Quote to consider:
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” ~Anne Lamott
To Dos:
VIRTUAL SPRING CONFERENCES: HDMS Spring conferences will be held virtually this year and will consist of four components: teacher introduction video, take home conference, conferences by invitation, and optional conference sign up. Click here for details, to-dos, and resources on each of these components.
DISTRICT MS ALIGNMENT TEAM: Dean Richards is putting together a team of teachers to work on spring and next school year “power standards.” This work will focus on content and key skills over task completion. The goal of this team is to align MS content teams across the district to focus on similar standards and skills this spring and next school year knowing that there has been so much lost instructional time and content covered due to the pandemic. This will also ensure that content covered in summer school this summer (and next?) is aligned with content emphasized this spring and next school year.
He is looking for one teacher from each middle school in each four core subjects (SS, math, lang. arts, science). This person will serve as a member of this district team and as a liaison to/from it to their content PLC at HDMS. Please discuss with your content team which teacher would like to be a part of this district team and let Nole know via email by March 30th. Staff members on this team will be compensated for their time.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The HDMS calendar linked on the blog has been updated with the remaining SIW schedule through the end of the year. We will share in blog posts (and update the calendar) if this SIW schedule changes in the future. Thanks for routinely referring back to this calendar and aligning it with your own calendar.
SPRING BREAK GREEN TEAM PROCEDURES: Please review this document and follow the procedures listed within ahead of spring break.
EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION NOMINATIONS: Fill out this nomination form to nominate a certified and/or classified staff person for this year’s Excellence in Education program and submit it (hardcopy or via email) to Nole by March 30th.
Bits and Bobs:
SUMMER SCHOOL STAFFING UPDATE: Here is the link to the *updated* summer learning MS staff survey. This includes two updates from what has been previously shared:
- The deadline for submitting is Friday, April 2 (instead of Monday, March 29)
- One question has been added to the end, asking for interested staff to indicate what weeks they would be available to work (instead of only asking about availability for Aug. 2 – 19)
If you have already filled out this survey, you do not need to complete it again. Instead, please indicate your name and answer to the last question (which weeks you are available) in this document.
The district has shared that they need more folks to be interested in order to invite the number of students they are aiming to serve over the summer. This is a great opportunity for our students district-wide!!
ADVISORY INFO DURING GREY WEEKS: Continue to review advisory information posted in Canvas with your students in fourth period during grey weeks.
DISTRICT GRADING PD: At the end of our professional development conversation with Doug Reeves Wednesday, he described the opportunity to participate in a problem of practice series this spring.
If you are interested in joining Doug Reeves and his team at Creative-Leadership-Solutions as you work on a challenge, define a problem of practice, and test out interventions and ideas as you create an action research project, then sign up for the OSU-Cascades class. It is a 2-credit class that is offered in Spring 2021 (see the syllabus for dates and course requirements). Registration is currently open but will close on March 31st.
To register for the class, complete the registration and application form and upload them to this google folder. If you have attended a BLS-OSU Cascades class in the last 12 months, then you do not need to complete the application form. There is an initial $35 application fee which will be billed by OSU-C once they receive your application.
Additionally, we will compensate teachers for the five after school sessions (including May) and the time to prep for the May share out. If you have any questions, please contact Michele Oakes.
RESPONSE TO COVID POSITIVE: Click here to review the general, chronological overview of the process the district nursing team and administration engages in whenever there is a COVID positive at our school.
ELECTRONIC CONFIDENTIALITY: Please use BLSend whenever you are sharing student information electronically. If information needs to be shared that includes more than one piece of student information (name, assessment results(s), other identifiable info) then this should not be sent via regular email (Outlook) – but rather BLSend.
Reminders:
TITLE VI: If there is an incident at your school related to race, ethnicity, national origin, or native language, please immediately refer the incident to the school’s administration. They will partner with the Title VI coordinator with the aim to respond swiftly and appropriately and to help us understand the experiences of our stakeholders, track what is happening in our schools, and develop proactive systematic responses. Staff may choose to contact the Title VI coordinator (x1026) themselves in addition to referring the incident to the school’s administration.
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 last week’s survey.
High Desert Highlights:
