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…
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
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.
