Week of 11/16 - 11/20

Hey Panda Family,

I hope you had an amazing Week 14! A much needed break for all of us is right around the corner. Take time this week to rest, relax, do some holiday shopping, spend time with family, and recharge your physical and mental battery. I am extremely thankful for each of you! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving 🦃

School Improvement Plan Vote: Please vote on the School Improvement Plan if you haven't done so already. Here is the link to vote: https://forms.gle/p6TYoTQ21tvSTdqEA

iReady on RL Days: You may assign iReady work for your students to complete this week if you choose. However, since it is a short week we will not be checking your iReady completion time for 11/23 & 11/24. 

Remote Learning Days Update (11/23 & 11/24): Our next Remote Learning days are scheduled for November 23 & 24. All staff have the option to work from home or from school on these days. Instruction is still expected to occur on these days. See the updates in red that changed from last week's Weekly Wrap. Please see the expectations below for your grade level regarding instruction on these remote learning days:

• PreK, Kindergarten, 1st Grade - Please prepare packet work that can go home and be completed by your Option 1 (in-person) students. Please schedule small group, or 1-on-1, sessions with your Option 2 students to deliver live instruction on the remote learning days. 

• 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Grade - follow live synchronous instruction just like every other day. I am fine if you focus your live instruction on ELA/Reading & Math for the RL Days (I suggest recording the lessons for those that may miss due to the holiday week). Please still have work for SS & Science posted. You may choose to do live instruction for all 4 subjects if you choose, but you need to at least do ELA/Reading & Math. 

• Specialists - Please work on recording your emergency substitute lessons. Remember, we would like for you to have at least two recorded lessons prepared for each grade level in case you have to be absent.

• EC & ESL - Please meet your live service requirements on these days with your 2-5 students, and prepare asynchronous work for K-1 students. 

• Instructional Assistants - Please work with your corresponding teacher to prepare for the upcoming weeks, and/or help deliver live small group instruction to your Option 2 students. 

Lend a Hand!: Our PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade staff are doing an amazing job with our in-person students. Managing a concurrent classroom, the cleaning protocols, and the added instruction is no small task. If you are willing, sign up below to lend a hand to one of these classrooms! Cover their recess for a day or two, watch their kids during lunch, or just drop in for 5 minutes so they can use the bathroom :) Any little bit goes a long way! 

Instructions: If you are willing to help, click this link, and place your name beside one of the classrooms. Then reach out to that teacher to compare schedules to see when you could help them out. Multiple people can sign up for the same class. More hands make it easier to help!

Tech Tip from Tim: Undoing a Mistake in Canvas - Have you ever been typing information in the Rich Content Editor and accidently deleted something? Or you made a mistake and thought, "Ugh, I wish I could undo that!"? Well, thanks to keyboard shortcuts, you can!

Clicking CTRL-Z (Windows) or COMMAND-Z (Mac) while in the Rich Content Editor will undo the last action completed. 

You can also undelete Assignments, Discussions, Modules, Files, etc. by clicking on the Home button of your course and typing /undelete at the end of the course URL in the address bar. As a result of doing this, you will be given a list of recently deleted items by clicking the Restore button next to any item which you want to restore to your course.

Jump in the Sun (from district): Jump at the Sun, a community partnership between WS/FCS Social Studies department, Action4Equity, Bookmarks, Triad Cultural Arts, and Read Write Spell, is working to cultivate a spirit of multicultural education and understanding for students in our school system. One of the partnership’s ongoing projects is to provide text connected to the African American and Hispanic Infusion lessons provided for teachers and students in K-5. The first set of texts purchased through this initiative will begin to arrive at your schools in the next few weeks. Each school will receive a set of books that should be entered into the Textbook Manager System by your school’s Media Coordinator. They will receive instructions about how to do this. This is an on-going project that we plan to expand into all grade bands. www.JumpAtTheSun.org

Verbal De-Escalation (from district): Verbal De-escalation is a professional development designed to assist educators in gaining the skills necessary to identify behavior levels, set limits and appropriately respond to escalating situations in the classroom. These sessions are optional. 

Elementary and Middle School sessions on December 2^nd & 9^th and HS sessions will occur on December 4^th & 11^th (all from 11-12 pm). See flyer.

No Charge Time: When a staff member asks for incremental leave (0-1.5 hours) I always mark it as "No Charge" on your white sheet. Ms. Willis keeps track of the "No Charge" time and we don't charge you for it until you accumulate 8 hours of "No Charge" time in a school year. When you accumulate 8 hours of "No Charge" time it counts as one sick day. If you don't accumulate 8 hours in one school year, then this is "free" time that is not charged against you. So far this school year, we have decided to not track "No Charge" time since everyone was not working in the building. Now that everyone is back working in the building we will begin tracking "No Charge" time effective Monday, November 16. Reach out to Pam or myself if you have any questions. 

District Grading Expectations (from district): As part of our Remote Learning Plan, all students should be provided a one-week grace period to submit assignments without penalty or deduction of points. 

Elementary- When assigning grades, pay attention to Section II, item #4 of AR5124 as it relates to the overall assessment of grades.

Grades K-2 follow the Standards Based Grading guidance. Standards that have not or cannot be assessed should be left blank on the report cards.

For students in grades 3-12, failing quarter grades should be manually changed to a 50/F before finalizing the gradebook and issuing report cards.

COVID Protocols: Due to the increased number in positive Covid cases across the county, the school district is requiring some additional safety steps. If you have been exposed to someone that tests positive you must let me know and quarantine for 14 days (these individuals will work remotely). Remember, exposure is defined by:

• You were within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more
• You provided care at home to someone who is sick with COVID-19
• You had direct physical contact with the person (hugged or kissed them)
• You shared eating or drinking utensils
• They sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you

Exposure has to be reported to Human Resources for contact tracing in case you should test positive. As a school, we are only required to communicate if we have a positive test from a staff member or student. At this time, we have not had any positive tests from staff members or from students that have been in-person. Remember the 3 W's - Wear your mask, Wash your hands, and Wait 6 feet. This will help us stay safe and healthy! 

PGE Health & Safety Cheat Sheet: It was asked if we would create a document that would highlight the important health and safety protocols for Plan B. We have created a two page "Health & Safety Cheat Sheet" for you to reference during Plan B for each part of the day. A hard copy of this cheat sheet will be placed in each staff member's box. Here is the link to the Google doc if you would like to have access to the electronic version https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H8p_0GlaX-5tZRfxsRD_fjBvQvf1b-Lf6KAwYig84ko/edit?usp=sharing

Reopening Q & A: We have created a Google doc for you to drop your questions. I have already started answering some of them. Here is the Google doc if you would like to add any questions or see the answers: Reopening Q & A

Packet Materials: I encourage each of you to continue sending out tangible packet materials for your students as needed (novels, worksheets, manipulatives, etc.). Please coordinate the pickup with your families. Every parent that I have talked with mentions how helpful it is to have a combination of tangible and virtual assignments. If the office can support you with this please let us know. 

Morning Announcements: Here are the YouTube links for this week's Morning Announcements. Please include them on your Canvas page. 

Monday (11/23) - https://youtu.be/Vs8etr16ZLA

Tuesday (11/24) - https://youtu.be/TLiObestA7U

Wednesday (11/25) - No School

Thursday (11/26) - No School

Friday (11/27) - No School

Staff Spotlight: From Kindergarten Team - Thank you to Catherine Gant for the extra love and help with our Kinders!  Love the Kinder Team!

From Ms. Bolchalk - I would love to give Mathis, Ballou, Pereda, Ceglowski and Gardner a shout out for putting their training to good use with the twins.  They showed great skill and patience with them.  I learned a few new things just watching them in action.

Also, I would like to shout out to the teachers that have been so helpful getting me set up to work with the kids.  My computer skills are not my strong suit. Medley, Brookshire, Gant, Tall, Harman, Owens and Epperley for being patient and helpful during this time.

IF Updates

None for this week

Upcoming Dates:

 

November 23 - Remote Learning Day (no in-person instruction)

November 24 - Remote Learning Day (no in-person instruction)

November 24 - Online Book Fair Ends

November 24 - SCC & Wellness Committees @ 3:30

November 25, 26, 27 - No School (Thanksgiving Break)

December 1 - PBIS & MTAC Committees @ 3:30

December 2 - Progress Reports Due

December 3 - PreK, K, and 1st Grade School Pictures

December 8 - SIT @ 3:30

We have a lot to be Thankful for :) I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your loved ones! 

25 Reasons to be Thankful!