This and That:
Staff Party: Our staff meeting this week is going to be our staff party! Please come to our WebEx meeting at our usual time (2:30 on Thursdays). Be sure to log-in from your own computer (not looking over a teammate’s shoulder) as we will be joining breakout rooms for a couple of fun games. Also, be sure to don your tackiest holiday gear. There will be lots of prizes and laughs to be had. See you there. Here is a link to the invite.
Holiday Happenings:
- Adopt a family: you can put money in Jess’ box or Venmo
- Collecting gift cards for E.M. families in need (please send email blurb to your families)
- Sing-a-long on Thursday
Metrics: Even if the metrics improve over the next couple of weeks, we will NOT start the “expanded LIPI” or hybrid models on January 4th. Once the decision to bring more students into the building is announced by the district, there will be a one week asynchronous planning week for staff to prepare. This is why I would like all of your rooms ready NO LATER than January 4th. Once the decision to move into one of these models is announced, I would like all of you to be able to use the week to plan and not focus on preparing your room. Once you believe that your room is ready for “expanded LIPI” please let Mike, Frank, and/or Kelle know and we will check you off (we have a spreadsheet for keeping track).
WebEx Update (From Amy Tarnow): We still don’t have a definitive answer to what has been causing the increase in WebEx issues we have seen since Thanksgiving. However, through work with the company, it has been determined that rolling back to a previous version of the app is helpful. As of this morning, this version will install automatically before you host your next WebEx meeting (you must start your meeting from the https://bls.webex.com/ website). It is our hope is that teachers and students will see some stability return to their WebEx meetings with the implementation of this change. If you continue to hear about problems with WebEx meetings after today, we would appreciate it if you would take a moment to describe them on this form.
How to check your WebEx Version:
- Start a Webex Meeting
- Go to “WebEx Meeting” in top menu bar by the apple
- Go to “About Webex Meeting”
- You should be on version 40.11.5.11
WebEx Tip (From John Craft): A quick tip to help when sharing audio and video during Webex meetings: Be sure to “Optimize for motion and sound” from the share screen window. Note from Kelle: during my observations via WebEx classrooms, I have noticed this instability of video – when teachers play video via WebEx, it is hard to understand on the receiving end and the students didn’t say anything about the problem. I hope this is a fix that helps with this problem.
Team Up: If you or your families have concerns regarding Team-Up, here is the proper chain of command. Thank you for your support in following this as concerns arise:
- Parents with children in the childcare program should address questions/concerns about the program’s safety practices with the childcare staff. So please direct those concerns to the program lead first.
- If concerns are unresolved, the parent can then communicate the concerns with the building leader where the childcare program is run
- BLS staff should direct questions/concerns about childcare programs with their building administrators. Building leaders will communicate with childcare staff about correcting the practice
- If the situation is not resolved, the building leaders will send an email to Skip and the agency lead about the issue.
- Skip, the agency lead, and the building leaders will determine the best corrective measures to take
Short Read: The Benefits of Cultivating Curiosity in Kids– I especially like this quote:
“At high levels [of curiosity], the achievement gap associated with poverty was essentially closed” It reminded me that regardless of a student’s socioeconomic status, he or she needs to have the same opportunities to think critically and creatively.”
COVID/ Safety related information:
Questions/Concerns about COVID-19 related matters?: Please follow this flowchart. If in doubt about what to do, you can always check with Frank or Kelle. Frank is our Safety Team Lead, and Ann Hollenberg is our School Nurse. You can find our School Safety Checklist here
To Do:
- Please take the time to read the TLC Update – As usual, there is a lot of important and useful information to be found. Some items of note:
- The third Bruce Perry video
- Updated Bridges planners and unit screeners
- Great literacy tools
Important Dates:
- Tuesday: Grade 2 EBISS in Kelle’s WebEx room,
- Wednesday: Grade K distribution, QPS/IPS (you have been notified if you have a student on the agenda), lockDOWN drill
- Thursday: Grades 3 distribution, staff meeting/ party, family sing-a-longs in the evening
- Friday: Grade 3 distribution