Grading Updates and this Week’s SIW + Friday
We will be digging into Standards Based Grading during our SIW this week AND during our Friday October 1st – RMS PD Day. To be clear, this Friday is one of several additional PD (and some planning) days that RMS/RHS are granted as part of our implementation of the EL Education model. To see the others, you can look at our major dates calendar (also on the quick links portal).
This means that we will spend time on Wednesday and Friday this week getting our gradebooks set up in Synergy and also sharing some of our grading guidelines associated with standards based and equitable grading practices.
- Wednesday SIW :
- 2:45 – 3:15 – 30 min – Sub expectations & other logistics: LB to facilitate
- 3:15 – 4:15 – 60 min – Equitable Grading Practices – From Theory to Practice: RW to facilitate
- Friday PD (and some work time) Day ROUGH Agenda: Gradebook Set Up & Catch Up
- 8AM – 10:00AM – Teacher Training – Setting up stds based gradebooks in Syn & how to score. Ways to use Canvas when we are scoring on stds in Synergy.
- 10:00AM – 12:00PM – Teacher Work Time – Gradebook Set Up and Catch Up plus optional help sessions for those who are new
- 12:00PM – LUNCH
- 12:45 – 2:15 – Team Planning Time or PD (TBD & possibly differentiated by need here)
- 2:25 – 4:00 – Work Time – Gradebook Set Up and Catch Up
** All certified staff are required to work on these additional PD days!
** For Student Success Team certified staff, our work on equitable and standards based grading will be applicable to you and you will have MTSS team work time on Friday as well. Details to come
** For classified EA’s, this Friday IS a paid work day for you as well. If you would like to take this day off, please email me and we can discuss using any banked time you may have.
Regarding Mastery Connect vs. Synergy: Thanks for your patience thus far! By way of an update…Dante, Jake and I all attended a handful of trainings on the Mastery Connect standards based grading tool that is now integrated into Canvas and after some CAREFUL analysis and discussion we have decided to HOLD OFF on implementing Mastery Connect for now! Mastery Connect really DOES look like the right platform for standards based grading at RHS, however we felt that between the training load required of our teachers and the fact that there are still a couple of unsolved tech issues, it made sense to DELAY our implementation of this platform.
COVID Vaccine Status Upload Reminder
Just a reminder that all staff need to upload their vaccine status or waiver form using the email that was sent to you last week from [email protected] called: Frontline Central Reminder: Bend-La Pine School District 1 – You have a form Vaccination Survey to complete. If you never saw it, be sure to check your junk folder or clutter folder.
Your submission is due NO LATER than Friday Oct 1st!
Community Meeting Next Monday In Crew
I am STOKED for our 1st Community Meeting of the year next Monday during Crew. Still some planning to do but here is what we know:
- expect it to take up the vast majority of Crew, so no lesson plan needed for that day
- RW will plan the agenda and facilitate – teachers interested in helping facilitate are welcome/encouraged – reach out to RW or EB
- RW will team with EB on agenda creation for the meeting (thanks EB:))
- It will take place on the field and there will be areas designated for your Crew to sit (still determining if we use chairs or not, stand by)
- You will receive the community meeting plan BEFORE end of day Friday so you are in the loop
- Purpose of the meeting? Build COMMUNITY within and STOKE for RMS!
Calling All Clubs!!
As a small school RMS does not offer all the sports teams and extra curriculars that a big school does (YET!!), but I want to invite any of you who are interested in helping students form a club or who are interested in getting a club started to consider it!
In the past we’ve had a few clubs and I KNOW that many of our students are interested in more opportunities…. it came up often last year and already is coming up this year!
$$$$ – I would really like to support (and even incentivize) these clubs, especially those that meet after school. I have BUDGET to buy equipment and I have budget to timesheet teacher leaders for your time and efforts! If you are interested – reach out to Zach or I… the sky is the limit!
ERIC BECK IS OUR CLUB COORDINATOR. CHECK IN WITH HIM IF YOU ARE INTERESTED!
Guidelines For Subs and Leave
SUB SHORTAGE: There are typically 20-40 unfilled sub jobs across our District daily right now. We are in a significant sub shortage! Cert teachers who cover a class during their prep will be timesheeted at their hourly for the lost prep period. Thanks in advance. EA’s can cover the odd class or two here and there i in a pinch, but it should be our last resort… not because they aren’t awesome (they are!), but because that’s the way the District wants it!
PERSONAL LEAVE: By District rule, no more than 5% of building staff can take a personal day on any given day. With the size of our staff, that means 1staff member per day. Get your personal day requests in early, especially if they are flexible. We put any approved leave on the Outlook calendar so you can see it. Kelly can get you personal leave request forms if you need them. The approved leave that is already on the calendar and approved by Roger will stand, even if it “in violation of” the 5% rule. That rule is in place going forward!
LOGISTICS AND GUIDELINES FOR SUB PLANS: Because getting subs is tricky, we’d like to make sure the process of communicating is clear and the plans we leave for subs are high quality to the maximum extent possible! Depending on the quality of the sub and the depth of the sub plan, a sub day can range anywhere from ineffective for learning and harmful for behavior to effective for learning and, dare we say it, even culture building for kids!