Hey Panda Family,
Week 8 was another success due to all your hard work! Keep up the wonderful "Can Do" attitude. We got this! 💪😊💚 Here are the updates from our week.
Nurse Stacy: Please keep Nurse Stacy in your thoughts and prayers. She just recently found out that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is scheduled to have surgery soon. Please join me in supporting her through this difficult time. We love you, Nurse Stacy!
Return to Work Dates: Please make sure to review the return to work dates that are listed in the calendar below. These are the dates that employees must return to work in the building according to Human Resources.
Reopening Survey for Parents: At this time we have about 75-100 families who have still not completed the Reopening Survey to choose their child's attendance option for Plan B. On Monday, Ms. True will be sending out the final list of students to each teacher who still need to complete this. Please make a personal phone call to these families to help get this completed. We need to be at 100% completion so we can plan accordingly for our reopening. Thanks so much for your help with this!
Reopening Survey Results: At this time 88% of our students have chosen Option 1 (return in-person), 11% of our students have chosen Option 2 (remote with their current teacher), and 1% have chosen Option 3 (unenroll and attend Virtual Academy).
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
Panda Engagement Survey Results: You and your students are working so hard and it is showing! In the last two weeks, our engagement rate has risen from 82.3% to 88.7%! The engagement rate is students who are completing half or more of their assigned work. Way to go Pandas! 🐼
Remote Learning Teacher/Parent/Student Survey Trends: See the summary results from the teacher/parent/student survey that was completed. Please use these summary results to continue to tweak and improve your remote learning: Survey Trends
Social Stories for return to school: Linked below are some social stories that will help our students as they return to school. Thank you to our wonderful psychologist, Iris, for sharing!
Elementary Story
Pre-K Story
CARES Team Update (from Ms. Ceglowski):
- Based on the surveys completed by classroom teachers, engagement has increased from 82.3% to 88.7%!
- We had one case marked "resolved" by the Community CARES team. 2 remain in progress.
- We continue to work on cases as a school-based team as well. 8 visits were made this week. I spent more time this week addressing the "lack of motivation" issue. Please continue to bring those to my attention. That is less a CARES issue and more a counselor referral and I am very happy to be able to be a counselor!
- Our plans to return to the building should resolve a lot of engagement issues.
- This has been particularly hard on students whose first language is not English and students who have learning differences. Our school-based CARES team has discussed these issues at length. We are confident that the return to the building will be a huge help in getting these students engaged. Please continue to reach out to these students and remain encouraging.
- The CARES team will continue to meet after we return to the building. We will keep working on engagement and resolving issues that create barriers to learning.
- Please see this policy on how to handle a crisis situation in remote learning. Most of you will continue to teach at least a few children remoting so it is a good resource to have. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Gp4gDtp2Vx6Ci1JJBpCmYF0NBD_bFcUpWf2vSi1-_c/edit?usp=sharing
- The bottom line is to ensure that I know about the crisis through a phone call. If you email me and I call you right away, that works too!! The point is that just telling me is not the end, the student remains yours and you need to follow up and ensure safety. At PGE we always do this but it's a good reminder. 🙂
- Shout out to Mrs. Sherrill for gracefully handling our first virtual mini-crisis!
Fire Marshall Inspection: We passed our Fall Fire Marshall inspection with flying colors! Thank you for all your help in keeping our room free of violations.
Flu Shot Clinics: Make sure to register for WS/FCS flu shot clinic here - Flu Shot Clinic. Here are the remaining locations and dates:
10/12 - Paisley MS
10/13 - Kimmel Farm ES
10/16 - North Forsyth HS
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 (10/12) - https://youtu.be/lNVsvCovLDw
Tuesday (10/13) - https://youtu.be/o82H4OvAV4o
Wednesday (10/14) - https://youtu.be/8E8YrOTaNdU
Thursday (10/15) - https://youtu.be/dqWuiXpLz70
Friday (10/16) - https://youtu.be/rPBejkhh65c
Staff Spotlight: From Mr. Younts - Thank you to the staff for their prayers and well wishes last week during my mom's recent illness. Mom is doing a lot better, but not totally out of the woods. She had a bad reaction to an antibiotic that they gave her in the ER which affected her liver enzymes; thus, the recovery process is taking a little longer than expected. So, keep the prayers coming!
From Ms. Ceglowski - Shout out to Ashley Owens for helping me make 8 home visits and a stop at the Ed building to get hot spots. She was such a trooper and we laughed a lot! We are so lucky we get to have her back!
IF Updates
Old TRC materials: Mrs. Bolchalk has reorganized the old orange TRC box books so that each grade level will now have a set of common materials that are appropriate for your grade. You are welcome to use these for progress monitoring, small groups, or anything else. If you need more copies, please see your teammates and I am sure they will be happy to share!
Wonders materials: Mrs. Epperley and Mrs. Secrest are doing an amazing job of barcoding the Wonders materials so that we can distribute them to you. I bet K-3 are wondering where you will put your new Wonders goodies! In order to help you find space to put your new materials, I will come take your Imagine It and/or Scott Foresman materials. If you want me to come take them, please let me know and I will be there to pick them up.
Upcoming Dates:
October 12 - PreK Teachers & PreK IAs return to work in the building
October 12 - PTA Meeting @ 6:30 via Zoom
October 13 - SIT @ 3:30
October 16 - PreK, Kindergarten, and 2nd Grade Open House
October 19 - EC teachers, ESL, Specialists, K-3 Teachers and IAs return to work in the building
October 20 - Staff Meeting @ 3:30
October 22 - End of 1st Quarter
October 23 - Teacher Workday
October 26 - PreK students return
October 27 - SCC & Wellness Committees meet @ 3:30
October 28 - Report Cards due to Admin/Ms. True to review
October 30 - 1st & 3rd Grade Open House
November 2 - EC Separate setting & K-3 students return
November 2 - 4-5 Teachers return to work in the building
November 3 - No School (Election Day) - Remote Learning Day
November 3 - 4th & 5th Grade Open House (more info to come)
November 3 - PBIS & MTAC Committees meet @ 3:30
November 4 - Report Cards go home (district date)
November 5 - Instructional PD @ 3:30 (topic TBD)
Most of you know I am a huge Carolina Panthers fan. Check out the children's book series inspired by Teddy Bridgewater, the Carolina Panthers new quarterback. He had a horrific injury a few years ago that he overcame, and he is a true class act. Maybe Ms. Epperley will get it for us in the Media Center 😉
