Month: January 2022

Good Morning!
I hope you had a great weekend. I had a fantastic weekend–a hike at Fall River on Saturday with my gal and a great XC ski with my son-in-law John on Sunday. And lots of football on Sunday! I’m ready for the week and I hope you are, too!

A few notes to get things rolling…
1) It’s a 4 day week with students. Please remember that we agreed to use Friday to connect with some families. I hope you have already reached out to families you hope to connect with. If you haven’t, be sure you do so before the end of the day. You may work from home on this day.

2) As you know, last week the board agreed to allowing students who have tested positive for COVID or who have had symptoms to return to school on a modified quarantine. Students can now return after 5 days of isolation/quarantine as long as they are symptom free. Several important things with these students for their days 6-10 at school:
*They must wear a KN95 or 3 ply medical grade mask (we have both in the office).
*If eating indoors, they must eat in an isolated area away from the rest of their classmates. We have these students eating in the hallway next to the gym.

If you have students in the 6-10 club we will let you know and we’ll let you know when their 10th day is up. After day 10 they can resume normal activity.

3) As far as I know, DIBELS is this Tuesday. I have yet to hear back from the district to confirm this but I am assuming it’s a go.

4) For SIW this week we will spend time discussing our growing SEL library and how the books can be used. We’ll meet in Ray’s room at 1:30pm.

5) With colder temps in the AM (and at times in the PM), I’d like to encourage all of you to consider shifting to Choice Time (allowing students to stay in the classroom) at least a few days each week. The kids really appreciate this! Note: Please only host your own students for now-hopefully we’ll be able to mix and match soon!

6) We have Lottery Information nights coming up in March. We are required to offer at least one virtual meeting, and we are able to host one in-person meeting as well. Our virtual meeting will be on Tuesday, March 8 at 5:30pm. After speaking with a few of you I have decided we should also offer an in-person meeting-this will be Wednesday, March 2 at 5:30pm. More details to come in the next few weeks, but please block both of these dates/times on your calendar.

7) As requested, please, please, please keep a closer eye on your students during the end of day dismissal. We still have students running all over the place which indicates they’re not being supervised. It’s ok to loosen up a little once the initial surge of parents come through, but during the first few minutes please continue to keep your students close by.

Upcoming
February 1: DIBELS
February 4: No School-you may work from home on this day
March 2: Lottery Info Night, in person-5:30pm
March 8: Lottery Info Night, virtual-5:30pm

Here’s to a great, and healthy, week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning Team!
Well, if we’re not going to have snow we might as well have beautiful sunny days! I hope you got out and enjoyed the sunshine this weekend. After a 12 year break I finally dusted off my skate skis and got out on the trail. After about 30 minutes I was toast! I forgot just how much of a work out skate skiing is!

I want to say again just how much I appreciate how everyone has remained so positive and flexible during these challenging times. I cannot imagine surfing this pandemic wave with a better group of people!

A few notes to get you going…
1) With SIW this week being another teacher prep/directed day I’d like to get us all together for a meeting on Tuesday. We’ll have a Staff Meeting Tuesday at 2:45pm in Brian’s room.

2) We need to do our monthly Fire Drill–we’ll do it this Tuesday at 9:45am.

3) I’m doing formal observations with some of you this week. Please be sure you know your time. Not sure? Please ask!

4) We’ll continue to eat outside, snack and lunch, whenever possible. Please avoid eating inside unless we need to.

5) I’m reposting these housekeeping notes in hopes of helping everything run a little smother–a big thanks to those of you who have already engaged!
*During afternoon recess we need one teacher to grab the red bag with the bell in it and commit to watching the time. I am not always out at the afternoon recess so it’s very helpful if one of you takes this on each recess.
*Please lock your doors at lunch-we still have lots of kiddos coming in to use the bathroom (or under the pretext of using the bathroom) and end up in classrooms. This is a safety issue that we can easily avoid. THIS HAS REALLY HELPED!
*Please do all you can to be aware of who your students are leaving with after school. We have had a few instances when we couldn’t find a student after school and it’s a terrible sinking feeling not knowing where they are. Please be vigilant and keep your students nearby until they leave.
*If you don’t already do so, please engage your students in end of day classroom clean up. The cleaner the room (mostly floors and tables), the more Jeremy can focus on other things in the room that need attention.
*We are not allowing students to play with balls after school so if you see a student with one please ask them to put it away.

6) Alanna and Robert have graciously been storing some of our extra furniture that we didn’t have room for when we moved back in last year. At this point we need to claim these items or send them along as donations. I am posting pictures below–if there is something you see that you want to reclaim (or claim) please let me know by the end of the week.

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7) The district is once again administering the Youth Truth survey. If you haven’t already done so please take a few minutes to take the survey very soon: ytsurvey.org/acestaff22.

Upcoming
February 1: DIBELS
February 4: No School–you may work from home on this day

Here’s to a great, and healthy, week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning All!
I hope you had a great, long 3 day weekend! The timing couldn’t have been better, eh? I got out and did some cross country skiing on Saturday and Sunday, and gots lots of chores done on Monday. I hope you got out and did something fun!

A big thanks for all your flexibility these past few weeks as we fight the good fight to stay open. I sincerely appreciate all you are doing!

A few notes to get you going on this 4 day week:
1) Huge thanks for the super productive Student Support Meetings last week! We hope you left your meeting feeling supported and with a clear picture of support for your students going forward. If anything is unclear, please ask. I will be sending an email later this week highlighting a few observations from the meetings.

2) We will continue to try and be outside for lunch as much as possible and it looks like the weather is set to cooperate this week! I’m also asking that all snacks be eaten outside when possible, and that we avoid eating indoors whenever possible.

3) A few housekeeping notes that will help everything run a little smother:
*During afternoon recess we need one teacher to grab the red bag with the bell in it and commit to watching the time. I am not always out at the afternoon recess so it’s very helpful if one of you takes this on each recess.
*Please lock your doors at lunch-we still have lots of kiddos coming in to use the bathroom (or under the pretext of using the bathroom) and end up in classrooms. This is a safety issue that we can easily avoid.
*Please do all you can to be aware of who your students are leaving with after school. We have had a few instances when we couldn’t find a student after school and it’s a terrible sinking feeling not knowing where they are. Please be vigilant and keep your students nearby until they leave.
*If you don’t already do so, please engage your students in end of day classroom clean up. The cleaner the room (mostly floors and tables), the more Jeremy can focus on other things in the room that need attention.
*We are not allowing students to play with balls after school so if you see a student with one please ask them to put it away.

4) As a reminder several of you have formal evaluations coming up this month- Lauren, Sadie, Brian, Sara, Haley, Brad. Check here if you have forgotten your meeting time with me:Pre-Eval Meetings. And please be prepared for the meeting by filling out the Pre-eval form. Thanks!

5) SIW this week is teacher directed/prep.

6) The district is once again administering the Youth Truth survey. If you haven’t already done so please take a few minutes to take the survey very soon: ytsurvey.org/acestaff22.

Upcoming
February 1: DIBELS
February 4: No School

Here’s to a great, and healthy, week ahead!
Andy

Greetings All!
I hope the weekend was wonderful and restful after our first week back from Winter Break–it can often seem like a very long week! I got out for my first cross-country ski of the year on Saturday and it was a glorious day–perfect conditions! In the last few years I’ve enjoyed skiing on the fat tire trails at Wanoga, often I see very few people (just the way I like it!).

I’m assuming you’ve all read Dr. Cook’s email from Friday. The message is clear: we’re doing all we can to stay in school, but don’t be caught off guard if we need to go remote for a short stint. Let’s continue to do all we can to stay healthy and stay in school!

A few notes to get you going:
1) Student Support Meetings on Thursday, Gina will be here to cover classes:
8:15-9:00am: Grade 5
9:00-9:45am: Grade 1
10:00-10:45: Kinder
12:00-12:45: Grade 3
12:45-1:30: Grade 2
1:45-2:30: Grade 4

**Please remember to take some time to prepare for the meeting using the new form: SSM Prep Forms Folder. Ideally you could have this done by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest–it will give me, Sara, and Haley time to look at it in advance. Thanks!

2) As we are being extra vigilant with mitigation efforts we will put Buddies and Community Time on hold for a few weeks. As soon as it feels right we’ll get back to both of these treasured activities!

3) I am in the process of updating our Informational Video for the Lottery. I will need a little help from many of you, especially those that are new to Amity (and some veteran teachers who may want to re-do some of their original videos since you filmed them while you were at home!). I’ll reach by email to each of you and then can follow up in person.

4) We’ve got some book money to spend and we’d like to be thoughtful about how we spend it. Sara is looking in to books to support striving readers, and Alanna is looking into high interest/low level readers. We’d like input from you as well in terms of types of books you are looking to add to your classroom library-fiction, non-fiction, poetry, informational, etc. Please be thinking about this in the next week or two and we’ll reach out to gather input from you soon.

5) Please take a few minutes to take the YouthTruth Survey soon: ytsurvey.org/acestaff22. This is for ALL STAFF. Thanks!

6) Grade 4 will soon be getting our composting program up and running again! Stay tuned for details and to find to how you can help.

7) No school next Monday in honor of MLK, Jr. Are you doing anything in your classroom to honor this great man? Need resources? Please reach out if you do!

Upcoming
January 13: Student Support Meetings-see above
January 17: MLK, Jr Day-no school
February 1: DIBELS

Here’s to a great, and healthy, week ahead!
Andy