Weekly Update – March 20 – April 10th

It was great to share a virtual cocktail on Friday with many of you. Maybe it will become a weekly event. Please contact Jacob and I at any time if we can help you in any way. Spring Break will soon be here.

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Friday, March 20th
A – H Day

Monday, March 23rd
Day 1 – ABC Adv D
Advisory Schedule

Tuesday, March 24th
Day 2 – EFGH

Wednesday, March 25th
Day 3 – BCDA

Thursday, March 26th
Day 4 FGH Adv E
Advisory Schedule

Friday, March 27th
Day 5 CDAB

SPRING BREAK March 28 – APRIL 5, 2002

Monday, April 6th
Day 6 – GHE Adv F
Advisory Schedule

Tuesday, April 7th
Day 7 – DABC

Wednesday, April 8th
Day 8 – HEFG

Thursday, March 26th
Day 1 ABC Adv D
Advisory Schedule

Friday, March 27th
Day 2 EFGH

SSIS Wellness Blog

On the Horizon

• March Parent Teacher Conferences Modified
• IB Mock Exam Information and Schedule
• TOK – The Map is Not the Territory Blog

Staff Action Needed

• 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

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.  

• Please do NOT delay your summative assessments in the hopes of a quick return to school.  First, we have no idea when we will be coming back. Second, we do not want to hit our students with a barrage of assessments when they first come back. 
• Please start building your personal comment banks within PowerTeacher Pro.  You also need to share your comment bank with a colleague for feedback.   Do NOT assign comments to students yet, as they will be viewable.  Comments will not be visible in PowerSchool from March 16 to 23.  We ask that you finalize your comments in PS during this window of time.  Here is the Q3 comment document again for your reference. 
• Don’t forget to convert your missing summative tasks to zeros AND also flag them as missing by 3pm today.  Also, continue to utilize the collected only designation for those formative tasks that do not impact the percentage grade of your students.
  
• March 20 was going to be a non-student day for PTC, now it is a student day and will be an A-H schedule (40 min blocks).  By converting this day to A-H, it keeps the rest of the calendar on track for the remainder of the year.  This would be an excellent day for consolidation with your students and a chance for them to catch up

Gradebook & Missing Assignments Update

1. Formative vs. Summative = Collected Only and Graded (Points, Percentile, Letter Grade)
   1. Making change to formative work being Score Type:  Collected Only.
      1. The Missing Assignment Report can be filtered by Score Type to get better clarity on gravity of missing assignments.
   2. Use completed/incomplete as ways of communicating the importance of assessments/assignments.
   3. This is a change, instead of having 1 or 2 mark problems that are marked excluded from grades we should be using Completed/Incomplete/Missing. 
2. Zeros
   1. Anything Point Value/Graded Assignment that is late MUST be entered as a zero. 
   2. This will be a temporary placeholder and should be converted later when a student makes up the assignment/task. 
   3. If missing assignment/task is not completed by the end of grading period then it could remain a zero. 
   4. Teachers using alternative assessment strategies/policies can use an override grade of D or F to alert students of concern and their parents.

1. Missing assignment/zero gradebook entry deadlines
   1. Teachers need to make sure their missing assignments are updated/accurate and flagged and changed to a zero in the gradebook by 9am on Tuesdays for all work generated/collected from Friday to Tuesday morning.  The second deadline for the same information will be 3pm on Thursdays for work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week.
   2. All marks should be updated by these two weekly deadlines.
   3. Grade Report and Missing Assignment Report will be run after each deadline.

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.

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.