Weekly Update: Feb 28 – March 6

This week we say farewell to Ms Tram. She really helped to make the HS Office more responsive to the needs and concerns of our teachers, students and parents. We know that she will do well wherever she goes. We will miss her. We wish her all the best!

Friday, Feb. 28th
Day 2 – EFGH

Monday, March 2nd
Day 3 – BCD Adv A
Advisory Schedule

Tuesday, March 3rd
Day 4 – FGHE

Wednesday, March 4th
Day 5 – CDAB

Thursday, March 5th
Day 6 – GHE Adv F
Advisory Schedule

Friday, March 6th
Day 7 – DABC

On the Horizon

• March Parent Teacher Conferences Modified
• April 8, 9 and 10, IBO Accreditation Visit
• IB Mock Exam Information and Schedule
• TOK – The Map is Not the Territory Blog

Staff Action Needed

• IB Mock Exams 2020 Cohort March 4 – 11
• Review Virtual School Students of Concern
• Review Virtual Learning Guidelines 2.0
• Read the all school Wellness Blog from the WELL Core Team
• Review Check important dates that impact instruction here
• Send a kudos to a colleague

Parent Teacher Conferences.
CONFIDENTIAL: Parent-Teacher Conference day on March 20 will become a Regular school day (students on campus or Virtual School). The DAY schedule will be adjusted once we know when we reopen the campus to students. Principals and Leadership Teams in all three divisions have reviewed this proposal and approved to get more instructional time. The alternate plan is to meet with parents and students whom are significantly at risk. Meetings will be scheduled in March and April to help these students get back on track. Our prediction is 10-20 total meetings across our division. If scheduled during teacher prep time or after school, teachers will be asked to attend and contribute to the meeting. DO NOT SHARE THIS OUTSIDE OF SSIS. COMMUNICATION TO COME FROM CATRIONA TO OUR PARENTS SOON.

Grading Deadlines. Due to Virtual School, we will be pushing back the deadlines for Q3.  I have updated our Grading Deadlines Doc here.  Everything has been pushed back a week.  Grades and Comments due 3pm on March 23.  We will still be completing comments for all students, especially since PTC’s have been completely restructured to only a small percentage of families.  

GradeBook. Please review your PowerTeacher Pro GradeBooks on Wednesday and Thursday to tag all MISSING assignments in all of your courses.  Also REMEMBER to remove the MISSING tag when students turns in their work.  We want to make sure that the data we are using and sharing with families is accurate.  We will be running a report first thing Friday morning and will start to connect with those students and families that are struggling academically.

We will continue to utilize our Virtual School Students of Concern document to track overall student progress. There is a lot more data than before, so we have made separate tabs by date and grade level for your convenience. The counseling/admin teams and HSLT will be looking at this data and determining new support protocols for our students on Monday.

Essential Learning Outcomes– David Chadwell has created this Essential Learning Outcomes for a Unit document to help you determine which learning outcomes are essential in a Virtual School environment for non-AP/IBDP classes. He will be attending our HSLT meeting on Monday and is available to support departments and individuals.

Missing Assignments and Consolidation Days– Look for ways to adjust your delivery of curriculum by utilizing the Missing assignments function within PowerTeacher Pro. Run the report and ask yourself the following questions. Do I have a significant number of students missing assignments? What patterns do you see within the data? Is it time for a “Consolidation” block? The further behind our students get, the more likely they are to shut down and give up. Assigning more tasks that put our students further behind can have unintended consequences.

Consolidation Blocks– You have the ability to schedule “Consolidation” blocks with your students.  During these blocks no new work or activities are required of your students, but instead they have additional time to complete prior tasks/activities.  During this Consolidation block, you might schedule a variety of Google Meets with an assortment of students that need additional support to complete the tasks.  If you are going to do this please post as “Consolidation Day” in PSL and list the activities the students should be working on. Do NOT list in PSL as a catch-up, slow down, easy, break or time off day.  These titles may send an unintended message to our parents.