Week Ahead: Sept. 7-11

Each school year has a rhythm. I’ve been a bit slow to hear this year’s … in fact, sometimes it has seemed like I can’t find the beat or all the sounds have blended in a chaotic noise. But this week, I began to hear it, to feel it. One high note was when Stephen Ada and I both had the exact same thought upon hearing Andrew Ward describe how impressed he was with his students’ first class discussion. He noted their ability to listen, respond, build on each other, and bring each other into the discussion … Stephan and I looked at each other and said “talk moves!” How exciting and satisfying to hear that our work over the past two years could be easily identified by a new colleague as a strength our students have. That got me dancing to the beat!

Here is what’s up next week:

Monday, Sept. 7
*ASAs start (for real this time)
Day 7, DABC

Tuesday, Sept. 8
Day 8, HEFG
7:15-7:45 New Faculty Member Meeting (MS conference room)

Wednesday, Sept. 9
Day 1, ABCD
3:15-4:30 EC-12 Department Mtgs

Thursday, Sept. 10
Day 2, EFGH

Friday, Sept. 11
Day 3, BCDA
10:40-11:25 SST

Upcoming (on the radar)

• Sept. 18 – No students, PD day
• Oct. 7 – End of Quarter 1
• Oct. 8 and 9 – Parent Teacher Conferences

End of Dragon Days … Now What?:  As we move on from Dragon Days, we will begin to use the 1-1:40 time period for different purposes. We will have Advisory on Mondays and Thursdays. Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays will be used for study hall / tutorial as well as for other activities, meetings, and House Leagues. We have created a calendar for the rest of September as a way to schedule some of the “other activities.” Please bookmark this.

What is study hall / tutorial? This is time for students to work on homework, study, get support from teachers, take retests, or read their DEAR books. This is time for teachers to check in on their advisees and/or work with small groups of students as needed. Unless otherwise planned by your team, students will stay in their advisory groupings in their advisory classrooms supervised by their advisory teachers. 2 advisory teachers could combine their groups for study hall/tutorial if desired (and numbers stay below 30 total). No additional lesson planning is required for study hall/tutorial. We will have a video to play on Tuesday Sept. 8 (or Wednesday Sept. 9 if your advisory is doing Chicken Freezer) as an introduction to study hall/tutorial. It will include the goals of the time as well as behavioral expectations.

Other activities already scheduled: You can see on the calendar that there are a few other activities already scheduled. These are usually listed in green font. Some of the activities are completion of Chicken Freezer, Student Council representative speeches, a video reviewing virtual school plans, grade 8/grade 1 buddy program, and StuCo meetings. The intention is to remove all “non-instructional” activities and needs from class time and from advisory time.

Advisory Lessons:  Roxanne and the advisory leads for each team are working on the advisory lessons for September. These will be posted at least 1 week in advance from this point forward.

Clarification about remote v. sick students: Students who are home sick are allowed an equal number of days to make up missed work. Please note that sick students are not considered remote learners and should not be asked to work while they are home ill.

Note from Counseling: When emailing about a student, please use initials in the subject line rather than name. This is best practice for confidentiality, especially as we are projecting from our laptops onto classroom screens etc.