Everyone – Sorry this update is arriving after 4 pm on Friday. Hopefully everyone is reading this at home while enjoying a beautiful Fall afternoon. This past week I’ve really enjoyed getting into your schools and having conversations. The visits have been a great change of pace and long overdue. I look forward to connecting with all of you by the end of the month.
No Horizontal on Monday – If SOP teams need time on Monday to meet you can have this time. We will meet next on 10/26. This will be when teams will share their work. We will also hear from Silver Rail on an enrichment program they started.
Leadership on Wednesday – In preparation of Wednesday’s Excellence and Equity Collaborative training, each of you (everyone!) is being asked to create, bring, and be ready to share with your group an I Am poem. Here are the prompts to follow in creating this poem. (Plus an example poem from our presenter).
For this training we are meeting at Cascade Middle School (just like we did in August) from 3:30 – 5:00pm. You can take a look at this page if you don’t recall where you met last time. Courtney Tucker with BRYT will be facilitating these meetings for us – and each Elementary group will have a “local” room host as well for breakout discussions.
Changes to Leadership Meetings – The first change is that we will no longer have any “informational” Leadership meetings for the rest of this year (those that were scheduled to meet the first Wednesday of the month). Second, our horizontal meeting that falls during the same week as when Leadership meetings were scheduled will now solely become time spent on Instructional Framework PD. The dates for these can be found here (blue column). If you have any questions about these changes – or leadership meetings this year in general, please let me know. And remember, as previously communicated keep 3-4 on Mondays blocked for Horizontal.
Work Day – If you haven’t lately, please remind your staff that their workday hours are 8:00am – 4:00pm or 7:30 to 3:30 or whatever time period you have agreed upon as a staff. A question about work hours has recently come up (at all levels) and I want to make sure all Elementary certified employee groups (teacher and admin) have this reminder. Please share this as appropriate. And as a reminder to admins, if for some reason you are working from home one day please let me know. Thanks.
Sick Leave – Look for an update to staff “sick leave” language – with the goal of adding clarity for all. I had anticipated that this update would be included in this week’s blog, but now it will likely be sent out from Jon on this coming Monday instead.
Report cards – Next week I am meeting with Becky Rehwalt, Julie Walker and Kerry Morton to have an initial conversation on report cards. I will keep you posted on these discussions and if we need any teacher/administrator input for future meetings.
Conference days and EA’s – If you have any EA’s, or other classified staff, who will be working during conference days who usually get these days off please complete a separate timesheet for them and send that timesheet to me.
Desks and Tables – A while back I asked you to do a survey of desks in your schools. This was done when we thought we were coming back with all students. Over the next few weeks I need you to do another desk assessment but this time just for your k-3 classrooms. If we came back all k-3 do you have enough desks and tables to accommodate your k-3 kids? Can you borrow from 4-5 classrooms to make it happen? Send me an email or give me a call if you think you are short and don’t have enough desks.
Stuff from Paul…
District Family Connections Team Update – Our district team meets every other Friday and very much wants to support your school’s efforts to keep students engaged and supported with their physical needs. Thank you for listing your school’s contact on this spreadsheet.
Families in Need – A few schools are experimenting with a mobile bus model to deliver food, clothing, supplies, instructional materials and other items to students’ homes and needy neighborhoods. Email Paul if you like to inquire how this might work at your school.
Some of you requested community resources to support your families and we’ve attached two links below:
- BLS Family In Need Website – https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/parents/families-need
- Bend Food Resources English/Spanish
We will be working with the tech department to run attendance reports per school to measure the level of student engagement and then reaching out to schools to see how we can support your work.
Hybrid Learning – The following document has been reviewed by the health professionals and our local county health partners to assist staff in safety measures when designing learning tasks.
Risk Mitigation in Implementing Instructional Best Practices. Please email Paul if you have other instructional best practices that you’d like us to create a safe practices checklist for. Here is a LIPI question from Paul: If a student comes into a building Monday through Friday for 2 hours each day, does he/she count as 1 person toward the 250 weekly max? (click here for the answer.)
News from TLC…
Check out this amazing professional learning opportunity!!
We have an opportunity to send one teacher from each school to “Rethinking the Classroom: Digital Best Practices that Maximize Student Learning in Virtual, In-Person, and Hybrid Environments,” on October 26th and 27th. This opportunity if offered via the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project and will be offered virtually through Zoom.
Here is a brief description of the institute
Grade: K-8
The pandemic of 2020 transformed teachers all over the world into digital teachers overnight. The initial scramble led the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project to support teachers in doing whatever they could to connect with students, build community and provide access and support for a high volume of reading and writing. This institute will include workshops on various aspects of digital teaching, with opportunities to choose the learning that feels right for your particular situation and learners. Part of the time will be focused on what we have learned about synchronous and asynchronous teaching, considering the pros and cons of both methods. Presenters will highlight ways that technology can provide access to our most vulnerable readers and writers to help them flourish, opening up the modes in which students can participate in learning.
This month’s ELL newsletter. There are a number of pieces of useful information here – including a teaser regarding interpreter/translation services.
Something New For Teachers – over the next week teachers can learn about the MyOn Digital Library we are bringing on board. This is an exciting new resource they can utilize with their kids. Over the next few days a new blog entry will be posted on MyOn and we will have several drop in sessions to learn about it. Please be sure to tell your staff about it and promote its use. Here is today’s blog post you can send to your staff.
From the TLC Blog – If you visit the TLC blog you will find recent posts on Videos for Instructional Use, WebEx Breakout Session, MyOn Digital Library, Finding Videos on PBS and many more. Be sure to check this blog our regularly for some really helpful tips, tricks asnd resources.
Info from Scott Bojanowski
This section is a mix of updates and reminders from Scott Bojack. Whoever oversees emergency drills should spend some time and dig into this. First, here is our Portal page with district safety training and drill info. (Note: The BLS “guidance” document is worth the read as you plan your drills this year.) Second, the following is a summary of the guidance from the ODE Ready Schools, Safe Learners that requires schools to continue to conduct drills/education during CDL and is on page 6 of the BLS Safety Drills Guidelines:
In accordance with ORS 336.071 and OAR 581-022-2225 all schools in the district (including those operating a Comprehensive Distance Learning model) are required to instruct students on emergency procedures in the school setting and conduct drills to practice emergency procedures. Emergency drills will continue throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic as per existing rules, statutes, and board policy.
We have posted the information about fire and emergency drills during CDL on our district website under the “Emergency Preparedness” page: https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/home/emergency-preparedness
Drills can and should be carried out as close as possible to the procedures that would be used in an actual emergency. For example, a fire drill should be carried out with the same alerts and same routes as normal. If appropriate and practicable, COVID-19 physical distancing measures can be implemented, but only if they do not compromise the drill.
Staff should be trained in changes to drills prior to return to school and conducting any drills in the school setting. All standard collaboration (i.e. fire department, alarm company) and documentation remains required.
We have also updated the BLS COVID-19 Cleaning Protocols document to reflect the change to our new cleaning and disinfecting product. I’ve asked Deby in IT to update the Return to Schools website with this current document. https://www.bend.k12.or.us/district/home/return-school
Links to Additional Resources for drills/education from the Bend Fire Department: Videos: https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/fire-rescue/education-videos-and-virtual-tours
Educational curriculum: https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/fire-rescue/teachers-parents-and-kids
This link is to the I Love U Guys Foundation and has videos/training for our Lockdown, Lockout, Evacuation, and Shelter drills: https://iloveuguys.org/downloads/.
Leave it to Ned to create a nice little fire drill video. Click here to watch it. Nice choice of background music Ned.
And Finally…
