Dear Thermo Riders,
I hope your week was productive. I really enjoy coming out to your buildings and talking to you about your work. It was great to see all of you in person at this week’s horizontal meeting. Big ups to High Desert MS for hosting and for the coffee and donuts. On this topic of meeting, I am creating another opportunity for principals to connect with me and with each other. This is an open invitation for principals only. This will be a 7:30-9:00 am middle school principal breakfast twice a month on the first and third Thursday of each month (Starting on November 4th). The agenda will be Check-ins (temperature-check) problems of practice, successes, & other. Breakfast will be covered and we will meet at-The Original Pancake House: 1025 SW Donovan Ave, Bend, OR 97702. Let me know if you have any questions.
Lastly, I want to congratulate and welcome Gabe Pagano as the new interim principal at Cascade MS. I am sad to see Vanessa go from our school system, but I wish her and her family the best. You will be missed! Jake Slodki will step up and replace Vanessa at the AP role. Welcome Jake!
To Do
From April Jorgenson
Please update your HSS plans. We are starting to see expenses come in and be posted to the HSS grant, but most of the schools don’t have anything on their plans regarding how they are planning to spend the money.
Conferences, iPads, & WebEx
Principals – here’s some important information to pass onto your teachers and students prior to conferences. It could something teachers consider discussing and working on today in preparation for conferences.
- Many families are planning to use student iPads for conferences. Students should practice signing into their Webex accounts at school before iPads are sent home for conferences. Here’s a direct link to the Webex: Student Sign In video for the 21-22 school year. Please reach out if you need any help with Webex. Client Services Technicians and Instructional Coaches are here to support everyone.
- VERY IMPORTANT – Many classes have received the new generation 8 iPads this year. If a student has the newest iPad please ensure the device is updated to iOS 15. These generation 8 iPads must be updated to iOS 15 for optimal Webex audio performance. We have experienced dropped WebEx audio on new iPads running iOS 14. Remember, updates can take some time to download, and most times require the device to be plugged in. Plan ahead!
This and That
From Colleen Funderburg
Since next Thursday, Oct 28th is a MS conference day and it is also a paid work day for our inclusion educational assistants we put together some professional development opportunities that classified staff can attend. Here is the flyer.
Classified Team members supervising classes: There may be situations in which a classified staff member is used to supervise a class. When this happens there are important things to remember:
- They are supervising the class, not teaching the class.
- They should be introduced to the class by an administrator or licensed staff member as the someone who will be supervising the class. “Students, Mrs. Smith will be supervising you today while your teacher is gone. If you need assistance from her as you work on your assignments, please ask her.”
- An administrator or licensed staff member should check in with the classified staff member periodically during their supervision time.
- The classified staff member should not be asked to plan lessons or develop curriculum.
From Culture of Care Coaches
From Jennifer Hauth
Cultures Aren’t Costumes Checklist for Halloween. Maybe something to add to your newsletter. English Spanish
From Tami Pike Distinguished Administrator of the Year
BLS Message no longer sends automated exposure notification phone calls to families. If schools would like a phone message to go out to their families alerting them to check their emails, the schools can use their automated phone message system. Here are a couple of sample scripts that could be used. This is not a requirement for schools. Some may choose not to use this method of communication.
From Human Resources
We are excited to announce that you can now check your Record of Credit through Employee Online. Record of Credit has been added to the Personal Information tab – see screen print below. We have entered all credits we have received up through today so this information is up to date. We respectfully ask that when you send in new credits moving forward, you allow us a couple weeks to get them entered before following up to see if we have received them. Let us know if you have any questions.
Reminders
Reminder from Julianne
Media in your buildings must be pre-approved! Be sure to consult with Julianne and Alandra before you allow media in your building, whether you are requesting them or not. If media show up unannounced, please contact Alandra and Julianne before answering questions – remember that everything you say is “on the record.” with them.
From Scott McDonald
Greetings,Now that teachers are more comfortable with Canvas, it has become evident in IT that several middle school and high school teachers are not using or actively transferring grades into Synergy. Please help us by restating that Synergy is our official grade reporting tool and that grades should be updated regularly. Additionally, please encourage families to use ParentVue as their primary source for student progress. ParentVue shows our families “HOW” their student is doing, Canvas shows them “WHAT” their student is doing (stolen from Roger White). Instructions for how families can join both tools are linked here. The following comparison illustrates why it is critical that our synergy grade book is properly maintained.
Synergy
Synergy is our student information system, storing our permanent record information for our students and parents. It is the digital hub for all data related to students Grading (report cards), State Reporting, Scheduling, Courses, Communication, Transcripts, Online Enrollment, Immunizations, Attendance, Discipline, IEP’s, etc. Supporting data in Synergy is transferred on a daily basis to 100’s of learning applications, data analysis tools (DART), Transportation, School Messenger communications, LMS systems (Canvas), and many more.
Canvas
Canvas is our Learning Management System (LMS), which stores all the assignments, learning content, assessments, and details of what each student is learning. Some supporting data is transferred daily to Synergy for assignments and grading.
Calendar
M.S. Horizontal Meeting Schedule
- October 29-Civil Rights Training due
- October 29-SRP videos must be viewed by staff and students
- October 27-28 Work day and conferences
- November 1, 7:30 am Horizontal Ed Center (Draft of school design due) Be ready to share.
- November 11-Veterans Day
Fish On
