summarize some key insights from 30 years of literacy research: “There is no doubt that some children have reading disabilities, but the key to improved outcomes for the vast majority of struggling readers, including those with a reading disability, is enhanced core instruction – and that means enhanced curricula, assessments, pre-service and inservice professional development, and supports.” Vaughn and Fletcher bemoan the fact that some students with preventable reading problems haven’t received effective instruction and are referred to special education, while others who have genuine reading disabilities are not getting early and effective interventions. System-level improvement is needed to fix these problems. 

            How can schools be organized so that almost all students learn to read? The authors echo the findings of the 2002 President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, which closely parallel the current emphasis on RTI (response to intervention) and MTSS (multiple tiers of systematic support):

• Focus on results – frequently measuring students’ reading proficiency – versus process – implementing bureaucratic procedures.

• Focus on prevention versus remediation. This means universal screening and early intervention, progress monitoring, and appropriate support for struggling students. “It is better to over-identify children at risk for reading problems as early as possible and provide necessary instruction,” say Vaughn and Fletcher, “than to under-identify and have large numbers of students who suffer as their problems linger without the required instructional support.” 

• Consider students with disabilities as general education students first – using effective Tier 1 instruction – and closely align general and special education services for students who are found to need Tier 2 and Tier 3 support. 

To be implemented effectively, there needs to be ongoing professional development so instruction, assessment, and interventions are handled well. 

Vaughn and Fletcher say that most of what they describe requires system-level change – but what can teachers do right now to support all students? Their suggestions:

–   Maximize students’ time on task with proven practices versus transitions, over-explaining, and behavioral management.

–   Use one-minute lessons – a very short review of a challenging task, time to practice word reading with feedback, or a chance to show what they know.

–   Customize instruction to students’ learning needs based on good assessments. 

–   Teach struggling readers in pairs or small groups, tailoring instruction to their needs.

–   Get students reading a wide range of text types and text levels. 

–   Provide explicit instruction with feedback: clear expectations up front; direct communication of those to students; modeling what students are to say or do; asking students to demonstrate the skill; providing prompt and specific feedback; and maintaining high levels of student success, engagement, and response (not calling only on the high achievers).

“Identifying and Teaching Students with Significant Reading Problems” by Sharon Vaughn and Jack Fletcher in American Educator, Winter 2020-2021 (Vol. 44, #4, pp. 4-11, 40); Vaughn is at [email protected], Fletcher at [email protected]. 

Look what’s waiting for you in the staff room!!!  Enjoy!  Thanks Shawna!

Shout Out Link

Staff Meeting – Notes and Agenda are linked below.

Notes

1/14/21 Agenda and Q&A

District CDL – For families who are choosing to enroll in the District CDL Program, there will be a gap from when students stop attending their current school to when they begin their new program.  The district will be providing activities and lessons to engage students during this time. Click here for a document you can share with staff and can share with families.   Right now there about 211 elementary students signed up for the district CDL.

Masks and Gaiters – heads up, the information shared today, specifically regarding gaiters, by Paul may change again…sigh.  Paul let us know this afternoon that soon after he sent out the message there was a change that came out.  Don’t communicate anything about it if you have not already done so as gaiters may not be allowed.  

Breakfast update – breakfasts contain a little more than I initially thought.  There are few items including milk and juice.  I think you are still fine to encourage eating some or all of it prior to going inside, but I wanted to let you know it’s more than what I originally shared.  We should be able to refer parents to the Nutrition Services webpage on the district website to address allergen questions.  Here’s a photo of an example of what to expect;

Lunch delivery – it appears we can deliver all the lunches in one delivery right around 10:45 – I made the adjustment on the master schedule document.

Master Schedule Tweaks – There have been some brilliant revisions to address some sticky points of the master schedule – so thank you to everyone who contributed.  Be sure to spend some time examining the different tabs in this document.  You can find your schedule, bells, recess zones, recess equipment, and much more.

Quick Note on Recess – I know in the past we’ve spent time reviewing pages of rules for every corner of the playground.  This will not be a priority to start our year.  There is a quick reference document added to the Return to School Information page.  It’s a much shorter list of items to remember and it allows for an appropriate amount of unstructured time during recess.  Similar to the need for children to learn how to be bored, they also need to learn how to navigate less structured environments to be most successful in life.  Because so much of the school day has an incredible amount of structure it is imperative that recess balance some unstructured time into their learning.  Time to Play

Recycling Solution – please plan on leaving your recycling containers outside your door every Wednesday afternoon.  Zack will take it from there.

Vaccines –  One thing we were asked to relay to all staff is that vaccine information (like all medical information) is confidential and we should not be asking others about whether or not they will be vaccinated.

Ventilation – just some key points regarding ventilation:

Due to the upgrades in all our district buildings we can now count on a complete air change in any given room 1 to 2 times per hour.  Additionally air is filtered 6 to 7 times per hour.  Why not air purifiers?  Air purifiers simply filter recirculated air as opposed to our building systems which pull in outside air.

Return to School Information Please bookmark this document so you can refer back to it as needed. Remember it’s a working document so we will add to it and change when necessary. Please take a look at it and write down any unanswered questions so we can address them during our team meetings on Tuesday.  We will highlight or call your attention to any major changes.

Safety Team; Thanks to our Safety team for meeting on Friday afternoon to talk through some great items.  Please see link;  Safety Team Notes

Risk Mitigation in Implementing Instructional Best Practices  This document was shared earlier in the year, but there are some updates.  Great guidance on how to do different activities.  This will likely be revised again.

SEL Menus There are now nine weeks worth of SEL menus! Number nine has some great Brain Gym Videos. Easy (for some people, not me!) brain warm-up ideas that students can do at their desks. 

Borrowed! So well put!

“This letter was put out by a retired superintendent in upstate New York .

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school. My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic that is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era. What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply.

When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned. Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with a missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet, or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help them write that history.

I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.

Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time was not lost, it was invested in surviving a historic period of time in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed. They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need to be given as many tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to a post-pandemic world.

Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what can be. Please, let what can be demonstrated that our children have so much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any assessment tool ever devised. Peace to all who work with the children!”

It’s been a challenging week; that was a rough re-entry to our school year.  I want to apologize for any undue stress this week and all this new information has caused any of you. I know for me personally, it was tough as well. Please know I am here to support each and every one of you and I am working hard to get caught up as well as stay up to date on all this new information.

I am really optimistic the document Heidi and I worked on below will be helpful.  Heidi worked her tail off to pull all this information forward, organize and update it.  Unfortunately it’s not one item at a time, but we will keep this link in the next few updates for easy reference.  You all have a lot of priority questions I feel like we hit most of them, but it will require some time to work through it.  I also recommend visiting the Safety Team notes.  I spent some time trying to respond to each and every question.

Return to School Information Please bookmark this document so you can refer back to it as needed. Remember it’s a working document so we will add to it and change when necessary. Please take a look at it and write down any unanswered questions so we can address them during our team meetings on Tuesday. 

Desks and furniture; Huge thanks to Bud and Steve for their help this week.  We are really close to finalizing our rooms.  Please send me an email for the following;

• If you need desks lowered or raised.
• If you need a 2nd person to help arrange desks/furniture.
• If you need furniture moved out to a storage room. 
• If you need anything furniture-related not listed above.

Safety Team; Thanks to our Safety team for meeting on Friday afternoon to talk through some great items.  Please see link;  Safety Team Notes

Risk Mitigation in Implementing Instructional Best Practices  This document was shared earlier in the year, but there are some updates.  Great guidance on how to do different activities.  This will likely be revised again.

SEL Menus 

Please take some time to provide your input on the YouthTruth Survey Link:  ytsurvey.org/hldstaff21

The update from TLC provides some great focus for the first days back, please take a moment to read if you have not already done so.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OtI7lVv9HPqkValtwoj3vSEL8y6byripQjYScPB1yRI/edit?usp=sharing

Jan 6th updateJanuary 6th Teaching and Learning Center Happenings! Return to School Updates When we return to school we are all going to be anxious to teach as much curriculum as we can because we are so concerned about the learning that has been lost. However, our first and most important pri…docs.google.com

What do we do after the pandemic?! – This is an incredibly important read!

Desks and Classroom Set Up

As of this morning, we should have all the single desks needed to get our classrooms ready.  Shout out to Zach and Heidi for seeing this through!

1c. Physical Distancing – Establish a minimum of 35 square feet per person when determining room capacity. Calculate only with usable classroom space, understanding that desks and room set-up will require use of all space in the calculation. 

2f. Classrooms/Repurposed Learning Spaces – Seating: Rearrange student desks and other seat spaces so that staff and students’ physical bodies are six feet apart to the maximum extent possible 

Ready Schools, Safe Schools Doc

YouthTruth Survey: Our district has contracted with YouthTruth to survey our families, students, and staff.  

Here are a few facts for you to know about the survey:

• Testing window is Jan 4-22
• Students in grades 6-12, K-12 families and staff will be surveyed on a variety of topics related to our work, including belonging, academic rigor, culture, diversity, equity and inclusion, and distance learning
• Surveys take 20 min and are already translated into several languages 
• We will notify parents about the survey in our family newsletter to be sent the week before we return from winter break
• YouthTruth provides templates for communication you can send from your school
• We will get results back mid-February
• We are scheduling trainings by level on how to access/interpret the results

20-21 Report Card Update! In a year of so many uncertainties and continuous changes, it is more important than ever to focus on the most important instructional priorities at each grade level.  Achieve the Core Partners and Oregon Department of Education have provided us with instructional priorities for the 20-21 school year in English Language Arts, mathematics, writing and speaking, and listening.  This year our report card will reflect instructional priorities and standards for each grade level.  The most important goal of the report card is to communicate to families/guardians a child’s progress toward grade-level standards.  This year we will only communicate progress toward the most important priority standards for each grade level.  The additional standards/supplementary standards will be grayed out on the report card.   In addition, a document has been created for each grade-level to assist teachers in identifying which priority standards we will report on, which standards we will still teach but will not report on and which data sources might be helpful for each priority standard.  

Additional Information:

• The statement “Reporting each semester reflects a student’s knowledge of content taught to that point.  This report card has been temporarily modified for the 2020-2021 school year to represent priority instruction areas,”  has been added below the legend to inform families and caregivers of changes to the report card.
• NEI “not enough information” has been added to the legend.  This code will be used to communicate not enough information could be collected to communicate progress. It is expected that if the “NEI” code is used, a follow-up explanation will be provided in the comments.  
• Priority Standard Documents for each grade-level (will be complete January 8th)
• Sample 20-21 Report Cards 
  • There will still be some N/A or NEI for mathematics on the February report card. More information will be provided in January.

Inclement Weather Guideline for 2020-21 – The Bend-LaPine District will be able to respond differently to inclement weather events since we are in Comprehensive Distance Learning.  If we need to close our buildings, we can still continue to teach and provide services. Click here to read the 2020-21 Guidelines.  Families will get this same information but in a format that is tailored specifically to them.

Below are some previous posts that provide both the teacher-cleaning routine (video) and the custodial-duties routines.

Staying Clean…Many thanks to the dynamic duo of Nole Kennedy and HDMS lead custodian, Tim Bennett, for creating this “How To” video instructing staff on daily cleaning routines of desks/tables.  

Custodial Duties –  Click here 

Please take a few moments to examine progress on Lexia and Dreambox.  Links below will show you a global look at our usage and progress.

Lexia Usage

Lexia Grade Level Material Progress

DreamBox Usage

Holiday Heads Up – Our PTO board asked me to share with you that a holiday gift will be arriving for you on Friday, December 18th in the morning.

Staff Meeting for tomorrow is postponed until Tuesday next week. I know there are a lot questions regarding Expanded LIPI so I want to make sure I have the most updated information prior to this meeting. New date and time: Tuesday 12/15 at 2:45. My WebEx room.

Quick Clarification: Current LIPI vs. Expanded LIPI – Expanded LIPI is a completely different conversation and this is our district’s newest attempt to get all students into our buildings for some instruction within the rules of the metrics.  For our current purposes, we will table this conversation for later and just focus on “Current LIPI” from this point on;

What does LIPI look like?  This is a great question.  Current LIPI includes a wide variety of models even just within our district.  Some schools have one group for 2 hours a week and some schools have more groups more frequently throughout the week.  In the most ideal situations, there is specific instruction tailored to the student’s need occurring, but some appear to simply be supporting CDL on site.  So the only real consistency is that there is some form of an offering of LIPI.

Who provides LIPI?  There are some schools where connectivity is a large issue for the population where the classroom teachers have taken on the responsibility for providing LIPI in addition to CDL.  We need to keep in mind some of these populations have zero internet access, so the time spent on CDL is difficult when it’s not reaching home.  Most schools have LIPI staffed with different (non-classroom teacher) staff.  

As of the week before Thanksgiving, most all the elementary schools are offering some form of LIPI.  Middle schools are just starting to go down this path as of this week and I believe all three large high schools are offering it.

LIPI should be considered the highest-tiered intervention (last resort) for supporting a student in one of the following areas (ABCs);

• Attendance (and Access)
  • Connectivity issues (limited or no internet access) – this is not about glitchiness during live sessions and it’s not limited to WebEx.  If the student accessing and completing the assignments, then they have access.
  • Difficulty utilizing technology to engage in instruction – identify the cause of the difficulty and be sure other interventions have been attempted.
  • Lack of participation in online instruction/ platforms – Assuming the students would participate if they could, what is getting in the way and what has been tried to mitigate the issue so far?
• Behavior
  • Social, emotional, or mental health needs – We have a large percentage of students who are already well-supported by PODs, siblings, neighborhoods, TEAM-up and parents at home.  LIPI should be focussed on students without any of that support in place.  LIPI should be used as a solution if contact with peers or staff will help address these needs, but we need to remember the contact will be within our social distancing guidelines.  There are cases where this “solution” caused more frustration rather than helped.
  • Not meeting behavioral expectations of an online learning environment – This is a tricky one because we already have an incredibly high standard set for our population for behavioral expectations.  We need to keep in mind that there is a large range of typical and acceptable behaviors for each level of elementary grades.  Modifying the expected workload, production, participation should be attempted first before LIPI.
• Course Performance/Subject Proficiency – the language of this is geared more toward the secondary setting.  We have to be careful with this since we are so limited on accurately assign proficiency levels or progress.   
  • Not passing classes/need academic support
  • Unable to complete requirements of a course in a distance learning format
  • Need to complete assessments in person

Based on our current participation and engagement levels at each of our grade levels, when a robust and well-organized CDL is provided along with flexibility for individual needs as they arise, most concerns can be addressed which needs to be acknowledged (you are doing great work!).  Prior to recommending LIPI as the intervention for any student due to concerns in the areas of above, there should be well-documented attempts at other interventions, (one-on-one meetings/calls, parent contacts, modification to requirements, etc.) 

After meeting with Jay, Heidi E, and Heidi T we are looking to provide a LIPI group on Wednesdays (exact time yet to be determined).  The next step will be for each of you to think about 1 or 2 students in your class who may fit the profile for LIPI.  Next, you will meet as a grade-level team to meet and develop a shortlist of students to be considered for LIPI based on the three areas above.  We [Heidi, Heidi, Jay, & me] will need to examine the list for each grade level and the prioritized needs against what we feel we can provide during the two-hour time frame to determine the final list of students.  Ideally, we will examine these lists over the course of next week and look to start this group after the break (most likely January 13th as a target start date).

Should you be offering LIPI to anyone right now? Absolutely not. We don’t know what the program will provide and we don’t know if what we can provide will address the needs yet. That will evolve as we see your lists of potential students and needs.

When will we know the final list? That depends on how many different situations we need to consider. It would be great to have a “working” list by the end of next week.

Can we have more than 20? No. The group size cannot exceed 20 and we do not have available spaces to accommodate multiple groups unless we take over your classrooms.

Do students have to come? No, LIPI is entirely optional.

Where will we provide LIPI? The library will be our location.

State Freeze – Governor Brown’s state freeze will be in effect from November 18 to December 2.  Please see Lora’s email for more details on how this impacts schools.

Congrats to Jennifer Fetrow!  I received word that Jenn was nominated for an award from General Motors honoring teachers for creativity and character.  Well done and well deserved!  This nomination mentions previous classroom experience in addition to her current performance in CDL.  Keep up the great work!

New EA – Sean Jacox will be joining our team as a new EA.  His hours are primarily for when students return to campus, so he will not start right away but I am pleased to announce he has been cleared to start when necessary.

Shout Out Ticket  

SEL Ticket 

Meetings Next Week (Nov 30-Dec 4): 

• Wednesday 12/2 – Culture of Care – 2:45-3:30 WebEx Meeting due to State Freeze.
• Friday 12/4 – Safety Team Meeting – 2:45-3:30 WebEx Meeting.

EBISS 2020-2021 – I put some plans for EBISS into a google doc.  Please take some time to read this and feel free to send me questions.  

LIPI –

First, regarding the Return to School Scenarios presented by Lindsley in the webex; We would need our metrics to return to below 100 before we can consider those scenarios.  Once we are below 100 and trending down, we can move into any one of those plans, but for now they are out of our reach. 

What I know;

• We are the only elementary school not serving some students in LIPI.  Across the district we are currently serving approximately 470 students ranging in numbers from 6 – 114.  (If you are wondering why – our resources are committed to CDL and we do not have a lot of options for space.)
• Since the metrics keep evading us, LIPI offers an opportunity to bring students on campus while still following state guidelines.
• Group size must be 20 or less.  (Right now, assuming every kid came in, all our classes could come in to our building with the exception of 3; Fetrow, Henry, and Hildebrand are over 20.  4/5 would be Hybrid cohorts)
• LIPI cannot exceed 2 hours a day.
• Staff cannot come into contact with more than 3 cohorts per day and 5 n a week.
• LIPI must be optional to parents.  We cannot require them to come and we must allow them to continue with CDL.
• We can choose to open LIPI up to any and all students.  We would not need to use a EBISS-type process to identify students to come in.  We can simply open the gates.
• Current transportation schedule for LIPI is the following (not all these times will apply to Highland);
  • Elem Session 1
    • 7:45-9:45
    • 8:30-10:30
  • Elem Session 2
    • 12:15-2:15
    • 1:00-3:00
  • Wednedays
    • 8:00-10:00
    • 10:00-12:00
    • 12:30-2:30
    • 1:00-3:00

What I don’t know yet;

• Are the time frames for LIPI flexible or must they fit within the transportation schedule?
• Can time frames be different for different teaches/grade levels or must we conform to one time frame?
• What would LIPI replace for our teaching day?  (If and when we add LIPI to the day, we would remove something from your plate in terms of preparation.)
• Will be expected to teach kids in the classroom at the same time as the kids in CDL at home?  (I doubt this would be the expectation, however there are some benefits to this approach that could reduce your workload if we considered it.)
• When do(can) we start?  (The district is already engaged in LIPI in multiple sites around the district, so technically we can start any time, but it does not appear we will expand while the numbers are above 200.)  
• How many days a week will we do?  (I think this will be up to us, but we’ll have to wait and see.)
• What about desks?  This is big unknown for us and I don’t feel 100% confident we will be able to come through with the number of single desks needed in time.  Right now it’s out of our control, so if we move into LIPI without the desks, then we will need to adjust the numbers and the days for LIPI so that it works with our current set up.  (this would be a kind of LIPI-Hybrid)

What can you do right now?

• Carry on with CDL.  We are doing great work with this model and it’s showing.  There is no reason to stop what you are doing until we know exactly when we will start LIPI.
• See this as the opportunity that it is.  The impact that LIPI has had on students across the district has been incredibly positive.  This can and will increase your effectiveness in CDL.  Just a couple hours a day of in-person instruction increased the students’ engagement with CDL while at home.
• Consider some different scenarios for bringing some or all your kids into your classroom for 2 hours and think about how you would want to structure that time of the day.  What would it look like?  How will it connect to your current CDL plan and work?
• Talk with your team about your ideas and develop some common priorities for this time.  Will this be strictly reading, writing or math…or will you consider Storyline for this time?  As long as your team is operating within the same parameters there is no wrong answer.
• Big Deal, Little Deal?  Keep your perspective and keep others’ perspectives in mind at all times.

State Freeze – With Governor Brown’s announcement today I am being directed to encourage you to work from home if at all possible during this upcoming two-week freeze.  

New & Improved – I changed up the format to weekly update.  The most recent post should be your first visible post.  I also added a calendar and a search function.  You can use this search function to shorten the time necessary to look back and reread those old posts.  I hope that helps.

Staff Absences – please remember all staff absences are confidential.  Shawna and I cannot share any information unless we have explicit permission so please do not put us in a position that threatens the privacy of another.

Shout Out Ticket  

SEL Ticket 

Bring out the Best – The brief (less than 5 min) video linked below is a great source of learning for anyone interested in bringing the best out of people, both adults and kids.  Although video focuses on hiring processes, this kind of approach and attitude is valuable for developing people, teams and especially developing the strengths of our students.  Watch it and compare and contrast some of our school practices to this approach.  I think you’ll find it valuable. 

SEL/Culture of Care: There are now 7 SEL menus available here! I have started working with different grade levels on what kind of additional SEL support they would like. Please reach out if you are looking for something specific, I am more than willing to help!!

Your culture of care tip of the week:  When their storm meets our calm, co-regulation occurs.

Meetings Next Week: Based on some of the information coming out today, I am going to ask everyone to pencil in a staff webex meeting for Tuesday at 2:00.  I will confirm or cancel on Monday, but it might be good to touch base one more time.

While I’m Out – I am out of the building from now on.  I will be working from home until Tuesday 11/17.  Until then, please feel free to email and/or call me.  After the 17th, please continue to email me and Heidi Thomas with any questions or concerns throughout my absence.  I will put my Out-of-office reply on from the 18th until the 29th, but I will start checking messages as soon as I am feeling up to it after the surgery.  Heidi will be able to problem solve just about everything and if needed she can punt to Vanessa or me when I am back online when the need arises.  (As of Friday evening, the surgery is still on – fortunately the hospital needs money, so as long as there is not a surge of critical COVID patients, I should be good to go…I am biting my nails though!)

Return to School Phases – Watch the WebEx from Lindsley on the TLC update to see this document and more.  A key message you should hear is that Asynchronous week is intended to give you a week to prepare for students coming to campus.  There is no expectation that the same rigor and schedule is being maintained during that week, so don’t expect that of yourself.  Based on the numbers I think there is a very low to no chance that we could consider seeing kids on our campus prior December 7. 

Ready for Hybrid? – all your rooms have what is needed for hybrid.  Some of you have some tidying up to do to be fully ready but you have all the basics.

Ready for All In? – most of your rooms are ready as they are, but some of you will need to add singles and/or trade out the doubles.  I put a request for 60-70 of these desks.  At this point there is nothing you can do until we know if and when these desks are coming.  Kinder team – you have more tables coming to you from team up (after the move) and I anticipate using some other smaller desks to provide more options when the time comes.  

LIPI – Since this was shared in a BEA announcement, I will let you know that we [principals] were made aware today that there are meetings occurring next week regarding LIPI and looking at ways to expand its use to get more students into our buildings.  Just as a reminder the group size for LIPI is 20 or less and it’s for no more than 2 hours at a time.  No decisions are made right now, but as the metrics continue to evade us, this might be a way for us to get some contact with students while still playing within the rules.

Safety Team

• Our meeting notes here.  
•  SAFETY COVID-19 CHECKLISTS

Here is this week’s update from TLC. 

Master Schedule – This one-stop shop is ready for viewing, but please know there are still some tabs or sheets that should be considered working docs or still in progress.  Each sheet is color coded; green means it’s 99% done, orange means it’s still under construction.  In this Google Sheet you will find the following:

• Master Schedule
• Meeting Schedule
• Recess Supervision
• Transition Responsibilities
• Meeting Schedule
• Music/PE Schedule

Heidi is developing the individual schedules for each of the EAs and she will follow up with each of them to ensure they understand their roles.  

Each grade level team will need to develop their rotation for recess coverage.  As soon as you have that completed please share it with Heidi and me.

This master schedule will work for K-3 Hybrid and Hybrid 4-5, and then it should roll right into K-3 All In and Hybrid 4-5, however I anticipate a few awkward pieces to work through when the time comes.  I am sure there are some problems you will find and that’s OK – we have time to fix them.  Feel free to email me if you notice something that looks off.

From Cameron:

Something to cheer you up on this gloomy Friday!

Enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_DYXEDskk_Q2EMNOjw9fK_NsjG2Uy1Q/view?usp=sharing

Kindness is….mp4drive.google.com

Shout Out Ticket  

SEL Ticket 

SEL/Culture of Care: All six SEL menus are now available here! I have started working with different grade levels on what kind of additional SEL support they would like. Please reach out if you are looking for something specific, I am more than willing to help!!

The Culture of Care team is putting together a virtual assembly! Thank you to Rob for actually putting it all in one place. He is going to have it ready to show your classes on Friday, November 20th. It will be in movie format on YouTube so it should be easy to play. We are hoping you will be able to watch it with your class on that Friday. Thank you!!!!

Here is the link to the staff Kahoot. Some of you were wanting to see it again. 

Our Fall MAC Survey day is Monday, November 9, 2020.

Storyline – I don’t think this will come as a surprise, but we can safely say this will not be a year for an all school storyline.  At some point after the new year, we can convene as a team and discuss the 2021-2022 school year Storyline plan.

Out – My timeline changed slightly so I will be on campus on Monday and Tuesday next week.  On Tuesday afternoon, Heidi and I will bring Vanessa Tobolski around to meet anyone who is on campus and available to say a quick “hello” between 12:30 and 1:30.  While I am out I will be in contact by email.  Please continue to email me and Heidi Thomas with any questions or concerns throughout my absence.  Heidi will be able to problem-solve just about everything and if needed she can punt to Vanessa or me when the need arises.  Obviously on the surgery date and a few days following I will not be available, but as soon as I am feeling up for it, I intend to stay connected (it’s just too stressful not to do so). 

Meeting Next Week: Thursday 11/12, 2:45-3:30 – Family Connections Team – WebEx Meeting  

Return to School Phases – Next week Lora will share the return to school phases.  These will provide a great look ahead for what happens if we meet the metrics on any particular Monday between now and Winter break.

Safety Team

• Our meeting notes here.  
•  SAFETY COVID-19 CHECKLISTS

Here is this week’s update from TLC. 

Optional opportunity from Alandra – We know the world, and even our community, can feel awfully stressful and hostile right now. We are hoping to make the discourse in our community more positive and are launching a kindness campaign with regional partners to elevate stories of kindness – with special focus on World Kindness Day, Nov. 13. If you are interested in learning more and supporting this effort: Here is a list of ideas of how to join both in and out of school. We are hoping these resources will make it easy to join: Writing prompts, for instance; topics for advisory or freshmen foundations; a contest at the high school level; books to read at the elementary level. Additionally, we know many schools are ALREADY doing a lot around kindness. Please consider sharing with Alandra the great work you are already doing. Thank you. And if you haven’t yet watched the kindness launch video featuring our 8th graders, be sure to do so.

COVID communication from Julianne – We have a series of pre-produced messages (approved by the health department ) for a variety of scenarios that will be used to share messaging around positive cases. If you’re interested in seeing these, let me know.  Below are links to two samples:

• Sample letter 1
• Sample letter 2

Also, if you’re interested in our communication protocols, you can find them here.

WebEx Security Updates – On Monday, November 30th our WebEx instance will receive another security upgrade.  As of that date, students who are logged in to the WebEx platform will go directly into their teacher’s meeting room, whereas those who are not logged in will need to be let in from the “waiting room”.  More about this change can be found in our blog entry.  Our Instructional Technology team recommends that all students log in to WebEx independent of their scheduled meetings to facilitate the process; logins can happen any time so long as they are done before November 30th.  

Apple iOS 14.1 – On Wednesday, November 11th, the newest iPad operating system will be available for students to download.  Students will not have to upgrade immediately, but will be prompted at some point that the update is available.  When new updates come out, it is possible that we will start to see some challenges with the behavior of other apps.  At this point we have determined that all of our curriculum apps and frequently used tools are ready for this update, so glitches might be the result of students NOT having updated their devices.  Running the iOS update from “Settings” is a great problem-solving step if new app glitches show up.

iCloud Logins – We are also recommending that all students login to their school Apple ID to utilize upgraded iCloud storage.  This message has already been pushed out to many staff members and students, more information on how to do it can be found in this blog entry.

Shout Out Ticket  

SEL Ticket 

SEL/Culture of Care: All six SEL menus are now available here! I have started working with different grade levels on what kind of additional SEL support they would like. Please reach out if you are looking for something specific, I am more than willing to help!! Your culture of care tip of the week is to lead with empathy and curiosity. We all know that everyone is handling this stress and trauma differently. Leading with empathy and curiosity can help us understand what is truly going on with our students and families. I know some of you have heard me talking about the show, Ted Lasso. Here is a great clip about being curious not judgmental. It’s a bit of a spoiler alert but nothing too major :).Thank you again for caring so deeply about our students. Your hard work is not going unnoticed. Oh and keep those shout outs coming!!!!! I hope you have a fun and SPOOKY  weekend!!!

Welcome and Thank you: Welcome to Zack Schulze!  Zack will be starting here at Highland as our new Building Engineer on Monday.  I look forward to meeting him and introducing him to all of you.  I also want you to join me in sending Tim a huge thank you for his hard work during this interim with Brad out.  This was not an easy year to be thrown into that position and I am incredibly grateful to him for looking after all of you and the school.  Tim will return to his night shift on Monday, so we still get to keep him around!

Meetings Next Week:

• Tuesday – Master Schedule team 2:45-3:30
• Wednesday – Culture of Care Team 2:45-3:30
• Thursday – Staff Meeting 2:45-3:30
• Friday – Safety Team Meeting 2:45-3:30

Transition Week K-3 – I think this could be as early as November 9th but we will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to know for sure.  Half of cohort A will be here on Monday, half of cohort B on Tuesday.  Wednesday is Veterans Day.  The other half of cohort A on Thursday and the other half of cohort B on Friday.  This transition week will give us an opportunity to get our students oriented to our different routines and procedures.  Our priority is to first, connect with student, second, teach them the new routine, and third, start providing some academics.  

Hybrid Week – Again, the vagueness of the announcement today is really challenging, but I think there is a small possibility this could be as early as November 16th.  We will continue to connect with our kids, teach & reinforce a safe and supportive environment and slowly but surely start to turn up the volume on academics.

Reminders on Safety Team and Checklist
The information most pertinent and useful to you from this checklist and our meetings has been provided in my updates as early as September 23rd.  Please remember it is your professional responsibility to keep up to speed with these.

• Our safety team is Me, Angleina, Becky E, Amber, Marina, Scott, Shawna, Jay and Asha.  Please see any of them for questions about meetings.
• Our meeting notes are posted in the staff room on the bulletin board and linked here.  This is a running record.
• Our Safety COVID-19 Checklists are published on the district website linked here: INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL SAFETY COVID-19 CHECKLISTS

Here is this week’s update from TLC. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1orEJbbFRka5SvGrs2wWHZu6iJEf4bNTWfICoTw2YcYM/edit?usp=sharing

Virtual Break Space – From Lorna 

Sending out a new Virtual Break Space the Behavior Coaches created for BLP teachers! 

This utilizes The Zones and Neurologic Curriculum along with Regulation Tools to help students get back into the Green Zone.  Please share freely with your building staff.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zp8Pu06LODW-d1lWwddrX13TTMB5YCNFbLglkkqSWaU/edit

START HERE! Bend – La Pine Virtual Break SpaceWelcome to the Bend – La Pine Virtual Break Space! Trying to find ways to integrate regulation tools and a calming space into your classroom? Follow these simple steps to launch a Virtual Break Space designed for your K-5 classroom. STEP 1: Introduce the Virtual Break Space to your stude…docs.google.com

Tech

Important Webex update. Please read more information in this blog post. It outlines the locked-mute-all feature and more.

Looking for ways to bring more art into your students’ lives? Here’s a site filled with simple drawing tutorials – animals, seasonal ideas, and more. Drawing and creating art with your students can be a fun way to build connections and laugh together. This link takes you directly to some fall/Halloween drawing tutorials. There are several ways to encourage students to share their finished artwork with classmates, digitally. K-2 students can share a photo of their art in Seesaw. 3-5 students could share their art with classmates using apps like Padlet or Flipgrid. 3-5 students could also share their art on their Google Classroom Stream, in a shared Google Slideshow, Google Doc, etc.

With October 31st on the horizon, many of us are thinking about candy, costumes, and spooky things. Want to know one of our fears?… It’s not providing you with timely answers and support. If you email your tech coach during the school week and you don’t receive a reply within a day, please reach out again. While we try to stay on top of our schools’ questions and needs, occasionally our inboxes get slammed and emails can be accidentally overlooked. 

The Article linked here is really important and quick read; Please stop expecting normal

The Best Mindset for Addressing Students’ Unfinished Learning

            In this article in Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, Cathy Martin (Denver Public Schools) says many students have entered the 2020-21 school year with “unfinished learning” from interrupted instruction in the spring – “prerequisite skills and concepts that are essential for student engagement in grade-level content that students do not have yet.” 

Some parts of in the previous year’s curriculum are more important to success this year than others. Martin believes the best mindset for addressing the 2020-21 school year is not remediation but accelerating unfinished learning. There’s a key difference between the two, she says: “Remediation is based on a mistaken belief that students need to master everything they missed before they are able to engage in grade-level content. Thus, remediation focuses on students’ learning gaps from a deficit-based mindset and then drills students on isolated skills and topics that have little connection with current grade-level content.” This backwards-looking approach results in deceleration and widening achievement gaps.

Acceleration, by contrast, “prepares students for success in the present – this week on this content,” addressing incomplete understanding in the context of the current grade’s standards and treating students with an asset-based mindset. The two key steps: first, selecting “just in time” skills and concepts relevant to current units, with clear connections between the previous year’s curriculum and 2020-21 content and skills. Second, giving informal, teacher-created just-in-time assessment tasks that tell how far instruction has to “back up” to fill in gaps in skills and knowledge. Then teachers can launch instruction that catches students up and prepares them for successful grade-level work. 

“Accelerating Unfinished Learning” by Cathy Martin in Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, October 2020 (Vol. 113, #10, pp. 774-76); Martin is at [email protected].

“Anyone who stops learning is old.” – Henry Ford

Shout Out Ticket

Check In / Check Out – friendly reminder….that’s it, just a friendly reminder.  (=

SEL/Culture of Care: SEL Ticket – Here is the Social and Emotional Concerns Ticket – If you have concerns about a student use this to alert us at the same time.  For example, if you have a student “attending” but not engaging fully in lessons.  Also, if a parent reports some behavior concerns while participating to you, then this is a great place to ask for help.  This is not taking the place of EBISS, it’s a add-on we felt would be useful in this virtual environment.

EBISS – We are going to move our first round of EBISS meetings until after Thanksgiving Break.  I really want to be present for these initial meetings and the timing prior to break is not working, nor do I feel it’s appropriate given our time in CDL versus in person instruction.  I will be meeting with Julie Walker and Colleen Funderberg to discuss this in more depth on November 10th.

Also, in the interest of transparency, I am very intentionally trying to put some time and space between our old EBISS habits and our new ones and COVID has provided a convenient pause on that process.  Our new EBISS needs to spend far more time in Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction.  We have a tendency to skip straight to Tier 3 (and even create a Tier 4), escalating needs and ignoring the strengths of students.  While I understand this is all intended in the spirit of support and concern, there are long-term, sometimes irreversible impacts on these students we just don’t see at the elementary level.  We need to dial back the urgency and the speed and take our time.  I hope that helps with some of the mystery I am creating…

MyOn – I was told to provide a plug for MyOn, so here it is…Go MyOn!  See post below from Benna.

October 28-30 – Just a quick reminder there are no conferences – Wednesday through Friday are “normal” days.

Wednesday 10/28 – no Instructional Team Meeting- Lexia training – See schedule below;

• 11:30-12:15 All staff Lexia
• 12:15-1 Kinder
• 1-1:15 break
• 1:15-2 1st
• 2-2:45 2/3
• 2:45-3:30 4/5

Communications Audit Results – click here to take a look at the results.  This just gives a good bird’s eye view of what we are doing to communicate with our families.  (Update as of 10/24 – I added all teachers as editors so you should be able to see results now.)

Credit card purchases: There seems to be a misunderstanding about this rule so let’s clear that up.  Personal Credit Cards = Bad; School Credit Card = Good. 

Employee Reimbursements:

• Please use the school credit card when possible and only use personal credit cards occasionally.  Shawna is happy to load a credit card for you.
• When using a personal credit card, please make sure the credit card does not earn any type of reward (air miles, points, cash back).
  • Violating this policy might be construed as “personal financial gain” under Oregon Ethics rules.
  • If an employee uses a “perks” card by mistake, please let Shawna know so we may resolve.

Inviting other students to join your groups or class?  ….please be sure to communicate with their teachers and ensure there are no conflicts…We want to encourage this cross-class participation however let’s be sure to avoid conflicts with their primary responsibilities.  

Tech

• myON Digital Library is coming soon! 
  • Teachers will have access to myON on 10/21 and students will have access on 10/28. 
  • Everyone will access myON through Clever.
    
• Optional drop-in trainings, covering some basic myON features:
  
  • Today, 10/21 @ 1:30. Join our Webex: https://bls.webex.com/meet/dyan.sultzer
    
  • Friday, 10/23 @ 1:30. Join our Webex: https://bls.webex.com/meet/anna.schmitt
    
  • Monday, 10/26 @ 2:15. Join our Webex: https://bls.webex.com/meet/dyan.sultzer
    
  • Tuesday, 10/27 @ 2:15. Join our Webex: https://bls.webex.com/meet/dyan.sultzer

Keep in mind that these optional Webex meetings will all cover the same material. No need to attend more than one Webex. Please notice the time change for 10/26 and 10/27. A prior blog post listed the wrong Webex time for those dates.

These Webex trainings will last approx. 30-45 minutes.

Take care and please reach out with questions.

Brenna Frost 

YouTube News from Amy Tarnow – As of October 26th, 2020, teachers of students in grades K-8 will have the ability to individually approve YouTube videos. This will allow these teachers and students to more predictably access educational content that might live outside of our strict filter setting. With this power comes a great responsibility. The approving teacher’s name will be associated with videos that they approve, and these videos will be visible for all students in Kindergarten through 8th Grade, not just that teacher’s students. For that reason, teachers need to be careful NOT to approve a video unless it directly supports instruction and learning goals for students.  More information and directions on how to use this feature are contained in this blog post from our Instructional Technology Team: 

School Photos –  you can pass this information along to parents in your next regular communication:

We are excited to be working with a new photography company for school picture days this year, Dorian Studio. Founded in 1914, Dorian Studio is family owned and operated and headquartered in the northwest.

We will be reaching out to families with picture day information after we return to a balanced/hybrid or all-in teaching and learning model. Look for an update from us in January with more information.

From Becky in IT – The student support line, 541-355-8700 has been successful with helping students with their iPads, thanks to your staff, instructional coaches, site technicians and IT helpdesk folks.

The calls coming to the 8700 line have reduced to 15 or less per day and are now specific to school sites.  Beginning November 2, 2020 we will return to the typical model where these calls will go directly to the schools for support.  The helpdesk will no longer receive the calls or voicemails.  The phone number, 355-8700 will still be used by families.  If needed, your tier 1 support staff member can continue to reach out to your site technician or the helpdesk for support.

Here is a simple Tech Help Flow Chart that shows how a student can get help with their iPad.

Families should continue to work with their internet provider to help with equipment, network or internet issues. Calls are currently going to your tier 1 support staff member’s phone line.  We will continue to use this phone line.

WEBEX is OUT I wish I had the same creativity as Ned over at Pine Ridge.  Please take a few minutes to watch this very important instructional video for the next time WebEx goes out.  WebEx Out Drill.mp4.