Focus on Excellence and Equity…
Thank you for your participation in Wednesday’s Excellence and Equity meeting. Here’s the full clip of the Bettina Love 2-min video we watched in the session yesterday where she discussed the flag pole situation. Kinsey says the full clip is well worth your 7 min! I know the “put your hand on the flag pole” concept resonated with many of you and made you pause and think. I have already had one person challenge me and referenced this concept – love it!
Department News…
TAG update from Dave – IT is working on Clever integration with NNAT3 to get students loaded into the system. As soon as that is finished we will let you know. We are hoping that is in the next couple of weeks.
TLC News – just a reminder to check out the TLC newsletter. Here is this week’s update. Lots of great info on literacy, ELL, math, Tech and SEL.
From Becky in Technology – Just a reminder that technology equipment includes fax machines, TV’s, monitors, computers, headsets and much more. When considering new technology equipment at your building, please purchase the equipment through Information Technology. Create a helpdesk ticket describing one of the services above, include a budget code for purchases. If you need help or have questions about equipment call our helpdesk or connect with your site IT technician. Approved technology equipment and pricing is available here.
Updates, Reminders, Info and Rants…
A little bit on Subs (again, not my favorite topic) – The hiring of our district subs was a great move and has already saved us many times. We need your help by not asking these subs to commit to prearranged jobs for personal leave or future scheduled days off. We really need them to be on stand-by for our daily absences and for COVID quarantines that might occur. If you have any questions about a sub or scheduling a sub you can contact Julie Walker or Deon Logan. Thanks.
More on Subs (still not my favorite topic) – As of this Thursday afternoon, there are two elementary sub requests for this coming Monday (the first day after a number of staff have their second dose of Moderna) that have not been filled. We are anticipating a shortage so we wanted you to be prepared. These jobs could get filled by the ESD but at this time they haven’t, so be prepared.
A message from ODE – We would like to share a new opportunity that ODE is offering called the Promising Practices Idea Exchange. We want to personally reach out to make sure you and your staff are aware of this opportunity for teachers to share stories and strategies for Comprehensive Distance Learning, hybrid and face-to-face teaching and learning success.
What is the Idea Exchange?
Educators from around the state have been asking us to figure out a way to share promising practices and strategies that are engaging our students in learning. Whether schools are teaching face-to-face, via hybrid or fully online in Comprehensive Distance Learning, the exchange of ideas is a way for teachers to collaborate with their peers, learn about and share new strategies, and inspire as well as be inspired.
Would you please share this flyer with your staff or contact lists that you think might benefit? The Promising Practices Idea Exchange begins on Wednesday, February 17 with a focus on Active Engagement During Synchronous or Asynchronous Learning, with additional bi-weekly sessions through March. You will find a description of the other topics that will be covered, dates and a registration link on the flyer. And, this is free and open to all Oregon educators. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send questions to Ken Greenbaum at [email protected] or Carla Wade at [email protected].
Visitors – just a reminder that we should not be allowing parents and other non-essential volunteers to visit our classrooms. We have had a couple instances where parents wanted to go down to a classroom or go talk to a staff member. Only essential visitors and volunteers are allowed past our lobby. Here is a screenshot from the RSSL guide:
More on Visitors – If an ESD employee comes to your building, know that they qualify to enter under our “essential visitor” designation. If this staff member is wearing their ESD badge then they only need to sign in and out for COVID contract tracing purposes… they do not need to also sign in using Raptor. If they do not have their ESD badge, then they do need to sign in using Raptor.
Inclement Weather – a communication is being finalized and will likely be included in our district’s next family newsletter (being sent out any day now). Feel free to share these with your staff and families (again) as you see fit. Here is the Spanish and English version.
From our Tuesday Horizontal meeting – here is the link to slide deck from Tuesday’s Horizontal. And here is a really good, and deep, summary of the 5 key strategies of formative assessment and why they are central to improving instruction –
Conferences – Just a clarification that if a school would like to modify the schedule and offer 4 hours on Wednesday evening, 12 hours on Thursday, and then take Friday off that is allowable. Just make sure that there is a staff discussion and agreement on this and that this schedule is clearly communicated to families. At this time conferences will be virtual. However, as we get closer to the date this might change. Stay tuned.
Calendar
- Wednesday 2/24 – 2:00 – 3:30 Safe touch Training @ North Star with Tim Burdsall
- Friday 2/26 – 1:00-2:00 Principal round table with Dr. Cook (group 2)
- Monday 3/1 – 3:30 – 4:30 Horizontal
- Monday 3/15 – 3:30 – 4:30 Horizontal
And Finally…
Just because it’s Girl Scout cookie season doesn’t mean you have to ignore your fitness routine…
