September 22nd Update

Educator Network Sessions

Hello Amazing Educators! Welcome to the 21-22 school year! Bend-La Pine is a learning organization that believes in the power of educator’s working together to grow instructional practices. Four afternoons this year have been set aside to collaborate and share ideas with each other. The focus for this year is on student experiences and highly effective instructional practices.

Four “Educator Network” afternoons have been set aside for this year. The dates are: October 13th, January 12th, February 9th and April 20th.

We believe in the power of collective genius and the great work that you are all doing!! We would love some of our educators to share your amazing practices with others. Please sign up to facilitate a 2 session or 4 session Educator Network Time. You will be paid 8 hours of curriculum pay for the prep work for your session. You can choose if you would like your session to be in-person or virtual. Please respond to this survey by September 29th.

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Literacy Happenings

Reminder, that you have a district account to NEWSELA this year through your clever account! We will be discussing with each staff ways in which NEWSELA can be used to enhance your Wonders scope and sequence with already created text sets 2nd-5th. Wanting to get started – here is a resource to support you beginning with NEWSELA. Remember your instructional coach can also support you with NEWSELA!

Foundational skills continue to be an important part of our instruction K-5. If you are wanting to get started using templates, there are videos included in some of the grade levels from CDL, that could still be used with in-person instruction. Check to see if they are available in your grade level’s folder here!

Thinking of templates, Kindergarten and 1st grade, your templates are getting an upgrade this year. If you have them saved on your computer, you will want to redownload the updated versions above- I will be trying to keep ahead of everyone’s scope and sequence as we move through the school year.

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Mathematics Happenings

Dreambox – Does DreamBox seem too difficult for students? Try this solution:

1. Teachers can assign a review assignment that seems more appropriate. Tell the student to do the “calendar” assignments first. DreamBox will readjust if the content was truly too difficult for them. You can repeat the process with other standards as well.
2. If you have exhausted review assignments and the content is too difficult, you can call, 1-877-451-7845 to reset the student. The student will LOSE everything they have done, all the data, awards, EVERYTHING! So make sure the student and parents know this is what is happening. And you have tried the first option listed above. This should really be done with only a student who you think had outside help.

A couple things to know about DreamBox:

• DreamBox doesn’t have a placement assessment.
  • All new students are entered at .5 years behind their current grade level. DreamBox adjusts based on how a student is solving the problems presented.
  • All previous students maintain their placement from last year or summer.  As students continue to work, DreamBox adjusts. 
  • It is really important that parents, teachers, peers do not help students when they are working in DreamBox.  This causes DreamBox to think the student is proficient when they are not.
• Changing the “grade level” in DreamBox doesn’t do anything regarding their content – please don’t change it!  It messes with the Predictive Insight reports and other data reports.

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Social, Emotional & Mental Well-Being

While we are well into the first month of the school year, now is the perfect time to reflect on how we’ve set our intentions within ourselves and with our students. This resource from Neurologic has some great questions we can ask ourselves so that we can move into the year with more supportive classroom spaces and structures.

Do our schools and classrooms communicate a message of hope that lets each child know they are truly valued? Reflect by reading this: Beginning of the Year Audit

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Technology: Digital Libraries

Epic and Sora are great digital library options for your students! Both offer a selection of standard ebooks, audiobooks, and titles in English and Spanish. Please remember that reading traditional paper books is still a wonderful experience for students of all ages. Digital libraries can provide access to audiobooks and more, but they should not take the place of reading real paper books.

EPIC
Teachers will need to set up and manage their own Epic accounts to use with their students. Learn more Epic, including how to set up your free educator account by reading this Epic info page: General Info & How to Get Started with Epic

Important note about access time with Epic: If students attempt to log into Epic outside of the 7am-3pm M-F time window, they will see a message that reads: “It’s After School Hours! Ask a grownup to help you sign up…”  This is Epic’s way of trying to recruit more paid subscribers. If your iPads go home each day, please tell your families that students can always access Epic for free during the school day’s hours, and that they do not need to sign up (and pay for) for anything. 

In case you’re wondering, Epic doesn’t offer an option to purchase a school-wide subscription. Here’s a Help Center Q & A that explains: Can teachers or schools purchase bulk subscriptions to Epic?

SORA 
Another wonderful digital library option is Sora. There are no time limits with Sora. It’s available 24/7 for students. The Sora app is already on all student iPads. In a way, Sora is similar to a real library due to having limited copies of books. That means students might need to put books on hold and wait for very popular titles to become available. ​​Sora’s digital books are automatically returned on their due dates.