COVID 17 5/4/20

Celebrating K0/K1

Each day this week. I will celebrate teachers at different grade levels. I could write volumes about how amazing each of you is! I am trying to limit myself to 1 or 2 statements. 

“It takes a big heart to help shape little minds.” Author Unknown

• Shandolyn: I appreciate all that you do to help your students grow. I enjoyed watching you do the reset on behavioral expectations and how your students responded and were becoming little scholars.
• Ana: I appreciate how you make all of our students feel welcome in our school. I love how you speak to the students in both of their languages and how motherly you are with them
• Meghan: I appreciate how you often fly under the radar doing good work for your families. You have very quietly delivered supplies and food to all of your families. 
• Nee: I appreciate how you think of our school globally. You worry about our students and their growth as human beings. 
• Noreen: I appreciate your steady calmness. You had quite the start to your school year and did not run screaming towards the door every day. You helped keep the rest of us calm.
• Govi: I appreciate how you "adopt"kids and become their person. You are always there and available to offer words of encouragement when they are needed for kids. 
• Priscilla: I appreciate how you gracefully educated a classroom of 3 and 4-year-olds while growing a little human yourself. Even when your little human was kicking your butt with morning sickness. Your help with technology has been so appreciated. 
• Melissa: I appreciate how you have helped me grow in my cultural awareness. You engage our little ones in music and movement that teaches them about their beautiful heritage. It is a wonder to observe. 
• Denise: I appreciate your calm and pleasant approach to each day. You are always willing to jump in when and where you are needed. 

Schedules

Your new schedules should have launched today. 

• Please complete the tab with your name in this document. If you are having trouble with the document please send me a copy of your schedule and I will work to get it in. It is important that all schedules are included in the document.  This is another accountability measure for the District. 
• In reviewing the schedules, my expectations, and the MOU I would like to make some clarifications.
• I appreciate you making the size of your legos developmentally appropriate. I think this is great for our students. A quick scan of schedules indicates that we need to have some more face to face time with students.  addition to the 8 blocks please add additional 1:1 time or small groups with students to bring us closer to the 15-hour synchronous time.  Some submitted schedules are reflecting synchronous teaching that is far below the 15 hours. 
• I really appreciate the approach that some people are taking of letting their parents schedule their children into available 1:1 or small group times. My hypothesis is that this will lead to increased attendance
• For your 1:1 and small groups. If you are serving students that are inclusion students please identify this by putting SWD next to their name in their schedule.  If the student in your small group is an EL student please indicate this next to their name. For example, 1:1 Hans Kissel (SWD) If a student is both an EL and an SWD indicate both. 
• I am also not sure that I made clear that you need to provide a copy of this schedule to your families. This schedule needs to be translated. 

Outstanding Free PD from DESE

The Department is pleased to offer a free workshop series, “Innovate Inside the [Remote Learning] Box with UDL,” focused on universally designing remote instruction. Join George Couros and Katie Novak in an online workshop series that will introduce the key concepts of inclusive practice, innovation, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and give participants the knowledge they need to start using UDL in their lesson and assessment design while supporting remote learning. Attend live webinars the week of May 11, take the following week to unpack the virtual modules, and then join a final webinar on Wednesday, May 20 to share key takeaways and final projects. More information and registration are available online. These two presenters are amazing! I have learned a lot from both of them.

Opening the School

Dear staff,

Some of you are planning to go into our building this week to retrieve some of your teaching materials and/or belongings. We need to ensure the safety of all involved in this process, so on the day you are signed up to come to the building, you must review the checklist attached to this email. If you have any of the symptoms listed in #1 or #2, or do not agree to what is stated in #4, please reach out to me and we can discuss further. 

Thank you all for your attention to this.

Curiosity

Can you tell when I am sending out boilerplate language from the district vs. things written in my voice?