December 11, 2020

Honey-Do List- December

December 11- Read the Hive. Tell your friends to read the Hive.

December 14- Huddle report Cards and January Assessments

December 16- Professional Learning- Session 3

December 20 - Fall Trimester Grading Window Closes. Grades must be posted.

December 22-   Report cards emailed home (will be done by office)

December 24 - January 4 - Winter Recess

January 18 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Pollinating Ideas 

The Power of High Expectations for Black Students

If we take our one-sided views of what success can look like and mean for black students, and hold high expectations for them, perhaps we will have fewer student-athletes and more students. When we hold high expectations, in whatever form they may come, the sociological phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecies usually rings true. When I call my students geniuses three or four times a day, every day, I am not just doing it because that moniker sounds good. I am doing it because if students really believe that their teacher believes that they are smart, then they will spend a few more minutes studying and take a little more time when working on an assignment. And when they do that, they will get better grades. When they get better grades, they will believe that they are actual geniuses, and the whole chicken and egg thing cycles through again and again. There is power in fostering a culture of high expectations for your black students. Don’t read this and slip into thinking about discipline and behavior, we can talk about that another day. I am solely talking about academics. Suturing high expectations with academics creates a mindset of the next LeBron James, only outside of the sports grounds.

The Hive

• Remember that reading the Hive is an expectation.
• Thank you to those who read it each week
• Given the information in the Hive and questions I am asked sometimes, I can sense when readership has declined. 
• Please remind your friends to read as well. 
• I know it is a pain and everyone is overwhelmed but unless you want a cheesy video or another meeting I can't think of how to push out information to you.
• Let me know if you have a better idea (seriously let, me know)
• Report Cards

• We will be doing report cards in Aspen so that we can distribute them to parents efficiently
• Here is a tutorial on how to complete report cards in Aspen:
• How to post elementary grades in Aspen
• Report Card Comment Codes
• We will be emailing report cards to families on December 22, 2020 

Huddle

• We will be having a Huddle Monday at 3:15. 
• The purpose of the Huddle is to answer questions you have about report cards and parent conferences
• If there is time we will also discuss the scheduling of January Assessments. 

Reopening

• I have heard through the BPS Grapevine that the BTU has informed teachers that the District is reopening on January 4th for Students that are high priority in-person learners. 
• I do not know that this is actually true
• I know the superintendent would like this to happen but that there are many hurdles to be jumped between now and then including BPHC approval AND Transportation routing
• As soon as I know you will know but as of now from sources very high up in the planning, this is unconfirmed. 

Lexia Electronic Resources

• As I alluded to last week there are many components of Lexia that we are not using 
• Lexia has provided resources and lessons available that can be used electronically. 
• They may not be perfect but they could save us from reinventing the wheel in some cases
• If you go into "My Lexia" (the same place you should be checking your students' data)
• On the left of the screen in dark blue, there is a resources tab. Click that tab
• On the screen it takes you to you will see: Core5 Resources Hub  Click that tab (I am not sure this link in the Hive will work outside of Clever)
• You will see this section New! Digital Lexia Skill Builders and Lexia Lesson Slide Decks Click that link
• There are a plethora of electronic resources there that you can post to your Google classrooms or SeeSaw.
• Try one of them out this week. 

Teachers Using Lexia Data

I want to shout out the following teachers who have signed in at least once during the past week to monitor their students' progress.

• Meredith     
• Rose                          
• Danielle       
• Taydavia      
• Marc 
• Noreen
• Lindsay
• Keri          

Professional Learning

• Pre-work: Please read chapter 4 of Cultivating Genius: Toward the Pursuit of Skills
• Pre-thinking: Consider what your grade level team will use the work time for.  We will have roughly 45 minutes to continue working toward incorporating more culturally and historically responsive teaching into the student experience at your grade level. It could be used to finish fleshing out your action plan OR to begin one of the steps on your action plan.  For example, Grade 2 plans to use the work time to begin researching books about different careers to use in our reading/writing unit on Career Studies.  
• Join Zoom Meeting https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/84695739465?pwd=TkNIcDVHUlh0OHd0RjduOUJJTkIrdz09

Climate Survey

• Do not forget to do the teacher climate survey for the district.
• Please encourage families to do the Family Climate Survey as well
• I know how hard everyone is working and there is great stuff happening. 
• I want you to get recognition for that!

Student Awards 

• Here is the link to check out who is receiving awards this week 
• I do think I will do a K video and a grade 1-3 video again. I just have not split the script yet, 
• Though we are not awarding certificates for time spent on the usage of Lexia 65% of our students met the usage requirements over the last 4 weeks. This is an increase of 11% over last week's 4-week average however it continues to include Thanksgiving week.
• From 9/1/20-12/11/20, We have increased from 30% of our students working on grade level material to 33% working on grade-level material
• From 9/1/20-12/11/20, We have increased from 2% of our students working on above grade level material to 9% working on above grade-level material 
• This is an increase of 2% over the past week whoo hoo)
• From 9/1/20-12/11/20, We have decreased the percentage of students working on below grade level material from 69% to 58%. A decrease of 11%. Way to go team!

• 24% of our students met their Puzzle Requirement in STMath. This is down 3% from last week

Gratitude

I came across this poem by Joanna Fuchs that made me think of each of you:

If I could teach you, teacher,

I'd teach you how much more

you have accomplished

than you think you have.

I'd show you the seeds

you planted years ago

that are now coming into bloom.

I'd reveal to you the young minds

that have expanded under your care,

the hearts that are serving others

because they had you as a role model.

If I could teach you, teacher,

I'd show you the positive effect

you have had on me and my life.

Your homework is

to know your value to the world,

to acknowledge it, to believe it.

Thank you, teacher.

~Joanna Fuchs

December 4, 2020

Honey-Do List- December

December 20 - Fall Trimester Grading Window Closes (grades K-5, K-6, K-8)

December 24 - January 4 - Winter Recess

January 18 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Pollinating Ideas 

Double Jeopardy:

How Third Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation

Annie E. Casey Foundation

• About 16 percent of children who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.
• For children who were poor for at least a year and were not reading proficiently, the proportion failing to graduate rose to 26 percent.
• For children who were poor, lived in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and not reading proficiently, the proportion jumped to 35 percent.
• Overall, 22 percent of children who lived in poverty do not graduate from high school compared to 6 percent of those who have never been poor. 
• The figure rises to 32 percent for students spending more than half of their childhood in poverty.
• Even among poor children who were proficient readers in third grade, 11 percent still did not finish high school. That compares to 9 percent of subpar third-grade readers who have never been poor.
• About 31 percent of poor African-American students and 33 percent of poor Hispanic students who did not hit the third-grade proficiency mark failed to graduate. These rates are greater than those for White students with poor reading skills. 
• But the racial and ethnic graduation gaps disappear when students master reading by the end of third grade and are not living in poverty.

Pushy Principal 

• It has been brought to my attention that some people feel as if Lexia and STMath are being pushed heavily
• I know Art and thanks for noticing (This is one of my favorite lines from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)  I use lines from the movie a lot around this time of year. 

Lexia

• When it comes to Lexia it is a research-validated part of a blended learning strategy that has proven effective for students. I have linked a study here. 
• Lexia should be part of a blended learning strategy. We have not yet provided professional development opportunities for teachers to fully-integrate the program. 
• Therefore at this time, it is not expected that we are taking full advantage of the program. 
• Lexia is not intended to systematically teach phonemic awareness or phonics. That remains the job of the teacher. 
• Lexia is intended to be an extra dose of those skills and an opportunity to independently practice, 
• Given the times we find ourselves in, I rushed getting it into your hands so that students would have a high-quality, research-based, asynchronous resource to use. 
• Even without the integration into daily instruction and the active review of data to plan lessons the program could provide gains in supporting our students on their reading journeys
• In order for any gains to be realized students need to at least be meeting their weekly dosage. 
• The highest dosage is 60 minutes (12 minutes a day of active participation on the platform)
• I am pushing the dosage and would like to see more of our students working on grade-appropriate skills. 
• There have also been questions about how a student was placed in the program. 
• If you are interested check this page about auto-placement out
• Please do not reset a student or manually change a student's placement without talking to me
• I can see cases where we may want to have students retake the auto placer in grades 2 and 3

STMath

• ST Math is new to us but is not new in many other parts of the country
• Based on a successful 1 year MCAS study DESE has identified it as a promising program. 
• ST Math has reduced language demands which results in students being able to experience higher levels of success without the demands of language slowing them down. 
• Check out the data here and read some of the other state reports if you feel like being a data nerd like me
• As with Lexia, the success of STMath is dependent on the usage and completion of puzzles at grade level. 
• It is a high-quality asynchronous math resource for our students and we should be using it to its full potential. 

Report Cards 

• The grading window for this crazy trimester closes on 12/20.
• We will continue to use the District Report Card that is in Aspen so that report cards can be emailed to families
• IEP Progress reports need to be completed at the same time as the report cards
• We will not hold parent-teacher conferences until the week of January 11th. 
• I would like us to think of a creative way that we can take our conferences to advance our anti-racist work through mutual goal setting and collaboration for the second half of the school year.  

Health Metrics

Mayor Walsh and Chief Martinez announced a new metric to measure COVID-19 infection rates in Boston after weeks of reviewing data and out of a commitment to reporting data that most accurately reflects Boston’s positivity rate
The new metric accounts for new positive cases out of all tests during the time frame reported (90 days)

• This will more closely report the positive rate in the city for the reporting period because it measures all positive cases against all negative cases
• The City was previously taking a person-level approach looking at a cumulative time frame that looks back to the beginning of the epidemic - that meant each person tested was counted only once since the beginning of the pandemic, even if they had repeated testing
• That didn’t give an accurate picture of the current infection rate because it only counted new positives but not new negatives
• The new metric is a hybrid between person-level and test-level positivity and will exclude college level testing due to their high rate of testing on campuses
• This is one of six metrics that the City reviews, including:

• New Positive Tests for COVID-19 in Boston Residents: This tells us how many new cases we’re seeing each day and how quickly COVID-19 is spreading in Boston
• Number of COVID-19 Molecular Tests Performed: This helps us to understand whether we are performing a consistent amount of testing among Boston residents.
• COVID-19 Emergency Department Visits to Boston Hospitals: This metric looks at the broader impact of COVID-19 on hospital emergency departments. This number is a representation of the overall impact of COVID-19 on hospital emergency departments.
• Availability of Adult ICU and Adult Medical/ Surgical Beds at Boston Hospitals: This tells us how many inpatient beds are open at hospitals to treat patients.
• Percentage of Non-Surge Adult ICU Beds Occupied at Boston Hospitals: This tells us how full our Boston hospital adult ICUs are and indicates when hospitals may need to start using surge beds to care for patients.

Google Chat 

• We have disabled Google Chat for all students given the students' lack of responsibility and kindness when using the feature. 

 

Student Awards 

• Here is the link to check out who is receiving awards this week 
• I do think I will do a K video and a grade 1-3 video again. I just have not split the script yet, 
• Though we are not awarding certificates for time spent on the usage of Lexia 54% of our students met the usage requirements over the last 4 weeks. This is a decrease of 6% over last week's 4-week average however it included Thanksgiving week.
• From 9/1/20-12/4/20, We have increased from 30% of our students working on grade level material to 35% working on grade-level material
• From 9/1/20-12/4/20, We have increased from 2% of our students working on above grade level material to 7% working on above grade-level material

• 27% of our students met their Puzzle Requirement in STMath. This is down 1% from the week before thanksgiving

ESL Observation

• I am late to the table of getting my SEI Endorsement on my principal license. It is one of those things that you don't need if you are a superintendent or working in a central office. (fun fact)
• As part of the RETELL for administrator class, I need to observe classrooms to see teachers using SEI strategies. 
• Does anyone want to volunteer?

November 20, 2020

Honey-Do List- November

Nothing for the rest of this month!

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

November 25 - half-day of school

November 26-27 - Thanksgiving - no school

December 2 - Cultivating Genius Professional Learning - 4-6pm

December 2 - Boston School Committee Meeting - 5pm

December 24 - January 4 - Winter Recess

January 18 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Building Hours Next Week

Due to the Holiday next week the building will only be open on Tuesday. 

Pollinating Ideas (This will be a new weekly section)

Teachers reveal their expectations in the learning opportunities they provide

The Progress of Educational Reform Vol 13 No.6

It is human nature to form instant impressions, perceptions, and expectations of those with whom we come into contact. At the beginning of each school year, teachers must quickly gauge academic expectations for a classroom full of students they have only just met, in order to ensure that each child’s interests, strengths, and weaknesses are accounted for and effectively addressed throughout the year. However, teachers run the risk of setting inappropriate expectations of some students, which can negatively influence their attitudes and behavior towards those learners. Without realizing it, teachers reveal expectations in learning opportunities provided. A teacher might set lower standards for historically low-achieving students or he/she might perceive various student's behaviors differently. A delayed response from a non-minority, more affluent student might be perceived as thoughtful consideration, while the same delayed response from a minority, lower-income student might be considered as a lack of understanding. These differences in teacher behavior convey expectations to students, which can significantly affect their own behavior in ways that impede academic achievement. These negative teacher effects are estimated to account for 5-10% of the variance in student achievement.

Inclusion-Done Right (Hopefully)

• This week I raised my hand to be involved in the Phase 0 and Phase 1 District pilot of inclusion practices
• We are the community to help design the guardrails to get an inclusive model that is staffed and funded appropriately
• We have proven that we can be creative and do the right thing for kids (look at our hybrid model)
• Recognizing how overwhelmed we all are I wanted to give you a heads up that I may be looking for people to join a working group in the very near future
• Here is the Phase 0 work:
• What did you do?How did your school get here? What went well? What would you change? What supports did you need? Or wish you had?
• What parts of the what are you most interested in working on?
• Phase 0 schools should have most of these things already. Helping to build out how Phase 1 schools will set these things up during their planning year. 
• Need to build out the check list focusing on what needs to be in place for a school to successfully make this transition.
• Examples of documentation we have been thinking about for the guardrails:
• Staff Engagement Plan
• Community/Family Engagement Plan
• Inclusion Plan
• Class Structure Changes
• Budget Changes
• Curriculum Changes
• Facility Needs/Inventory
• Scheduling Changes

Lexia

School to Home Resources

• Lexia has some really nice school to home resources available on their website. 
• I really appreciated the student choice boards at each grade level they may be a good non-screen resource for families.  

Student Awards

Why

• I am sure you know by now that sometimes I do things without completely explaining why. 
• I started the student awards because I wanted to start building the students' identities as learners and introduce the concept that by building a strong and powerful brain through hard work, focus, and meeting/surpassing goals all options are open to you as you get older.
• I do the shout out video and follow up with a mailed certificate and a small note with stickers to each individual student. Even if they are siblings living in the same house they each get their own piece of mail. 
• For students that I know are working particularly hard and may just miss a goal I call and offer verbal encouragement. This is usually 1 or 2 students a week. 
• I added two new shout outs this week for grade levelsto encourage class collaboration rather than individual goals. 
• JiJi's Class of the Week Award for the class that has completed the most puzzles at 
• First Class Traveler Award for the class that completed the most minutes in Lexia
• I start the process on Wednesday and usually get the notes in the mail Monday evening or Tuesday morning. 
• I chose Lexia and STMath because they were objective measures where the students are also able to see their own progress. 
• I have seen Lexia be wildly successful with launching students as readers and strengthening their skills in past lives.
• The lack of language in ST allows students who may not otherwise be comfortable in approaching language-based activities to find a high level of success
• As a team, we have been wildly successful in getting students to engage in these tasks. The increase in the number of students meeting goals and attaining shoutouts each week has been astounding. 
• This week 19 students finished a level in Lexia. 

Here is the link to check out who is receiving awards this week in Grades 1-3

Here is the link to check out who is receiving awards this week in K0-K2

• We have 136 students enrolled in K2-3
• We have 49 students enrolled in K0-K1
• There are 185 learners enrolled at Lee Academy (This is starting to sound like a math problem)

• 13% of our K2-3 students completed a Level in Lexia this week (That's an increase of 4%)
• 5 (3%) Students completed levels in their grade-level band
• 2 (1%) completed a level above their grade level band (Both K0/K1)

• 20% of our K0/K1 Students met their Lexia time requirements this week (That's steady with last week)
• Though we are not awarding certificates for time spent on the usage of Lexia 61% of our students met the usage requirements over the last 4 weeks. This is an increase of 6% over last week's 4-week average
• 86% of our students have had some Lexia usage this week
• Let's keep the upward trend going!

• 28% of our students met their Puzzle Requirement in STMath. This is up 10% though there has been a drop in some grade levels

From the District

Professional Development Opportunity

Engaging Students Remotely Using Math Routines

Description: Teachers will learn several rich mathematical routines that allow students to engage in mathematical thinking remotely. These routines provide entry points for all learners, allow students to build on each other's ideas and keep students thinking at the center of discussion allowing for an equitable mathematical experience.

Thursday, December 10th 4:00-5:30 pm Grades K-6

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5164884022?pwd=d3JjY3NmY2F2QnVTV3h6SVlUSUZXZz09

Zoom Updates 

Is your Zoom missing functionality or not working as it should? Zoom updates frequently (around every 7-10 days), so please make sure you are running the latest version of Zoom. In addition, check out our recommended Zoom security settings to ensure you are running meetings safely and responsibly.

Virtual Field Trips

The Focus on team has curated the virtual field trip opportunities linked here. 

Closing Gratitude

This Thanksgiving feels so different than any that has come before. I know that many of you may be struggling with not being able to see beloved family members. I hope that you can find ways to connect with others during the break, take some quiet time for yourself, find some beauty in the splendor of nature, and just be. I am thankful to have each of you in my life. You help me grow and become a better human every day. Please take care of yourself over break and feed your soul!

November 13, 2020

Honey-Do List- November

11/17/20          Completed reading of chapters 1 & 2 of "Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for                             Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy"

11/18/20           Complete this form about interim assessment

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

11/18/20   Professional Development Session 1 "Cultivating Genius"     4-6 PM

Pollinating Ideas (This will be a new weekly section)

From: The Power of Teacher Expectations, Education Next, Vol. 18 No.1

by Seth Gershenson and Nicholas Papageorge

There are good reasons to assume that teachers’ beliefs and expectations can influence student success—an idea that has been embraced by parents, students, teachers, and policymakers. During graduation season each year, proud valedictorians thank the nurturing adults in their lives for pushing them to do their best. President George W. Bush famously criticized the “soft bigotry of low expectations” in support of his education-reform agenda. More recently, 2015 National Teacher of the Year Shanna Peeples declared, “You have to ignore it when a child says, ‘I don’t want to,’ because what they’re really saying is, ‘I don’t think I can and I need you to believe in me until I can believe in myself.’”

However, despite abundant anecdotes and theories suggesting a causal effect of teachers’ expectations on student outcomes, documenting its presence and size has been challenging. The reason is simple: positive correlations between what teachers expect and what students ultimately accomplish might simply result from teachers being skilled observers. In practice, distinguishing between accurate and biased expectations is difficult, because both teacher expectations and student outcomes are likely influenced by factors that researchers are unable to observe. Anecdotally, we believe that teachers’ expectations are important. But just how important might they be? And could differences in teachers’ expectations of white students and black students help to explain gaps in key outcomes such as college enrollment and completion?

To explore these questions, we analyze the federal Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, which followed a cohort of 10th-grade students for a decade. Among other questions, the students’ teachers were asked whether they expected their students to complete a four-year college degree. We use these responses to first document the presence of racial bias in teachers’ expectations, and then study the effects of differences in teacher expectations on students’ likelihood of completing college.

Our analysis supports the conventional wisdom that teacher expectations matter. College completion rates are systematically higher for students whose teachers had higher expectations for them. More troublingly, we also find that white teachers, who comprise the vast majority of American educators, have far lower expectations for black students than they do for similarly situated white students. This evidence suggests that to raise student attainment, particularly among students of color, elevating teacher expectations, eliminating racial bias, and hiring a more diverse teaching force are worthy goals.

When Expectation Becomes Reality

As a senior at her predominantly low-income Latino high school in south-central Los Angeles, Desiree Martinez told one of her teachers she dreamed of attending UCLA. In an open letter published years later, after she earned her degree, she recalled this response:

“You let out a sigh; I watched as a frown and puzzled look quickly grew on your face. You commented, ‘I don’t know why counselors push students into these schools they’re not ready for.’ My heart fell as you continued, ‘students only get their hearts broken when they don’t get into those schools and the students that do get in come back as dropouts.'”

Martinez then confided in a different teacher, who encouraged her not to let “people like that be the reason to hold you back.” Now the first in her family to graduate from college, Martinez plans to become an educator, and thanked the encouraging teacher for “pushing me when I needed it the most.” The pessimistic teacher was white; the optimistic teacher was Latino.

Teacher expectations are not always so overtly shared. In more common daily scenarios, how might they influence students’ self-perceptions and performance? Students might perceive and emotionally react to low or high teacher expectations, which could benefit or damage the quality of their work. Or, they might actively modify their own expectations and, in turn, their behavior to conform to what they believe teachers expect of them. Alternatively, teachers with expectations for certain types of students may modify how they teach, evaluate, and advise them, and in the case of low expectations, could perhaps shift their attention, time, and effort to other students.

Each of these possibilities creates feedback loops that trigger self-fulfilling prophecies: intentionally or not, teacher expectations cause student outcomes to converge on what were initially incorrect expectations.

Lexia

Scope and Sequence

• I thought that I would share with you the levels that align with grade-level work so that you can gauge how students' level completion is aligning with grade-level standards.
• The vast majority of our students are working asynchronously below nationally normed grade-level standards
• We will continue to award level completion because these students are persevering and completing the work
• I would like to think about how we as a staff can increase our expectations for use so that we are leveraging this tool to its maximum potential.

Level 1:                K1

Levels 2-5:           K2

Levels 6-9            1st

Levels 10-12        2nd

Levels 13-15        3rd

• 14 K0/K1 Students have completed level 1
• 6 Students have gone on to complete at least 1 level outside of their Grade band
• 9 K2 students have completed a level within their Grade level band there are no students that have completed a level above level 5
• 0 1st grade students have completed a level within their Grade level band there are no students that have completed a level above level 9
• 3 2nd grade students have completed a level within their Grade level band there are no students that have completed a level above level 12
• 0 3rd grade students have completed a level within their Grade level band there are no students that have completed a level above level 15

ST Math

• We need to rethink our weekly goal for STMath to be about puzzle completion vs. time spent. 
• ST Math uses puzzle completion as a proxy for students getting through a grade level's standards during the course of a year. 

K1:        20 Puzzles/ week

K2-1:     40 Puzzles/week

2-3:        60 Puzzles/week

Student Awards

Here is the link to check out who is receiving awards this week

• We have 136 students enrolled in K2-3
• We have 49 students enrolled in K0-K1
• There are 185 learners enrolled at Lee Academy (This is starting to sound like a math problem)

• 9% of our K2-3 students completed a Level in Lexia this week
• One of our K1 students completed level 3

• 20% of our K0/K1 Students met their Lexia time requirements this week
• Though we are not awarding certificates for time spent on the usage of Lexia 55% of our students met the usage requirements over the last 4 weeks. This is a rate that has been slowly increasing. 
• Let's keep the upward trend going!

• 18% of our students met their Puzzle Requirement in STMath

Common Assessments

• We have a common assessment mandate from the district for our students in ELA and math.
• Where we have a choice is in whether we want to give the BPS Assessment or the  MAP math assessment
• At first, I defaulted to the district interim because we are familiar with that but then I was thinking the national norming of the MAPGrowth testing might make it more desirable to see how our learners are doing compared to peers nationally.
• We would need to be committed to having every student assessed.
• The low number of students assessed for reading really made the data less useful for us as a learning community
• Both tests would need to be administered remotely
• Please complete this two-question form by 11/18 to let me know which assessment we should go with. 

Fraudulent Unemployment Claims

• This happened to me! I received an unemployment benefit packet in the mail today!
• At this time the district is experiencing high volumes of fraudulent unemployment claims. This is a nationwide issue, and the state is working hard to deny all false claims. If you receive a letter in the mail for an unemployment claim that you did not initiate, please complete a form using the link below for the state to investigate. 
• The Office of Human Capital (OHC) will begin sending notifications to let employees know when we receive a claim that we believe to be fraudulent. The OHC team managing unemployment claims is responding to the state and flagging all claims with fraud for the state's immediate attention. 
• Should you have any questions regarding unemployment claims please contact Jania Bell jbell4@bostonpublicschools.org
• State of Massachusetts Unemployment Fraud Reporting:
• https://www.mass.gov/forms/unemployment-fraud-reporting-form

November 6, 2020

Honey-Do List- November

11/10/20         Thoughts on 1 student of the week per class vs. 3

11/10/20         Thoughts on Lexia recognition for K0/K1

11/17/20          Completed reading of chapters 1 & 2 of "Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for                             Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy"

11/6 /20           Digital Picture and BitMoji to Jodi

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

11/9/20        Lee Academy BitMoji School Goes Live. Will be communicated to the families via Buzz

• From Last Week's Hive: If you have a BitMoji Classroom I would love to link it to our office (Click on the ball in my office or Ms. Jen's name in the Gallery)

11/11/20    No School- Veteran's Day

Principal's Video Post

• I will be prerecording a video celebration of our students that will be in your inbox by 8:00am on Mondays. 
• I would like to see the percentage of students receiving certificates increase. 
• We currently only have 23% of our students completing the target number of puzzles in STMath at their grade level. This is from the past week
• Over the past 4 weeks, only 50% of our students met their usage requirements in Lexia
• I will mail students their certificates and they will be recognized in our Bitmoji School
• We will recognize our students in a variety of ways

Student of the Week

• Please provide me with the name of the student of the week in your classroom and the reason why you selected them by Saturday at 6:00
• At the leadership team, we discussed having a student of the week in all 3 areas (Safe, Responsible, Respectful)
• I would like to hear your thoughts on this. We could recognize more students this way but given our relatively small class sizes, it may feel a bit like everyone gets a trophy and dilute the meaningfulness. 
• Please let me know via email, by 11/10, that yes you think this is a good way to proceed or no keep it at 1 student per clas

Lexia Certificates

• Students who have completed a level will receive a certificate
• The scope and sequence only calls for K0/K1 to complete one level
• At the leadership team, we discussed having K0/K1 students who completed their prescribed amount of time a certificate
• Please let me know via email by 11/10 if you think that this is a good way to proceed
• This week we have 2 K0/K1 students receiving certificates
• There are 13 students (7%) schoolwide receiving certificates for completing a level this week. 

ST Math Certificates

• Students who have completed the prescribed number of puzzles will receive a certificate
• K0/K1= 20 Puzzles
• K2-1= 40 Puzzles
• 2-3 = 60 Puzzles
• There are 42 (23%) students receiving certificates for the week of 11/2

Birthdays of the Week (2 for this week)

• This week we will celebrate birthdays for the first two weeks of November. 
• We will celebrate September and October birthdays at their 1/2 Birthdays in March and April

Lexia Resources

• The Lexia website has a resource page that may help you leverage the program 
• There are both student support materials and parent communication resources available
• Members of the leadership team have formed a small subcommittee. This group is exploring the quality of Lexia PD (from last week's Hive) and will report back on the quality of the offerings. 

Office Hours

• This was an exercise in futility, frustration, and guilt for me. 
• Though I miss people just popping by my office we are leveraging texts and emails to get our questions answered
• I will no longer be signing on every morning at 8:30 for drop-in hours 
• I will hold 8:30 office hours to discuss certain timely topics. Attendance at these will be voluntary. 
• If you would like a standing meeting with me please let me know and we will schedule. 

COVID

• The Governor had an interesting press conference today at 1:30
• I have linked it here
• Here is the Globe article summarizing the press conference
• Please listen carefully to the press conference and the scientific evidence that he and the doctor are citing
• Today Joseph Allen from Harvard's Chan School of Public Health conducted a DESE sponsored webinar for superintendents and facilities directors
• Here is the Chan School of Health's June Report on the Reopening of Schools
• I am sure that many of you have read it but in case you would like a refresher
• Based on what the Governor is saying and our experiences with how we welcomed back HIPP students I believe that if the district reopens we should fight to implement our full hybrid model. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts
• As an aside, listen to the Republican Governor's thoughts on Donald Trump at the end of the conference 

October 27, 2020

Honey-Do List- November

11/3/20          VOTE (If you have not already)

11/4/20           Completed reading of chapters 1 & 2 of "Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for                               Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy"

11/4/20           Volunteer to help with picture day

11/6 /20           Digital Picture and BitMoji to Jodi

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

I have given up trying to figure "First" days out ****@@@@@!!????😠

10/27   8:30            Office Hours: Lexia Data

11/3                        Election Day

11/3     8:30            Office Hours: STMath

11/4     4:00-6:00   Professional Learning Session 1

Observations

• Grace Wai, elementary superintendent, and I may be popping in to observe one of your lessons. Grace is observing me, observing you...
• I have fallen behind this week on observations. It has been an oddly busy week with other small things taking up my time including a mandatory full day of PD.

BitMoji Office

• I am attempting to have a fun and interactive way for families to get the information   
• I have fallen victim to the BitMoji Craze and am working on a BitMoji Office. 
• Please feel free to play with what I have created so far
• This is my new thing when I can't sleep
• My new vision is for a BitMoji School. (I am mostly kidding, I think...)
• If you have a BitMoji Classroom I would love to link it to our office (Click on the ball in my office or Ms. Jen's name in the Gallery)
• If you do not have a BitMoji Classroom that is fine. 
• In order to finish this project, I need a digital picture of you. 
• If you have BitMoji I will take a copy of that too. (Check out Ben in the science room)

YouTube Channel

• I have also created a YouTube Channel as a way to share information with families. 
• If you are posting videos to YouTube or have videos that you are sharing with families please send them to me so I can add them to a playlist
• I would like to have playlists for each grade level and subject area.
• I am also going to try and record the family newsletter each week
• I think this is also where I am going to post my video celebrations of students

Professional Development

Paras are welcome but do NOT have to come to PD on 11/4.

Pre-Work for 11/4 PD

• We will spend our first PD session on 11/4 getting to know the origin of the Equity Framework and using it broadly as a lens to examine and plan for our current teaching
• In preparation, please read chapters 1 & 2 of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad.  This should take about 45 minutes.
• If you are crunched for time, focus on:
• bottom half of p. 22
• pp. 32-35
• pp. 43-61

You're The Bee's Knees

• Almost everyone signed into the teachers; side of Lexia after last week's Hive message.
• We have some super users that I want to shout out:
• Meredith
• Lindsay
• Danielle
• Noreen
• Though correlation does not equal causation these are the classrooms where the greatest number of students are approaching learning targets. 

Lexia

• As part of our Lexia Success Partnership, we have access to Lexia's National Live Online Professional Learning Series. 
• I will be participating in one of these to build my skills in leveraging the platform
• Please log in to MyLexia this week and click around to see all of the resources and information it provides. 

Lexia Learning’s National Live Online Sessions

Lexia Learning’s National Live Online sessions offer educators the opportunity to experience relevant, engaging professional learning in a virtual setting. With the guidance of an expert facilitator, educators will explore various topics related to Lexia’s blended learning model, product features, and classroom implementation recommendations. 

Following each professional learning session, participants will be provided with a self-paced Nearpod toolkit to support continuous learning and promote engagement with the resources shared during the sessions. 

To Register:

• Go to www.lexialearning.com/livepl
• Select and register for the session you want to attend. 
• If you are new to Lexia, we recommend a "Student Experience" session. 

• Password: livepL

• You will receive a confirmation email with registration and access information before the session. 
• You will receive a follow-up email to confirm your participation after the session. 
• Please save both emails as confirmation of your participation.   

Additional Learning Opportunities

Lexia Academy - provides self-paced courses about Lexia programs and Literacy Development/Topics. Access anytime in myLexia>>>Lexia Academy link (top right)

National Live Online - Register for 60-minute live PL sessions about Lexia Programs. 

Password: livepL

Open Access Virtual Sessions - Register for 45-minute live sessions or watch a pre-recorded session about using Lexia in Remote settings

Picture Day Volunteers Needed

• Mike Ritter, a Lee Academy Parent will be providing our families an opportunity to have a high-quality portrait taken in a COVID safe manner
• To increase convenience for families we will be photographing students on Saturday and Sunday 11/7 & 11/8
• Mike needs a volunteer or 2 to assist him with this project by doing things like holding the lighting filter so it does not blow away etc. 
• A comp day will be considered if you volunteer for the whole day
• Please let me know by Wednesday 11/4 if you are interested in helping out. 

Traveling in the Time of COVID

• People may be planning their holiday travel for Thanksgiving so this is a good time to remind everyone of the State's travel requirements. 
• This is NOT a city or district policy it is a State Mandate and must be followed. 

State Mandate

All visitors entering Massachusetts, including returning residents, are required to:

• Complete the Massachusetts Travel Form prior to arrival, unless you are visiting from a lower-risk state designated by the Department of Public Health.
• Quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative COVID-19 test result that has been administered up to 72-hours prior to your arrival in Massachusetts.
• If your COVID-19 test result has not been received prior to arrival, visitors, and residents must quarantine until they receive a negative test result.
• For example, if you leave Rhode Island on 11/28 you must be able to produce a negative COVID test from no later than 11/25. 
• If you leave Rhode Island on 11/28 you can be tested on 11/30 (or any day after that) BUT you must remain in quarantine until you have a negative test result in hand. 
• You can choose not to be tested and must remain in quarantine for 14 days
• Failure to comply may result in a $500 fine per day.

District Protocol

The District's protocol for employees impacted by COVID applies in the following manner:

• Employees with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, awaiting COVID-19 laboratory results, and employees identified as a close contact of a person with laboratory-confirmed COVID-I9.
• If you do not have a negative test result in hand you are awaiting COVID laboratory results. 
• You may not return to in person work until cleared to do so pursuant to public health guidance. 
• Public Health Guidance = Negative Test or End of 14-day Quarantine

Required Notification to the District:

• Send an email to your supervisor (me), OHCLeaves@Bostonpublicschools.org AND covidreporting@bostonpublicschools.org
• Complete the Certification of Self-quarantine/Self-isolation form.  
• Completing this form will initiate the period of isolation/quarantine. 
• Employees may have more than one period of isolation. Use this form for each instance. 
• Complete the Employee Request for Emergency Paid Sick Leave. 
• Completing this form provides access to paid time under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. 
• This is a one time benefit for each employee. 
• In the unfortunate circumstance where a staff member has to quarantine a second or third time, the employee will be allowed to use their own accrued time off to remain in a paid status.  
• This benefit is available through December 31, 2020. 

Returning to work: 

• Employees must submit a clearance note from their treating medical doctor or evidence of a negative test result. 
• Complete this form to submit your medical clearance/negative test result. 

Summary:

• There is 1 State form that needs to be filled out to acknowledge travel
• Massachusetts Travel Form 
• There are 3 emails that must be sent to notify the appropriate people about your circumstances
• OHCLeaves@Bostonpublicschools.org 
• covidreporting@bostonpublicschools.org
• jfortuna@bostonpublicschools.org
• There are 2 Forms that must be filled out to access your benefits from the District
• Complete the Certification of Self-quarantine/Self-isolation form
• Complete the Employee Request for Emergency Paid Sick Leave. 
• There is 1 form to be completed to return to work
• Complete this form 

Literacy Footprints

Sarah sent the following in an email today:

• Be on the lookout for an invitation from Pioneer Valley Literacy Footprints to a digital reader account.  This account will allow each of you access to an online library of leveled digital texts that you can share on your screen for 1:1 reading, small groups and whole group lessons.  
• Sometimes these invites go to junk or spam mail - so check there if you don't see your invitation. 
• Every classroom teacher has an account and grades K2-3rd have a para account to share between paras.  Chris, Jackie, Lizbeth and David - check your BPS emails for the invitation.  
• Sarah recommends creating a password for the account that you and your para partner can easily remember (something like: Reading123!)
• Sarah is working to make all teachers have access to all books (right now it's just by grade level), in the meantime. She pasted the following message from Pioneer Valley that provides some helpful next steps: 

• Log into your account and look for the Professional Learning tutorials, which include helpful videos on Introduction to the Digital Reader, Assessing Students Remotely, Using Word Study During Guided Reading, Beginner Steps, Running Records, and more.

• Explore the SUPPORT tab located on their Digital Reader dashboard to find dozens of FAQ and in-depth answers

• Explore the SUPPORT tab located on their Digital Reader dashboard to watch several helpful How-To Videos

• Use the search function in the SUPPORT center to help find answers to their questions

• Log into their RESOURCE CENTER, either from the Literacy Footprints homepage OR from the tab on their Digital Reader dashboard. Within the Resource Center, they will find dozens of instructional videos to support guided reading instruction, a folder of downloadable resources for teaching, and access to track students' progress monitoring and assessment.

October 23, 2020

Honey-Do List- October/November

10/16/20      Bulletin board picture due

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

I have given up trying to figure "First"days out ****@@@@@!!????😠

10/27   8:30            Office Hours: Lexia Data

11/3                        Election Day

11/3     8:30            Office Hours: STMath

11/4     4:00-6:00   Professional Learning Session 1

School Calendar

• The District has finally established a 20-21 school year calendar. 
• You can find the calendar here

Election Day

• No Matter what happens ith COVID numbers Tuesday 11/3 wil be a fully remote learning day. 

Building Being Open

• The building will be open on Monday 1/26 from 9-4
• The building will be open from 9-3 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays starting 10/27 and moving forward throughout the entire period of fully remote learning

Teachers and Families

• Teachers may work from the building during these three days
• Teachers may invite families to the school during these days for material replenishment, book exchanges, technology help, running records, 1:1 student assessment as long as all social distancing protocols are followed including the wearing of masks.

Special Education Testing

• Any special education testing can be completed during these days. 
• Evaluations must be pre-arranged and scheduled. 
• You must provide me a copy of your schedule on the Friday before the week that the testing will occur so that I can share it with central office. 

MAP Testing

• I understand that we having testing fatigue. The platform, the internet etc. have all been incredibly frustrating

• The District has made the following adjustments to the assessment timeline:
• MAP testing window extended through October 30 to allow for schools to assess all students.  (It was previously set to end 10/23)
• BPS Interim 3 is an OPTIONAL assessment to be given in May
• Current assessment windows for Interims 1 & 2 moved back to allow for teaching and learning time between the MAP and Interim windows.  Schools may always opt to give the interims during the original window, if they have scheduled for the existing assessment calendar.

Supports for Remote Testing:

• MAP Remote Assessment Resources
• Common Challenges and Fixes for MAP Growth
• Assessment Hotline:  (617) 635-8066

In-Person Testing

• I am willing to conduct 1:1 in-person testing at the school building on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 
• This will be ideal for those students whom internet or lack of computer skills have made testing difficult or impossible. 
• Please reach out to the families in your classroom who would benefit from this and schedule a time that works for them.  
• Given that it would be completed 1:1 in a relatively empty but clean school building the risk to students and families is minimal.

Technology

Slow Applications

• We may have uncovered the root of the issue with the applications that you are all using so well.
• Monday night Google released a software update that caused a "huge" download onto student machines. 
• This could have resulted in the speed and connectivity issues that we were seeing
• Please ask families to reboot their child's Chromebooks. 
• If the issues persist please provide me with some additional information such as time of day, specific applications and any error messages that were received

Parent Videos

• I know that there are a few families that are having a really hard time accessing applications.
• Watching this video series, each video is approximately 3 minutes long, in order may be helpful for families:

REMOTE LEARNING FAMILY SUPPORTS

English | Español

GETTING STARTED WITH CHROMEBOOK

English | Español

LAUNCHING CLEVER

English | Español | عربى | Kabuverdianu | 中文 | Français | Kreyòl | Português | Afsoomaali | tiếng Việt

ENGAGING WITH SEESAW

English | Español

ZOOM 101

English | Español

Additional Parent Facing Resources

• Clever: Clever, or the BPS Digital Backpack, is a “portal” where you can access many online learning apps used by the district or your student’s school or classroom teachers. Your student's Clever portal will have apps in all major content areas. Go to www.bostonpublicschools.org/backpack and log in using your BPS Gmail and password. 
• Review How to Access Clever at Home or watch an interactive Clever Login Tutorial.  
• Google Classroom: Google Classroom is an online classroom where students can access resources and assignments shared by their teachers. Go to classroom.google.com and sign in with your BPS Gmail and password.
• Review How to Access Google Classroom from Home, a website with videos in English, Español, Portugués, and Français.

Chromebooks

There is not really an update this week

Resources

• The "dosage" (how much time students spend on activities) for Lexia and ST Math are critical for the pograms to be successful in helping to move student progress.
• Each of these is a research based platform that has proven that they are successfuul if students are spending the time that they need to.

Lexia

• Core5 automatically provides weekly recommended usage targets between 20 and 60 minutes that
• update monthly, which adjust based on a student’s likelihood of reaching benchmark in the
• program.
• The week of 10/12 only 45% of our students met their usage requirements. 
• Please sign on to MyLexia, in Clever, at least 1x per week to monitor your students' progress through the program, current skills that they are struggling with, grade level that they are working at, and progress towards usage targets. 
• I believe that by leveraging this program mindfully and intentionally we can accelerate our students' reading progress. 
• Lexia should be a daily part of your students' asynchronous work. 
• Every student should be using the program
• Shout out to grade 2 who had all but one of their students sign on last week. WooHoo
• During my office hours on Tuesday, I will be demonstrating what reports are available to you in Lexia. 

ST Math

These are the weekly targets that show typically what it takes for students to address all of the standards within a grade level over one school year.

• K0/K1                    40 minutes and 30 puzzles
• K2 & 1st grade    110 minutes and 80 puzzles
• Grades 2 &3        120 minutes and 90 puzzles
• Seeing Details About Students' Usage

During office hours next Tuesday (11/3) I will be reviewing the FAQ Doc and reports in ST Math

Professional Development

Pre-Work for 11/4 PD

• We will spend our first PD session on 11/4 getting to know the origin of the Equity Framework and using it broadly as lens to examine and plan for our current teaching
• In preparation, please read chapters 1 & 2 of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad.  This should take about 45 minutes.
• If you are crunched for time, focus on:
• bottom half of p. 22
• pp. 32-35
• pp. 43-61

Thank-yous

• Sam, Zoraida, Nee for banging out the At-Home Learning Kits as Quickly as Possible
• Keri for optimally using outdoor learning spaces and letting me listen to the sounds of K2 students learning.
• Sarah for taking the lead on Cultivating Genius and letting me be a thought partner in the work
• Stephanie for being willing to take a risk in front of the team and start an important conversation about how we can mix things up to make it better for kids
• Rose for suggesting the flexibility in schedules for material distribution to families
• Sam for thinking up ideas to keep families connected to the community and provide support

October 16, 2020

Honey-Do List- October

10/8/20        Special Education Learning Plans Completed

10/9/20        School Facing Schedules to be uploaded into Lee Academy 20-21 Folder

10/15/20      Goals entered into TeachPoint

10/16/20      Bulletin board picture due

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

10/22/20.                     Hybrid B in-person learners K0-3 First Day

10/26/20.                     Hybrid A in-person learners K0-3 First Day

10/5-10/19                  Assessment window open for MAP Reading Fluency Screener (K2-2)

10/5-10/19                  Assessment window open for MAP Reading Growth (3)

Professional Development

• All PD will be virtual this year
• The current ETWA agreement calls for 30 hours of PD. I am thinking we scale that back to 20 hours. 
• I propose we start the work after all the first days of school my proposed start date would be 11/4
• We would meet from 4-6 on basically the First and Third Wednesdays of the month (this shifts in January and February)
• Our work will be around Cultivating Genius (book study and implementation)  and the Racial Equity Handbook. 
• We placed two copies of the Cultivating Genius book (It's blue) in each classroom over the summer

Huddles

• We would restart the operational huddle virtually that would be on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 8:40-9:10

Family Communication

Expectations

• Please have a personal check-in with each family at least once a week. This can be a text (use talking points), at pick-up for hybrid students, or an old-fashioned phone call. 
• Please log these weekly communications under support notes in Panorama
• If a family lets you know about a health concern please let Sam know immediately so she can begin the appropriate health protocol 

Health Protocols

• Our health protocols continue to work
• We are continuing to be transparent with what is happening here. Within our locus of control. 
• Our building continues to be safe

An Example

• Student A started illness symptoms on 10/12 after apple picking.  
• Parents thought it was allergies (The student has a known history of allergies and had missed a dose of daily med).  
• The student felt better with Tylenol and Motrin so the student came to school for MAP testing Wednesday 10/14.  
• On 10/15 he spiked a fever to 102.  
• The student went to the pediatrician on 10/15 for evaluation and COVID test.  
•     Day 0: 10/12 (day symptoms first appeared)
•     Off isolation: 10/23 (only if fever free w/o meds and feeling better)
• The above is assuming the student has a positive test.  
• If the student has a negative test, then the student can return to school after being fever-free for 24 hours and feeling better.  
• If an alternative diagnosis is made, such as strep or acute ear infection, then Sam will collaborate with Student A's Primary Medical Doctor regarding return to school.  
• Staff who were identified as close contacts (only 1 person) have been advised to quarantine until we know the result of his COVID test. 
• Given how quickly we responded to information this staff member's family is not at risk of being infected 
• The likelihood of the staff member having contracted COVID is minimal because they remained masked as did the student. 
• This was a good teaching opportunity with the family, as he should not have come to school for testing if he had any recent symptoms on the checklist (even if they presumed allergies).  

At-Home Learning Kits

• The majority of the materials have arrived. 
• We will begin assembling these kits by grade level next week
• Student kits for our EL and SWD will have headphones included
• Putting the kits together is labor-intensive and the resulting kits are large
• Thank you, Sam and Zoraida for starting this project. 
• We will pick it up again next week and work on it as we can. 

Chromebook Update

The Current Situation

Students

• The following students had broken Chromebooks with no Loaner device available to them
• Matthew Martinez Orozco
• Angel H. 
• Alexis Perdomo Gonzalez
• Malloy Williams
• Lesly Peguero Lugo
• Nathanael Lewis
• Zahmanie Carty Woods
• Each of these students has now been assigned a loaner Chromebook. 
• Families were contacted via TalkingPoints and advised that they could come to the school anytime between 9-4 so far no one has come
• If one of these students is yours please advise the family that there is a laptop available for them. 

Paraprofessionals

• We also have a limited number of laptops available for paras to use when they are working in the building
• We must leave them in the building because we do not have any loaner devices for students that need them and it seems each day someone needs one
• We also do not have surplus Chromebooks for students that may be newly assigned to our school
• As we start to build a surplus and repaired Chromebooks are returned to us we will assign Chromebooks to paras permanently. 

Something Fun

• Please give me a 2-1/2 by 3 1/2  photo of yourself for our Welcome bulletin board.
• When we finally have more students back I think it will be a fun visual 

October 9, 2020

Honey-Do List- October

10/8/20        Special Education Learning Plans Completed

10/9/20        School Facing Schedules to be uploaded into Lee Academy 20-21 Folder

10/15/20      Goals entered into TeachPoint

10/16/20      Bulletin board picture due

Buzzing Along- Important Upcoming Dates

10/22/20.                     Hybrid B in-person learners K0-3 First Day

10/26/20.                     Hybrid A in-person learners K0-3 First Day

10/5-10/19                  Assessment window open for MAP Reading Fluency Screener (K2-2)

10/5-10/19                  Assessment window open for MAP Reading Growth (3)

Office Hours

Ellen Office Hours

• Ellen has offered to hold office hours if people think that they would be helpful. 
• She is assigned to our building on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 
• Please let her know if you think this would be helpful. 

Jodi Office Hours

• I have been sloppy about office hours because it has been such a hit or miss thing and I am not impeccable with a schedule. 
• What has worked well is if you give me a heads up that you will be joining. 
• If it is an urgent matter please text, call, or Facetime if for some reason I am not online. 

Family Communication

Talking Points App

• Please transition from using your personal cells to contact families to using TalkingPoints
• I have noticed greater two-way communication with our multilingual families since I have started using the app.
• I am partially convinced this is because of the better quality translations
• Using this app may also help to establish some boundaries with families and keep your phones from dinging and buzzing at 10pm 
• This will also help to protect you from any liability issues that might arise from using your personal cell.
• The district is providing it we should take advantage of it.

Tech Hotline

• I am not a good help desk support person. I lack both the patience and knowledge. Not a good combo. 
• If your parents need tech support for software and application issues that you cannot resolve quickly please have them call

OIIT Help Desk: 617-635-9200

  

Transportation Hotline

If parents are experiencing problems with transportation please have them call the transportation hotline:

Transportation Office: 617-635-9520

Do NOT provide parents with the help desk or principal hotline numbers that we have access to. 

Logging Communication

• The district is transitioning away from logging communication in Aspen. 
• Please familiarize yourself with this chart about what communication to log where. 
• Once we become familiar with Panorama you will really enjoy using it for the ease and simplicity of seeing everything in one place 

Protocol for Visiting the Nurse

If one of your students needs to visit the nurse please follow this protocol:

• Do NOT take your child directly to the nurse
• Call the office. Zoraida or I will call/walkie talkie Sam to make sure that she is free
• If it is a student exhibiting any of the COVID symptoms this provides Sam an opportunity to put on her nursing gear 
• Escort the student to the nurse's office for any first aid issues: bleeding bandaids etc. 
• Escort the student to the medical waiting area for any illness related issues
• If Sam is busy in the medical waiting area with a student. and you have a student that needs first aid. I will meet you in the Nurse's office to administer the band-aid, ice pack, etc. 

Shout out

• We all know that we have the BEST nurse in the district who will work tirelessly to keep our students and us safe. 
• I also need to shout out to the K2 team who has worked the system the way it is meant to because of their excellent communication we have the awareness of situations and Sam has been able to follow up to do her job.
• One student was not feeling well at school. Amelia Chase followed the above protocol. Sam dismissed him to his mom and he is currently in quarantine at home because the family chose not to have him tested. 
• Another student was not present in school. Stephanie Lividini followed up with mom who told her his symptoms. Stephanie reported to Sam who called mom and began the quarantine timeline because the family chose to not have him tested. 
• Sam has a calendar in her office of who started quarantine and when. 
• We are lucky that our community is a community. We work so well together to do what is right for kids and keep each other safe. 
• This is EXACTLY how it is supposed to work  

MAP Testing

• At our staff meeting, that was hijacked with politics, we were supposed to talk about MAP testing. 
• ODA has made a video for parents to assist in understanding the text-heavy documents that they wanted us to send home.
• Here is that video.
• Please use TalkingPoints to text the video to your parents prior to beginning the assessment. 
• I will also include this video in the parent facing blog "The Buzz" 
• Is there someone who would be interested in rerecording in Spanish?
• If you are interested in coming into the building on a Wednesday to administer the test to students who may have difficulty accessing from home. Please let Keri and me know.
• Ionic cleaning does not happen until 5:00 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays
• In an attempt to lighten the load for teachers I have been doing some behind the scenes work:

MAP Fluency

• Student passwords are set they are the same by grade level:
• K2:         1234
• Grade 1: 12345
• Grade 2: 123456
• Unfortunately, students will have to type in their email addresses as their user name
• Thank you Keri for being a pioneer and trying the assessment out with a few friends.
• One of the things we learned was that the adaptive reading test may not have been accessible for many of our K2 friends. 
• For this assessment window, we have assigned all students the Foundational Reading Skills assessment. 
• During the winter and spring windows, we may assign tests specific to where we know our students are at.  

MAP Growth

• I have set up testing sessions for each classroom. 
• They are named Frank_Growthreading and Abelson_GrowthReading
• When you are ready to actually test your class
• Log back into your MAP account
• Click Manage Test Sessions
• Click Show under the “Saved Test Sessions” bar,
• Select the test session you wish to use 
• Please use the proctor quick guide
• Section 2 of this PowerPoint could possibly be used with students the day of testing
• I am going to try and determine how to add the students' IEP accommodations into the platform over the weekend. 

At-Home Learning Kits

• The majority of the materials have arrived. 
• We will begin assembling these kits by grade level next week
• Student kits for our EL and SWD will have headphones included

Chromebook Update

The Current Situation

• We currently have 8 Chromebooks that are out for repair
• These students need loaner Chromebooks while they wait
• We have 2 new student registrations
• We need 13 Chromebooks for Paras
• We have 35 Chromebooks that have reached their end of life. 
• End of life means that the Chrome operating system will no longer update
• Some of the results we have seen for end of life machines are many of the machines will not accept Clever badges (tough with 3-7-year-olds)
• Some machines will not hold a charge

The Good News

• We will be receiving a delivery of 15 Chromebooks on Tuesday. 
• The Beethoven School provided us with 2 Chromebooks today for our new students
• This will allow us to provide loaners for those students who have computers out for repair
• We will also have some available for paras to use when they are in the building. 
• The reason I cannot distribute to paras for home use is if we have a student who needs one I need to have some in the building to provide them.
• We will also have a very limited number on hand for students whose computers can not handle the MAP testing. 
• I am confident that there will be a subset of the 35 older machines that will not be able to handle MAP testing

Something Fun

• Please give me a 2-1/2 by 3 1/2  photo of yourself for our Welcome bulletin board.
• When we finally have more students back I think it will be a fun visual