A late Christmas Gift or Two or Three – First, we decided to cancel our formal site visits for January. Everything is changing day by day so to ask you to put in a ton of work to prepare for a meeting that might end up being canceled is not fair to you and your teachers. This is at least one thing you can take off your plate for January (although ten things have probably been added). Tammy, Julie and I might be doing some subbing over the next few weeks. But when we are available we’ll do some unannounced drop-ins to just just check in and lend some support.
The second gift is the gift of putting our School Design follow up work on pause. Instead of working on that in January, we will revisit in February when we get back to a healthier place for everyone.
Third, we are canceling this coming Monday meeting and some BRYT work we were going to roll out for the remainder of the month. There may be a time we need to meet with you and will do a good ol’ fashioned WebEx meeting instead.
Hang in there. We all thought things were supposed to be getting easier but this Omicron variant had other ideas.
Collective Efficacy…
“In order to address the challenges of inequity in education, teachers must perceive themselves to be both individually and collectively capable of delivering effective instruction to underperforming and/or disadvantaged students in ways that will result in students’ better performance and increased academic achievement.” – Stefani Arzonetti
Tammy and I recently had a letter shared with us that supports the quote above. The letter was sent to the Deschutes Historical Museum by a woman who attended Reid School before it became the home of the museum. What she wrote is proof of the power of collective efficacy and how teachers make a difference in the lives of their students. Here’s the letter. Enjoy.
Updates, Reminders, Department Info and Rants…
From Kinsey – Thank you for reading the winter edition of the Language, Culture, Identity newsletter. This newsletter is shared with administrators, ELL staff, and LEAD cohort members. Feel free to share with your staff/team, and if you have questions, concerns, or ideas regarding the content, reach out to Kinsey.
Student masking issues – at our meeting on Monday there was a question about how to deal with students that are consistently not following masking protocols. While this is a bigger problem at the secondary level than at the elementary level, the issue does exist. There is a letter that can be sent home for our worst offenders but progressive steps of intervention/discipline need to occur first and be documented. Tammy and I have access to the letter. If you think one needs to be sent you need to contact us first so we can discuss the situation with you.
Test kits – Each school has Covid test kits and should be using them. If a staff member feels symptomatic, thinks they have been exposed, or needs some peace of mind let them test. If we run out we will order more. Tami is trying to make sure that all schools are staying stocked.
The Red Zone – Things to Share or Do…
From Alandra: Please see her email and share this with your families Serve Our Schools: Budget Committee
Tracking Safe Touch – Here is the document to record your administration dates of the Safe Touch curriculum. We know it’s early but this is just a reminder that this needs to be done. Please send completed forms to April.
YouthTruth Folder Added to Admin Resource Drive–it has Info from Dave and our Friends at YouthTruth – A friendly reminder that the YouthTruth Student, Staff, and Family survey window is officially open for four weeks, closing end-of-day Friday, January 28th! In the folder, you will also find a one-pager cheat sheet from Dave, with links to parent letters, including multilingual ones as well. Please check it out and continue to work to get families and staff to take the survey!
Remote Learning Preparation – This information shared Monday but here it is again…If you’ve been following the national news you obviously have heard about school districts nationwide that have been reverting back to remote learning. Here in Bend-La Pine we are committed to in-person instruction and currently have no intention of moving to this delivery model. However, with this new Omicron Covid strain spreading rapidly we need to be prepared. Here are resources to help prepare…
- Targeted Remote Learning (Ready, Set, Go) document in case a specific class had to be quarantined. This document has helpful information that should be reviewed. Focus . It would be a good idea to review this document again and specifically focus on these things…
- Ready set Go information from TLC along with a Ready, Set, Go checklist.
- Remote Learning Schedules – save this link and/or print out a copy. No need to share with staff right now. These are schedules teachers can use or if last year’s schedule worked well for them and their students they can resurrect those.
- K-2 iPads – how would you deploy these and send them home with kids?
- Hot Spots – what families have connectivity issues or challenges and would need assistance? Let site tech know your needs if we go remote.
- SeeSaw, Google classroom, Google Docs, Gmail, and WebEx – Are your teachers and your students familiar with these systems and programs?
Again, we don’t have any intention of transitioning to remote learning. But if we’re using the “Ready, Set, Go” model this is our time to review our “Ready” status. As Steve Austin said, “If it looks like it might rain, you’d bring your umbrella with you.” Find your umbrella.
From Julie–Educator Network Information for this coming Wednesday
When is it?: SIW time January 12th starting at 1:45-3:15 (you can decide as a school) and it lasts for 90 minutes
Who is it for?: It is required for all kindergarten, 1st-grade teachers, and school admin (and in some schools 2nd grade)
Will my instructional coach be here?: Your instructional coach will let you know where they will be for the day of the SIW. If they are located at your site, I still highly recommend admin lead the discussion, using your instructional coach as support.
What is my role as admin? Here is the list of who is facilitating at each building
- To set up the presentation (please test everything beforehand)
- Run the presentation (the video will tell you what to do, when to pause …)
- Choose a timekeeper to watch the clock at engagement sections
- Most importantly to be a learner alongside all your teachers
- Listen to your teachers’ discussions and look for opportunities to support them AND also encourage them to reach out to their instructional coach
What do I need for the presentation?
Your instructional coach will deliver the following to you prior to January 12th:
- spiral-bound book for each participant with content information and note-taking devices
- sets of decodable books for each teacher (I discuss these decodables in the video and give you time as a team to discuss their use, please do not give them to teachers beforehand)
- the video (posted on you-tube) and the same presentation linked in google drive, just to be sure
- before the SIW, please test the video on the equipment you will be using- to make sure the sound and connections all work.
What do teachers need?
- Heggerty curriculum book
- spiral SIW books from last time (to reference, if they have them)
- the following links will be sent to your teachers by your instructional coach the morning of the presentation. Encourage them to save these in their google drive for future use.
- google slides of the presentation with links of resources in the notes for teachers
- the presentation link above, for anyone who may have missed it, title or sped teachers who would like to use it with EAs …
- link to spiral-bound book materials
- link to the templates
- these are all getting updated, so please download the updated versions (animations are smoother, decodables added …)
Calendar
- SIW schedule
- Horizontal Meeting Schedule – there have been changes!
- Tammy and Skip visitation schedule
- Monthly checklist
- January 7th teacher – SLGGs due
- January 7th – SIF budget’s due to April
- January 12–Educator Network Day SIW
- January 14 Admin SLGGs due to Skip and Tammy
- January 11-31 School BRYT visits (info to come on the 10th)
- February 1-4 (one of these days will be a BRYT training–TBD)
- February 14 Elementary Admin Meeting 3:00-4:30–place TBD
- February 23 – Mary Ehrenworth
And Finally…Here’s something from Kevin Milner. Do not send this to your families. Read it and smile. Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend.