The Wolfpack Howl

IB attribute "communicator" (perfect for student involved conferences!); no PLCs this week due to conferences

9/23- Kristen out at IF meeting; 2:00- virtual Duck Race for Springdale Education Foundation

9/24- Sharyn out at IF meeting

9/28- staff meeting (topic: Catapult safety training)

10/1, 10/2- fall pictures

So now we are hearing that books that are stacked up/leaned together are still showing traces of the COVID virus at 5 days out (from some research study- isn't that a great citation?). So, as your kids use your classroom library books, they only have to be in book quarantine for a couple of days if you have somewhere to lay them out flat by themselves. If you need to stack, I would keep them out of the rotation for a week. We'll see what the research says next week...

We put those back in your boxes. Please keep them until you have your whole class and then send them up to the office with your name on the top once they are all there. If you've gotten down to the last one or two you can't get back, send them up and put those names on a sticky on the top.

Info. on Sept. 8-11 "Howl" if you need a refresher on procedure/link to documentation sheet...

As far as attendance, I realize you don't know whether a blended student has completed that day's work until after school or the next day. So, if you find out a student has not completed any work, Jackie can go back in and change their attendance code to absent. You just need to email her and let her know who to change and for what dates. NEW INFORMATION- Katherine Thompson says you as the teacher can indeed go back in and change- you are more than welcome to do that (see her if you need help b/c I have no idea).

Feel free to send Sharyn links to your Canva posters and she can take it from there as far as printing.

Ideas for math tools: https://www.didax.com/math/virtual-manipulatives.html

"As a child I spent my summers on my family's island in Sioux Narrows Ontario on the lake in the woods. My family bought this 5 acre island over 50 years ago from the queen of England for less than $1000! I spent my days swimming, skiing, reading and cooking and gardening with my great granny."

This is Lynn Curzon, and the winner is Anne Richards- she guessed it!

Who said this? Send KC your guesses and there might be a prize involved!

"I like to pet sharks at 60-80 feet below the sea."

Here is the google form we created for you to use for each student during conferences. Please let KC know if you want something added for the good of the group. This form will be in the Westwood faculty 2020-21 folder. Hopefully this will help you remember everything you need to talk about and links to documents you will need are in the form. This will also serve as documentation on things such as title 1 compact, etc. Please look through it ahead of time so you know what's coming. :) You will complete one on every student as you go through the conference. I hope this is helpful!

09/21/2020

Safety:

If you have not done this, please use this form to document that your class participated in the Virtual Drill. We need your response by the end of the day Monday.

My plan is to start sending individual annoying emails reminding you to submit your responses starting Tuesday.

We are going to use this form to document that you reviewed September's Safety topics. The link to the presentation can be found on the Howl that went out the week of September 8-11.

Your answers to both forms will be part of the Safety report that I will send out to the district this week.

SPED:

If you have had SPED meetings in the last couple of weeks, you have already experienced the new electronic signature feature that the SPED department is using. It's a nice feature to have available since we are not meeting with parents face to face. However, since you are in the building, our SPED teachers are having to go find you after they have closed the eSchool form to ask for your signature. I know it probably feels like one more thing to do. I so much appreciate your flexibility.

Testing:

MAP testing is going well, so far. Keeping my fingers crossed that we have another good week this week. Below is an email from Dr. Kelli Langan, Springdale's new Director of Assessment and Accountability. Please read carefully.

Test Coordinators,

I have already seen several irregularities this year and I want to make sure we don't have any more. THESE ARE REPORTED TO THE STATE. We have to diligently monitor our testing sessions. First, it is imperative that you look up and confirm the correct student has selected the correct name (especially with the younger students!) BEFORE confirming them to test on the proctor screen. The importance of monitoring should have been covered with your teachers or whomever is proctoring in training that they each received. Second, I just learned that the Chromebooks can activate a Read Aloud feature EVEN IN THE SECURE BROWSER if the student knows to push (CTRL + SHIFT + Z). Please make sure students know not to do that. That can happen quickly even when monitoring, but I can't emphasize monitoring the test administration enough.

I know you all know what you are doing. You are AMAZING! Help me by emphasizing to your test proctors again the importance of monitoring each testing action, so that we can not have these irregularities.

I wanted to share the picture below to show how Mrs. Lassiter is using cups to hold students' water bottles in the classroom. I love how by doing this, the students don't have to use their desk space to keep their water bottles handy. I thought it was an innovative idea and wanted to share with everyone. If you would like to make this for your own class, I'm sure Mrs. Lassiter would share with you how she got the cups to stay on the side of the students' desks. If you have found something that is helping you keep up with our new COVID life in the classroom, please send me a picture to share with others. Let's not waste good pandemic ideas that make our lives a little bit better and "easier".

This week, my daily Bible reading covered Esther. I read the verse that says "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position but for such a time as this?". I may have written about this earlier in the year, but my doctor referenced this exact scripture when I was in there probably looking real pitiful in early August. I don't know about you, but it feels like none of us were really made for teaching/leading/cafeteria-ing/IA-ing, etc. in a pandemic. But here's the kick- we were. We can. We are. As you head into what I know will be a long, hard week, just remember that you are here for such a time as this. I, for one, am so glad you are and that none of you have quit on me. :) PLEASE get some rest this weekend and let me know if there's anything at all (big or small) I can do for you. I don't always know there are needs out there unless you tell me. Big love to you all.