Quote to consider:
“Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us.” – Susan L. Taylor
To Dos:
CANVAS/SYNERGY SYNC: It is expected that staff will sync grades from Canvas to Synergy at the end of each two week rotation. Please consider syncing even more often (as it makes sense for your classes) as parents are still primarily using ParentVue to check grades.
LOSS OF PREP PAY: As you know, there is a region-wide substitute shortage. Whenever staff are going to be absent, they should enter their absence into Subfinder as soon as possible (and contact Nole and/or Nurse Megan if they are ill). The office staff will be following this flowchart for working to get teachers absences covered.
In the event we need to cover classes internally, our final option will be to ask interested staff to cover an unfilled position on their prep; we will pay loss of prep rates to staff who agree to cover a class on their prep. If you are willing to do so when the need arises, please sign up here.
Bits and Bobs:
SIWs DURING HYBRID: We plan to have thirty minute staff meetings twice a month on Wednesdays starting at 2:45pm in Nole’s WebEx room; the first of these recurring staff meetings is scheduled for 3/3.
On the other Wednesdays, grade level counselors will hold Kid Time meetings from 2:45-3:45pm starting with 6th grade Kid Time on 3/10 in Lynne’s WebEx room and 7th grade Kid Time on 3/17 in Amber’s WebEx room.
To honor the MOU of two hours of SIW per month, teachers are only expected to attend a total of one hour of Kid Time meetings each month. Teachers can look over the Kid Time agenda and prioritize their time according to which students they have in their class and which of their students are in need of the most support.
CONFERENCES: Mark your calendars for conferences on April 14th and 15th and note the adjusted teacher work time on these days to 8:00am-8:00pm (and Friday off). Staff overwhelming selected option two for our conference days; click here for the details of option two.
Conferences will be held virtually; staff may choose to do their conferences remotely on both Wednesday and Thursday. The district is planning on sharing more information about the logistics of middle school conferences the second week of March.
IPAD STAND ORDERING: Wendy has approved a second round of iPad stand ordering. If you want and will use an iPad stand in your practice, please sign up here by 3/5.
REST OF THE YEAR SCHEDULE: The end of the third quarter is April 14th. Given the odd number of weeks for quarter rotators and the two week purple/grey schedule rotations, the ICCL and admin teams approved this plan.
Bottom line:
April 12-14th = purple week schedule focused on connection activities
June 14-16th = grey week schedule focused on connections activities
Please do not communicate this schedule to students/families yet as things may change between now and then. Please see Lynne or any ICCL if you have questions. (Thanks to Lynne for her hard work on this!!)
SCHOOL PICTURES: School picture days are Monday (3/1) and Tuesday (3/2) March. Pictures will be set up either in the weight room or main gym. Please click here for the schedule. We apologize in advance for the interruptions to your days.
TRAVEL GUIDANCE: As you know, we previously shared the CDC guidance re: returning from out of state/country travel with our families on 2/5. If a teacher hears from a student/family that they have recently returned from out of state/country travel, please email the student’s grade level counselor, Nurse Megan, and the admin team. The counselors will be the point people on re-sharing the CDC guidance with these families.
SOCIAL MEDIA: If you have, or would like to create, an HDMS social media account for your class, club, sport, etc. please email Alandra Johnson at the district office and cc the HDMS admin team. She will provide training and best practices for creating, posting, and moderating social media accounts. It is an expectation that all school/district affiliated social media accounts are managed by a staff member who has connected with Alandra.
SUPPORTING SECONDARY INSTRUCTION: Here is this week’s secondary instructional blog post, The Why of “WHY”. The focus this week is about learning intentions. This is the first part of a series of blog posts about the instructional practice of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. Specifically, the post speaks to the importance and power of explaining why students are being taught what they are being taught. When students are explicitly taught the application of the teaching point engagement increases.
Reminders:
MASTER SCHEDULE: As you know, we are planning on having similar course offerings and grade level sections as this past year. Please fill out this form by Thursday (2/25) Friday (2/26 at 10:00am) to give your feedback on your preferred teaching assignments for next year.
EVALUATION/OBSERVATIONS: Nole, Heather, and Chris Boyd will be dropping into classrooms regularly for observations; be thinking about what areas of your teaching practice you are working on as we will be using this input to guide our observations and debriefs.
If you haven’t already, please let Wendy, Heather, and Nole know by March 4th when your content team regularly meets as we plan to periodically join some of these meetings to complete one of staff members’ mini-observations during this time.
WEBEX LINK IN CANVAS: If you haven’t already, please add a link to your WebEx room to your homepage in Canvas in your new semester shells.
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jmj1zVPGhsjKREDuh2LymLawOheBrQrd/view?usp=sharing
Click the link for button options one, two, three, four, and five provided by our Canvas Coaches.
SAFETY FEEDBACK: Here is this week’s optional safety survey for staff to provide feedback to the safety team. And here are the results from our first week’s survey. (Thanks to Maria for her effort and hard work on this project).
High Desert Highlights:
(Also, the Culture of Care team is killing the pun game!!! 🤣)