Sunday, September 20

 Hello All! 

Fall officially starts on Tuesday. Personally, I am READY for fall. I am hoping for a cold and wet fall and winter! 

There are many changes coming. And once we get settled, there is always the possibility of more changes. We need to be flexible and get ready. The best news is that we are planning to have students in their seats on November 4th. It will be a gift to have students back in our classrooms! In the meantime, we have a lot to do to plan and get ready. 

If you are interested in being part of the team that walks the campus and figures out potential issues and comes up with solutions, let me know! 

As far as numbers go, we did receive a preliminary count but it is far from final. They are working to get us the updated numbers this week. I will share information with you as I know more. 

Please fill out the Trouble Shooting Form that I shared last week and share it with me. The purpose for the form is to provide something to the parents that walks them through what they should do before they notify anyone they are having a problem. It also helps the office now where and how to find things in each class when they are helping parents. Thank you! 

This week is focused on getting progress reports ready. Monday PLC time is dedicated to working on your progress reports. I think this will lead you to the recorded PD about Progress Reports. If not, you can find it on the Educator Blog. 

Finally, please find the time to listen to this Podcast with Brené Brown. It really hit home with me and I think it is a very helpful message to hear, especially right now. 

Brené with Scott Sonenshein on Stretching and Chasing

Schedule change: This Wednesday will be a PLC Leadership meeting at 2:30pm. 

Have a great week!! 

Sunday, Sept. 13

Happy Sunday!

We have some pretty excited kids in my house. They were literally counting the hours until kick off this morning. I was asked to make football potatoes and they let me know they would be on the couch, if I needed them. It is fun to have a bit of distraction. 

Meeting Change: As you all now, there have been many district updates. We are going to switch PLC Leadership and our staff meeting. This Wednesday, 9/16, will be a staff meeting and next Wednesday, 9/23, will be PLC Leadership. 

Progress Reports: I know there are many questions about progress reports. I would highly suggest you attend the PD this Monday.

Monday PD

Every Monday the Educational Services Team will be providing optional Professional Development.  All PD will be recorded.  You can find the Zoom link, presentation guides, and recordings after the PD is done on the document below.  

Monday PD Document

Progress Reports

A reminder, Elementary Progress Reports need to go home by September 25th.

There are two minimum expectations from the District when it comes to Progress Reports 1st Trimester:

1. Any student that might receive a Limited on any domain on the Trimester 1 Report Card receives communication regarding progress from their teacher during progress report time.  This includes both academic domains, and the academic behavior and college readiness standards.  

2. PLCs are on the same page in regards to what information they send home and when they send that home.

IMPORTANT-PLC Work:

Zoom Link: Everyone needs to pin their Zoom link to the class board. I know there has been a lot of different instructions as to where and how to pin your links but this is ultimately where they need to be pinned. Let me know if you need help.

Troubleshooting Document: Please look at this document and decide if you want to have the same instructions for your whole PLC or if you want to fill it out individually. I am fine with either. After it is filled out, it should be shared with your families and with us, in the office. This will help to cut down the amount of parents trying to get help from you while you are teaching.

Please make a copy of this document and fill it out: Troubleshooting Document

Also, if you have a 'Where are things located in Otus' document, please share with us, in the office.

Our goal is to support you and cut down on parent emails and interruptions.

Parent Survey: The parent survey is available from Sept. 14-17. If they do not fill it out, their option will default to hybrid. It is ok to tell parents that the odds of keeping the same teacher is much higher if they choose hybrid. That being said, there are NO guarantees! Our hybrid program will be 4 days a week, AM or PM. They do not get to choose AM or PM. We have to navigate too many things to be able to offer an option. Please do not email this to parents, it is information for you, if they ask.

Finally, Jamey shared this video and article in the Educator Blog this week. I am sharing again because they are excellent and they really align with my beliefs. If you haven't watched/read them, I highly recommend you do! We are responsible for ensuring all of the students in our class are meeting standards. This is our non-negotiable. I will be sharing some documents to support your data collection and discussions in your PLC's. I will also be participating in these discussions in your PLC's. Thank you!

 This is Equity 7-minute video

Culturally Responsive Teaching: 4 Misconceptions- Cult of Pedagogy

Have a great week!

 Happy Three Day Weekend!!

I hope you are able to take some time for yourself this weekend. It is ok if everything is not perfect. We cannot pour from and empty cup and I know that most of you are getting pretty close to empty. You have been working nonstop since before school started. Please, find some time to rest and recharge. 

Tuesday, September 8 is the first day of Zoom authentication. We are currently down to 42 students that have not authenticated. I will be working on those. You have to make a change in your Zoom setting before Tuesday. Please let me know that you have made the change. Thank you!

Beginning, Tuesday, September 8th all students will be required to first sign in to Zoom by authenticating with Google before accessing their previously shared Zoom meeting links from Otus, Clever, or Google Calendar.

What this means for Teachers:

• Following virtual instruction on Friday, September 4th, Teachers must:

• Log in to Zoom with their District account.

• Click on Meetings to the left

• On the Upcoming tab, click the Edit button to the right of each meeting

• Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and under Meeting Options check the box next to “Only authenticated users can join”

• Teachers will then email Principals to let them know the change has been made.

Please Note: The above setting will not automatically apply by toggling the “Only authenticated users can join meetings” button from Zoom > Personal > Settings. Teachers will need to go into each upcoming and any future student meeting separately, and check the box next to “Only authenticated users can join meetings” as outlined above and in this video.

While teachers do have the ability to Edit and add university and county domains, consumer domains such as Gmail, Yahoo, Ymail, Hotmail, AOL, etc. should never be added as an authenticated domain.

I think that is all for today. Pretty short and sweet! Have a great weekend!

Sunday, August 30

 Good Evening, Stoneridge! 

Anyone else want to go here?? Please...now! Ha! I put this here so we can pretend. 

I shared the parent blog with you because I wanted you to know what I am sharing with parents. 

I am going to share some of the big points with you in this blog. 

Schedule Change: 

The parents know this change is coming and have been instructed to wait for information from their teacher about what that will look like. You can share your new schedule whenever you want, just also share that it will not officially start until Tuesday, September 8. 

This was shared with parents:

Important Request: We understand that participating in distance learning is very different and sometimes difficult. There is one important way we need your support. When the students are taking assessments either with their teacher, or on programs like iReady, it is super important you are not helping them. The goal of these assessments is to gauge exactly where the students are academically so we can support them in the specific ways they need. If we have inaccurate readings, the students will not be appropriately supported. An example of this might be a 4th grade student taking the iReady assessment while getting help from their parent. In the end, the student scores at the 7th grade level even though he is actually at a 4th grade level. What that means is the iReady lessons assigned to that child will be at the 7th grade level, high above the student's ability. That student is likely to feel defeated and not want to keep working. We are not saying, don't help. We are asking that you leave the room if you child is doing a one on one assessment with their teacher and to ask what a child is working on when they ask for help. This will help us support your children. As always, thank you!

PTC: Our new PTC board is awesome! They are so excited to get started. We have not had any official meetings yet, we are just trying to create a plan moving forward. Please share anyways you think PTC can help you and get our community together. We are already working on some fun things, but please share ideas with me. 

Upcoming Events: 

Wednesday, 9/2 @ 3:15pm- Staff Meeting ZOOM Link (If it does not work, it is in the calendar)

I think that is all I have for now! Have a great week!

Sunday, August 23

Happy Sunday! 

This is the same image I put on the parents' blog. I think it represents the adventure we are all on together. I think you would all agree, we have not yet reached the summit. We are absolutely climbing the most difficult terrain as we cry, sweat and laugh. I know, it feels like the climb will never end. It will end and it will get better. 

Request for Support/ SSP: Here is the link to the Request for Support for students: Request for Support

I know we are early in the year, but please do not hesitate to fill out a RFS for a student. There are too any students that were not meeting standards that were not on our radar. (Yes, I recognize last year is an anomaly.) The SSP process is about working together to brainstorm ways to support kids. Please take advantage! 

Master Schedule: Here is our Master Schedule (Thank you to Robin Learn for putting it together!) Please link your class schedule to the bottom of the schedule. You will see that some teachers have already done that. 

Technology Information: Here is the document that has a lot of helpful technology information. 

Zoom Recordings, Updates and Settings

Monday PD Sessions: This is the link for the Monday PD Document Here you will find the information and links for each Monday's PD session. They will be talking about recording lessons, for the first 10 minutes, this Monday. 

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, August 26 at 3:15pm: PLC Leadership Meeting- Please share any topics with me that your PLC would like discussed. 

Thank you for all you are doing. I know this is beyond challenging. 

August 16, 2020

Hello All!

I am going to be honest, creating blog posts feels strange this year. I know, just like all of you, working in this different environment will soon feel more 'normal.' 

I am going to start rotating through PLC's starting tomorrow. Also, let me know when you plan to have students take their diagnostic in i-Ready. I shared some basic information with parents today. 

Please take advantage of the learning opportunities offered by the district. I know it is more after a long day, but they are trying to provide relevant and useful information. 

• 3:30pm-4:15pm

• Completely Optional

• First 2 weeks focus on Zoom and Otus

• Probably have an Otus session each week

• What other PD do we need to offer right now?

• 
  

• Last Monday of every month education for parents-August 31st first session

• More details to come

• Otus/Zoom on August 31

I shared the email I sent to parents today. I am going to do shout outs on my videos. Please share information about students that are doing great things in your classes. I would like to give them a shout out. I am already getting shout outs for you!! Because you all ROCK!!

Please let me know if you have questions.

I will be working from home tomorrow, Monday.

Thank you for all you are doing!

Sunday, May 31

Hello All!

This may just be the last blog of the year... but I am not going to make any promises. 

Thank you for the braving the heat for the awesome parade!! It was a blast! 

I think the only item of business left is report cards. Please let Luisa know when your report cards are complete. We will be emailing them out next week. 

Thank you for all you have done as we completely changed everything we know to be teaching. You took it on, learned a lot and made it happen! 
You are rockstars!

Please unplug, put your feet up, rest and recharge.