Monday Morning Memo (Actually Tuesday Afternoon Memo)

Tuesday, 8/25/20

As we move closer to instruction, I have purchased all teachers a copy of the Distance Learning Playbook. It is a great resource aligned to the Teacher Clarity work we have been doing. More information to come after the first weeks of school.

ILT-

As I met with ILT, someone mentioned that it would be a good idea to give a brief summary and a check-off list to help staff out.  By now, all ILT should have shared with you the slide-deck presentation for our meeting and informed you of the  ILT decisions.  Below is the summary and clarity of what needs to be done to make your to-do lists.

 Here is the link to the ILT Presentation.

Prep Days-

My hope has been that we have done a lot of the work before our prep days.  That being said, we will have a brief meeting on Thursday, 8/27/20 @ 1:30 pm.  It will consist of reminders, updates, and any clarification needed to have a successful start of your school year.   I may check in periodically to support, but the rest of the days are yours.

Welcome Letter-

During the meeting, I communicated that we will be sending a welcome letter to parents by Friday, 8/28/20 @ 4:00 each teacher’s welcome letter indicating who their child’s teacher will be.  Ideally, after you have sent me your welcome letter, we can upload it to School Messenger and send the welcome letters to your individual student’s parents.

*****Note-for any reason Powerschool is not able to communicate with School Messenger, Tra-Viecia will send you your parents’ email addresses and each teacher will need to send your welcome letter to your parents.*****

Content on Welcome Letter-

• Welcoming introduction

• Initial Zoom login information the first day of school and the entire week

• First-week schedule (due to trainings happening)

• 2nd week and on-going daily schedule for parents

First Day of school Monday, 8/31/20-

In an effort to connect with all students teachers will take roll on Monday manually (not on Powerschool because we don’t know the protocol) and email Cathy, Tra-Viecia, Marylin, and me the first and last names of who was absent.  We will reach out to them by email and phone.  We will continue to reach out to any family that has not connected with us.

Regular School Week-

As a school, we start at 7:40 am on a regular basis.  ILT has agreed that there is a school-wide asynchronous start composed of non-live instruction, office hours, independent work supporting cohesion, and alignment.  There is also an agreement to support our students and some working parents to start synchronous or live instruction at 8:20 am.  

We also agreed that there should be a common lunchtime to support siblings in different grade levels at our school.  When looking at the sample schedules from the district, It will help all staff create a schedule. 11:40-12:20 is a common time that people have shared with me and is a good option.  Please have your ILT grade level rep confirm with me that time works so we can finalize our schoolwide lunch time.

Week 1-

To support our parents who have siblings, we have agreed to start time for connecting with students and building community at 9:45 every day during the first week which is composed mostly of trainings for staff.

Supply Distribution-

ILT has agreed that each teacher writes down basic supplies, resources, and materials that are needed for students. Jesse will need to put the items in the classroom for you to bag up.  We cannot do assembly lines and have other people in your classroom, only you the teacher.

Important Dates:

Prep-Week

Thursday, 8/26-Fill out Google doc of basic materials, supplies, and resources you want to be distributed to your students.  Please indicate if you will be present for the distribution of materials.

Friday, 8/27/20-Jesse will approve the list of demands.

Monday 8/31/20-Wednesday, 9/2/20-Jesse will have your requested items on a table in your classrooms with enough bags to put the items in.

Wednesday, 9/2/20-Thursday, 9/4/20-Individual Teacher items bagged at school 

Monday, 9/7 (72 hours later)- Jesse will have the bagged items on a table ready to have on the basketball court by teacher.

Date of distribution:   2:30-5:00 (2.5 hours)

3rd-5th Grades - Tuesday, 9/8/20 1st- 2/3 Combo Grades - Wednesday, 9/9/20 TK-K Grades – Thursday, 9/10/20

Open House-This will consist of each teacher having their own open house Wednesday, 9/16 @ starting at 5:00 pm.  Each teacher will be responsible to have at least 2 sessions to accommodate parents who have siblings.  The next Zoom open house will be at 5:30 for the last group of parents.  There will not be an initial whole group meeting.  I will make time to do Coffee with the Principal covering the same items within the 2nd and 3rd week of school in every classroom.

Monday Morning Memo

Monday, 8/17/20

Site Access Protocols

If you would like to visit campus, please thoroughly review the Google Slide Deck and ensure that you follow the process and print out the appropriate documents each time you would like to be on campus. To ensure our safety, please comply fully with the included actions. Here is the link to the Site Access Protocol.  You will need it to access the documents you will need to sign and give to Jesse each day to would like to be on campus.

Resource to Access Sample Daily Schedules

As we create a quality online learning experience for all of our students, educators are to collaborate across grade-level teams and content areas to ensure GVC, common assessments, coordinated schedule, and consistent learning activities.

As we move closer to the beginning of school, the ideas of cohesion and alignment are more important than ever.  When considering schedules and knowing our start time, I am not only asking for cohesion in your grade-level expectations, but teachers working together to align their lessons and schedules as much as possible as well.  Below is a link to help you better understand how your daily schedule could look.

Here is the link to the Elementary Master Schedule Google Slides

Math Resources

What research has shown is that spending time on remediating the loss of learning from Spring is not nearly as effective as going deeper into concepts.  The shift in thinking is to give “Just-in-Time Support” (Here is the link to the research).  The district has updated its scope and sequence, support, and overall priority standards.  Below is the general description of the overall information on the website.

• 2020-2021 Alternative Year-at-a-Glance and Math Units that reflect a reduction of instructional minutes for this school year

• Google slide decks to accompany each lesson in the units

• Continuum of Priority, Supporting, and Extension Content Standards

• Priority Standard Explanations

• “Just-in-Time Support” suggestions

• One week of “Building a Math Community” that builds from Welcome Week

All of these resources are located on the Elementary Math webpage.

 Benchmark ELA (new adoption)

• Benchmark is available online now for teachers to explore materials and resources, review curriculum, and participate in self-paced orientation and overview modules. See LINK for more information about the self-paced modules. 

• Beginning on August 26th, these modules as well as grade-level specific training and training for teachers who have experience using Benchmark will be offered as part of the Beginning of the Year Professional Learning Series.  

• It is recommended that teachers complete the online modules, either on their own or as part of the Beginning of the Year Educator PD, prior to attending a grade-level specific training.  See job aid link for accessing Benchmark available now. 

HM Obsolete Materials

We ARE allowed to dispose of our obsolete HM instructional Materials. We MAY send them home with our students/families.  Please contact me before setting up a plan to distribute these items.

What to Expect the First Week of School August 31-September 4

The District has an amazing opportunity to provide professional learning for all of our educators. Our learning will be focused on the foundation of continuity, alignment, equity, and access across the entire district. Administrators and unit members will decide what is relevant and necessary to their assignment. 

Beginning the week of August 31st, the daily schedule for educators will include time to: 

• Host 60 minutes of daily live synchronous check-ins with students

• Attend two 90 minutes of professional learning sessions

• Participate in 90 minutes of planning and collaboration

August 31-September 4th 

Attendance in the professional learning series during the week of August 31-September 4th is required. Session times will be offered at 8:00 am, 10:45 am, and 1:15 pm. 

August 26-28

Optional sessions for some topics will be provided August 26-28th. The sessions will begin at 10:45 am and 1:15 pm and allow sites to schedule meetings to launch the school year at their site.

• Link to Flyer

• Informational Videos: Youtube   Google Drive 

• Link to Overview 

• Link to Schedule

Educators will attend one session in each of the following topics:

• Quality Online Teaching and Learning 

o Instructional Strategies 

o Technology Strategies

• Implementation of the Integrated Model

• Social, Emotional Learning and Restorative Justice Practices

• Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Practices and Ethnic Studies

• Standards-Based Grading and Feedback

• Implementation of IEP Services in Online Learning Setting

• PowerSchool IEP Management System

Educators will attend sessions in the following topics based on their Specific Level:

• Curriculum-Based PD: Benchmark (Elementary) and Amplify Curriculums (Middle)

Technology and Device Management

As you prepare your online learning environment, encourage students to sign into your online platform (Seesaw, Google Classroom, or Canvas) through Clever. In Clever, you will see a new section titled “Online Platforms.” Share this video with your class for how to sign into Clever.   

Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog. Somali, Swahili, Karen and Vietnamese coming soon.

For more information on Online platforms, curriculum, and tools for engagement view the document below. 

Online Platforms for Elementary

You are encouraged to start the year with clear expectations around device care, navigating your online platform, and digital citizenship. 

• Device care lessons can be facilitated using the provided presentation. Click here for Elementary.

• Detailed Digital Citizenship lesson plans are available for all grade levels at Common Sense Media. 

Tech Support

For technical issues reach out to the Help Desk at 619-209-4357. For curricular supports visit the videos and job aids available at bit.ly/sdusdteachersupport. On that site, you will also find contact information for the Instructional Technology Department. 

Each student will have access to a district-provided device. Students will check out devices from our school site. 

 

Special Education

Students with disabilities will receive live instruction from their general education classroom teacher, their education specialist and their related service providers via video conferencing in both whole group and small group as well as office hours to connect with teachers if they still have questions or need more support. Accommodations and assistive technology will be provided online as outlined in a student’s IEP.  Families can request a meeting with the IEP team to determine how IEP services will be delivered in online learning.

Food Services

Starting on Monday, August 31, Grab & Go meals will be served from 82 sites throughout the district including CPJMA. Here is a list of the Primary Serving Sites and the Satellite Sites/Schools they will be serving. Please direct the Satellite students and families to their designated Primary Serving Sites for meal pickup Monday through Friday.  Breakfast and Lunch will be served from noon until 2 pm.