January 29, 2021

Honey-Do List- February

January 29- Read the Hive. Tell your friends to read the Hive.

January 29 (Noon)- Complete shout out trackers

January 28- Provide Jodi a copy of your most recent schedule

February 1- Small humans return to the building

February 1-5 -Black Lives Matter at School Week

February 5- Let Jodi know if you are interested in riles-based reading training

February 26- Last day for teacher leadership grants

Data Meeting Reflection-

• I have really enjoyed the data meetings that have happened 1:1 so far.
• Having time to connect and focus with individuals is so wonderful it helps to feed my soul
• I get to learn about your successes and challenges and think of how to best support you
• We will be holding these meetings every 6 weeks as a way to connect.

Daily Cleaning Procedure Student Surfaces

• The following is the procedure that we will use for cleaning the surfaces that students are using.
• This procedure should be done at the beginning of the day and the end of the day
• Student or teacher wipes surface with soap and water at end of the day 
• Teacher sprays surface with disinfectant (10 minutes minimum dwell time but can be left on longer or overnight).
• Student or teacher wipes surface with soap and water in the morning to remove chemical residue

Most Things Reopening

• The staffing template found here has multiple tabs including duty assignment, lunch schedule, and contingency staffing plan
• Please familiarize yourself with this document. The information in it is important
• The contingency staffing plan is not great but it is what we have. I welcome any suggestions to make it better

Specialist Schedules

From our remarkable and brilliant scheduling genius Ms. Purple

• Jodi and I talked this afternoon and it seems to make more sense for specials to continue when the whole class is remote. 
• This would allow for some consistency in the specials time for the kids and would avoid us trying to learn a new schedule with twice the amount of synchronous specials (one for the remote group and one for the hybrid group). 
• When I originally made that extended schedule, I think I didn't anticipate it would take us until March to roll out the full hybrid model. It feels late in the year to launch into a completely new schedule. 
• Instead, I'm proposing a few swaps to the music and science schedules (for the 3/1 start, NOT next week) so that music and science would be live on the day the class would not have hybrid students in the school (aka the day when the whole class is remote). 
• For the February HIPP period, we would continue with the specials schedule as they have been the last months. 
• The very few kids who are in school in February can zoom in to the sessions from the classroom, either on their own Chromebooks if they're bringing them to school, or the teacher/para could project the zoom. 
• This would be the 3/1 full hybrid start. Next week and throughout February the schedule would remain the same as you've been doing. 

Documenting in Panorama

• Everyone is doing such great family outreach and support work. It is such a strength for this team
• Please remember to document any outreach and response to student/family challenges in Panorama
• The district checks this frequently as one of its data points and we should get the "credit" for all of the great work that we do. 
• Prioritize documenting those things that you do as family/student support For example:
• "I send R a text every morning reminding him that it is time to attend school" 
• "I spoke with J's mother today about the benefits of having her return to school in person."
• "I started taking P in a small group 2xs week to support foundational reading skills"
• Thank you to those of you that have kept this up during the year. 

Rules-Based Reading

• We need to increase our capacity to offer rules-based reading instruction to our students. 
• I am looking for volunteers to be trained in rules-based reading
• Please let me know by 2/5 if you would be willing to go through training
• When I was teaching it was transformational professional learning for me and I highly reccomend it

COVID Testing

• Our COVID testing site will be Tech Boston which means that we can walk to our testing location. 
• I am grateful to the district for moving our site so that it will be more convenient for all of you. 
• Sam will be sharing more information about scheduling etc. as it becomes available.

Black Lives Matter @ School: 

Black Lives Matter @ School Week is Next Week!

• List of demands for the nationwide BLM @ School Week of Action are: 
• End zero tolerance
• Mandate Black history and ethnic studies, 
• Hire more black teachers 
• Fund counselors, not cops
• More information can be found here: BLM @ School
• Age-appropriate activity ideas for next week are: 
• Listen to "Glory" by John Legend and Common
• Read "Black is a Rainbow Color"  by Angela Joy
• Have a virtual poetry slam
• Write and draw about what makes each of us special
• All the resources for the above activities are located in this PowerPoint

 Teacher Leadership Fund Mid-Year Grants  

• The Teacher Leadership Fund is happy to announce a new midyear grant opportunity for this year only.
• We know that now more than ever educators are innovating and creating to address the immense challenges that our students and schools are facing, especially those that have been created or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until February 26. Email tlf@bostonpublicschools.org with questions.

EL Stipend

• For those of you that are teaching students with ELD levels 4 and 5 in your classrooms please send me an email that you agree to accept the stipend for this school year 2020- 2021 and next 2021-2022
• As a reminder, you have the choice to accept the stipend or we have to hire an ESL teacher
• We ask you to accept the stipend as our budget cannot withstand the addition of another FTE. 

Material Kits

• The Early Childhood and STEM departments partnered to provide home kits for students in grades K-5th for spring 2021.
• The materials included in the kits can be reused, so students and teachers can complete more than one challenge and use them for individual content area projects.
• The kits are pre-assembled and will be shipped directly to schools in quantities corresponding to the school’s student capacity which in most cases is a lot higher than the actual enrollment numbers.
• Delivery to schools is expected to start on February 8th.
• Legos for K2 kits will be distributed separately by the Department of Early Childhood the 2nd week of February. Details will be added as we get close to the delivery date.

January 22, 2021

Honey-Do List- January

January 11-MAP Assessment Window Opens

January 22- Read the Hive. Tell your friends to read the Hive.

January 22 (Noon)- Complete shout out trackers

January 27- Book 1:1 Data Meeting

January 28- Provide Jodi a copy of your most recent schedule

January 29- MAP Assessment window closes

Data Meetings

• Please use this link to schedule a 1:1 meeting with me to discuss student progress and data in your classroom. 
• Please book your appointment by Wednesday, January 27th. 
• I want to get a better picture of what is working, what is not, and what interventions we have tried
• We will be using the student data that is in Panorama and Lexia to frame our conversations. 
• These meetings will take approximately 45 minutes. 

Schedules

• The district has asked that school leaders be prepared to provide information for a teaching time audit.
• This is in response to the new teaching time regulations that were put in place by the State.  
• In order to do this effectively, please provide me with a copy of your most recent teaching schedule by Thursday, January 28th. 
• In addition to meeting the State regulations, the district would like to see that every student, every day has an opportunity to interact live with a teacher. 
• As always I trust and believe that you will continue to do what is in the best interests of your students and families. 

School Building Reopening

Where we are at Lee Academy:

• Our air purifiers are here Bill is placing them in classrooms and common spaces
• Here is the Lee Academy cleaning log so you know what to expect in regards to cleaning when you return to the building
• Here are our staffing plans for 2/1 and 3/1. 
• Please review it and let me know of any changes by Tuesday, January 26th
• The leadership team and I are working on contingency plans for when people are out. We welcome ANY ideas that you may have. 
• 4 Day-HIPP learners will not come 4 days until 3/1

Information from the District:

• If a student is scheduled to be hybrid and has not come to in-person learning for two weeks we must contact them to be sure that their absence is not related to a COVID quarantine.
• If we determine that the absence is not COVOD related we can inform the family that we are returning them to a remote model and offer the seat to the next student. 

Budget Update:

I wanted to give everyone a summary of the final budget update that I will be providing to our Governing Board on Wednesday:

• We are adding 1.5 positions a .5 social worker and 1.0 Family Liason
• We are receiving $41,000 in partnership funding. This is something that we have never received before. We will use this to fund our partnerships with Treehouse Yoga, Eliot School, Swabby Tae Kwan Do, and Urbanity Dance
• We are moving from actual to average salary. In a typical year, this would mean that we would have some additional funding to spend on things we need. Unfortunately, this is not a typical year.
• The change-in salary structure is allowing us to not have to make $20,000 in budget cuts.
• There is a long story behind why and how this works and if you are curious please join our governing board meeting Wednesday at 6:00  immediately following PD (Sorry Lindsay, Rose, Brian, Meredith)
• This is good news just not as good as I had thought/hoped 

Reminder: Shout Outs

• There are two tabs on the tracker one for students of the week and one for the content area of the week
• We are asking classroom teachers to shout out two students each week by filling in the appropriate place on the tracker with the student's name and a sentence about how they earned the shout out. Please complete this by 12:00 noon on Fridays
•  We are shouting out the writer of the week for the week 1/18/21. 

January 15th-Thursday Edition

Honey-Do List- January

January 11-MAP Assessment Window Opens

January 15- Read the Hive. Tell your friends to read the Hive.

January 15 (Noon)- Complete shout out trackers

January 19-Let Jodi know of any changes to the staffing plan

January 29- MAP Assessment window closes

Pollinating Ideas 

From TNTP:

All students need regular opportunities to think critically and engage deeply with worthwhile content. These assignment and student work review tools are intended to help teachers, leaders, and others understand if an assignment is giving students the opportunity to meaningfully engage in worthwhile grade-level content. Using the protocols, you’ll first review the quality of the assignment and then analyze students’ performance on that assignment. 

From Jodi:

I will be using these in my weekly region meetings to look at tasks from the various grade levels. 

I like the tool and thought it might be something that you could find useful in CLT to insure the tasks we are asking our children to complete are at grade level and worthwhile. 

Reminder: Changes in Shout Outs

• We are going to be changing the way we are doing weekly shout outs starting next week in an attempt to make them shorter and more focused on both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
• We have a new tracker where we will award scholar of the week on a rotating basis 
• There are two tabs on the tracker one for students of the week and one for the content area of the week
• We are asking classroom teachers to shout out two students each week by filling in the appropriate place on the tracker with the student's name and a sentence about how they earned the shout out. Please complete this by 12:00 noon on Fridays
• The tracker also outlines what content area we are shouting out each week. We are starting out with the reader of the week for the week 1/11/21. 
• There is a sample shout out at the top of each page. 
• We will also continue to award certificates when students complete a level in Lexia. 
• I am trying to determine a way to do something similar as students finish each "objective" in STMath. 
• I will continue to do the shout outs via video and mail certificates to the students' homes. 

School Building Reopening

• True to form the planning for reopening is not as smooth or flawless as we would want it to be
• I will be available for an optional staff meeting on 1/19/21 at 4:00. If you would like to talk about this together. 

Where we are at Lee Academy:

• Zoraida called all families who had selected Hybrid or defaulted to Hybrid to see if they wanted to remain Hybrid or change to remote
• Sam is in the process of calling all families to see if they want to change from remote to hybrid
• This means that families will NOT have to complete the district form as we can make all the changes based on capacity here
• Once we have completed the process we will share updated class lists with you. 
• Here is our staffing plan for 2/1 When HIPP students return. Please review it and let me know of any changes by Tuesday, January 19th
• 4 Day-HIPP learners will not come 4 days until 3/1
• We cannot accommodate 4-day HIPP learners at K2 because of space constraints. All other grade levels will have 4-day students starting March 1st. 
• K0/K1 will be capped at 5 in-person learners in each Hybrid group due to the unique challenges of keeping our youngest learners socially distanced
• Today I sent texts using Talking Points to all families regarding the differences in our operations vs. the district.  

Information from the District:

• In preparation for schools reopening in Spring 2021, families have the opportunity to request a change to their learning model or cohort assignment. 
• To request a change, families can submit a central form posted on bostonpublicschools.org/reopening or contact their school directly. (We proactively contacted our families-see above)
• Families will receive an email on 1/15 reminding them of their current cohort and learning model. Families will be provided with instructions on how to request a change for each child they have enrolled in a BPS school. 
• Schools will receive a spreadsheet of requests submitted, updated nightly, and will need to review and approve changes by entering them into the “proposed cohort” field in Aspen. Please note that change requests will not be reviewed centrally until they are entered into the “Proposed Cohort” field.

Key Dates:

1/15	Families receive communication of current learning model/ cohort and instructions to request a change
1/19	Schools receive access to a spreadsheet of changes requested via the central form
1/25 @ 12pm	Deadline to submit SST nominations for students to return 2/1
1/29	Deadline for families to request changes via central form
2/1 @ 4pm	Deadline for schools to enter changes into Aspen to be effective March 1
3/1	Changes that can be accommodated will be effective March 1  (see capacity limitations below)

Capacity Limitations: there are a lot of unknowns in this process, as we do not know how many families will request a change. Therefore, it is important to adhere to the following guidelines:

School Capacity: 

• There is a possibility that we will not be able to accommodate all students within each school or classroom and may not be able to accommodate all change requests submitted

Transportation: 

• There is a possibility that we will not be able to accommodate all students on buses and may not be able to accommodate all change requests submitted
• Once all change requests that can be accommodated at the school level are submitted to Aspen (by 2/1), we will conduct a capacity analysis to determine transportation capacity. 
• You will receive communication in mid-February about potential transportation limitations

Family Communications: 

• Please do not communicate that a change request can be accommodated until capacity has been analyzed and confirmed on both the school level and the transportation level
• All transportation assignments for students returning 3/1 will be finalized and communicated to families no later than 2/27

Return Timeline:

	Currently in Hybrid Learning Model		Currently in Remote Learning Model (Dependent on Capacity)
Group	# Days In-Person	Start Date	# Days In-Person	Start Date
HIPP students, based on district criteria	4	2/1 LAPS=3/1	4	3/1 LAPS: K0/K1, 1,2,3
Students nominated by SST	2	A: 3/1 B: 3/4	2	A: 3/1 B: 3/4
All other students in grades K0-3	2	A: 3/1 B: 3/4	2	A: 3/1 B: 3/4
All other students in grades 4-8	2	A: 3/15 B: 3/18	2	A: 3/15 B: 3/18
All other students in grades 9-12	2	A: 3/29 B: 4/1	2	A: 3/29 B: 4/1

Reminder: COVID Protocol

Staff COVID testing: 

• Two different types of testing, the pilot program for 9-12schools that are open and K-8 sites. 
• Important to note this testing is NOT  for identified close contacts or symptomatic individuals. This testing is for those working in-person supporting students (directly or indirectly). 
• Health Services does not report results to positive staff members for either program. Staff members receive their results from a medical provider who can provide next steps and medical advice specific to their own healthcare concerns and their medical history.
• Health Services has access to results with consent from staff to perform contact tracing, only and does not release the names or share any other identifying information about those individuals to anyone. 

Protocol (regardless of the method of testing):

• Staff receive results & report to their direct supervisor  following the  OHC protocol
• Health Services receives information from the individual and begins an investigation. 
• Health Services relays all information to BPHC, to determine close contacts & provide next steps.
• Health Services informs each contact individually to provide the information & recommendations from the BPHC Infectious Disease Bureau
• Health Services informs Facilities & Communications
• Health Services provides a written letter from Comms, that is appropriate to the situation,  to the school leader to share with the school community.

NEW: BPSTech (OIIT) Zoom Office Hours

BPS teachers and staff are invited to drop in Monday - Friday mornings for targeted technology coaching and support hosted by BPSTechnology's Digital Learning Team. Join Office Hours

Contact: Rhianon Gutierrez

January 8, 2021

Honey-Do List- December

January 11-MAP Assessment Window Opens

January 15- Read the Hive. Tell your friends to read the Hive.

January 12 (Noon)- Complete shout out trackers

January 18 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

January 29- MAP Assessment window closes

Pollinating Ideas 

This week I do not have a thought-provoking article to share. I think we all have enough to think about. This week we had to continue to face down hate and make our students feel safe in the face of sedition and insurrection. We continue to be unable to see our students and loved ones in person. We had a week off from work, yet if you are like me you are once again exhausted physically and emotionally. 

Rather than a thought-provoking article, I want to share a story from our school that gives me hope and reinforces that through it all we are being successful with our small humans. 

Grade 3 teachers and students did an amazing act of kindness for my family and me when they found out that my dad had a medical crisis. I popped into classrooms to thank them for their well-wishes. As I was leaving Rose's meeting Elias said: "Dr. Jodi that's what Lee Academy is all about-kind and helpful." 

We created that knowledge for our students through laughter, tears, despair, and joy. We could not ask for more success than for students to describe our community in that way! 

Changes in Shout Outs

• We are going to be changing the way we are doing weekly shout outs starting next week in an attempt to make them shorter and more focused on both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
• We have a new tracker where we will award scholar of the week on a rotating basis 
• There are two tabs on the tracker one for students of the week and one for the content area of the week
• We are asking classroom teachers to shout out two students each week by filling in the appropriate place on the tracker with the student's name and a sentence about how they earned the shout out. Please complete this by 12:00 noon on Fridays
• The tracker also outlines what content area we are shouting out each week. We are starting out with the reader of the week for the week 1/11/21. 
• There is a sample shout out at the top of each page. 
• We will also continue to award certificates when students complete a level in Lexia. 
• I am trying to determine a way to do something similar as students finish each "objective" in STMath. 
• I will continue to do the shout outs via video and mail certificates to the students' homes. 

Learning Time Expectations from DESE

• Commissioner Riley passed emergency regulations on time on learning during the time of the pandemic. 
• I think it is important that we all are aware of what the legislation is. 
• The State is auditing grades 1, 4, and 9 in BPS. This audit consists of my having to answer a survey about how we allocate time. 
• I am confident that we will continue to do what is right for children and families

Summary of new requirements

At the meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (Board) on December 15, 2020, the Board adopted additional amendments to the Student Learning Time (SLT) regulations, 603 CMR 27.00, on an emergency basis. The amendments establish minimum levels for live instruction and synchronous instruction that districts operating hybrid and remote learning models must provide. The amendments include the following standards, effective January 19, 2021:

• Districts and schools operating a hybrid learning model must provide students with access to at least 35 hours of “live instruction” over a 10-school day period, averaged across the grades in the hybrid model (excluding pre-kindergarten and kindergarten). Live instruction means the combination of in-person and remote synchronous instruction.
• Students must have an opportunity to interact with educators each school day, including a required daily “live” check-in between students and educators. 
• Districts and schools operating a remote learning model must provide students with access to synchronous instruction each school day; and 
• Districts and schools operating a remote learning model must provide students with access to at least 40 hours of synchronous instruction over a 10-school day period, averaged across the grades in the remote model (excluding pre-kindergarten and kindergarten).

• Synchronous learning, also referred to as synchronous instruction, is defined in the regulations as “learning that is directed by a teacher and that happens in real time with other students, such as during live, whole-class instruction, and small group work.” Below are a few examples of what does and does not count:

Counts as synchronous instruction: 

• Live online classes that the teacher leads for the whole class, which may include breakout rooms for students to complete tasks and activities with access to the teacher.   
• Livestreaming of in-person instruction accessed by remote students.
• Small group instruction while students are learning remotely. In this model, a teacher is present online with their class, working with small groups of students in turn while the remaining students engage in independent or small group work. Students should be able to signal to the teacher that they need support. 

Does not count as synchronous instruction: 

• “Office hours” or other optional check-in opportunities for students to contact or connect with teachers, where not all students are required to be present. 

Employee Assistance Program

I want to share the resource of our CONFIDENTIAL Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with all of you. This is an incredible resource that is available for free to all of us. The EAP The EAP offers a safe and supportive environment that is sensitive to the concerns and interests of the City of Boston workforce. They collaborate with employees to resolve concerns that may impact health, well-being, social functioning, and productivity issues such as:

Balancing Work and Family
Mental Health
Alcohol and Drugs
Recovery Management
Job-Related
Domestic Violence
Financial

and much more…

Here is the EAP Brochure. If you would like additional information on the Employee Assistance Program please visit their website

Budget

• Our budget news is very positive this year.
• We have been approved to move from actual to an average salary model
• The district is funding two new positions for the school:
• a .5 social worker and a 1.0 Family Liaison
• We will be able to make some strategic investments in materials including a systemic foundational literacy skills program,
• Decisions about these investments will only be made with input from teachers. 
• If you are interested this is the budget summary I will be presenting at probable org next Friday. 

Assessment Update

MAP Winter Testing Begins on Monday, January 11th

MAP Remote Testing Toolkit

The winter testing window for MAP Growth and MAP Fluency opens Monday, 1/11/2021, and closes on Friday, 1/29/2021. Some exciting updates have been made to improve the testing experience and to address the remote testing pain-points from last Fall. The latest updates and other announcements can be found here. Please reach out to Dana Pulda-Acone with any questions.

• We are required to administer two district assessments this year in ELA
• Grade 3 will be the only grade administering an assessment during this testing cycle
• K2-2 will administer MAP Fluency again in the spring
• Grade 3 is testing now to avoid conflict with MCAS. 
• Grade 3 teachers will work with Sarah to develop a plan for assessing students in-person.
• We learned that in-person proctoring is more effective and efficient.
• We will exercise any needed scheduling flexibilities to make this happen. 

ACCESS Testing

• The ACCESS testing window is January 7-May 20, 2021. 
• ACCESS must be administered in person
• Paula is working on developing a schedule to test students in very small groups in the building
• Paula is also working on communications for families. 
• As districts plan to test their EL students this winter and spring, it will be important to communicate to parents that ACCESS testing will help schools and parents determine whether students have lost or gained English language proficiency during the pandemic so appropriate resources can be provided to assist them.