Week Ahead: April 13-17

There are times when the genuine sincerity and kindness of our students really hits the mark. This week’s meeting with Student Council brought that into clear focus for me … along with the advice students shared in the survey from Week 8. Here are some of their tidbits of advice:

• Play with your pet more.
• Check your mails, don’t set on the desk for too long, your back will break, get some breaks in between session, go out for a walk around your block at least.
• For me when I work on my bed I easily get off topic so I would say to work somewhere you can sit up since that really helps me focus
• The wifi is quite bad, so you need to be patient.
• Get everything you need before you start working so you don’t have to constantly get stuff.
• KEEP CONNECTED TO YOUR FRIENDS!
• They could fill the room with facts! Maps, fun facts, diagrams… All!! :3

If you didn’t have a chance to review those surveys, here are the links again:

• G6 Checkpoint 8 Excel; G6 Individual Response
• G7 Checkpoint 8 Excel; G7 Individual Response
• G8 Checkpoint 8 Excel; G8 Individual Response

Here is what’s up next week:

Monday, Apr. 13
Day 3, BCDA
8-9:15 MS Leadership Team (Agenda)
10:00 Missing Assignments report pulled

Tuesday, Apr. 14
Day 4, FGHE
1:00 Student Council Mtg

Wednesday, Apr. 15
Day 5, CDAB
11-12 G5 transition activity meeting

Thursday, Apr. 16
Day 6, GHEF
*Mask Pick Up at HS Nurses’ Office (8-3:00)
10:00 Missing Assignment report pulled
11:30 Divisional Mtg / Check In

Friday, Apr. 17
Day 7, DABC
*Mask Pick Up at HS Nurses’ Office (8-3:00)

Upcoming (on the radar)

• April 30, May 1: No school

Weekly Divisional Check Ins: Now that we are entering our fourth week off site, I want to make sure that we keep connected as a division. We will be having a weekly divisional check in on Thursdays at 11:30. The meeting will be max. 20 minutes. The Leadership Team felt that this time would be better than late afternoon so that those who have last block off would be able to plan the afternoon the way they want. Any feedback on the date/time of the divisional meeting should be shared with me or with your Leadership Team rep. The meeting will be on the MS Faculty Calendar and the link for the meeting will be included in the calendar appointment.

Missing Work and Zeros A reminder that marking assignments collected/missing is to be done by 10am the day following the assignment being done. At that time, you also need to enter a 0 for all missing assignments. These 0s are placeholders that will help parents and students see the impact on their grades.

Library Updates:  In case you missed it, Claire is doing a daily read aloud at 1:00. She also has a Weekly Wednesday Library Lunch at 12:00. This week’s topic is Harry Potter. She has also been promoting online resources:

• Free audiobooks on Audible for tweens and teens 
• Free on Project Gutenberg
• Free eAudiobooks on Librivox
• Free and discounted on BookBub: Middle Grade and Young Adult
• Free at OpenLibrary
• eBooks on Google Play
• Free Kindle Books (you can use a kindle or the app)
• Free and discounted at Many Books
• Free books in many languages at International Children’s Library 

Support From Nurses’ Office:  A reminder from Lisa Chute’s email:
Remember to check the Wellness Blog for “Health Tips from Lisa” about topic updates on COVID-19. This past week we shared new research from WHO on how the virus is spread.  Wellness Blog. Earlier this week we also posted links to good websites for staying informed.
Please let me know if you have any health questions or if you or someone in your family is feeling unwell. – Lisa Chute

Important Info at your fingertips:

Wellness Blog
SSIS Professional and Personal Travel Guidelines (COVID-19)
Travel Questionnaire
International SOS Travel Recommendations
Insurance update from Tie Care 

Virtual School Documents: Here are the Q4 Check-In Docs
G6 VS Check-in Doc Q4 19/20
G7 VS Check-in Doc Q4 19/20
G8 VS Check-in Doc Q4 19/20

From David Rynne this week:
Adding a Teacher
If you have a case manager assisting some students in your class they may ask for access to the student Hapara folder so they can monitor student work more closely.You can add a co-teacher to your Hapara class.
Go to your Hapara Dashboard.Select a class.Select Class Info

Click on Add New and add the teacher email address. Click Add Teacher to confirm the new teacher.

Individualizing Shared FilesIf you are sharing a document with a class then it may be useful to automatically add the student name to the file.
Select Share FilesSelect the file from Google DriveSelect Append File (this will put the student name on the file – makes it easier to identify who edited the file!)Send it to your classThe resulting shared file will have the student name on it as well as the file name.