Hey Panda Family,
Happy New Year! As we return from break and begin to welcome back more students I know there may be some nerves, anxiousness, and possibly fear as what is to come. This was shared with me this past week and I wanted to pass it along:
"FEAR has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours."
As we bring more students back into our building next week, thank you for choosing to rise and for helping those around you rise. Our students, now more than ever, need us to rise together. You are not in this alone. Here are your updates for the week!
Ms. Willis: Please join me in congratulating Ms. Willis on her upcoming retirement! Ms. Willis has been a key piece to our office team for many years, and we are extremely grateful for everything she has done for Piney Grove as our lead secretary. Ms. Willis will work through the end of the school year. She looks forward to being at the school next year as a volunteer and to eat lunch with Drew and Molly on a regular basis. Congratulations, Ms. Willis!
Lesson Plans: In an effort to not add something else to your plate, we are going to be very flexible with lesson plans for the remainder of this school year. Even as you transition to concurrent teaching (in-person & remote) your Canvas page can serve as your "plans". Ms. Gardner and I will use your Canvas page to locate your standards and "I Can" statements for each week & subject. Remember the key components of Modeled, Guided, Independent, and Assessment as you plan your week. While we may not be checking for formal lesson plans at this time, it is still important that you have your own plans in place to guide your instruction.
Morning Meetings: Please make sure you implement Morning Meetings as your students return to in-person learning. I know most, if not all, have done a good job with Morning Meetings in the virtual setting, but it is very important to have this time set aside for when your students return to in-person. This is a time to build relationships, address any social or emotional concerns, watch announcements, and to build classroom community.
COVID Updates (from district): We encourage you to take a look at the Our Safe Return page of our website beginning Monday, Jan. 11. We will have updated our COVID-19 dashboard. The dashboard will now reflect current positive cases in our school and office locations (not cumulative numbers). This will be the place to look for information related to your school. Beginning this semester, we will focus our contact tracing team’s full attention on close contacts. Those deemed as close contacts will receive individual contact from our contact tracing team. Each school will discontinue the general mass notification about a positive case in a school or location as that will be posted on the dashboard.
PBIS Videos: The PBIS team created videos for you to use with your students when they return. The videos show the following:
- Socially distanced in the hallway/restroom
- Bus arrival procedures
- Socially distanced recess
- Restroom procedures.
To get to the videos, use the following steps:
- Click on PGE's Canvas Page
- Scroll down and click on the PBIS button (bluish-purple)
- Click on the 2nd link, "Here are the videos demonstrating our socially distanced procedures"
More videos will be added soon.
Please review the following when returning to in-person learning
Arrival
School-wide dismissal
Playground procedures
PAWS Laws
Pandemic procedures (social distancing, designated areas in playground, masks)
Lunch procedures (spacing, get everything you need, clean-up)
School-Wide Packet Pickup: We would like to coordinate a school-wide packet pickup day each week for all grade levels to best help our parents (this way our parents that have kids in multiple grade levels can get all materials in one trip). If you are preparing tangible packets for pickup please have them out and ready by the end of business day on Thursdays. This way parents have Friday and the weekend to pick up any materials needed for the next week. This is effective immediately. Thank you for your help with this!
Duty Rosters: Please review the AM and PM duty rosters titled Current AM/Current PM Duty Rosters. We will use these starting Monday (1/11) and adjust as needed.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y9wubVAKImOHvWr13SohmakBm2a923ui_4xn-jQswzY/edit?usp=sharing
3rd Quarter Specials: Below is the link for 3rd quarter specials. This schedule begins Thursday, January 21st. Please use Thursday, January 21st on this document and not what is on 2nd quarter specials schedule.
There is a separate specials schedule for February 15-19. This is a Remote Learning Week. We will use the old Remote Learning schedule. (More details to come)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14K20p4lrvnqAwQeOBb7EFSvQ5PEfsNNXQe5rW5BGuQ8/edit?usp=sharing
January Drills: We will have 2 fire drills this month, one with each of the 4th/5th grade cohorts (district requirement). K-3 students will participate in both. These drills will be announced. The dates and times are still TBD.
Teacher/Staff Laptop Distribution: New teacher laptops are scheduled to be distributed & docking stations installed this Thursday, January 14. The technology department will be coming during the school day to install your laptop and docking station. Because of this, K-3 teachers please prepare asynchronous work for your remote students on Thursday (this was recommended by the district technology department). You will not be expected to teach concurrently on Thursday, January 14 as the technology department works to get your new computer installed. 4-5 teachers will teach remotely as normal. I am asking the technology department to leave you to the end so you can get as much of your remote teaching in for the day before they install your new computer. Please make sure you have completed the following tasks:
- Teachers and staff are responsible for backing up existing data from their old laptops.
- Teachers and staff must turn in their old laptop and charging adapter to receive a new laptop.
Staff Kid Screening: Staff kids who are now returning to in-person learning will no longer need to complete the paper screening questions when they enter the building each morning. The parent will complete the 5 question verbal screening questions (with temperature check) as they enter the building. This can be completed by Ms. Landreth at the front desk. If your child is a 4th or 5th grade student, they will continue to complete the paper form until they return to in-person learning.
CEUs (from district): Please inform your staff members that if they need to submit professional development certificates for CEUs, please submit them to Lisa Farrimond, LAFarrimond@wsfcs.k12.nc.us.
CARES Team Update (from Ms. Ceglowski): CARES team will have the first meeting for 2021 on Wednesday. Please let me know if there is a student you would like us to discuss. Now more than ever, please request that parents exhaust all resources before offering for us to deliver materials as the increase of in-person learning restricts my schedule. Looking forward to seeing our babies and seeing how the CARES team can continue to provide support!
Engaging Students Through Active Learning (from district): Tools and Ideas for Engaging Students through Active Learning Webinar
Classroom Physical Activity during COVID-19
Classroom Physical Activity Ideas and Tips
WS/FCS Brain Breaks and Energizers Site
Timothy's Technology Corner: In this month's edition of Timothy's Technology Corner newsletter, I have provided a note of encouragement as well as some resources that I believe will be valuable to you and the families that you serve.
Here are the headlines in this month's edition:
- Welcome to 2021!!!
- Learning Canvas: Controlling Course Notifications
- Check Out These Resources!!!
- Backing Up Content on Teacher Laptops (Just in case you have not done so already!!!)
- Winter Humor
- Where is Timothy? (January Calendar)
Grades 4-5 Teachers: In addition, to the contents included in this month's newsletter, make sure you schedule a time for us to make sure you are ready for concurrent instruction once students return to the building next week. To book a time with me in 15-minute increments, click on the following link: https://tdyounts.youcanbook.me. Remember, I am at Piney Grove on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so make sure you schedule accordingly.
Morning Announcements: Here are the links to the Morning Announcements for this week.
Monday (1/11) - https://youtu.be/j7CrxamqOec
Tuesday (1/12) - https://youtu.be/FdgFyasGj4s
Wednesday (1/13) - https://youtu.be/dghRB4fzrT8
Thursday (1/14) - https://youtu.be/5xoeeRGpuFk
Friday (1/15) - https://youtu.be/Q2j74-Tu3cA
Staff Spotlight: Shoutout to Ms. Brookshire, Ms. Jones, Ms. Vaden, Ms. Laws, and Ms. Sweeney! They were our top Flocabulary users from the month of December. Don't forget about Flocabulary! It is a wonderful vocabulary resource provided to us by PTA.
Reminders from Previous Weeks
COVID-19 Vaccine (from district): The Forsyth County Department of Public Health is prioritizing educators for an upcoming round of COVID-19 vaccines. In an effort to assist the Forsyth County Department of Public Health, if you are interested in receiving the vaccine from the Forsyth County Department of Public Health, please indicate your interest in the survey link below. Simply add your name, work location, and the email address with which you want them to contact you once the vaccine is available.
We will share this information with the Forsyth County Department of Public Health, and they will contact you with details and more information whenever the vaccination becomes available to area educators. In order to be included in this round, you must sign up. At this time, only those who work for WS/FCS are eligible for the vaccine from the Forsyth County Department of Public Health regardless of where you live.
Vaccination Survey Link: https://forms.gle/z5XeA61SCLXYCFVy6
Middle-of-Year PDP conferences: The sign-up for Mid-Year PDP meetings are hanging up outside mine and Leslie's office. We will be doing all mid-year PDP meetings on Wednesdays in January via Zoom (1/13, 1/20, 1/27). Please sign up with me if I do your walkthroughs/evaluations & please sign up with Leslie if she does yours.
Make sure your Mid-Year PDP is updated before we meet. This includes your progress to date on your goals, as well as any artifacts that you want to upload that show evidence towards completion.
TWC Data Improvement: Click on the link to see the work that SIT is doing to improve our highest areas of need from our Teacher Working Conditions Survey data. TWC Improvement
Bus Attestation Forms (PreK - 5th): Please work on getting 3rd quarter bus attestation forms returned. If you need copies, please ask Mrs. Landreth or Mrs. Gardner.
Working Remotely: We can only approve individuals working remotely if it is COVID related. If you are not able to come in to work you must take sick, personal, or annual leave.
- 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
IF Updates
2nd and 3rd grade teachers: PLEASE label student computers and chargers with their name and your name as they are returned. It is time consuming to look them up to find out who they belong to and this will help us so much!
It is almost report card time! Here is a link to all the report card comments and their PowerSchool codes. This is a copy that sorts the comments by content (thanks Mrs. Tall!). Both of these documents are in the “Report card and progress report” button on Canvas. This will come in handy as you prepare your progress reports and when you are completing report cards.
Testing Information: Here are the testing google slides that I have been updating almost daily. Please take a look and note all of the testing that will be going on from January 11 to February 12.
Preparing for iReady Diagnostic 2: This presentation will help you talk to your students about their work. Please feel free to use it. We will be going over this in PLT this week as well!
Update Testing Dates: Please make sure you update your calendar for your grade level test dates.
Jan 11 - iReady reading testing K & 1
Jan 12 - iReady reading testing K & 1
Jan 19 - iReady reading testing 2 & 3
Jan 21 - iReady reading testing 2 & 3
Jan 25 - BOG3 Test and iReady reading testing 4 & 5 Cohort A
Jan 26 - BOG3 Test and iReady reading testing 4 & 5 Cohort A
Jan 28 - iReady reading testing 4 & 5 Cohort B
Jan 29 - iReady reading testing 4 & 5 Cohort B
Feb 1-5 - iReady math testing K-1 and 3-5
Feb 1-5 - CogAt testing all 2nd and select 5th graders
Feb 4 - 3:30 BOG3 test: remote learners and virtual academy
Feb 8-12 - iReady math testing 2nd grade
Feb 22-April 23 - ACCESS testing
Upcoming Dates:
January 11 - 2nd & 3rd Grade Students Return In-Person
January 11 - PTA Meeting @ 6:30 via Zoom
January 12 - SIT @ 3:30
January 14 - New Teacher Laptops distributed & Docking Stations Installed
January 18 - No School (MLK Day)
January 19 - 4th & 5th Cohort A Return
January 19 - SCC & Wellness Committees @ 3:30
January 20 - End of 2nd Quarter
January 21 - 4th & 5th Cohort B Return
January 22 - Teacher Workday
January 26 - Staff Meeting @ 3:30 (Boosterthon)
January 27 - Report Cards due to Ms. True
February 2 - 11 - Boosterthon (more info to come)
February 5 - Report Cards go home
Because of you these things are possible - Because of a Teacher
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