Hey Panda Family,
No Staff Meeting on Tuesday, March 16: We have very few items on our staff meeting agenda for this month, and the week of March 15 is the first week for the Extended Learning Tutoring after-school. Because of this we have decided to cancel our monthly staff meeting for March. Enjoy!
Teacher Intent: All certified teachers must complete their intent form for the 2021-2022 school year by March 31. The form must be completed from school while you are on the network server. The link to the form can be found here: WS/FCS Teacher Intent
Bulletin Boards: You may uncover any bulletin boards in your room that are still covered. We will continue to keep community bookshelves covered at this time.
AM and PM duties: Please show up for AM (before 7:50) and PM (before 2:50) duties on time. Just a few minutes early so we are ready to roll. Mr. Elkins is also talking to himself here 😉
MTSS Corrective Action Task #6: The link to the presentation below is the next MTSS Corrective Action all instructional staff must complete. It must be done by Friday, March 19. (All regular education teachers, Pollard, Phillips, Bowman, Ballou, Mathis, Murphy, Grubbs, Mason, Staley, Fox, Epperley, Younts, Ceglowski, Flynn, Lindley, Elkins, Gardner) An attendance form is included in the presentation.
PBIS News & Updates: See the updates below from our PBIS Committee.
- Remember to reteach PAWS Laws and procedures after each school break and when cohorts dissolve
- Pass out PAW bucks!
- Don't forget about Panda Grams & PAW Forms
- Please remind your students about the incentive for March.
Calling all Panda celebrities! Would you like to see your name in lights? Pay your teacher and have your name and picture displayed on the Panda celebrity wall of fame. Ask your teacher to find out the cost.
March 25- Celebrity Wall up and running
Pay by March 15th: cost - 4-5 $25, K-3 $40 - Parent can send in picture or teacher can take it
See links below for each grade level. Talk to your PBIS rep if you have questions.
WS/FCS Teacher Academy (from district): The WS/FCS Teacher Academy is accepting applications for its 5th year in 2021-2022! The Interest Form for next school year is now open!
If you are interested in being part of the upcoming Teacher Academy, use this link to get to the informational letter which will link you to the “2021-2022 Interest Form”. Find out more via this link.
Jamboard Trick: Do your students struggle with using the pen tool when “jamming”? If so, Jerrica Hawley at Sedge Garden shared a tip with me in which students show their work on their personal whiteboards (or sheet of paper) and then insert an image by using the camera option to capture what they have written on their whiteboard or paper. To learn how to do this, click on the following link to watch the video.
Capturing Images of Work Using Camera in Jamboard Activities
Upcoming District PD: Mark your calendars for Thursday, April 1, 2021. The district office will be offering a PD for both classroom teachers and assistants. I will be co-facilitating a session on Pear Deck which is an interactive presentation tool which is an add-on feature in both Google Slides and PowerPoint.
Gold Star Awards: I would like to thank everyone who attended my very first PD & Popcorn.
This week’s awards go to:
Jayne Grubbs for being my co-facilitator for The Scoop & Sprinkles on Hybrid Learning Tools PD.
Bonnie Adams, Catherine Gant, and Elaine Laws for attending my PD & Popcorn session on Jamming with Jamboards in the Classroom.
Deanna Mabe for letting me pop into her class and watch some of her math lesson on area and perimeter.
Congratulations to these fellow educators! I look forward to recognizing more individuals over the next few months.
Remote Students Returning to In-Person: We have decided not to wait until 4th quarter to communicate to all remote parents that their child can return to in-person learning. Please send the following message to your fully-remote students via Dojo (you can let them know it is from Mr. Elkins):
Hey Pandas! Effective immediately, your child may return to full in-person learning if you so choose. Any remote students that want to immediately return to in-person learning will need to be a car rider, use a morning/afternoon daycare van, or go to Imprints. If your child needs bus transportation, please contact the front office to get it arranged before your child plans to return to in-person learning (bus transportation is only available for residential students). If your child will be a car rider, please ask your teacher for a pink car rider sign. Students returning to in-person learning are committing to all 4 days of in-person learning each week. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact the front office at 336-703-4122.
- Mr. Elkins
If parents decide to send their child back for in-person learning please let Ms. True know who the student is and when they will begin in-person learning.
"Minimal Social Distancing": The district is supposed to be sending out a more clear definition on what "minimal social distancing" means in the coming weeks. What we have been doing in the younger grades has been very effective. I recommend to continue to have maximum social distancing where you can (keeping desks as far apart as possible), but understand if students get closer now it is deemed okay by the NC Safe Schools Toolkit (for example sitting 3 feet from a peer for a small group lesson). In grades 4th & 5th, your student's desks will need to be placed 3 feet apart in order to fit all your students. All 4th & 5th grade teachers may work from the building on March 3 & March 10 if you so choose to work on preparing your classroom for 4-day student return.
Media Survey: Please take 5 minutes to fill out this PGE Media Services Survey to help us make the media program better.
Kids Heart Challenge (from Ms. Fox): We will be kicking off the program (formerly known as Jump Rope for Heart) next week, MARCH 8TH. I am asking that you encourage your students to sign up and take the health challenge. If they do, they will receive a free wristband and the Classroom Teachers may be eligible to win a $25.00 amazon gift card. I will keep you posted on who is in the lead. Plus, when we get 50% of our students registered, I will receive a $500 gift card for PE equipment. This is something I cannot do alone!
Student Attendance: For students to be counted present on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays they must attend in-person if they are an in-person student or they must attend remotely if they are a remote student. Students should not be counted present for work completion only on M/T/Th/F if they did not attend class. They may be counted present for work completion on Flex Wednesdays.
Morning Arrival: This is just a friendly reminder that all staff need to enter through the front entrance of the building first & complete the temperature check and screening before reporting to your room. Thank you for your help with this.
iReady Lesson Tracking: As your students complete their iReady each week, it is not only important that they get their time in but it is also important to see their lesson completion. What we have seen is some students are getting their time in each week, but are not completing any lessons (basically they are just sitting there). I highly suggest motivating your students in your classroom by giving incentives for lessons completed. If you would like to monitor the lessons completed for your students, simply follow these instructions that were shared by Ms. Jones (thanks Deana!).
May PD session: May 6 will be our last after school PD session. We will discuss compacting curriculum and begin cross-grade level meetings in preparation for the 21-22 school year. Mark your calendar!
ACCESS testing: Thank you to Mrs. Pereda for a great first few weeks of ACCESS testing. Here is the schedule that Mrs. Pereda is constantly updating so you can keep an eye on when your students will likely test.
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