Quote to consider:
“There is light in darkness, you just have to find it.” ― bell hooks
To Dos:
STAFF MEETING: Mark your calendars for our next staff meeting: 8:45am on Thursday (2/11) in Kennedy’s WebEx room.
CANVAS TASK: In order to clean up year-long classes for students, teachers can unpublish Semester One Modules on Friday afternoon after grades are posted and finalized. The grades won’t be affected, but students will no longer be able to see the modules or access assignments. Connect with your Canvas coach for more questions.
ADVISORY/CHARACTER STRONG INFO: Here are the two slides shared in the staff meeting regarding advisory, the Character Strong curriculum, and implementation plan. For this Monday, consider using the “live support” block from 9:45-10:25am on Monday morning to reach out to your asynchronous advisory kids and give them direction on what to do for the day.
TECH TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES: Consider attending a tech training in the media center (or maybe cafe depending on turn out) on 2/9 and/or 2/16 at 9:00am for details on HDMS standard classroom technology (eg: ceiling mounted projectors, Apple TVs).
COACHING: Consider supporting HDMS track this season as a coach! We have two coaching openings and are in need of folks who like to be outside, support students and build community. Please see the job postings on the district webpage and apply through Frontline. See Glen Hill for details or to be talked into this awesome opportunity to connect with students outside of the classroom!
ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR: If you are interested in supporting HDMS with the creation and publishing of HDMS Hype, a student blog, and any other fun, unique ways to support our HDMS students stay connected as a community, please see the job posting on the district webpage and apply through Frontline.
Bits and Bobs:
GUIDANCE FOR ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING: Here is a document created by Dean Richards and a group of secondary teachers to support best practices for asynchronous learning during hybrid. This document covers many items staff have had questions about re: how to best support students during their “off” days of hybrid as well as Wednesdays. Please read it carefully and connect with an ICCL if you have further questions.
STAFF DUTIES: Please plan on being in the halls the five minute passing period prior to your prep period. Staff can follow their students out of their classroom and into the halls to help support safe passing periods. Here is the duty schedule (as it stands now). There may be adjustments along the way and grey weeks are not yet finalized.
MASK GUIDANCE: See this document for info re: properly storing masks and see this document for info how to put on/take off an KN95 mask.
COVID RSSL/BLS PRACTICES: See this document from the district regarding a variety of COVID related updates.
CDC TRAVEL RECOMMENDATIONS: The information found on this document re: CDC quarantine recommendations if traveling is pertinent to staff and students/families. We will be including this info in our weekly family communication.
BUILDING CHECK OUT UPDATE: Firstly, this is another reminder to check in/check out daily using the QR codes or the hot links on the sidebar of the blog. Secondly, we’ve added a question about staff close contact (less than 6 feet away for 15 mins or more) with students to our check out survey. As always, it is our hope that staff will not have any close contacts each day.
SAFETY TEAM: The HDMS safety team continues to meet regularly, although the team has changed their weekly meeting time to Wednesdays at 9am in Kennedy’s WebEx room. All staff are always welcome to join! Here are the notes for the team’s most recent meeting; as always, the meeting notes are available via the hot links on the right hand side of the blog and posted regularly on the safety bulletin board just inside the main entrance. We will be diving into sub notebooks at our next meeting.
HIPAA REMINDER: Do not discuss other people’s health status with one another. If you learn of a student/family that may have tested positive/close contact, please inform Nurse Megan. If you as a staff person are feeling ill, you must contact Nole and/or Nurse Megan to report this absence.
SECONDARY INSTRUCTION BLOG: Last week, the blog focused on the unique needs of students entering classrooms for the first time in many, many months.
This week, we’re focusing on teachers. We’re recognizing that all of the school’s staff have been through experiences that are complicated, stressful, challenging, depressing. If you have been fortunate enough not to have lost a relative during this time, you definitely know someone who has.
We know teachers will best be able to care for our students, if they give themselves permission to recognize their own self-care needs. This week’s blog encourages all of us to take simple actions to minimize those stressors during the workday.
First Things’ First: You Need to take Good Care of Yourself
Reminders:
HYBRID INFO: The HDMS hybrid schedule has been linked in the hot links on the right hand side of the blog and will be shared with families at the end of this week. We will be printing large schedule posters we’ll switch out throughout the halls for purple and grey weeks.
During hybrid, attendance (on M, T, Th, F) will only be taken for students who physically attend class in their cohort group. All students will be pre-populated with the PV code; students expected and present in the building are changed to blank and students expected but absent from the building changed to AUv.
Attendance will be taken on Wednesdays (PV or NPV) based on students who attend their scheduled WebEx classes.
As you know, taking attendance regularly and accurately for in person learners will be more vital than ever if/when we need to support the nursing staff with contact tracing. Same goes for keeping detailed and consistent seating charts and small groups (if used). Please keep these hard copies on file.
The process for students ordering breakfast, lunch, and/or supper will be a survey during advisory (link for students will be in the advisory slide) on Monday and Tuesday for the remaining days of purple weeks. This process will repeat during 4th period of grey weeks. Students may choose breakfast, lunch, and/or supper when completing this survey; their food order will be for the remainder of that two week block. There is universal free breakfast, lunch, and supper for all students. Reminder: breakfast is before school- pick up in the cafe and eat on the patio, lunch is delivered to classrooms, and grab and go supper will be provided at the bus and main exits at the end of the day.
STAFF MEETING DOCUMENTS: For your reference, all staff meeting documents will henceforth be found in the “staff meeting docs” hotlink on the right hand side of the blog.
Here is one main item we covered at recent staff meetings we’d like to resurface:
Isolation protocols/sick student:
- Ask them to move to the hall/wing
- Call 7330
- An office staff will come get them (if possible), if not, teacher may choose to send them unaccompanied (if they are able) to the main office
CLASSROOM CLEANING PROCEDURES: After each class period, spray down used flat surfaces with two sprays of Waxie 730 (video). At the end of the day, wipe down the desks with a charged mop from the commons; this will also be done by the lunch duty staff after lunch (video). Please remember to daily put the used mop heads in either the used mop head bucket in your wing or in the used classroom rags bucket in the admin office by the mail slots.
BATHROOM/HALL PASS QR CODES: The QR codes for students to scan to check out/check back in to your classroom (eg: bathroom) are in your box. Other than allowing students to use the restroom one at a time, most other requests to leave the classroom should be denied unless pre-arranged with the staff expecting them.
COMMUNICATION: This blog continues to be the main way we communicate with staff. To honor your time and not clog inboxes, we do our best to compile all pertinent information into each week’s blog post. It is expected that staff read the blog carefully and refer back to it regularly; please connect with an ICCL and/or admin team member if you have questions about something on the blog or use the FAQ system. Additionally, Gina always sends out the family communication to staff; reading over these communications can be helpful for staff to know what is being shared with families.
High Desert Highlights:
