Quote to consider:
“The best growth is aided by community. Yes, we teachers should study our craft vigorously. We should take classes. We should attend conferences. But, in truth, without discussion practice, we will never see our fullest potential. Here, teaching is no different from other pursuits: Lasting improvement requires dedication to the humbling cycle of practice and reflection.”
― Matthew R. Kay, Not Light, but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom
To Dos:
SYLLABI: Make sure you have followed the district guidelines by creating and posting your course syllabus. Best practice is to have the standards that are connected to each unit listed and linked as well for parents information.
FROM CANVAS COACHES: Looking for an easy and quick way to plan ahead and save time in Canvas using your “Previous Weeks?” Watch this video for a simple way to add your entire home page to previous weeks, and then turn that page into your home page (as opposed to copying and pasting!).
If you have an EA working with you and you’d like to give them access to Canvas, they need to create an Observer account. Here is a link to show you the steps in making an Observer account.
Please keep this Canvas Tool Kit document handy. It has tips and tricks for basic Canvas features that can save you a lot of time.
STAFF DUTIES: First draft of staff duty assignments found here and linked on the hot links of the blog; please connect with Nole if there is a specific issue with your duty. Also, don’t forget to include this info in your sub folder. Please be present in the halls daily per these assignments, positively reinforcing students meeting expectations.
ATTENDANCE: Be sure to take accurate attendance all periods! For advisory (and 1st period on Wednesdays), edit any students arriving on a late bus that you marked “absent” to “late excused.” This is vital to help reduce the number of inaccurate attendance robo-calls that are sent which often worries families needlessly. For a more thorough overview of these procedures, please review slides 11-14 on the Nuts and Bolts slideshow.
FROM HR: This is a staff reminder to complete the vaccination survey recently sent out by Steve Herron in HR. Can’t find it? Check your “Clutter”.
Bits and Bobs:
LOSS OF PREP: The HDESD is continuing to see a lack of substitutes available throughout our region. While the district office has hired five roving subs for this school year, we anticipate having teacher sub jobs go unfilled throughout the year. When this occurs, we will ask staff within our building to support covering these vacancies (certified staff will get compensated for this loss of prep). The office staff and/or admin team will reach out to those whose prep aligns with the coverage needed; loss of prep will be paid.
TEACHERS & CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS: Check out this article from Matthew Kay in Educational Leadership. From Lora: Family concerns about curriculum guidance.
SEARCHING ID # IN SYNERGY: As we stated in the previous blog, please refrain from using full student names in emails. To search in Synergy using student ID numbers you click Home > Student Profile > Choose a Student, then you can search via number. (Thanks Martin!)
STAFF SURVEY RESULTS AND NEXT STEPS: Thank you for giving your feedback by completing the staff survey during Welcome Back week. After reviewing the results I want to clarify a few things:
- HDMS has the overarching motto of “Where Every Story Matters”
- Last year our focus was “The Connection Chapter”
- This year our focus is “Going Back to Better”
- Our PD will be focused on how we continue our work becoming “Warm Demanders,” continuing building relationships while moving our students toward high standards and offering academic rigor across their day.
We believe that focused PD in the three areas listed below are the best ways to leverage this idea in a systematic and simple way
- High quality instruction
- Education for all
- Productive response to students’ need
RESTORATIVE PRACTICES TRAINING OPPORTUNITY: Click here for details. This flyer we were provided has an inactive link; if interested, email [email protected]. We will timesheet teachers who would like to attend.
FROM DEN STAFF: I imagine many of you have been wondering what is going on with The Den (previously known as D’Back Den) and our role this year. I have included in this blog entry two links to documents that outline and clarify the role of Student Success Coordinator and BRYT program. I invite you to go over the slideshow and the “communique”. Please know that we would love to have you visit (we are in the tech hall before you get to Foods and CTE) and see the space that is evolving into another layer of support for our students to grow. If you have any questions please reach out to me at your convenience. Beau Variel x7272
FROM SPED STAFF: Because of the numbers in our groups and the need to be 3 feet apart, the administrators assigned us Learning Specialists to the Media Center to teach our groups. At this time, we are able to teach in our own offices, however, if one of us is out and a sub is unavailable, we will need to use the Media Center to teach. If/when this occurs, one of us will let you know as soon as possible so you may change plans and/or work together to use the Media Center. As always, thank you for your flexibility.
ADVISORY ANNOUNCEMENTS: Please double check advisory plans as there have been some slight changes for this week. Announcements will be Tuesday (allowing leadership students to finalize their first video announcements) and class meetings will be the week of 9/27.
IT UPDATE: From Chad Brewer, Assistant IT Director Client Services: These updates both contain security patches for active exploits.
Due to the importance of the 14.8 update for staff, I’ve disabled the 7 day update deferral for staff iPads. Staff should update their iPad to 14.8 as soon as possible.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212807
macOS 11.6 should’ve been available on staff Macs as soon as it was released yesterday.
Reminders:
STUDENT REFERRAL INFORMATION: Here is the Behavioral – Student Support Form link.
The slideshow from the Productive Response to Students’ section of Wednesday’s PD is found here; please reach out to Nole for further clarification or support. As always, you can email the three admin team members and cc grade level counselor (and case manager, if applicable) instead of entering a form. However, we encourage form usage (both “SST follow up support requested” and “FYIs”) as the data collected from all referral types helps us identify which students need more interventions and/or referrals to other teams (SET, Kid Time, Den, etc.)
FIRE DRILL: As you likely saw in the advisory info, our first Fire Drill is scheduled for Monday (9/20) at 9:30am. Please connect with Dave or Koop for support/questions.
High Desert Highlights:
